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The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census

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The Development of Punch Card Tabulation in the Bureau of the Census This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project to make the world’s books discoverable online. It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that’s often difficult to discover. Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book’s long journey from the publisher to a library and finally to you. Usage guidelines Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. 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We encourage the use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help. + Maintain attribution The Google “watermark” you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it. + Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can’t offer guidance on whether any specific use of any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book’s appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. About Google Book Search Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers discover the world’s books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web at http://books.google.com/ 1 i ii'i' US DEPARTMENT,. OF COMMERCE 1 '. wdE&"'&'%i QW THE GIFT OF Dr. Frank O. Rogers THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUNCH CARD TABULATION IN THE BUREAU OF THE CENSUS WITH OUTLINES OF ACTUAL TABULATION PROGRAMS by Leon E. Truesdell 5 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE John T. Connor, Secretmy BUREAU OF THE CENSUS A Ross Ectler, Director WASHINGTON : 1965 For Sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. Price $1.75 (cloth) FOREWORD The use of electronic computers in the tabulation of the returns in the population census of 1960 represents the latest step in the long history of the development of the U.S. Bureau of the Census. The content of the census has changed from time to time to meet new needs. New pro- cedures for converting the mass of individual returns into usable tabular summaries have been applied as they were developed. The Superin- tendent of the Census of 1890 could rightly take pride in the gains that were accomplished through the use of the new equipment which initiated the use of punched cards in extensive statistical tabulations, though perhaps he did not realize the outstanding importance of the innovation which first reduced the data on the census schedule to a form which could be classified and counted by purely mechanical devices. Building upon this beginning, there were gradual improvements over the next 50 or 60 years, including both the speeding up of the earlier machines and the devising of additional supplementary equipment, until the daily capacity of the tabulating machines used in 1940 or 1950 was more than 10 times that of their progenitors in 1890. The story of these developments is the subject of this volume. Dr. Truesdell is in a unique position to relate the history of the period of the gradual development of punch card machinery and the techniques of the attendant procedures. He was intimately connected with four censuses during the period of rapid development, 1910 to 1940, and is also familiar with the methods used in 1950 and 1960. On the basis of this direct personal knowledge and of painstaking research (though sources for the earlier periods are very sketchy) he has worked out the story of the development of this type of machine tabulation in (or for) the Census Bureau, especially as relating to the census of population. In some cases he has had to use the skills of the archaeolo- gist in piecing together fragments of information on procedures used in the early censuses and in supplying reasonable approximations for missing fragments. He has called attention to significant changes, usually representing improvements, between one census and the next, and has given realistic illustrations of the way in which the machine equipment has been adjusted to produce the data required for publication. This historical study suggests that the search for more effective ways of doing the work of the census may never end. The basic desire is still the same-to finish the required tabulations in the shortest possible iii iv FOREWORD time, not only to meet legislative deadlines, but also to give the data to the public while they are still fresh and timely, a matter which becomes increasingly important with the increasing tempo of current devel- opments, both economic and social. Dr. Truesdell has not only the advantage of long familiarity with the developments and the frustrations which are bound to occur during a period of rapid adjustment to a continually changing technology. He has the additional advantage of being able to review the early history in the light of changes that have taken place in recent decades and those which appear to be in prospect. This later knowledge-perhaps it may be called hindsight--sometimes leads to questions as to why a particular line of development failed to go down what now would seem to have been the best path. It also helps him to fill some of the gaps in the available record. We have asked Dr. Truesdell to draw on his personal observations and recollections in writing this account. We have also given him a sub- stantial degree of freedom in presenting his personal interpretations and evaluations of various elements in the history of the Census Bureau's tabulation programs. Such evaluations have at a number of points added a new element of interest to an otherwise strictly descriptive or historical account. Finally, it may be noted that this volume is almost the only convenient source of information on the methods of tabulation used in the Censua Office prior to 1890 or on the full circumstances leading up to the invention of the first punch card tabulating system; and it is also the most comprehensive source for information on the early stages of the development of mechanical tabulation. The period covering the development of machine tabulation has been the most important and expansive period in the history of the Census Bureau. At the same time there has been a significant growth in the capacity of statistical equipment available through commercial channels. This has had an important impact on statistical work in general and on current business practices, and has provided a base for one of the Nation's most rapidly expanding industries. A. Ross ECKLER Director PREFACE The central purpose of this book is to tell the story of the development of the mechanical devices which made possible the effective use of punched cards for statistical tabulation. Preliminary to this, and serving in some fashion as a background, there is an account of the tally system employed in compiling the returns of the population censuses from 1850 to 1880. This is presented in considerable detail, since little or no specific information about this early method of tabulation is available elsewhere. The 1890 punch card procedures are likewise accorded a generous amount of space, as representing the first large-scale use of niechanical equipment for statistical tabulation. And running along with the descriptions of the rather slowly improving mechanical equipment, there are specific outlines of the pumh cards used and of the "counts" which made up the early tabulation programs. These may not be as readily appreciated as the pictures of the machines, but they do represent specific applications and show an increasing skill in the utilization of the possibilities of the punch card which is quite as significant as the improvements in the machines themselves. Apart from their service as explicit illustrations of the manner in which the new machines were adapted to meet increasing current needs, these outlines provide in themselves a compact record of the evolution of tabulation procedures from 1880 to 1940.
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