Summary:
THE use of tabulating machines of the Hollerith electric or other types for statistical and recording work of all kinds has increased to a remarkable extent during the past fifty years. It is not, however, generally appreciated how valuable these devices have proved themselves not only in large-scale and intricate accountancy systems but also in actual statistical research in the wide and varied field of social science. The present work describes their use mainly in colleges and universities, for example, in the registrar's and business office and miscellaneous administrative applications, and in psychological, educational, medical, hospital, legal and agricultural research. In their present wonderfully improved form, the Hollerith machines work automatically with such speed and unerring accuracy in complicated statistical manipulations that, to the uninitiated, they seem like uncanny ‘robots' of superhuman efficiency.