human
I beg your pardon, asked the boy,
gpt
No, said the newcomer,
human
Mr. Cullern said he thought you would be here before very long, said Hamilton, rightly guessing that this must be the foreman,
gpt
Do you know anything about census work?
human
Yes, sir, the boy answered,
gpt
I was an assistant special agent on the manufactures division, and I only left my population district the day before yesterday.
human
I thought it likely that you had been doing enumeration work, the foreman answered,
gpt
I hope to go on the Census Bureau force permanently, the boy explained,
human
Let me hear what you know about it.
gpt
I think I have it fairly straight, he said.
human
These first four columns on the card I have nothing to do with, so far as I can make out; is that right?
gpt
Yes, the older man replied,
human
I don't know how that works, the boy said,
gpt
It doesn't need to, his informant answered,
human
But there are not seventy thousand divisions on the card or anything like it, the boy cried,
gpt
That works by the permutation of numbers, was the reply.
human
You can arrange two numbers in only two ways, but you can arrange three figures in six ways, four in twenty-four ways, five in one hundred and twenty ways, six in seven hundred and twenty, seven in over five thousand ways; ten would give you over three and a half million ways of changing them around--and you can see for yourself where forty-eight would land you. The actual address, street, and house number, and everything else we get by reference to the schedule.
gpt
That's enough! cried Hamilton.
human
I can see now. It would take a sheet of paper a city block long merely to write down the figures.
gpt
If you wrote down end to end all the possible relations that forty-eight figures could be put into you'd need a lifetime to write them down. Why, just with an alphabet of twenty-four letters, Leibnitz the great mathematician, calculated that over six hundred septillions of easily pronounceable words, none over three syllables long, could be arranged. We have room enough to arrange any trifling little matter like seventy or eighty million addresses, although, in truth, the gang-punch merely provides the district and section of district, and the schedule would give the rest if we had any need to refer to it.
human
I see, said Hamilton,
gpt
Yes, every other hole is punched by the clerk.
human
But this machine doesn't seem to punch, the boy objected;
gpt
I put in a canceled card just now and tried it, but when I put the key down, nothing happened, the key just stayed down.
human
It's not supposed to punch until the whole card is ready, the other explained.
gpt
You depress into position the various keys you want until all the records needed for this one card are ready. Then you can glance over your keyboard, comparing what might be called your map of depressed keys with the line of the schedule you are copying. If one is wrong, you can release that one and put down the correct one in its place, the card being as yet untouched. You see, each field or division of the card corresponds with a differently colored section of the keyboard, and this makes it easy to insure accuracy in reading from the schedule.
human
But how is the punching done, then?
gpt
You press the bar, the foreman explained,
human
So that really the sorting into sexes is done by the one and the same operation as the punching of the card, the boy remarked;
gpt
I see now. That's a first-class idea.
human
It saves a great deal of work, the older man said.
gpt
Then, too, with the same group of motions a new card has been fed from the holder and is in place for punching. At the same time, the schedule, which is held in rigid alignment, has been turned just exactly the right amount to bring the next line in the direct vision of the operator. Thus he never has to stop and think whether he has done a line or not and never skips a line because of an error of eyesight.
human
I can understand that now, the boy answered
gpt
Now let me see whether I really can do the rest of the card. In what you call the third column--though it is really the fifth--I punch either 'Hd' for the Head of the Family, 'Wf' for Wife, 'S' or 'D' for Son or Daughter, and 'Ot' for Other?
human
That's right.
gpt
Then, further down the same line, 'M' is Male and 'F' is Female. That's easy enough. In the next section down, but still in the same line is 'W' for White, 'Mu' for Mulatto, 'B' for Black, 'Ch' for Chinese, 'Jp' for Japanese, and 'In' for Indian.
human
Go ahead, the foreman said,
gpt
The age seems clear, too, said Hamilton,