Patent GB-694342-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to statistical machines
Filed: 1951-03-05
Abstract: 694,342. Statistical apparatus. REMING- TON RAND, Inc. March 5, 1951 [March 29, 1950], No. 5338/51. Class 106 (i). A machine for comparing perforation patterns sensed from different record cards comprises card sensing means, card supply magazines, means for feeding cards from magazines to sensing means, a sequence checking unit including two sets of pins on which data sensed from different cards is set up, reading means for testing the set-up values including a movable and a stationary rack, a member arranged to travel the length of the racks, a pair of gears pivotally mounted on the member, and means axially mounted on the gears for testing the set-up values, and means controlled by the reading means for varying the operation of the card feeding means. In the described embodiment a machine of the type disclosed in Specifications 546,590, 546,603, 546,604, [Group VIII], 546,605 and 598,943 has a sequence checking unit attached. This comprises a box-like structure having two sets of pins 114, Fig. 14, arranged in columns of six pins each in accordance with the 90-column code, and adapted for comparing a reading from one card with that of a simultaneously-sensed card or the retained set-up from a preceding card; the left-hand set of pins are provided with locking slides 117 enabling a setting to be retained if necessary. Plates 142, 143, associated with each column of pins 114, are pivotally connected to a common finger 146 and are spring-urged towards abutments 151. Slides 152, spring-urged to the left under control of a machine-moved bail 162, have lugs 156 adapted to engage the lower ends of pins 114 when in their operative positions. When the settings-up of both sides by the card sensing means are identical, the lugs 156 engage the lowered pins 114 simultaneously and there is no tendency to rock the finger 146 from its vertical position If the settings are not identical, however, Fig. 14c, the finger is rocked so that its lower end moves over to the side registering the higher value. A recess 141 in each " nine pin provides sufficient difference to rock the finger when an odd digit is compared with an adjacent even (coded) digit. Manually-settable lock-out pins 157 can be set to render inoperative any of the slides 152. An automatic zero device comprising a bracket or flag 170 attached to each zero pin 114 and adapted to co-operate with extrusions 171 on the other pins, prevents a blank on either side from being read as " high "  instead of true zero. When a blank occurs the extended leg of the zero pin, lying in a slot 172 in the slide 152, prevents the latter from moving; when any pin 114 is lowered into operative position the extrusion 171 acts on the flag 170 swinging the leg of the zero pin clear of the slot 172. The settings of the fingers 146, Figs. 14 and 10, in all the denominations are tested by a device slidably mounted on two vertical rods 175 and comprising a pivoted plate 177 and a pair of meshing gears 183, 182 engaging a stationary rack 187 and a longitudinally slidable rack 188, respectively. A spring 189 holds the device in contact with the free end of a lever 191 which is rocked once each machine cycle to cause the testing device to move downwards past the fingers 146 in decreasing order of magnitude. Fingers in the central position will not impede this movement, but any finger which has been displaced to one side or the other as the result of disagreement between two compared digits will engage one or other of pins 179, 181, Fig. 8, and due to the intermeshing arrangement of gears 182, 183 and racks 187, 188, the slidable rack will be displaced either upwards or downwards. This movement is transmitted through an arm 309 to vary the operation of the machine accordingly.