So Fonnuo adjusted the data processing mode of the tabulating machine.
Tabulating machines were previously designed to read punched cards column by column. In this mode, even if it only takes 0.1 seconds to read each column, it will take 8 seconds to read 80 columns, which does not include the card transmission.
After careful consideration, Fonnuo believed that in practical applications, not all columns of each punch card actually need to be statistically or accumulated.
Taking wage statistics as an example, it is impossible to have only data related to wage amounts on a punched card. Instead, more columns should be used to store workers’ names, genders, departments, types of work, job numbers and other information, while name, location code, department
There is no need to collect statistics on information such as codes, job codes, and job numbers.
Therefore, under the current conditions, it is enough to count only one piece of data at a time. Even if a piece of data is multi-digit and distributed on multiple columns of a punch card, it is feasible to only process one bit at a time. Anyway,
The statistical results also need to be manually summed in the end.
In this way, when the tabulation machine processes each card, it only needs to read a certain column of numbers on the card and add them up, which is naturally much faster and saves more power.
Vonnuo spent another two days simplifying and modifying the device, and finally stabilized the tabulation machine's card processing capacity at more than 3,000 cards per hour, which should be able to meet the general statistical calculation needs of the Senate. The only drawback is that if a certain number of calculations is to be calculated,
If the item data has 3 digits, it needs to be run through the machine three times. From the perspective of ease of use, it is still not convenient enough. However, now Feng Nuo is to verify the technical idea, and more improvements will be made to the practical stage.
After conquering the tabulating machine, in fact most of the mechanical mechanisms and relay control mechanisms have been successfully developed. Other types of machines are just changes in design, additions, subtractions and combinations of components. In the punch card machine system, its importance is second only to tabulation.
The sorting machine of the machine is to change the relay used to control the dial to realize the accumulation function on the tabulating machine to control multiple card feeding mechanisms respectively, and send the cards with holes on different numbers in the reference column to different card bags.
.
However, just as he was gearing up to take down the sorting machine in one go, a new problem arose.
Due to card quality issues, the card data that had been shipped were seriously damaged during the intensive testing of the tabulation machine in the past few days, and experimental materials will soon be in short supply.
Von Nuo had to put aside his eagerness to try the sorting machine and develop a copying machine first. With the copying machine, existing cards can be copied at will, and the problem of card shortage will no longer exist.
He found information about the IBM513 duplicating machine from IBM in the old time and space. Its full name is "Automatic Reproducing Punch". This is a model that only appeared in the 1940s. The principle is not difficult, but the machine structure is slightly
It's complicated. Vonnno doesn't plan to copy it exactly, but just build a prototype based on the principles.
He tried his best to draw a diagram on the paper as neatly as possible. The core component of the duplicating machine is a linkage transmission mechanism that can place double rows of cards. When the template card passes through the processing unit, the brush of the card reading mechanism sweeps the card, and at the punching position
The connected circuit activates the relay at the corresponding position, thereby controlling the punching mechanism of the new card processing unit to punch holes at the same position of the new card. This time, reading and punching need to be performed column by column.
However, Fonnuo got stuck when he was thinking about the control of the punching knife: there are only a few millimeters between the holes in each column on the punching card. He made the relay so big, how could he control multiple knife heads to punch holes at the same time?
?I thought about it for a long time but couldn't figure it out, so I had to go to the mechanical port veteran for advice the next day with a half-baked schematic diagram.
Still looking for Sun Li, when he entered the office, he found that Zhan Wuya was also here. Feng Nuo had lived in the machinery factory for a long time and was familiar with Zhan Wuya. Knowing that he was a real person, he was not polite and polite, so he directly handed over the "drawings"
After a while, a question was raised. Zhan Wuya laughed loudly, pointed to an English typewriter produced by Lingao next to him, and said, "Go and see how that typewriter can type the same characters on more than 40 keys.
In position?"
Feng Nuo slapped his head, yes, he also had an English typewriter in his office, but he had never thought of this.
Zhan Wuya continued, "This is the most basic problem in mechanical design. In addition to using the arc type structure of a typewriter, there are many ways to solve it. Don't mess around with mechanical design by yourself.
It’s a matter of course. Let us handle this professionally. You should just design your relay control plan honestly. Yesterday, the Superintendent even asked about the progress of this project.”
Because Feng Nuo actually didn’t understand mechanical design, the drawings he handed over to the machinery factory were basically just “schematic diagrams.” He copied past design drawings for some ready-made structures, but when it came to the specific production process
It still depends on the technical personnel of the machine shop to redesign it.
Feng Nuo quickly reported on the progress and promised that the research and development speed would be accelerated in the near future, so the leaders could rest assured.
The copying machine did not pass the test as smoothly as the tabulating machine.
It was already evening when the prototype was delivered. First, we tested copying 1 and 10 cards respectively. After manual inspection, no problems were found. The copied new cards were exactly the same as the template cards. So Feng Nuo told Qian Yuzhihe
Li Janai tried copying 1,000 cards at one time.
Because it is copied line by line, the speed of the copying machine is roughly similar to that of the tabulating machine before optimization. It takes more than 3 hours to process 1,000 cards. After Feng Nuo explained, he left work. The leader was very concerned, so Feng Nuo often
After working overtime, I finally found work that didn't require any technical skills today, so I could just let Qian Yuzhi and the two of them keep an eye on it.
When copying a small amount of cards, you can check whether the perforations are consistent by overlapping the old and new cards and looking at the light. However, 1,000 cards can no longer be checked manually for correctness. Therefore, Feng Nuo asked them to use a tabulator to check whether the perforations are consistent after copying.
Consistent. The method is to count whether the number of 0-9 in each column of the two stacks of cards is consistent. If the results are the same, the probability of problems can be ignored. However, according to the speed of the current tabulating machine, the inspection time of each column is about
It takes about 20 minutes, and 80 trains takes more than 20 hours, so we have to let two people take shifts at night.
The next morning, Feng Nuo went to the Planning Institute for a small meeting and arrived at the office around noon.
He found that Feng Shan was leading Qian Yuzhi and Li Jianai to check whether the punch holes of the cards were consistent one by one. They had been checking for about a long time, and the eyes of the three people were a little distracted, especially Qian Yuzhi and Li Jianai.
With dark circles under his eyes, Feng Nuo was very surprised and quickly went over to ask.
It turned out that Qian Yuzhi and Li Janai had been using a tabulating machine to check the copy results of 1,000 cards last night, but found that the old and new cards had different numbers of 0-9 in a certain column. The copied cards had one less 3 but more.
A 4. In other words, the copying machine made an error and mistakenly printed 3 as 4 on a certain card. So they are now looking for which card has the problem.
"The work attitude is commendable, but the working methods are stupid." Feng Nuo commented. He walked over and picked up the two stacks of cards that the three of them had not checked yet, and asked: "How many have been checked?"
"122 pictures."
"114 pictures."
"107 pictures."
The three people answered separately.
"Look, three people only checked more than 300 cards in the morning. In the future, we will test 10,000 cards. How many people will we need?" He handed a stack of cards to Feng Shan and said, "Check."
Come out with 330 cards."
Then he asked Qian Yuzhi which one was wrong, and adjusted the position of the card reader brush of the tabulation machine. He also divided the remaining stack in his hand into two stacks of 330 and 327.
Later, Feng Nuo used a tabulating machine to count the 330 new cards found by Feng Shan and the 330 old cards he separated.
Ten minutes later, the statistics ended, and the results were the same.
"So, the wrong card must be in the other half." Feng Nuo pointed to the remaining two piles of cards.
So he separated 160 cards from each of the remaining two stacks of 327 cards and entered them into the tabulation machine. This time, the wrong card was among the 160 cards that the result showed.
Feng Nuo divided the batch of cards into two parts, each containing 80 new and old cards that corresponded one-to-one. He took a random part and repeated the above operation.
…
A few minutes later, the suspect range was narrowed to 10. Feng Nuo distributed the cards to Feng Shan and three others, and quickly found the wrong card.
Feng Nuo put the wrong card on the table and did not look at it. Instead, he said to Feng Shan: "The purpose of our computers is to replace manpower in completing mechanical calculations. It will do the mechanical work without you doing it.
What are you trying to do? Think about how to drive it to work to achieve your goal. Tell me, what is the principle of finding the wrong card just now?"
Feng Nuo nodded, "It's different, but the idea is similar. If you think about it for a moment, why I asked Yuzhi and Kana to use a tabulating machine to check whether two stacks of 1,000 cards are consistent yesterday, you can think of many solutions. At least
, you can enter 100 cards each time, up to 10 times, and you will also know which 100 cards the wrong card is in. - Of course, if you can think of this, you will also realize that binary search is the fastest.
"
"The premise for us to do this is that the probability of copying errors is very low. Otherwise, if multiple punch cards have errors in the same column, this method will not work. So, yesterday we first checked the results of 1 and 10 copies.
No problem.”
"Facts also show that our estimate is consistent with the actual situation. 1,000 cards, that is, there are 80,000 column copy operations. The two of them checked more than 30 columns from last night to this morning. In fact, only one column was found to be wrong, and statistics found that there were only fewer
There is a 3, and there is only one more 4. This is what you knew before looking for the error card, right? We have no other prior knowledge, so we can only assume that the error probability of the replicator is 1/30000, regardless of
The current errors are caused by the accumulation of errors on multiple cards in the same column. Because the probability is lower, they can be ignored for the time being.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Two Levels Strategy Chapter 52