Patent GB-871549-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for selecting individual groups of information storage elements
IPC: G06K17/00
Filed: 1958-09-01
Abstract: 871,549. Record card machines. MAGNAVOX CO. Sept. 1, 1958, No. 27999/58. Class 106 (1). A selected group of the record cards in a magazine 12, Fig. 4, can be displaced into engagement with suction drums which feed them one at a time past a row of sensing heads 29, and return them to a position for reintroduction into the magazine. The magazine has a number of shelves 30a, 30b, &c., Fig. 5, arranged one above the other and is vertically displaceable to bring the desired shelf to the level of table 10 and horizontally adjustable to bring the desired group of cards to the selecting position. Mounted on the table are a spreader 13 and a push-rod 14. When the magazine is vertically and longitudinally adjusted to the correct position, the spreader is projected along its guide 11 to isolate the required group of cards, the spaced arms of the spreader being sharpened to part the cards. The cards between the arms of the spreader are then transferred via channel 16 to the feeding station adjacent drum 17 by movement of push-rod 14 sliding within the spreader. The spreader 13 and push-rod 14 are operated by cam drum 36 having cam slots 37, 38 and driven by a motor. The forward ends of the spreader arms have sloping formations adapted to engage and raise a gate 57 which normally closes the channel 16 to prevent cards falling out of the magazine. The selected group of cards 60a, Fig. 14, is displaced by push-rod 14 to the position where they rest on a tapered plate 23 in contact with drum 17. This plate is mounted on guide pins and can slide transversely across the channel 16, against the action of springs, to the position of Fig. 15. The cards in the selected group are separated one by one by suction drum 17, transferred by deflector 70 to drum 19, sensed at 29, passed by deflector 71 to drum 20 and by deflector 72 to drum 18 and stacked under the plate 23, displacing it against its springs. When all the cards have been sensed and re-stacked (Fig. 15), the plate 23 makes electrical contact with the end 24 of channel 16. A pusher 22 is then operated by cam drum 44 to push the aligned group of cards via channel 16 back between the arms of the spreader. This is then withdrawn by cam drum 36 to leave the cards in position in the magazine. Magazine.-Cards are held in the shelves of the magazine by springs which bear with constant pressure on the end cards irrespective of the number of cards in the shelf. The shelf assembly, Fig. 17, is mounted in vertical guides 88, 90 which are carried on horizontal rails 83a, 83b. Servomotors 86, 92 act through control cords and pulleys to position the assembly horizontally and vertically. The servomotors are controlled by " X " and " Y potentiometers 96, 100 which are manually set to the selected values to produce control voltages to be compared with voltages produced by potentiometers 99, 103, on the motor shafts. The outputs from comparators 97, 101, are amplified to control the motors, the rotation of which is such as to reduce to zero the difference between the control voltage and the servomotor potentiometer voltage. Specification 871,547 is referred to.