TABULATING MACHINE. The _Hollerith, Electric Tabulating System may be con sidered the mechanical equivalent of the method of compiling statistics by Nwfiting on slips or cards the various items regarding the units to be compiled, one such written card repre eating is single writ, as. for example, in the case of a census, a person ; and then sorting and re-sorting these written cards according to the characteristics of the individuals, and counting the number of cards finally in each group. In this mechanical equivalent the characteristics or items of the individuals are transcribed to the cards by punching holes in different positions instead of writing, and then counting and sorting these punched cards in the electrical taladating machines. The work, therefore, naturally divides itself into— first, the transcription of the record ; and, secondly, the tabulation of the data. As the system has been mostly used for the compilation of the eleventh census of the United States, the following description will he based upon such work : In order to transcribe the particulars as to each individual from the original schedules. a keyboard punch is used about the size of a type-writer tray. having in front a perforated punch-board of celluloid. Over this keyboard swings freely an index finger, whose move ment, after the manner of a pantagraph, is repeated at the rear by a, punch. The movement of the punch is limited between two guides, upon which are placed thin manilla cards 6;', long by 31 in. high. with the lower corner slightly clipped. The keyboard has 12 rows of 20 holes, and each hole has its distinctive lettering or lumber that corresponds to the inquiry and answer respecting every person. Hence, when the index finger is pressed down into any one of these holes, the punch at the back stamps out a hole in the manilla card. At first glance, perhaps, the keyboard looks complicated, but it is scientifically grouped and is very readily learned. For such inquiries as are answered by one of is very few possible classes— sex, for example, which recognizes only two parties in the State—the answer is simply "male" or "female," or "/)1" and "F." So, too, in regard to conjugal relationships, where the answer would be either single, married, widowed, or divorced, and one punch suffices for each of these conditions.
To assist the clerks in memorizing the keyboard for punching, classification lists are used. That the work of punching became as easy as any other task requiring ordinary intelligence is shown in the. fact that during the tabulating of the eleventh census, the estimated average of 500 cards per day per clerk resolved itself very soon into an actual average of 700. An expert puncher. working from 9 A. 31. to 4 P. M.. has done 2,521 cards, each card having on an average about 15 holes in it that relate specifically to the individual whose life history is thus condensed.
After the cards leave the punching clerks, they are kept in their Enumeration Districts, and they have now to be further punched to show the exact locality they belong to—i.e., the civil division of which the enumeration district formed a part. For this purpose the space of about 1 in. across the left-hand end of the card was left blank, no portion of it being punched on the keyboard punch. This space is further divided by imaginary lines into 48 squares, in the combinations of which every enumeration district can be recorded [in the 1.T. S. census over 40,000 such districts were thus recorded], and it is perfo rated by means of the "gang punch." shown in Fig% 3. The combination for any given enu meration district is ar ranged in this. and then all the cards of that dis triet are passed through. From 3 to 6 cards can be punched at a time, hence the name, and pressure may be applied by either the hand or the foot. When this is done, the cards are complete.
So familiar do the clerks become with the position of the holes in these cards, they can read them off at a glance. As a means of verifying, how ever, a reading board " is provided for that pur pose, the same size as the card, and having also each of the 240 abbrevia tions in a quarter-inch space, so that when a per forated card is put on this templet the abbre viation will show wher ever a hole has been punched. This templet is, practically, a reduc tion of the original key board.