White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-10-01
1 Machines That Are
Almost Human
Y BYE. c.TAYLoR
Census Tabulators.

IL in the United States who are I'M
der thirty-fve years of age, married
and own automobiles that cost less;
than $1,000?
Or again, how many heads Of fam
lilies were jobless at the time the last
census was taken, have their own
homes that cost less than $1,000 but
are not all paid for, have children
and were born in the United States?
Or, how many farmers are there in.
the United States who own automo-
biles, sold their crops at a loss last
year, but have some money laid away
and are not worrying about the fu-
ture?
These and many other questions can
be answered by the census tabulators,
which are electric devices for tabulat-
Ing statistics.
These machines make it possible to
learn facts within a few hours or.
days that formerly. took months or
years to ascertain when men and wom-
en- did the work.
They are operated like adding ma
chimes, except that instead Of an oper-
ator punching keys, holes in cards give
off electric impulses that cause the
machines automatically to register any
requested set of facts.
When the 1880 census was taken,
the people of the United States were
asked a great many questions, not
only as to age, sex, place Of residence
and where they were born, but as to
their economic status. The govern
ment wanted to know whether they
had jobs, If they lived In cities or
towns; whether their farms paid them
a profit, whether they owned automo-
biles and how much they cost, whether
they owned their homes, and many
other things to which the census
enumerators found 1t hard to get an
swers.
Contrary to the belief Of many who
were asked such questions the idea
was not to make mailing lists Of all
those in the country who didn't have
automobiles or radios or who had
some money in the bank. The govern
ment wanted to know how the people
Of the country were prospecting and
how they lived. There is nothing like
statistics to tell such story, the gov
eminent believed, and it set about the
task of finding out.
After previous censuses thousands
Of men and women spent months and
years compiling statistics as to the
various groups in the country-how
many were farmers, how many resi-
dents Of the United States were born
In this country, how many were of
school age. The government made no
effort to learn how many had radios
and automobiles until the census of
$780, A score Of questions were added
to the former list asked by census
enumerators.
If the old method Of sorting all this
data by hand, and adding 1t all up by
punching adding machines by hand
had been followed, the task would
have been well-nigh hopeless. 1t would
have required years to total all that
the 1880 census had disclosed about
Tic COuuiIIOA VI C4S PCoPiC " eAAS
United States.
So the electric statistics tabulating
device was put to work, and it has
greatly simplified the gigantic task of
finding out how the 12O,O0O,OOO people
of the United States live.
The answers each man. woman and
child In the United States gave to the
questions asked by the enumerators
were recorded by holes on cards. The
position of the holes on each card in
Dictated whether the answer was yes
or mo" to each question. and also
what each question was. Nothing was
written on the cards. They were sim
ply punched with the answers.
To find out the answers to any set
Of questions such as are asked above,
the operator of the machine only had
to set the proper triggers and CAD
gets so that only the facts he wanted
to know would be recorded, and start
the machine
The cards are dropped into the ma
chine by the 100000, and shoot through
at whirling pace. The machine
selects only the cards bearing the
proper answers and dumps them into
separate container. They are then
run through counting machine and
the task is completed.
It looks easy when you see the
machine operating. A task that re-
uuired hundreds of times as long and
hundreds Of times as many operators
Is performed accurately and simply
1t is another example Of how science
has produced machine to do tedi-
GUS, difficult and wearying task accu-
rately and with skill
Co. 1881. Western Newspaper Union.)