The Man Who Measured Everything: The Secret Counting Gloves

Francis Galton:

I required data. The data required discretion.

Subhadra Das:

You know that Galton made his beauty map of Britain. This is how he did it. So this is a pair of Galton's gloves. You'll notice that that's the right hand glove. The left hand glove has been modified. You can see that there's a pouch. It's been sewn onto the fingertips there. A little felt pouch that you can put a piece of paper in. If you've got very good eyes, you can see that there is a pin sticking out of the thumb of the gloves.

And what he would do — this is both a counting device and a rating device. So he could use the pin to make a hole in the paper. So every hole was a different count, 1 2 3 4 5. And where the hole was on the paper was the rating. And for Galton, his rating was in three categories, which were attractive, indifferent, and repellent.

Which is how he built up his beauty map of Britain. And of course, because they're gloves, it's a covert counting device as well. So, you can imagine him as a gentleman of 64 standing on street corners with his hands in his pockets watching the girls go by.

Yeah, not dubious at all, really. The most attractive women in Britain live in London, unsurprisingly.

But not such good news if you live in Aberdeen. I would put it to you that the science here is no science at all.

Francis Galton:

The science was questionable. The gloves were excellent.

DISCLOSURES:

This video is for educational and informational purposes only. It uses the Galton Board as a conceptual statistical illustration of how random outcomes can cluster around a mean. It is not intended to depict actual or hypothetical investment performance, the behavior of any index, or the results of any investment strategy.

This content should not be considered a solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement of any particular security, product, service, or investment strategy, and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. All investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance, model demonstrations, statistical analogies, or historical data do not guarantee future results, and no investment decision should be made solely based on this video or related materials.