Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1913-03-05
TO RUN WORLD WITH
PERFORATED PAPER
One Of the Mechanical Wonders
Which VIII Meet the In-
coming Generation.

A roll of perforated paper, such as
solved the problem of an automatic
piano player, is to be one Of the me-
chanical wonders of the oncoming
generation. Enough astonishing ma
chimes based on this principle have
appeared in the last few years that it
doesn't take much imagination to pic
ture hundreds of machines doing work
which until now has seemed abso-
lutely 10 require human operation
and control. That the day of the per-
forated paper roll Is at hand is now
being predicted by the editor Of one
of the conservative engineering au-
thorities.
The roll Of paper will boss the ma
chine. Today we have the machine,
hut have to have a man to run 1t.
Tomorrow, a machine, a roll of paper,
and no operator. Three Of the pres
ent uses of the paper roll all tell the
story, the piano player, the tabulat-
ing machine, and perhaps most won
derful of all, the typewriter.
While 1t is true that automatic pi-
ano players are so constructed as to
utilize the services of an operator,
that Is done largely for the amuse-
ment of the operator, to give him
some part in the production Of the
music. But players requiring no OPP
orator are built to operate on the per-
forated roll principle. Yet it Is an
immensely hard problem which they
have solved, for the operations Of a
person playing a piano are as COM
plicated as those Of scores of oper-
ators of existing machines to which
no one has yet thought Of applying
the roll control
The paper roll typewriter is an
even more striking example, 1t Is
desired to typewrite large number
of letters, with the same wording,
and only different addresses. De-
vices are available for duplicating an
original letter but almost all fail to
give the appearance Of real typewrit-
ing. The perforated roll typewriter
meets this situation. A letter is writ
ten on the typewriter, but instead of
printing, q perforated roll comes out
Then this roll can be fed into the
typewriter, and the machine will au-
tomatically turn out duplicate after
duplicate, each one written by sepa-
rate pressures on the keys In perfect
imitation of the original operation.
This illustrates the use Of the per
forated roll, in the future, Some ma
chine which in itself Is a labor saver,
but which requires an operator, will
be operated all day long without
person to watch it, simply by start
ing the perforated roll.
Perhaps II could be applied to the
operation OF warship boiler room,
Mechanical stokers would feed the
fires, but the perforated roll Of paper
would control the mechanical stok-
er so coal would be fed at proper
intervals. with other automatic de-
wise for the boiler, il might be poss-
ible to operate the boiler room with
little or no supervision further than
starting the apparatus
Bread making has now been re-
duced to a science, so that the great
bakeries advertise that no hands ever
touch the bread, from the time that
II is flour until It is delivered Men
operate the machines, however, and
control the advancement Of the pro-
cesses from machine to machine, 1t
might be possible to work out a sys-
tenn by which the whole control would
be roll Of paper.
Every bank has machines which
will deliver the right amount OF
change for bill, by pressure on some
keys, aud this might furnish the ba-
sis for machine which would auto
matically make up the pay envelopes
for some great concern with a long
payroll. All that would be necessary
would be to write on typewriter
perforator the numbers Of the em-
ployees with their wages, and then
feed the roll into the money machine,
which would properly stamp each en-
velope and put in It the right amount
OF money, seal It up and push it out.
It would be possible TO operate a
railroad or an elevated train by a
perforated roll, the egineerlng editor
pointed out with some dispatcher IN
general control Of all trains at a GER
tain point.
or course, when the perforated-roll
machines come, they are not likely ia
bo the ones suggested here for It is
always the unexpected application OF
n new idea which proves to be the
most successful The suggestions
simply prove the idea is there and
the existing machines prove that the
idea Is filled with startling posslbil
tiles for the future.