The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-05-27
SAVE YEARS OF WORK
How the Census Electrical
Machines Count.
The 100000 People in The Nation viii be
Enumerated With incredible Rapidiy
by These Machines.
Especial Dispatch to The Chicago Record
from a Staff Correspondent

from Stan correspondent
Washington. May 1S.-Down at the
Census office are THOUSAND or more
electrical machines that can almost talk,
and the labor they save is impossible TO
calculate. But for them it would require
10000 clerks several years to tabuia;e anil
classify and compute the information sent
in by the 10000 enumerators regarding
the 75.G00,000 people who compose this
great and glorious republic.
The first thing to be done when the
returns OF the enumerators are sent IN
upon large sheets of paper will be to
transfer the information they contain TO
strong manila cards about four by eight
inches in size. The cards are impersonal
but each bears a number and represents
Il citizen of the United States. Eighty
million cards have been provided. Upon
this card are 240 symbols, which repre-
sent every item of information that could
possibly be reported by an enumerator
under his instructions-bi birthplace. age,
cClCr, sex, occupation, number of chill
dren etc. For example. the W. over
at the le.t-hand upper corner of the
card means white; b black; Oh, -
Chinese; "Jp.," Japanese; In Indian.
In the next row M represents male
and 81 female. Over in the other cor
ner are the signs for place of nativity.
which can easily be identified the upper
letters representing the States and the
lower ones foreign countries En-, :"
England IS. A." South America; "Dk, ;"
Denmark; 81" Switzerland; "Php. +"
Philippine islands.
This card is placed upon a machine
that resembles one of those tracing in
struments used for transferring maps,
and the keyboard corresponds exactly
tC its lettering. The operator, 5iancing
at the return of the enumeration. moves
the key over the board and places u care
fully upon the spot represented by the
symbol wanted. This causes little
knife to pierce a hole in the card at
that precise spot, and when the operation
is completed the card resembles the per-
forated sheets that are used in orches-
trcns and automatic pianos.
When all the returns from census
district have been transferred in this
manner from the enumeratorS' sheets to
the cards the latter are packed away in
n tin box, properly marked. each box
being large enough to hold 1000 cards.
and ii can be easily stored away with
other canned statistics, each box bearing
a label indicating its contents.
/ do not think | can describe the emu
merating machine so that the reader
can understand it. 1t is about the size
of an upright piano. Upon the upright
part is a set of dials, like steam regis,
ters, one for each of the items embraced
in the population schedules. When the
operator runs through this machine the
manila cards as above described and
closes an electric circuit by moving II
lever, a little rod runs through each hole
in the card and causes the dial at the
other end of a wire to register one.
Therefore when the operator has COM
pleted the pile of cards and has run
them all through the machine the infor-
nation they contain has been accurate
ly transferred to the several dials, and
the operator can take the totals off on
slip of paper prepared for that purpose.
The dials will show how many of the
people represented by those 1000 cards
were born in Ireland and how many in
Ohio: how many are married: how many
are naturaliZed citizens. and all the 9TH
er answers to the inquiries imposed by
Congress upon enumerators.
The economy of this remarkable meth
cd was illustrated beyond a question in
the last census. and can be appreciated
when it is known that Alexander Maui
rice, one of the clerks in the last CEN
sus. averaged 1880 cards a day abou.
six and half hours Worthwhile his
highest record for any given day was
1901 cards.
Anybody who will compare this work
with the old-fashoned tally sheets, with
closely packed lines of figures, which
used to drive some of the census clerks
blind and others crazy. can realize the
value of the enumertng machine, which
could not make an error under any cir
cumstances 1t is estimated that in the
last census these machines saved not
less than 100000 in clerk hire. Both
were invented by Herman Hollarith,
graduate of Columbia college, New York
who was clerk in the census of 1880
and also in that OF 1890, where he in
vented both devices with the assistance
of DR.. Billings, now librarian Of the
United Libraries of New York; Henry
Gannett of the geological survey, and
others who took an interest in his work.
He has since perfected the apparatus
and is now preparing to place 1000
punching machines and $50 enumerting
machines in the census office Mr. Hol-
larith's inventions have been adopted by
France, Germany. Russia and Canada
and are now being adapted to railway
accounts. Both the Pennsylvania and
the New York Central Railway companies
have introduced them and are finding
them very useful