History of the Comptometer School
By J. C. Nevins, Vice Pres. and Gen. Sales Mgr.
Felt Tarrant Mfg. Co.
In 1888 Mr. Felt started the first school for operators, with Mr. Geo. McKay in charge, with a beginning class of five students.
From then the instruction was intermittent until December 1st. 1905. On this date we opened a regular Instruction Dept. in the Monadnock Bldg.. Chicago. And from this one little office the Comptometer schools have grown until there are over 100 in the United States, run in connection with our sales offices, and over 35 in foreign countries, that are run continuously, fitting young men and young women for holding a real job and earning their own living in the commercial world.
Well we remember the difficulties of those earlier days, for it seemed at times as though the starting of a successful school was even harder than the manufacture and selling of the Comptometer itself.
In the classes held previous to 1905 only young men were taken in, for the common thought was then that it was a profession which could be held only by men. But by 1905 many of the our customers, like Marshall Field & Co., Chicago & North Western Ry., and many others, had shown us that there was a big, broad field for young ladies as well.
And beginning with the school of December 1st, 1905, we advertised and took into the class young ladies as well as young men. It was hard to get people to come into the school, for even though by that time we had several hundred customers in Chicago, the general public did not realize the possibilities of Comptometer operation as a profession.
But gradually our customers realized the economy of putting their calculating work to trained operators on the Comptometer. just as they previously realized the economy of routing their typing work to trained typists.
So from the beginning of the continuously run school in 1905, where only 19 students were trained the first year, to the present time, the growth has been gradual but very sure. During the first six months of the current year we placed 12,298 Comptometer operators in positions in the United States alone.
MOST of these were young ladies and young men trained in some one of our Comptometer schools. Some received their training on practical work in the offices of our customers. We have no accurate count of the number of operators trained in customers' offices, but we estimate rather accurately that in the full current
