Patent GB-826707-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to record card punching apparatus
Inventor: SPINKS ERIC RANDELL
Filed: 1957-06-14
Abstract: 826,707. Verifying record cards. INTERNATIONAL COMPUTERS & TABULATORS Ltd. May 5, 1958 [June 14, 1957], No. 18909/57. Class 106 (1). [Also in Group VIII] A record card punch operable under the control of a parent machine comprises punches 22, Fig. 2, and die plates 29 movable upwardly to effect punching of a card therebetween, checking devices including a check pin 31 for each punch, the check pins having connection via springs 42 and row-wise contact strips 35 with a signal emitter, a setting member 58 for each card column movable under signals from the parent machine and having abutments to operate the appropriate check pin 31 and punch 22, the check pin being thereby displaced to connect a column lead 41, Fig. 1B, with the corresponding contact strip 35 and a comparing device for each column, connecting the lead 41 with a lead 117 from the parent machine, receiving and comparing check signals from both sources and giving an output if the signals disagree. In the embodiment described there is a separate checking device for the column positions O, A, B and provision for checking when these positions are used to signify values 10 and 11. The setting member 59 for this device has an abutment 97 to set the appropriate check pin 31 when the body of the checking device is moved downwardly and a pair of abutments 95, 96 to operate the appropriate one of the end three punches 22 when the die plates move upwardly. The signal emitter has eleven output leads and at a certain instant in the cycle produces an alternating current pulse train, the number of pulses being equal to the value of the line. On line value 5 a group of five pulses is produced. The setting members 58, 59 are each provided with teeth and located by a pawl 75, 76 which is projected with operative position when a solenoid 87 or 88 is energized. The setting members are displaced outwardly against springs 62 by cams 68, 69 acting through levers and allowed to return, moving through the column positions successively until stopped by pawls 75, 76. The solenoids are energized over lines 114, 115 at the correct instant through cam contacts 108, one for each column position, the line 111 being selected by the parent machine according to the data to be recorded. The parent machine also selects for each card column one of the signal emitter output lines the corresponding group of pulses being transmitted over lines 114, 115 through change-over switches 112, 116 and lines 117 to a primary winding 123 of comparing transformers. The output lines 41, 45 from the checking devices are connected to the other primary windings 120, which are oppositely wound. If the line selected by the parent machine is the same as that selected by the checking devices an equal number of pulses are transmitted to both primary windings of the comparing transformer so that they cancel each other and no output is produced on lines 125, 126. If the number of pulses arriving from the parent machine and from the checking device differ, an error signal is produced on lines 125, 126. The checking step is controlled by a programming device and takes place during the punching operation. Specifications 758,818, 794,251, [Group XVI], and 794,252 are referred to.