Patent GB-518783-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to record-card controlled statistical machines
Filed: 1938-09-02
Abstract: 518,783. Statistical machines. BRITISH TABULATING MACHINE CO., Ltd., (International Business Machines Corporation). Sept. 2, 1938, No. 25783. [Class 106 (i)] [Also in Group XXXVII]  Card-feedi ng rnechanism.-In a record-cardcontrolled statistical machine wherein each card passes row of reading devices so that each reading device 19 (or 20) registers in succession with the index-point positions on a card column, means are provided for continuously and frictionally feeding each card past the row of reading devices and stopping the card, while still subject to the frictional feeding force, for a predetermined interval each time a required row of index-point positions registers with the reading devices. The time of electrical contact through a card hole is thus independent of the length of the hole. Preferably the pitch of the holes along the column is reduced to equal the length of the holes, Fig. 24, so that two or three fields along'the line of travel of the card may be provided. The pitch of the card columns may be made equal to the width of a hole, every fifth column .remaining unused, for strength. Two or more rows of reading devices may register simultaneously with corresponding rows of index-point positions in two or more fields along the line of travel of the card. Data may be recorded by spots, instead of holes, which are read by devices in which light-responsive cells control thermionic relays. The invention is illustrated in a Hollerith tabulator, the cards being fed from magazine 3 to frictional conveyer belts 10; or slip rollers may be used. There are three pairs of belts 10 across the width of the card and one belt of each pair runs over a slightly convex guide so that the co-acting faces of each belt pair are pressed together over a curved path. The belt feeding rollers 12 are driven continuously from a main shaft through a change speed mechanism, Fig. 4 (not shown), which may be manually adjusted to give the desired ratio of cards fed to machine cycles. The card feed may also be interrupted by a pawl 171, Fig. 3 (not shown), which obstructs the picker blade 4 when either magnet 170, Fig. 23, is energized. These magnets are under the control of upper and lower chamber card-lever contacts 122c and 122x-c and switches 174 and 175. Thus, for example, when a three field card is being read and one field is cancelled by a control hole 101, Fig. 10, that card is held in the upper chamber for two tabulating cycles only. Without the hole 101 the card would be held for three cycles. The cards are aligned as they are fed, by lateral guides 46. Fig. 2 (not shown). Card reading means.-The three fields along the line of travel of the cards are read by three rows of upper brushes 19 and three rows of lower brushes 20 so that two successive cards may be compared; or the three fields of one card may be read simultaneously or successively. The brushes are constituted by levers pivoted at 39 and co-act with contact blocks 21 or 22 which are separated by insulation and have individual electric leads attached to them. The brush levers are pressed by comb springs 42, each of which serves as a common lead for each row of brushes. Card-feeding stop plates.-A card is fed by the belts until the lowest row of hole positions in each field is at the related row of brushes 19. Although the belts continue in operation the card is held stationary, whilst the lowest horizontal rows are read, by the first stop plate 50, Figs. 1 and 5. The upper chamber (and the lower) has three groups of stop plates, each group consisting of thirteen plates for the twelve data-representing rows of index-point positions and the first row which is used for printing or writing and control (hole 101). The 'first of each group of thirteen stop plates is called a holding plate and serves to hold a card in the card chamber from one machine cycle to another. This first plate also holds the'card while the control perforations are read to determine which of the three card fields is to be read, i.e., which of the groups of stop plates must be made operative or inoperative (magnets 68, Fig. 22), thus selecting the row or rows of brushes to effect reading. The twelve stop plates of each group position the card successively for the stationary reading of each row of index-point positions. Each stop plate 50 extends the full width of the card chamber, has slots 63 to accommodate the three pairs of feed belts, has a latch for locking purposes, and has a cam face 55 coacting with a cam 540. The cams 540 are mounted on a shaft 58 and have drops in them, Fig. 2 (not shown), which allows the stop plates to be moved to the right, Fig. 1, by a spring 56 to arrest the card. The cams act against the faces 5 in the vertical direction of Fig. 5. The drops are helically arranged so that just before a stop plate holding a card is moved to the left by the high part of its cam 540, the next following stop plate is allowed to move right by its cam drop to arrest the card with the next row of hole-index points at the reading brushes. Shaft 58 rotates once per machine cycle. Stop plate locking means, Figs. 5, 7 and 22. Associated with the lug 62 on each stop plate is a latch 61 pressed by a spring 65. The latches for each group of thirteen stop plates are slidably mounted upon one another and are controlled by the single armature 66 of a magnet 68. When a magnet 68 is energized its armature retracts the latches 61 and leaves that group of stop plates 50 free to control the card. Each magnet 68 is operated by a circuit controlled either by a hand switch 102, Fig. 22, or by a control hole 101, Fig. 10, in the card. When a switch 102 is on one or other of its contacts 103, 102, 104, 113 it has the following effects respectively : (1) 103. Magnet 68 is permanently connected and the stop plates are unlocked so long as the machine is running. (2) 102. The source of power 1103 is disconnected and magnet 68 is operative (except when controlled by commutator 110) and the stop plates remain latched. (3) 104. The circuit to magnet 68 extends over the armature of a relay 105 controllable by a brush 19 reading a control hole. The circuit includes brushes 117 and a commutator segment 118 for each group of stop plates. Commutator 120 makes one revolution per card cycle and the segments are long enough to allow unlatching of the stop plates in time for feeding, reading and discharge of a card during one machine cycle. When a control hole is read, relay 105 is energized and its armature moves to break the circuit of magnet 68, and to complete a circuit for relay 105 under control of the commutator 120. The latter de-energizes the relay 105 at the end of the current cycle. Commutator 120 is included in circuit only when the first of several fields along the line of travel of the card not having a control hole 101, Fig 10, is to be read and recorded and succeeding fields of the card are to be ignored. (3) 113. In this position the above holding circuit for relay 105 is disconnected from commutator 120 and passes through card-lever contacts 122, one for each group of stop plates. There are three card-lever contacts in each of the upper and lower card chambers and when a card is on the first, second, or third holding plate (i.e., the first plate of each group of stop plates), all three card-lever contacts, or the second and third card-lever contacts, or the third card-lever contacts, respectively are closed, the other contacts being open. The card-lever contacts with the associated relays 105 thus control three locking magnets 68. In the arrangement illustrated the selection of groups of stop plates is made while the card is held by the first holding plate of a chamber; each group controlled by a hole 101 being locked. For straight reading, only one group of stop plates 50 need be used in the lower and (if required for the known groupedcard comparison) the upper chamber. The other stop plate groups are locked out by setting the second (from the right, Fig. 22), third, fifth and sixth switches on their contacts 102 so that magnets 68 are not energized and plates 50 remain latched. Commutator 110 is disconnected by opening switches 164 and 112. The first and fourth switches 102 are set on their contacts 103 so that first and fourth magnets 68 are permanently energized ( (1) above) over a circuit 1103, 106, 107, first and fourth switches 102, 103, 108, 109, 68. A card is fed by the frictional belts 10 until it rests on the first holding plate 50 where its first, fourteenth, and twenty-seventh row of index positions register with the'three rows of reading brush levers 19, Figs. 1 and 22. The card is thereafter fed intermittently from one stop plate to the next, being read at each halt to actuate the counters through the " Switchboard " described below. By use of the switchboard sliders 200, Fig. 22, and of the various switches the rows of reading contacts 21, 22 and brushes 19, 20 may be used in various control combinations. It it be desired to record information from a card in excess of the tabulator capacity, e.g., a tabulator having 70 printing positions, the six groups of stop plates are used during succeeding cycles under control of the commutator 110 which makes one revolution in six tabulating cycles; and the seventy contacts 21, Figs. 1 and 22, on one half the lowest row in the upper chamber are connected through the switchboard sliders 200 to the seventy respective counter magnets 201 ; and up to seventy contacts 22 on the opposite half of the lowest row of the lower chamber are connected to the same respective magnets 201. Switchboards.-To make any desired connections from the card-reading contacts 21 to the counter magnets 201, selecting magnets 137, and relays 105, Fig. 22, the switchboard of Figs. 17, 18 and 20 is used. The insulating base 210 of the board has slots 211 each of which accommodates a pair of insulation strips 212, 213 with a gap between