374 HUGH S. FULLERTON 



United States government officials have adopted the 

 mechanical adder and multiplier in the census department, 

 where statistics affecting every country in the world are gath- 

 ered and compiled in list form. These machines can multiply 

 numbers like 87,498,796 by 93,875,987 as fast as the operator 

 can write them down. Some of the machines in use in insur- 

 ance offices do work at such a rate as would astonish the most 

 successful Hghtning calculator. Machines of this sort are 

 costly and are made to order, the company manufacturing 

 them taking orders for a machine first before constructing it. 

 This enables the &:'ms to construct them to any capacity 

 required by their customers. 



One of the most extraordinar}^ machines in use in this 

 class of work is installed in the census department of the gov- 

 ernment in Washington, w^here, daily, it astonishes hundreds 

 of visitors by its seemingly superhuman power. The machine 

 records upon cards facts pertaining to the different statistics 

 of various countries, then perforates each card, passes it along 

 and foially tabulates the different cards, arranging them in 

 groups by themselves in boxes attached to the machine. 

 Without once being touched by the hands of the operator or 

 by anyone else, the cards are printed, tabulated, and placed 

 in groups by the machine; more — the machine sets down 

 the figures on each card in the different classifications in list 

 form and finally prints the grand totals of all the figures upon 

 the cards in each classified list. 



The cards after being printed — which printing is done by 

 working a keyboard much the same as that of a tj^ewriter — 

 are passed along into a portion of the machine known as the 

 pin box. Before reaching it, however, they are perforated — 

 each card being punched in a different manner, according to 

 its classification. Upon reaching the pin box the cards are 

 passing before a set of pins that enter the perforations and 

 lift the cards into the pile where they belong, at the same 

 time adding the figures upon each card to the list that it 

 makes of that classification. So delicate is the entire mechan- 

 ism of this machine that if, by any chance a mistake is made, 

 the machine at once stops and throws out a card, notifying 

 the operator that something is wrong. 



