In the early 1900s those ache to breathe gratuitous had a few vault to get over once they came to America . One of them was an intelligence test . Here ’s one of the other citizenship tests designed for non - English - speaking people .
hoi polloi landing at Ellis Island in the early 20th century were not given the warmest welcome . Before they could get into the country , they had to go through a serial of examinations . Most of these examinations were physical . Newly - arrived immigrants were try for eye infection and tuberculosis . They were also sorted into sick and healthy queue according to their scalp , face , cervix , and “ gait . ”
Provided they slip away strong-arm review , they were given an intelligence test . This test was a challenge to local authorities . Not only did the authorities at Ellis Island not have the resources ( or , really , the will ) to deal with different languages , they did n’t have the time for an extensive test . It was n’t strange for immigrants to wait two days before they made it through the examining facility . To keep the line moving , quizzer needed an intelligence test that did not swear on linguistic process and that could be dispense quickly . Doctor Howard Knox came up with a resolution .
Have you ever played Simon ? Knox ’s run was like that , only if you mess up , or else of getting buzzed , you were thrown out of a country . Knox lined up four wooden cube and gestured for the person taking the test to follow his lead . He tapped sequences on the cubes ( 1 2 3 4 – 1 2 3 4 3 – 1 2 3 4 2 – 1 3 2 4 – 1 3 4 2 3 1 ) . Using these sequences , he reported , he was able to shield 400 “ sapless - minded ” citizenry out of 4000 “ suspected defectives . ”
double : Library of Congress
[ ViaBrain Candy , Howard Andrew Knox and the Origins of Performance Testing on Ellis Island . ]
HistoryScience
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and polish news in your inbox day by day .
news show from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
