Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-08-17
Uncle Sans Cards Punched Full of
Holes and Facts.
WONDERS OF MARVELLOUS MACHINE
TabuIates Results and Notes Errors
if They Occur.
HOW APPARATUS WORKS
Written for The Evening Star.


that card represents you, whoever you
may be who reads this, while the holes
are all the information which your Uncle
Sam has collected about you through the
efforts of patient questioners, and filed
away for reference. In the course of time
yotI-as represented by this card-are fed
into a wonderful machine, which reads,
writes, selects, counts, checks errors ana
rejects inconsistencies. and when you come
out you are divided into many different
items of information, each item being
unit of that vast system of information
known as the census. The machine which
disposes of you is the HOlerith electrical
tabuIator and it performs work which, in
past years, has been regarded as clerical
in its nature and which without the ma
chine would require hundreds of men and
women, working with eyes, hands-and
brains 1t does the work better, because
more accurately and rapidly. 1t might De
called a mechanical clerk.
In the first place it reads-not everything
but 1t reads in its own way, all the
facts which the enumerators nave gain
cred about the population, the property
and industries of the American domain
The facts come in on sheets of paper
written out with pen and pencil on certain
lines. and in certain columns. From these
they are transferred to cards. Incidentally
I'm the process of transfer. the record on
the card is translated into language
which the machine can understand; IN
stead Of being inscribed with pen ana pen
Gil marks of certain shapes, the caro- is
punched In certain places. When RECORD
of a white person Is made a hole is punched
in the upper left-hand corner of the cara;
If the person is male, another mole Is
added on the same line and quarter or an
inch to the right; and so on for the n1teen
o. twenty facts which are recorded on ,he
card This language of holes is under
stood by the machine to which reference
has been made The mechanical clerk reads
the card so inscribed, just as human
clerk would read the traclnss OF pen VI
pencil.
These card records are handled as intel
ligently by the Hollerfth electric tapula'or
(as the machine is Called as they coulu
possibly be handled by men ana Woihei-
The machine not only reads what Is re-
corded on the cards, but it will do what
ever may be ordered in the way of picking
ont and counting persons of a certain de-
scription. 1t will read any set of facts
from the card records; 1t will keep taily.
and when the last card has been examined
by the apparatus II VIII nave the totai
auued I'D and showing on the figures of
dial. 1t will do more. 1t will add up thlr-
ty-two columns simultaneous1y-each col
umn representing a different fact, or COM
bination of facts-in one column 1t may
be. summing up all the male inhabitants of
the country: in another counting all the
males who happen to be white; In a third
finding out how many white males are
married; and so on through their age, ma
tivity occupation and all the rest. Thus
the machine reads, selects, counts and
writes-that is, records with hgures on
dial %,
But it does even more. The machine viii
refuse TO believe what appears On its face
to be inconsistent. y card which seems to
bear an erroneous record will be thrown
out. The machine refuses to count it. For
example. if a card Is reached on which it is
recorded that man has resided in the
United States less than five years and that
he is a naturaiized citizen the machine will
ryNn far AZ % rGiS ct en-
for to become raturalized citizen the per-
son must have lived in the United States
five years or more So if card tells of a
female under eighteen years of age having
a family of children, the machine will
throw out the card for further investiga-
ton. Inconsistencies of all sorts, any
thing which would attract the attention of
an alert clerk or arouse suspicion and call
for VeriticatiOn, is Immediately detected by
the tabulator and is temporarily rejected.
Thus, If it is recorded that the occupation
of a man is millinery or that of a woman
blacksmithing, or that a person has lived
ten years in the United States and cannot
speak English. the cards are rejected for
notification. In some cases it is found
that mistake has been made in copying
the record. and in others the facts are dis
covered to be true: and the cases are put
aside for classification by themselves.
1t should be stated that, in detecting and
challenging these inconsistencies, the ma
chine does not use its own judgment Like
good clerk, 1t does it is told.
Inc Drains OF the maChlne-SO to speak
are at the back, and the man who under
stands Its mechanism takes off the back
board and makes certain electrical con-
nections. He can so connect it that a card
VIII be received and counted which reads
that the citizen is naturalized though a
resident of this country for only four
years. So ii might be connected as to
approve of cards which tell of sixteen
year-old mothers, men milnerS and
female wheelwrights. BY making the cleo
trical connections there are established
certain fixed ideaS-if such an expression
may be used of machine-and the ma
chine acts In accordance with those ideas
Certain groups of facts, when presented to
the machine in the form of perforations in
n card, permit the harmonious workings
of the machinery. The absence of an es-
sential fact will mean the absence or mis-
placement, of a perforation in the card
and the result is a lack of harmony-a
lack Of approval-rejection.
Complicated Details.
While the details of this complicated
piece of mechanism would hardly be I'M
derstood by a person not having a tech
nical education, the principle Is not hard to
comprehend Over the card. when it is in
serted in the machine, is brush of
needles. Each needle is adjusted to a light
spring, so when the point meets any resist
ance the needle will give way and not
puncture the card. When the handle is de-
pressed all the needle points come down
upon the caro-, ana Wherever there Is
hole punched they go through Wherever
they go through hole they extend into a
cup of mercury and complete an electric
connection. That is all there is to it,
When the connection is completed an add
Ing machine-on the principle of the cash
registers operated. The needles are the
machines eyes They do in a mechanical
way, what the human clerk does with the
eye. They pick out from the card the facts
desired: the electric connections are COM
pieted, and the adding machine makes the
tally. This Is repeated for every card put
through the machine. AL the operator has
TO do Is TO feed them in and pump the ham
die up and down. In a short time IL is
predicted, even this part of the operation
(the pumping parO will be performed by
mechanism propelled by electricity or
steam. Then II will only be necessary to
set the apparatus-that Is, to wire 1t up
for the combination of facts desired and
dump the cards into hopper to be fed
through like corn I'm mill. When this Is
accomplished the saving In time and ex-
pense and the increase in the volume OF
labor which may be accomplished will be
enormous.