Evening star., 1940-10-30
BY HAROLD B. ROGERS.


accurate process which a draft lot
terry number travels from the time
it is drawn out of the goldfish bowl
until it reaches the thousands of
men whose place it fixes in the big
man-power game Of chance
Here is simple chronological
record of what happens to the lit
tie pasteboard number in the blue
capsules, as explained by Capt.
Richard P. Davidson Of Selective
Service Headquarters, in charge of
the lottery.
1t was poured into the goldfish
bowl Tuesday morning on a table in
the Departmental Auditorium.
1t was drawn out by a human
hand, that of a man who passed
the capsule to a girl on his right.
She opened the capsule and took
out the cardboard with the num-
Der printed clearly on both sides.
From this first girl the tiny slip
went to a second girl, who placed it
on a white card about the size of
card catalogue filing card She
passed it along to third girl, who
turned it over to the announcer, a
man standing at a desk equipped
with a microphone.
Numbers Called Out.
In a loud voice the announcer
called out the number so all could
hear. 1t was copied on huge sheet
containing 25 spaces, high over the
heads of the people on the stage
and large enough to be seen across
the auditorium. Another vdce re-
peated the number.
The white card carrying the num-
ber was then handed to chain of
Boy Scouts, usually five in number,
who passed it back across the stage
to the first of the duplicating
processes.
The first of these processes was
photography by a Recordak ma
chine, using 16 millemeter films. 1t
photographed the white card and
its black number, along with the
face of running watch. AS the
picture was taken an automatic
counter clicked, to count the num-
ber of cards passing through.
From the first machine of this
kind the card went to a second
similar machine for a second pic
ture exactly like the first, just for
a double check.
Placed on Large Sheet.
Then the white card went to a
girl who removed the tiny numbered
slip. She passed the number to
another girl who held tiny elc-
trio iron. With this iron she pressed
the cardboard and its number on
q large sheet, just below the number
which had preceded it. BY the heat
in the tiny triangular iron and
adhesive on the sheet this girl ad-
hered the numbered slip to the
large sheet.
The large sheet was gradually
filled until it contained $50 num-
bers This large sheet then was
| taken to another camera which pho
tographed the entire sheet on 35-
millimeter motion picture films, the
same size as that used by profess
sional motion picture photogra-
pliers. This large camera was used
without reloading throughout the
lottery to photograph all OF the
large sheets, of which there were
| SO in all. The film on which all of
these SO pages were photographed
was estimated to be only about
feet long. This camera was located
backStage behind the big score
board on which the numbers were
being written by crayon.
Photographed In Groups.
From this process the sheet with
$50 numbers was taken to another
| room for still another Photographic
process. In this other room it was
"shot" by another large camera on
35-millimeter film. This camera at
first photographed six of these
pages on film, then removed the
film and sent it for processing.
Later on eight of the pages were
photographed on a strip of 35-milli-
meter film before the film was taken
from the camera for processing.
In the room where this last picture
| was taken in the Departmental
Auditorium a staff of officials and
girls made the last manual check of
the record. A man called out each
of the $50 numbers one at time,
while a staff of many girls, about a
big table. checked off each number
against master list of the numbers,
which had been arranged in sequence
from 1 to 5000. Each girl had before
her on large sheet one group Of
the numbers from l to 1000, and as
she heard . number called out, and