The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1903-11-06
INTELLIGENT. MACHINES.
Clever Electrical Devices Used I'm tn q
Work of the Government
Census Office.

The most striking application of ma
chinery to the purposes of counting is iI
the electrical machines used In the cen
sus Office, writes c. X. Wead, in ST. Mich
olas. Last summer tens of thousands O
enumerators all over the country wer,
busy writing down on large sheets of pa
per the names OF all the people in thu
United States, their age, color, sex, place
of birth, occupation, etc. If the only
thing wanted were the number of people
in the country, it would be enough to
count the names on all these sheets and
add them together. But the census ex-
per:s wished to find out perhaps thou
sand other things; as how many native
born white men there are aged 20 %.
etc.; how many foreign-born white men
there are of these ages; similarly for
women and. colored people; then there
are the questions of place of birth, occu-
patton, ETC., to be answered, as how many
Texans were born in Ohio. Now imas inc
that all the people in the United States
could march in a few months before a
thousand officials, each one of whom
counted only the people of one particular
class or description, as white males.
white females, white carpenters. ltali
girls ten years old, negro farmers, o;c.;
then there would be obtained the various
facts for which the census is taken.
The practical operation of the census
givee the same results as this imaginary
operation. 1t comes about in this !:
For each one of the 1900, 900 poop Ct
the country card little larger than
postal card is prepared, containing all
the information on the enumerator's
sheets except the name, a number being
used instead. This information is ex-
pressed by punching holes in certain
places; thus hole in one place means
white" another male" another "35
years" another blacksmith" and so on.
These millions of punched cards rep
resent one by one the individuals Of
the nation, and they may be passed be-
fore the eyes of the supposed thousand
officials, each Of whom is to note his
special facts. Going a step farther In
simplifying the work, instead of the
official counters mechanical counters
may DE substituted, and instead OF try
ing to use thousand at once smaller
number may be used and the cards be
gone over several times. The machine
will pick out the facts it is told to pick
out, and NO others.
The apparent intelligence of the ma.
chine may be explained thus: when the
card is put into the machine some CSC
spring needles are brought down ~ it;
| wherever there is a hole one needle
goes through and down into a drop OF
mercury, and so closes an electric cir
cult and causes the pointer on a coun-
ter to move forward one number
Thus as many of the items on the card
can be counted at once as the operator
finds desirable; then another card is
put in the machine and the same items
are counted if they are on 1t. Besides
this. the machine can be arranged 10
count several items in combination. as
native-born white male doctors, and il is
, intelligent enough to ring a bell and
refuse to count if the card is not put
In properly, or is punched to read wild
over aged ten years, woman aged IL.
female blacksmith, or any other of
score Of improbabilities@ or impossible
ties