Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-04
Some Things You Want to Know
The Thirteenth Census-Tabulating the Returns

But for the invention Of machines capa-
BILE OF arranging and adding figures more
rapidly than can be done by human hand
and human mind, the aking Of a federal
census under present conditions would be
utterly mpracticable. It would require so
long to tabulste, digest and publish the re-
turns that II would be time for another
census to be taken before the one in hand
could be completed.
Electricity has solved the problems Of d.
costing the returns that come in from the
enumerators in the field. Prior to the
Eleventh census all returns we're tabulated
by hand; and a long, tedious task It was.
In 1890 the electrical tabulatlng machinery
came into use, having been invented by a
former employe OF the census. That this
machinery meant much is apparent from a
statement OF Director Merriam of the
Twelfth census, in which he said: "Elec-
trio tabulatlon has proved a boon to the
census office. 1t need only be said that
II, at the Twelfth census, the three tallies
Of age and sex, nativity and occupation had
been made by hand II is estimated that It
would have required the time Of 100 clerks
for seven years, eleven months and five
days" The secretary Of the Department
OF Commerce and Labor stated in his an
nual report for 1904 that the electrical ma
chinery does the work in one-tenth the
time and at one-third the cost OF hand
work, with a greater degree of accuracy,
1t was estimated that at least 100000 was
saved by the government through the use
Of electrical tabulating machinery.
But the concern which had this ma
chinery for sale or rent had no competition
and the prices were put up so high that
the then director OF the census, Mr.. North,
considered them exhorbitant. Mr.. North
concluded to employ a corps Of experts to
invent machinery for the work and con-
gress appropriated 10000 for that purpose.
The result is that new machinery will be
used in tabulating the Thirteenth census,
and Director Durand thinks II will save a
half million dollars over the machinery OF
the Twelfth census. The government had
paid three-quarters Of a million dollars for
the rental of the machines and the COM
pany which supplied them had paid divi-
dends, according to Director North, OF as
much as 100 per cent.
It is interesting to note how this machln.
cry will do the work Of the human hand
and the human mind. First, symbols are
prepared which represent the various items
Of data as extracted from the schedules,
Editors then take the schedules and insert
the symbols over the items in the various
columns and form divisions. A separate
card is devoted to each person in the
United States. On these cards the facts re-
lating to sex, race, age, birthplace and
other subjects of inquiry will be indicated
by punching holes through the symbols
corresponding to those on the schedule.
The punching machine by which these
holes are punched differs radically from
the ones used in previous oensuses, and Il
is believed that it will moi only work more
rapidly, but will tend to reduce the number
OF errors made by the operator. After tnV
cards are punched they are fed into the
tabulating machine, which automatically
tabulates the result. Wherever there is q
hole in a card an electrical connection II
established by a blunt needle passing
through the hole into a cup OF mercury
and the fact is registered. On the ma
chimes previously used there is a series o.
dials, and It was necessary to transcrlbi
the results by hand. This often resulted
In errors and was a rather slow and unsar
isfactory process. with the new machine
this operation is entirely avoided, as the!
automatically print the total results 10
NoNAl uiiiN VI oAOop uh9N hO"hcAiPs .
city, county or state.
With the new machine, in which tn
power is applied by electricity instead o
by the hand OF the operator, the averag,
clerk can punch 1900 cards a day. Tn.
tabulating machine will make an averag,
OF $4,000 tabulations every eight hours. I
will require 800 punching machines and 10
tabulators to do the work OF the thirteenth
census. These machines will be manufac
tured for the government and will be KEEP
for the work OF the permanent census an,
the decennial censuses which follow.
With a greater accuracy in the field thai
ever before has been possible, with
greater accuracy in punching the card
that will tell the story, and with a great,
accuracy in tabulatlng the returns a
shown by the punched cards, It is safe Z
say that the margin Of error in the thir
teenth census win approximate the ire
ducible minimum. And yet those who ar