Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1904-06-30
SKILLFUL MACHINES,
Electrical Devices That Act ip Ar
Intelligent Manner.
Used in the Government Censws ono q.
10 Simplify the Work of Ens~
nsratiOn-Partfouia OF
Operation.

The most striking application OF ma
chinery to the purposes Of counting is ikn
the electrical machines used in the cen
sus Office, writes c. r. Wead, In st. Mich
Olas Last summer tens OF thousands OF
enuMeratCr al over the country were
busy writing down on large sheets OF pa
per the names OF all the people in the
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-
perts wished to find out perhaps thou
sand other things; as how many native
born white men there are aged ~. %.
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 imagine
that all the people in the United States
could march in a few months before
thousand officials, each one OF whom
counted only the people OF one particular
class or description, as white males,
white females white carpenters, Italian
girls ten years old, negro farmers, etc
then there would be obtained the various.
facts for which the census is taken.
The practical operation of the census
gives the same results as this imaginary
operation. 1t comes about in this way
For each one of the 1900 900 people OF
the country a card a little larger than b
postal card is prepared, containing all
the information on the enumeratOr's
sheets except the name, 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 80
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 thOusaDC'
officials, each OF whom is to note his
special facts. Going a step farther III
simplifying the work, instead OF the
official counters mechanical counters
may be substituted and instead Of try
ing to use thousand at once a smaller
number may be used and the cards De
gone over several times The machine
! will pick out the facts 1t Is told to plea.
out, and no others.
The apparent Intelligence Of the ma
chine may be explained thus: when the
| card is put into the machine some 250
| spring needles are brought down on 1T,
wherever there Is a hole one needle
goes through and down into drop OF
mercury and so closes an electric cir
cult and causes the pointer on 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 it. Besides
| this. the machine can be arranged to
| count several items In combination, as
native-born white male doctors, and 1t is
intelligent enough to ring bell and
! refuse to count il the card is not put
| in properly, or Is punched to read wid-
over aged ten years. woman aged IL.
| female black smith, OF any other OF
score OF improba bilites or impossible
ties.