Evening star., 1936-07-25
By Fred A. G0SneH.
o. Q. Census Bureau.

AZ IUtQ 10 JUUteS NcUIH IN asCTs
HRoBABLY not more than l
- person in so knows that Uncle
Sans ace calculators and
mathematicians are engaged
right now in putting the finishing
touches on the 1885 census of business
conditions throughout the country
Even more surprising, the robot
stage has just been reached at the
Census Bureaus Philadelphia branch
Office Yes, today more and more use
is being made of mechanical wizards
whose speed and accuracy is well-nigh
unbelievable.
Three types of machines are being
used for the mechanical stage of the
business census-"punchers,' sort
ers" and "tabulators." The punchers
are all hand operated. The other two
are powered by electricity, which
moves the innumerable little brushes,
wheels, metal arms and counters OF
their intricate mechanisms.
Before the cards-or schedules" as
they are called-reach the machine
tabulation division, they are bound in
folios by States for each branch of
business covered by the census-retail
trade, wholesale trade, bus transporta-
tion,, trucking and warehousing. radio
broadcasting and several others.
Thus, all of the retail schedules for
Massachusetts, are bound in one
group, all for New York in another,
all for Ohio in a third and so on for
each State. The schedules, before
they are sorted and folioed, were all
checked for consistency and accuracy
and each item on each schedule was
coded.
The punch-card machine does just
what its name indicates. 1t punches
or perforates cards. The cards are
rectangular, 3A by 7A inches, lined
off in much the same manner as a sta
tistical table, with rows Of serial num-
bers under each heading. Each per-
foration has a meaning of its own
translating facts into figures.
WHEN all of the information from
wv the schedules has been trans
ferred to the cards, the schedules are
filed away and used only for checking
inconsistencies. The cards contain all
of the information which was on the
schedules and the individual identity
of each company is thereafter con-
cealed completely.
Several different cards are required
to take off all the data. For instance,
the first retail card, in addition to
nearly 20 columns needed to describe
the store for classification purposes
(kind of business, type, location. etc),
contains columns punched to indicate
total sales, full and part-time employ
ment and the number of "employe
months"
Another card is arranged to provide
such additional data as total pay roll
for 1885, total operating expenses,
part-time pay roll and number OF &C
tive proprietors. A third card covers
an analysis Of total sales to show sales
of merchandise, meals and fountains,
receipts from storage and services and
other receipts, sales to other retailers
Gf any) and the value of stocks on
hand at the end of the year. There
are IL different cards needed Tor the
larger schedules, but most Of them re-
quire only four.
An entire floor at census headquar-
ters is taken up by the card-punching
section of the division of machine tab
ulation. The machines are smaller
than a typewriter and have 14-key
board, which looks something like the
keyboard on a small adding machine.
To record all of the information gath
cred for all branches of business COW
cred by the census, approximately 3d.
100000 punch-cards are needed.
The operator works the machine by
pushing down one of the keys, which
punches the first column. The card
then moves automatically to second
column position. Another punch moves
it to third position. and so on. 1t is
a one-handed operation, but surpris-
ing speed is attained by the operators
who read off the code symbols like
piano player reads music. Skilled
operators of these machines average
about 200 cards (of As columns each)
per hour
The floor occupied by the card
punchers sounds like an old-time
newspaper office when the machines
are all in operation. The clicking of
keys and the punching mechanism re-
sembles telegraph sets which were used
before the advent of the teletype ma
chimes.
THE cards are assembled in wooden
boxes in the same geographical
groupings in which the schedules were
sent to the tabulating division. They
then go to the sorting machines. These
machines are electrically powered,
stand on legs about table height, and
are about 4 feet long, much larger
than the card punching machines.
The cards travel over series of
wheels against which brush, making
contact through the perforation, does
the sorting This brush Is similar to
the brush on an automobile generator
Under this top set of sorters are IL
compartments, or bins, into which the
cards are sorted The machine can
sort between 300 and 400 cards a min
ute, dropping each into its proper
bin.
A separate sorting is required on
each identification column.
The sorting machine will pick out
from thousands of cards only those
for certain classifcations. The ma
chine is wired in a certain manner and
cards for given area are inserted.
When the cards all have been through
the machine, all Of the drug store
cards are found in one bin, hardware
in another. grocery in third, etc. If
the code has two digits, the cards have
TO go through twice. Each classified
pack of cards is then put through the
tabulator for automatic count and a
total of each amount column.
The tabulator is a much more in
tricate machine than either the sorter
or puncher. This is the machine into
which the sorted cards are placed, and