JF Ptak Science Books LLC Post 835 Blog Bookstore
Today’s post on the tabulating office of the French 1911 Census seems
quite natural following yesterday’s of the reading-and-writing (French) fireproof
man...
Like many other countries, the French were certainly not
playing to the technological audience in conducting their census of 1911, the
physical, tabulating part of it looking much as it did in the 1880’s. Granted, the United States was dragged
somewhat into the new high-tech age of tabulating for its 1890 census, but it
was absolutely and clearly shown that the Herman Hollerith machines and methods
were vastly superior to those previous used, giving the government
extraordinary new insights into the way in which the country functioned—a Hubble
Telescope-like impact for those interested in more and more-manipulable data.
What interests me in these photos are the endless stacks of
paper, and what I imagine was the quiet of the job of the
paper-stack-classifier, all of whom seem to be heavily dressed…I guess that you
couldn’t keep a dry heat around exposed paper like that for fear of (a) well,
possible fire and (b) drying the documents out and making them fragile and
unusable.
The image below shows
two men using the Thacher Calculating Instrument, a large, cylindrical slide
rule1.
This man is using an arithmometer,
invented by Charles Xavier Thomas de
Colmar in 1820. It was employed, as we
can clearly see, well into the 20th century even though it had been
far superseded.
The U.S.
government, on the other hand, wasn’t so much taken by the astronomical range
of new statistics that flowed from the Hollerith machines as it was the
astronomical bill for their use. The
1880 census had cost about $6 million and took 9 years to tabulate; the 1890
census using the Hollerith machines cost $10 million and took seven years. The main focus of many in government was the
cost differential—not the incredible amounts of new controllable
information. The rent of the Hollerith
machines was only $750,000 for the conduct of the entire census, so the
differential must’ve been in the extra utility costs (for electricity, for
example, which was used for the first time to run the tabulators) and for the
small army of statisticians and data entry people. Be that as it may, the government was not
amused, particularly when Hollerith figured that he had actually saved the
government $5 million.
The two parties left each other grumbling, though the roar
of the trickle down from the Hollerith success drowned it out. The tabulating system was quickly exported,
and large private concerns in the U.S. saw a savior in the system
that would soon rescue them from the sea of paper in which they were beginning
to drown.
The Hollerith company did very, very well for itself, and
soon merged with three other companies (in 1911) to ease the burden of
success. The resulting company was
called the Computing-Tabulating-Research Company (CTR), which after a short
while became the International Business Machine Corporation (IBM).
Image source: The Illustrated London News, 11 March
1911.
Notes:
1.The
following description is from the wonderful Slide Rule
Museum site;
“Thacher's Calculating
Instrument - Patented in 1881 by
Edwin Thacher. Originally made by W.F. Stanley, in London, but, by 1897, Keuffel & Esser had
taken over production. an 1884 instruction book notes, "The original rule
in use is 12 inches long, with radii of II and 5 1/2 inches, the divisions of
which are cut by hand, copying from a machine divided plate. In the present
instrument the radii are 60 and 30 feet, the divisions of which are printed
directly from machine divided plates. Those plates contain over 33,000
divisions, calculated to seven places of decimals from Babbage's tables by
using a common multiplier, every line being subjected to correction for error
of screw and temperature variations, so that possibly every line center is
within .0001 inch of its true place." The instrument consists of a
cylindrical slide, which admits of both rotary and longitudinal movement within
an open metallic framework of 20 equidistant triangular bars. The bars are
connected to rings at their ends which admit rotation within standards attached
to the base. Upon the slide are wrapped two complete logarithmic scales, each
of which is divided into 40 parts of length equal to half that of the slide.
The parts follow each other in regular order around the cylinder, and the
figures and divisions which constitute any part of the right are repeated on
the left, one line in advance. By the rotary and longitudinal movement of the
slide any of its divisions may be brought opposite to or in contact with any
division on the fixed scales. The divisions on the upper lines are transferred
to the slide by means of a pointer fitting over the bars, which is also
convenient for retaining the position of any division on either line while the
slide is being revolved into the required position. Near the commencement of
each scale on the slide is a heavy black mark designed to catch the eye.”
Do you have any maps of SE Asia (Vietnam specifically) or Japanese port cities? I'm looking for same to use as original images for envelopes made from the copies.
Posted by: Dave Dubé | November 16, 2009 at 10:59 PM
The French census photos make me think of "All the Names" by Jose Saramago.
Posted by: Jeff | November 16, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Hi Jeff: I'm sorry but I don't know Mr. Saramago, but I'll check him out. Patti worked for the finance ministry in Guyana about a dozen years ago for a few weeks and evidently their archive was much like this. Me, I got me that in the basement...
Posted by: John Ptak | November 16, 2009 at 11:25 PM
"you couldn’t keep a dry heat around exposed paper"
And yet it can't be that dank: I see a "Defense de fumer" sign.
Posted by: Ray Girvan | November 17, 2009 at 02:31 PM
I've had experiences with things kept for a long time in dry heat--the paper can easily go brittle, shockingly brittle. All depends on how dry/the paper etc., but I've had some bad experiences there.
Posted by: John Ptak | November 17, 2009 at 10:45 PM