FOSDIC AND SPREAD OF INFORMATION

Kristoffer Östlund		Business and Professional Issues
ostlundk@lsbu.ac.uk		London South Bank University
http://ostlundk.wordpress.com/ (.docx version of this document)		
22/10/2014	Revisited:  28/10/ 2014

"You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." (Jobs, 2005, 5:07-5:12) Steve Jobs explained to students at Stanford University in 2005 in an inspirational talk about success. This is true, not only for individuals seeking a fruitful career and life, but also for technology - trails from the past may give the future away. With major companies such as Tesla Motors going open software (Solomon, 2014) the subject of information spread is becoming more relevant. The purpose of this report is to investigate the development of FOSDIC, a device created to aid in information spread, in order to gain further knowledge of how such actions may be achieved in the future. Secondary goals with the report is to make material on FOSDIC more available while also strengthening query skills in popular search engines.

According to the United States Census Bureau (2000), prior to the agency becoming permanent in 1903, efforts to speed up compilation of previous censuses had been made. In 1880 the first attempt was made with a tabulation machine which halved the processing time and in essence was threaded paper rolls in a wooden box operated by a clerk who marked each form's answer, and when the roll was full adding them up. Furthermore, the first real breakthrough, the bureau explains, was a system made for the 1890 census, capable of handling 250 items per minute. Operators punched holes into punch cards to be fed through a machine that counted the holes with the help of an electric current. From 1890 to 1950, it got refined and by the time of last use, its processing speed was at 2,000 items per minute.

Continuing, in 1951 UNIVAC was specially made for the United States Census Bureau - the first ever large-scale electronic computer with the processing speeds of up to 4,000 items per minute, the United States Census Bureau notes (2000). They also argue that, though being faster than writing, manually punching cards is still prone to human error. To combat this, the United States Census Bureau in co-operation with the National Bureau of Standards started developing the Film-Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers (FOSDIC) early 1951, which got completed 1954 and first used in the 1960 census according to the United States Census Bureau's article on FOSDIC (United States Census Bureau, 2014).

The United States Bureau of the Census explain in their publication "United States Censuses of Population and Housing, 1960: Processing the Data" (1962) that FOSDIC consists of four separate units: a tape unit, a console, a scanning unit and a program unit. The bureau describes the first unit as holding and driving the magnetic tape in a consistent pace on which impulses are recorded, and when the writing session was over the tape gets rewound. Furthermore, the console was used a carefully trained operator and holds the cathode ray tube, the film drive mechanism, all operating switches, the light beam, an oscilloscope and the recording dials. The scanning unit measures both the vertical and horizontal distances the light beam has to traverse to decide where the marks are. Finally, the program unit holds the instructions for what order the questions are to be scanned, what calibrations the documents require and where the questions and corresponding answers are located (United States, 1962).

In the same publication, the United States Bureau of the Census (1962) clarifies the input of data was done by a beam of light sweeping over a negative microfilm containing a copy of the questionnaire to locate an index mark. An index mark indicates that a series of circles will follow, which may be filled in by participants in the census. Moreover, in FOSDIC I, the process of transferring the surveys to microfilm was done by staff using precise camera equipment, this process was automated in later models and thus made redundant. The bureau states that data read off of the forms were transferred using electrical impulses which were converted into binary form to be imprinted onto magnetic tape for the electronic computer to process (United States Bureau of the Census, 1962).

The National Archives and Records Management elucidates the benefits of use of FOSDIC in their document Information Retrieval Systems (1970). Data input speeds on the 1960 census was increased sevenfold from the census of 1950 where an estimated $6 million was in input costs was saved. This was possible due to the reduction of man required man hours from 200,000 to 28,000. In addition, the following version used for the 1970 census introduced automated document handling, which was achieved by integrating Camera 3. Camera 3 utilised a photocell procedure for positioning the documents supplied using a vacuum fed band allowing for approximately 100 frames per minute to be developed into FOSDIC readable negative microfilm. The system used for the 1970 census could transfer the equivalent of 8 hours of punch card data I 12 seconds (United States National Archives and Records Management, 1970).

The United States Census Bureau (2014) indications updated versions were created for the 1980 respectively the 1990 censuses, but fails to mention the significance of the improvements. Herb Johnson, retro computer enthusiast and owner a FOSDIC system and the website retrotechnology.com, also refers to advancements between the censuses, though without stating the differences other than increased capacity (Johnson, 2008).

To conclude, FOSDIC is the abbreviation for Film-Optical Sensing Device for Input to Computers, a device purposed to aid in automation of tabulation of the American censuses 1960 to 1990. Co-developed by the engineers at the United States Census Bureau and scientists at the National Bureau of Standards, the first FOSDIC was finished in 1954. It was first used by the United States Census Bureau for the 1960, enumerators carried out questionnaires to the population which got translated into a schema the machine could read. In the first batch, this was done by hand, using fine photography equipment converting each survey to negative microfilm. With FOSDIC II and later versions this step was unnecessary as this process was automated, while they also got significantly higher processing speeds.

Notes from the author

The process of researching and writing this report has been very rewarding. Not only is information about FOSDIC scarce, its documents are buried underneath layers of irrelevant articles and publications one must filter out. At first glance, the web seems empty, but with sharpened tools and coffee documents on the subject can be found. With those findings it is also clear that innovation may be driven both by deadlines and possible gains in either time or cost. 

To read more about FOSDIC, the author of this report highly suggest visiting Herb Johnson's website, where further information on the subject can be found, some examples being projects other than the decennial censuses and some technical information regarding FOSDIC (Johnson, 2008). Deeper technological knowledge can also be acquired through reading the pages dedicated to the machine in "A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems" by the Ballistic Research Laboratories (1961).


Bibliography

Jobs, S. (2005) Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address, 12/06/2005. [Online] Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc [Accessed: 21/10/2014]

Solomon, B. (2014) Tesla Goes Open Source: Elon Musk Releases Patents To 'Good Faith' Use. [Online] Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/briansolomon/2014/06/12/tesla-goes-open-source-elon-musk-releases-patents-to-good-faith-use/ [Accessed 21/10/2014] 

United States Census Bureau (2000), Factfinder for the Nation: History and Organization. [Online] Available from: https://www.census.gov/history/pdf/cff4.pdf [Accessed 21/10/2014], 11.

United States Census Bureau (2014), FOSDIC [Online] Available from: https://www.census.gov/history/www/innovations/technology/fosdic.html [Accessed 21/10/2014]

United States Bureau of the Census (1962), United States Censuses of Population and Housing, 1960: Processing the Data (Volume 3). Washington D.C., United States: Superintendent of Documents, 17.

United States National Archives and Records Management (1970) Information Retrieval Systems. Washington D.C., United States: Superintendent of Documents (FPMR-101-11.3), 22.

Johnson, H. (2008) Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11/20 used in the FOSDIC system. [Online] Available from: http://www.retrotechnology.com/pdp11/FOSDIC.html [Accessed: 21/10/2014]

Ballistic Research Laboratories (1961) A Third Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital Computing Systems. Maryland, United States: Aberdeen Proving Ground (1115), 258-260.