Patent GB-308829-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to record-card-controlled statistical machines
Filed: 1929-03-28
Abstract: 308,829. British Tabulating Machine Co., Ltd., (Assignees of Daly, G. F., and Page, R. E.). March 30, 1928, [Convention date]. Statistical machines; total-taking; subtotal-taking. - An automatically controlled, grouped-card statistical machine for addition and subtraction (e.g. debit and credit working), such as described in Specifications 273,731 and 297,800, is provided at each accumulator with a single multiple switch which is manually set to give the desired circuit connections for listing (without accumulating), indicating, adding, subtracting, subtotalling, totalling, or grand-totalling. Further switches enable the old balance (in debit and credit working) to be taken into an accumulator or printer from the first card of a group only, further entries into that accumulator being eliminated during the rest of the group. Another accumulator or printer may receive items from all cards except the first one of a group, this result being combined or not with the old balance as desired. For debit and credit working, as in the prior Specifications, subtraction is performed by adding the true complements. If two counters, each of nine wheels, are used for the credit and debit amounts, in order to decide for printing purposes which counter carries the true balance, the second highest wheel of either of the counters is felt to determine whether a " 9 " is present, denoting a complement; the balance then being printed from the correct counter. The highest wheel in each counter is used only for numbers transferred up. One printing bank is provided for listing the old balance only. The invention is described for use with Hollerith cards but it may be used with code cards; the application being to the machine described in Specifications 273,731 and 297,800, the debit and credit cards being mixed indiscriminately and the credit and debit amounts indicated in the same column of the cards, but the debit cards being distinguished by a special perforation outside the amountbearing field (e.g. at the trailing edge of the card). As in Specification 297,800 the cards are read by upper and lower brushes one card cycle apart. At the upper brushes the debit and credit items are distinguished and the amounts coded. One cycle later, while the true amounts are being entered directly on the two counters by the lower brushes, these coded amounts are decoded into their complements and entered into the appropriate counters. Schematic figures show the various balance results which may be obtained by combinations of the debit and credit amounts with the old balance. Fig. 1 shows the general arrangement of the complete machine, in which C is the card feeding section, P the printing section, and A the accumulator section having six counters A*1 - - - A*6 having reset devices 73, 76, 410, 411 as in Specification 299,014. TR indicates the translator mechanism which co-acts with the upper brushes. The tabulating motor TM drives a listing shaft 30, Fig. 2a, in the usual manner through a one revolution clutch 34, 32 which is thrown in when a listing lever 41 is depressed to remove the arm 38, a link 42 and cam 43 prying scissor elements 39, 40 apart to rock 38 counter-clockwise. While the cam 33, carrying the pawl 34, is rotating it opens and closes various contacts for machine control, including contacts which ensure the neessary slow speeds during printing. Shaft 30 also drives the counter shafts through gears 50, 51, Fig. 1, the counter clutches being thrown in differentially as in Specification 216,142. The group control unit GC and translator TR are also driven from shaft 30. As in the above Specification a reset motor drives a total shaft which in turn drives duplicated reset shafts and total-taking shafts for the counters which are arranged in two sets of three each, as shown in Fig. 1. After a printing operation has occurred the pawls, which have been actuated from the printer magnets to arrest the type bars differentially, are restored to inactive position by a bail operated from the listing shaft 30, instead of by cams on the type racks. To avoid shock between the action of shafts 30 and 81 and the arm 84, Fig. 5a, which is raised in the known manner to permit the type bars to rise until differentially arrested, the cam 113 on shaft 30 acts on an arm 110 loose on shaft 81 and having a buffer spring 112 between it and an arm 111 fast on shaft 81. Specification 311,420, [Class 100 (iv), Typewriters &c.], is referred to for this mechanism. Circuits. The two-speed tabulating motor and the control thereof by card lever contacts for cardfeed and general running conditions are as described in Specification 247,200. The machine is also used for major and minor card-group control in the manner described in Specification 299,014. An extra printing bank 362, Fig. 17a, which does not accumulate may be connected to any of the lower brushes 335 to print from any desired card columns. A commutator 364 connects this bank to main line 10 when the machine is set for listing or for the first cycle only when the machine is set for straight tabulating, as in 247,200. The four counters A*1 - - A*4 (with two more-A*5 and A*6 in reserve) are connected as in the prior Specifications but are modified for a greater choice of operation by total switches 388 and adding switches 389 at each counter. In each counter the total switch and adding switch are combined into a single multiple switch as shown in Figs. 7 - - 9. Switches; contacts; switches, actuating with compound movement.-In the compound adding and total switch the adding switch has three stationary and peripheral rows of contacts 389 of which the first and second, or the second and third, rows are bridged by pairs of spring- pressed contact studs 397 on a shaft 394 having a manual setting knob 395 and an indicator 396 to co-act with the dial words " Off," " List, " " Indicate, " " Add, " and " Subtract." The total switch has two peripheral rows of contacts 388 bridged by spring-pressed contacts 392 on a sleeve 399, having a knob 400 and indicator 401 for co-action with the dial words " Off, " " Subtotal, " " Total and reset, " and " Major Total and reset." The fixed contacts 388 and 389 are wired to the machine circuits as shown in the circuit-diagram, Figs. 17<a> and 17<b>, and the indicators 396 and 401 are set for the desired printing etc. operations. Single card (old balance) operation. The machine is adapted to enter certain data (such as the old balance) from a single (first) card of a card-group into a counter or indicator and to suppress further entries from the same group into that particular counter. Conversely the data from any single card may be excluded from a counter. Entry of data from the first card only is achieved by connecting the sockets 462 of the G.I. control, Fig. 17<a>, to the lower brushes 335, and the sockets 369 of the counter magnets 365 to the sockets 461. Entry from all the cards except the first of a group is obtained by plugging sockets 458 to the lower brushes and sockets 459 to the sockets 369. Contacts 460 and 45'i, co-acting with the sockets 461, 462, 458. 459 are controlled by G.I. master relay 427 and the parallel relays 455. This "balance" control is combined with the credit and debit working; the circuits involved are traced in detail. The subtraction operations for this are as in Specification 297,800. To determine whether the debit or credit counter carries the true balance at the end of a run the eighth (or second highest) wheel of one counter is felt to determine whether it carries a " 9 " denoting the complement of the true balance. For this the stepped total cam 490, Figs. 17<a> and 17b, of the eighth wheel has a higher step than usual in the ninth position, so that if the wheel be at " 9 " the contacts 491 close slightly ahead of the total step cam contacts 380 of any other counter wheels in " 9 " position. The total printing circuits of the two counters (credit and debit) are controlled by a balance selecting relay which, when energised, breaks the circuit of one and prepares the circuit of the other, or vice versa when it is de-energised- One counter is selected for the " 9 "-feeling operation and its contacts 491 are connected to the balance selecting relay. After the contacts 491 would close if a " 9 " were present on the eighth wheel but prior to the normal printing time of any of the other counters a current impulse is sent through contacts 490. The presence or not of a " 9 " on the 8th wheel is thus used to energise the balance relay or not, so tnat the latter selects the proper counter for printing the true balance. The machine has two complete subtracting banks, each having two balance counters. Any counter of the machine may be selected for either the positive or negative balance counter for either subtracting bank by means of four switches, of which one is shown in Figs. 10 - - 12; the circuit-connections of the four are shown schematically at + UL, + UR, + LL, + LR, + UL, and + UR on the left of each counter in Figs. 17<a> and 17<b>. Switches; contacts.-Each balance switch, Figs. 10 - - 12, comprises two groups of fixed contacts 495 and 496 each group arranged in three circumferential rows and wired to the machine circuits. A shaft 497 having a knob 498 and indicator 499 carries an insulating member 500 with pairs of spring pressed contacts 501 and 502 arranged to bridge certain combinations of contacts 495 and 496 in adjacent rows. The six active positions of the indicator of each balance switch correspond to the six counters of the machine. The balance switches are arranged in pairs, one of each pair being designated X to denote that it selects the counters for positive balances and the other of each pair being marked -, for negative balances. The possible circuit connections of these balance switches are traced in detail.