MACHINES AND THE CENSUS.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1921, Page 10

MACHINES AND THE CENSUS.

SOME WONDERFUL DEV’ICE»- | SORTING AND TABULATING. . Wonderful machines for classifying and computing were described by the Government Statistician (Mr. Malcolm Fraaer) in his lecture on the “Census of Population’’ at Wellington on Saturday “The machines which have been of particular assistance for census purposes are those which sort and classify, and also count? and add,” eaid Mr. Fraser. “It will be of interest to devote some time to an explanation of these, since on the present census New Zealand is for the first time employing machines on the tabulation work. The machines used in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, South Africa and South America, and, for this census, for the first time in both Australia and New Zealand, are all of the card-sorting and counting type. There are three varieties —the United States Census Bureau’s own machine and the Hollerith, both electrically operated and driven; and the Powers machine, mechanically operated and electrically driven. ... It will be of interest to mention that ;fehe New Zealand Railway Department is just introducing a machine plant for its statistical and accounting work here, and it will be of further interest to mention that while the Australian Commonwealth is adopting the Hollerith machines for the census there, New Zealand is obtaining a Powers plant. Tn all three eases there are three distinct staged, with machines for each —the punch, sorter, and the counter or the tabulator. . . The United States plant will extract some sixty different factors from the cards at one run, and print the’ results in table form ready for the printer. When I was in Washington last year the operators, quite inexperienced, were averaging just on 100,000 cards per day, and I was told that with experienced operators they 'had put through as many as 175,000 per day. “The U.S.A, and Hollerith sorters are sorters only, but the ' Powers sorter counts while it sorbs, and will count on more than one column at the same time. Thus on a Powers plant the whole of the census work could be carried out on the punch and sorter, but on the Hollerith another machine is required for counting. “In the case of the Hollerith tabulator the results have to be read off and taken down by hand, but in the case of the Powers the machine itself automatically prints off the results, either in full detail as shown by each card or only tli,e totals for classes, whichever may be required. “In the matter of speed in handling, both plants are very much the same. Cards are punched at from 300 to 500 per hour, according to the ability of the operator, they are sorted at the rate of' 350 per minute, and tabulated by the Hollerith at the rate of 160 per minute and by the Powers at the rate of 60per minute. “After the initial labor of punching the cards is completed, the sorting and tabulating of the material is entirely mechanical, and the extent of detail extracted very slightly influences the cost. Moreover, once it is verified that the material has been correctly transferred to the card, all subsequent processes are automatically correct—no small consideration in the handling of such an immense volume of material in so many different ways and combinations which all require to balance to the population figures.”