A MACHINE WITH BRAINS

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4431, 23 June 1922, Page 3

A MACHINE WITH BRAINS

TIME AND LABOUR SAVING, INNOVATION IN RAILWAY ACCOUNTS. FIRST IN AUSTRALASIA. "It is positively uncanny the way they work," said a gentleman to a. New Zealand Times representative in speaking of the set of tabulating, calculating, and enumerating machines which have just been installed at Railway House, Wellington, the headquarters of the Dominion railways. These are the first machines of the kind to be used in the Government Statistician’s office in collating vital statistics concerning the Dominion. The set at Railway House comprises ten punching machines, two sorters and two tabulators, and, by the courtesy of the chief accountant a N.Z. Times reporter saw them in operation the other day. Similar machines have been in use on American and English railways for some time past, the Great Northern, using the system very extensively in. the enormous traffic they handle. Reduced Station Staffs. The cost of the set runs into five figures sterling, and will occupy a staff of ten operators, but they have done away .with the performance of an enormous amount of clerical work, with a great saving in stationery, and a consequent reduction in staff at all the larger stations. From this it is obvious that tne machines are effecting economies ’.n administration and suppies, and it is confidently anticipated that, large as the initial expenditure is, the machines. will pay for themselves in a very short time. The Times reporter was shown a sheaf of waybills, each item being recorded on a separate sheet, but under the new system these are entered on one sheet, a line for eacih item. On reaching Railway House it goes to the punching machine, and after the operator has performed on it for a mintue or two it leaves the machine perforated like a rifle target. But there is method in the perforating, for each perforation means a figure, and the various columns indicate whether the figures represent money, weight, distance, or other information. Almost Humflm When a batch ofl these cards is done they are sent to the sorters, an uncanny arrangement which puts the cards in their correct order at the rate of 250 a minute. The cards are specially made and cut, being of a thickness of .007 of an inch, and only a very small variation is enough to put the working out of gear. One card destroyed or one imperfect perforation will throw the whole calculation out. and although this rarely happens, when it does occur it js a troublesome job to find the spot where the fault arose. If everything is in order, however, a mistake cannot occur. The cards then go to the tabulator, through which they pass at a great speed. A steel pin passes through the perforations, and the corresponding figure is recorded on the sheet in its proper column, aird as the last of) the batch passes through there is a click, a little crash of. steel rods and type faces, and the total of every column is printed at the bottom of. the sheet. The operations with 20 cards were all done in a few minutes, yet had the same work been done in the old way it would have involved several hours ? clerical work. Girls Instead of Accountants.

It is a Wonderful set of machines which is aiding tihe Railway Audit Department, and they reduce the science of bookkeeping also to the performance of l a simple mechanical task, Few skilled accountants are required, for, the detail work is performed in the machines, which are operated by young ladies, the majority of whom probably know little of accountancy work. The “Powers” sorting and tabulating machines have been in use long enough to make it clear that they not only do the work, but that a mass of important statistics relating to the revenue, expenditure, and nature of traffic can be procured mechanically and with perfect accuracy. At all the big stations throughout New Zealand clerks have been engaged in scheduling the transactions classified under the headings of stations, work out debits and credits, charges paid for freight, and amounts to be collected. Complicated Accounts Made Easy. It need hardly be said, that the administration of the New Zealand rail 1 - ways, small as they are compared with Home, American, and other countries’ lines, involves an enormous amount of clerical work. The Dominion’s railway transactions for the year are shown under six headings for goods and one for passenger traffic, this being about the limit of analyses under the old clerical way; but with these mechanical brain workers the most complicated accounts are made easy, and any statistics desired can be extracted almost as easily as putting meat into a machine for the purpose of makipg a sausage. The Department will now be enabled to take out national figures relating ,to 46 classes instead of only seven, as hitherto. A vast amount of midnight oil, or whatever lighting facility is available, will be saved at the stations, and a lot of difficult and troublesome details will be handled with mechanical accuracy, all in one office at WeL lington. It is an innovation which should reflect itself in the accounts in the near future in the saving in administration in view of the recent railway returns.