FOIAWEAR — ELEPHANT COUNTER / The Machine That Counted in Pictures Tee

FOIAWEAR / ARCHIVE SERIES 048 — ELEPHANT COUNTER

During the Vietnam War, gathering intelligence on the Ho Chi Minh Trail's traffic was vital. CIA technicians invented and used this unusual device in the 1960s to keep track of the enemy in Southeast Asia. Its mission was to count people and supplies moving down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, from North Vietnam to South Vietnam along the borders of Laos and Cambodia.

The people doing the counting were the problem the device was built to solve. Many of the Laotian trail watchers whom CIA recruited could not read or write, let alone understand English. So the machine did not use words. It used “pictograms” — symbols representing troops, trucks, motorcycles, carts, bicycles, tanks, cannons, small artillery, missiles, donkeys, and yes, occasionally elephants, a common beast of burden in Laos.

Alongside each pictogram was a knob that could be set to a number. When the count was finished, the data could be transmitted to an airplane by activating a toggle switch. The whole apparatus — a pictogram dial panel, a set of counters, a switch and a short whip antenna — was built to be read by someone who had never seen a written word.

The records are candid about how well it worked:

“Though such devices were ingenious in concept and design, the realities of life on the ground in SE Asia meant that it was always difficult for CIA to arrive at an accurate measure of traffic on the trail.”

The artwork is drawn as a printed field-manual plate: the tally panel at a three-quarter angle with two rows of engraved pictograms and their numbered rotary knobs, a toggle switch and whip antenna at one end; a folded topographic trail map carrying a dashed route through contour lines; a light single-engine observation aircraft above with a thin radio beam arcing down to the antenna; and a bamboo watchtower with jungle fronds low in the background.

Offered in twelve garment colours, printed as two different plates rather than one image re-toned. On the dark garments (Black, Graphite, Espresso, Navy, Pepper) the panel prints with its cream cells, lifted line work and pale olive body. On the light garments (White, Ivory, Butter, Chalky Mint, Light Green, Blossom, Chambray) it is drawn again as a three-ink screen plate for pale cloth — heavy black line work with cross-hatching and coarse halftone, an olive device body and map, and a single rust-orange accent on the antenna beam and one map marker.

The QR code on the front opens the museum artifact page for the device itself — https://www.cia.gov/legacy/museum/artifact/elephant-counter/

Note: quotations above are taken verbatim from the description published with the artifact. The numerals on the dials in the artwork are decorative and are not a reproduction of any actual calibration scale. This is not an official publication and is not affiliated with any government or agency.

Garment: Comfort Colors 1717 garment-dyed t-shirt. Heavyweight 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²), 100% ring-spun US cotton, pre-shrunk, relaxed fit, double-needle stitched with no side seams and a sewn-in label. Sizes S–4XL. Printed on the front at 300 DPI; plain back. The main artwork prints at 10 × 10 in and the QR at 1.8 × 1.8 in.

Care: machine wash cold, inside out, with like colours. Tumble dry low. Do not iron directly on the printed area.

FOIAWEAR is an independent brand and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Central Intelligence Agency, the United States government, or any other government or agency.