MACHINES THAT THINK.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5121, 4 May 1927, Page 4

MACHINES THAT THINK.

A CALCULATOR AT' WORK. STOPS IF ERRORS ARE MADE. Machines with minds, incapable of making an error, including a calculator which adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides when a typist manipulates an electric switch, and also stops working if a mi,stake is made, were among the mechanical miracles exhibited in-London (s ;| ys the. Westminster Gazette). Many of the machines are- calculated to save firms thousands of working hours a week, and some are so ingeniously .constructed that a leading exhibitor described them as “the nearest approach so far made, to the- human brain.” Among the inventions were : Electric typewriter, with keys working with the ease of hair-spring triggers. Another capable of operating in 300 styles and sizes of type-.

Postage, stamping machines that affix the stamps to letters, count the number of, stamps used, moisten t-he envelope flaps, and seal them at the rate of 250 1 a minute-. Coin-counting and picketing machines that sort mixed coins at the rate of 50,000 an hour, count and distribute them either into packets or one value or of mixed values. Dictating machines which dispense with shorthand writers and double the- typist’s output. Book-keeping machines that enable ledgers to be posted and automatically balanced by touching a few keys.

Machines with which cheques can be written quicker than by' hand in such a way that no cheque forger has yet found means of. altering them. In less than ten seconds one of the machines will automatically give the answer to little mathematical problems such as this : find the cost per sack to two decimal places of one penny if 96,842 sacks cost £998 10s 7d ; or, what is the simple, interest on £698 15s 9d for 6%. years at 8% per cent ? On this machine there is a device that immediately locks the keys if the operator makes a mistake and Indicates in which column of figures the error has occurred.