It seems more likely to me that it was a manual process. Somebody looked at the mailing address, got out a chart, and assigned the number based upon what the person SAW on the mailing address.
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Keypunch machines and punch cards: Sorry, but I can't seem to visualize what these looked like or what work they did in the Social Security processing office in Baltimore, Maryland.
1. So could you---or anyone else here, especially if you have ever worked at a Social Security office---please help me by explaining in more detail what they looked like in 1977 and how a clerk in the Baltimore, Maryland Social Security main processing office might use them?
2. For instance, how would a clerk use those machines after an unopened letter containing a SS application form from Hawaii in 1977 arrived at the clerk's desk.
3.If I walked into the SS Baltimore, Maryland office in 1977, would I see rows and rows of clerks at desks with these keypunch machines sitting on these desks?
4. Would those clerks sit at their desks all day without getting up except for lunch and personal needs, or would the clerks have to get up every so often to deliver the now opened application forms to another step in the application process?
5. What are the chances that clerks back in 1977---or, say, between 1960 and 1977---would sometimes accidentally punch 042, Connecticut, instead of 942, Hawaii, on those machines when they entered an application's information into Social Security's records because those numbers were very close together on those machines?
Thanks for your help.
john mirse, I don’t have any personal knowledge of the SS# office. I’m going from memory of how things used to work in government clerical offices way back when, in the 1970s.
My guess is that it first involved a manual process. It may not have involved manually assigning the SS#, but I am reasonably sure that it would NOT have involved TYPING the application on a typewriter—transcribing from the written application received.
My guess is that they would manually CODE the application for data entry. Somebody opened the mail, wrote standardized codes onto the various data fields on the application, and then sent the coded sheets to the keypunch department, where it was keypunched onto a card or key-entered onto a floppy disk. The clerks would not have a keypunch machine on their desks.
These would be in another department, dedicated to key entering all sorts of data from all sorts of departments. For example, in a business setting, the keypunch department would receive and key enter data for payroll, inventory, accounts receivable, accounts payable, etc. Then the same department would process the data through the mainframe computer and print out inventory reports, paychecks, etc.
A key point (pun intended) is that the keyboard on a keypunch or key-to-disk machine was not like a typewriter keyboard. Because of the sheer volume of numeric data entered, and in order to ensure SPEED in data entry, a numeric keypad was used. It looked similar to the keypad on a calculator. When entering numeric data, it was much faster to enter if via a specialized numeric keyboard, than via the type of layout that’s on a typewriter. Whereas someone might type at 40 words per minute, a good keypuncher could enter numeric data at speeds more like 100 words per minute (with a “word” being 5 numeric digits). So the incurious one’s theory that since the 9 is next to the 0 on a typewriter, that means somebody made a typo that resulted in Obama’s CT SS# doesn’t hold water. The 0 is not next to the 9 on the numeric keypad of a keypunch machine.
On a SS application, a code would be, for example, the standardized abbreviation for the state in the mailing address. If there was no zip code on the mailing address, then clerk would look it up and write it on the application. The address would be standardized. Maybe Avenue reduced to AV. (Space was a consideration back then. Punch cards and floppy disks were limited in length.) This would have to be done in order to maintain a record of the information for every SS card holder—whether in a drawer of punched cards or in a file on the computer, after the floppy disks were processed.
However, even after the data was run through the computer, exception reports were typically run to identify errors in the data that was entered. Keep in mind that first ALL punched cards and floppy disks would have already been double checked—first entered by the original keypuncher and then “verified” by another person—the verifier. A keypunch machine that verified did not punch the card but verified that the card was correctly punched by the original keypuncher. In other words, it read the holes as the person reentered the coded data. If what the verifier entered did not match the punched card, the card was rejected and the verifier looked to see why and then corrected the data to ensure that it recorded exactly what the application said. (If it was a floppy disk, then the verifying machine simply read the magnetized data as the verifier rekeyed the information.) I’m not saying this well, but the important point is that there were MULTIPLE steps to ENSURE that data was put in the computer and into the files CORRECTLY.
Only after the exception reports were examined to ensure that there were still no errors that slipped by would the data finally be accepted for whatever constituted the database—whether a computer file or a drawer of punched cards.
As an example, a computer program could cross reference state codes with zip codes and kick out an error flag if somebody’s zip code didn’t match the state in the mailing address. This is something that could be quickly and easily done by the computer but time consuming for a clerk and not an error easily seen by looking at the application data.
My point is that it’s highly unlikely, after all these steps, that a mailing address of Hawaii would result in a SS# from Connecticut.
It’s possible that after the data set of applications was cleared (meaning no input errors) at that point a computer program assigned the appropriate SS# and perhaps even printed the SS Cards.
It’s also possible, however, that the original clerk, who manually coded the application for data entry, assigned the number at that point and wrote it on the application.
But if so, then the computer exception report probably would flag as an error a SS# from a state that didn’t match the application’s mailing address. It’s possible that the program would even print the envelopes for mailing the card to the applicant.
This is all speculation but it’s based upon experience with these types of processes, back in the 1970s. I hope it helps you to visualize. Short of finding someone who actually worked in that office in Baltimore in the ‘70s, this is the best I can do to explain what the process probably was.