Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1899-08-11
WONDERFUL
COUNTING
MACHINE.
HOW TIE RETURNS 0F THE
TWELFTH CENSUS WILL
BE TABULATED.
Six Hundred OF Them VIII BE Used
ard the Saving in Clerk Hire VIII
BE Over ST. 900, OOO-FiOw the
racllines Are Operated.

1t has been practically decided TO
make the count of the twelfth census
by the llo.lcrilh abulatiug machines,
according To- The report Of the commits
SION of experts appointed for the pur-
pose of comparing the work done b.
various systems Of tabuIatiou offered by
inventors some COO or more Of these
wonderful machines viii be operated
night and day in tabulaJng The returns
from the 10000 cnrmeraiors. Tie
system is at once simple aud yet COM
plex. 1t IS complex in the great results
and simple in the operation. a card is
punched full Of holes, in one machine,
and then run through another In the
two movements everything relating TO
an individual which has been CLEANED
~ the cnmerator has been transferred
to dial, are capable OF recording the
characterised les of similar individuals up
To the number Of 10000. Thin manila
card, 6 by 3 inches are placed in the
punching machine, which has key
board similar IN appearance to that Of
an er larEcd typewriter This keybaaId
has twelve bank, Of key, in each bank
The characters he grouped so that the
operator can easily ind the single char.
acter which VIII denote, for instance,
The single on married state Of an indi-
vidua. All the character relating TO
the martial relations are group together
representing single, married. widow or
widoWer. or divorced. Other groups
are arranged IN similar manner.
In marking the keys the best possible
Aubrey iatlons have been made, such IS
DIV. for divorced, Mr.. for married and
So. for single. In some cases. however,
authorizations could not be arranged
for long classhcations, and letters or
symbols are used. As the operator be-
comes acquainted with these signs by
constant use. it is not long before be or
she becomes So fam an with the 240
characters that almost an incredible
number of cards can be correctly
punched in a very short time. One Of
the expert clerks in the last census read
1907 cards in one day, and maintained
an averags of ,3jG cards for week
This was done in day of six and one
half hours and included nine different
readings. Some Of the women tabula-
tors counted over 10000 people per
day, and the average was 1850.
From 800 TO 700 cards were punched
daily 10y each clerk and some averaged
over 1000 The slip furnished by the
euumerator is placed before the opera
tor of the punching machine. Behind
the key board lies the card and above it
swings an Instrument resembling an
awl. When this is placed over the pro-
per character and pressed down the
punch at the back makes II hole in the
proper place. So expert 40 the opera
tives become that card, which to the
ordinary observer : merely 4 card with
a number OF hole, scattered about, is to
them the brief biography Of an indiv
dual, giving his nationality, sex, age,
ct.
From the punching machines these
cards 20 to the gang punch. which is
used to stamp on the card combina-
ton of holes indicating the enumeration
district in which the person to whom
the card belongs resides. From three
to siy cards can be punched at time
in this punch, from which fact 1t de-
rives its name. Should there be any
doubt as TO the correctness with which
a card Is punched, il can be placed over
"readinE board" which is card OF
the size OF the perforated card with
characters similar To those on the key
board, 50 the peforations IN the card
show exactly what characters were en-
ployed in punching il. Should "A card
be punched wrong, III that the sex was
omitted, or the age, etc, the counting
machine would discover the error, be-
cause all the proper holes not beng
punched the electric circuits would not
lie complete and the machine would re.
fuse to- count the card.
The t2bulation machine consists of
three main parts-the press, or circuit
closing device; the dials, or counters,
and the sorting boxes. The first con.
sists of hard rubber plate, containing