While on the subject of mechanical methods of statistical research I can't resist quoting Doob's (1997) Statistical Science interview:
> My system, complicated by my inaccurate typing, led to retyping > material over and over, and for some time I had an electric drill > on my desk, provided with an eraser bit which I used to erase > typing. I rarely used the system of brushing white fluid over a > typed error because I was not patient enough to let the fluid dry > before retyping. Long after my first book was done I discovered the > tape rolls which cover lines of type. As I typed and retyped my > work it became so repugnant to me that I had more and more > difficulty even to look at it to check it. This fact accounts for > many slips that a careful reading would have discovered. I commonly > used a stochastic system of checking, picking a page and then a > place on the page at random and reading a few sentences, in order > to avoid reading it in context and thereby to avoid reading what > was in my mind rather than what I had written. At first I would > catch something at almost every trial, and I would continue until > several trials would yield nothing. I have tried this system on > other authors, betting for example that I would find something to > correct on a randomly chosen printed page of text, and > nonmathematicans suffering under the delusion that mathematics is > errorless would be surprised at how many bets I have won. The relevance to the present inquiry is confirmed by the misspelling of Dennison in the Annals reference quoted below. See, for example: http://www.amazon.com/Avery-Dennison-Metal-Rim-Tags/dp/B000AN376G On the substance of Jean's question, Mark's interpretation seems very plausible. Thanks to Jean and to Martin Maechler for adding this dataset to R. url: www.econ.uiuc.edu/~roger Roger Koenker email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Department of Economics vox: 217-333-4558 University of Illinois fax: 217-244-6678 Champaign, IL 61820 On Jul 24, 2007, at 4:42 PM, Mark Difford wrote: > > Hi Jean, > > You haven't yet had a reply from an authoratitive source, so here > is my > tuppence worth to part of your enquiry. > > It's almost certain that the "receiving box" is a receptacle into > which tags > were placed after they had been drawn and the inscribed measurement > noted > down. Measurements on three tags were unwittingly not noted before > the tags > were transferred to the receiving box. They lay there with a good > many > other tags, so the inscribed measurement/tag couldn't be recovered. > > I hope this clarifies some points. > > Regards, > Mark. > > > Jean lobry wrote: >> >> Dear all, >> >> the dataset documented under ?crimtab was also used in: >> >> @article{TreloarAE1934, >> title = {The adequacy of "{S}tudent's" criterion of >> deviations in small sample means}, >> author = {Treloar, A.E. and Wilder, M.A.}, >> journal = {The Annals of Mathematical Statistics}, >> volume = {5}, >> pages = {324-341}, >> year = {1934} >> } >> >> The following is from page 335 of the above paper: >> >> "From the table provided by MacDonell (1902) on >> the associated variation of stature (to the nearest inch) >> and length of the left middle finger (to the nearest >> millimeter) in 3000 British criminals, the measusurements >> were transferred to 3000 numbered Denison metal-rim >> tags from which the cords has been removed. After >> thorough checking and mixing of these circular disks, >> samples of 5 tags each were drawn at random until the >> supply was exhausted. Unfortunately, three of these >> samples were erroneously returned to a receiving box >> before being copied, and the records of 597 samples only >> are available." >> >> Could someone give me a clue about the kind of device >> that was used here? Is it a kind of lottery machine? >> I don't understand why three samples were lost. What >> is this "receiving box"? >> >> Thanks for any hint, >> >> Best, >> -- >> Jean R. Lobry ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) >> Laboratoire BBE-CNRS-UMR-5558, Univ. C. Bernard - LYON I, >> 43 Bd 11/11/1918, F-69622 VILLEURBANNE CEDEX, FRANCE >> allo : +33 472 43 27 56 fax : +33 472 43 13 88 >> http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/members/lobry/ >> >> ______________________________________________ >> R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help >> PLEASE do read the posting guide >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html >> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >> >> > > -- > View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/crimtab-related- > question-tf4137237.html#a11772414 > Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting- > guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.