Patent GB-567205-A (GB)
Abstract: 567,205. Time-recorders. AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE & ELECTRIC CO.,. Ltd., TAYLOR, R., and BAKER, G. T. April 2, 1943, No. 5274. [Class 106 (iv)] A time-recorder comprises a number of individual stations, Fig. 2, where employees operate individual keys 8, and a central recording station, Fig. 1, at which absent and late employees are recorded. By omitting to record employees arriving before the official starting time, a great deal of recording is avoided. As described, the recorder comprises twenty individual stations, each with twentyfive individual keys, but for simplicity, the circuit shows the central station wired up to the first individual station showing only one individual key 8. On arrival, an employee presses in his key so that a plate 16 is first lifted and then falls behind a notch 15. Under the control of a synchronous motor CM, contacts cm1, cm2 close and open every five minutes, the minutes and hours type wheels being advanced by the operation of magnet TM. At the specified entry time of 8.30 a.m., relay CT energizes and contacts ct4 supply current to slow-to-operate relay SB. Current is then supplied over a common access switch CAS6 of the step-by-step rotary type to a reset magnet RCM in the first keying unit. The magnet lifts plates 11, 12 and the cam surface on plate 11 urges all depressed keys inwards, plate 16 engaging behind a further notch 14. Relay CAM also energizes to release magnets SB and RCM, whereupon the plates 11, 12 fall, the cam surface on plate 12 urging all operated keys a further step inwards, plate 16 engaging behind another notch 13. Relay CAM releases and advances the CAS switch wipers to the second position to connect up with the second keying unit. Relay SB then re-energizes and the process repeats for each of the keying units, until the switch wipers reach the twenty-first position and the circuit to relay CT is broken at CAS8, whereupon relay SB de-energizes and relay CAM restores the wipers CAS1-8 to home position. During this operation, no recording has occurred. At 8.35 a.m., relay RC energizes and locks up. Relay RR energizes to energize relay RCM which advances all keys depressed between 8.30 and 8.35 a.m. one step. Relay RR also causes the battery to be extended through relay PR and wipers CAS2 and IAS2 of the first keying unit, and if the first key has been depressed since 8.30 a.m., circuit is made through contact 19 to earth and relay PR energizes to energize the printing magnet PM which prints the time and number of the key on a tape. Units magnet UM energizes to release PR. Relay IAM energizes to release UM which advances the units wheel and releases IAM which advances the individual switch wipers IAS. This process repeats for each key in the unit, no record being made if a key is still undepressed. The units wheel drives the tens wheel in known manner and the individual access switches each have two banks of twenty-five contacts, so that the keys of the first unit are numbered 0-49, the second unit 50-99, and so on. At each 50 or 100, contacts UN, TN open together to release relays RR, PR, UM and RCM, which advances all depressed keys to the final position. Relay HM then advances the hundreds type wheel which is marked in duplicate, and relay CAM advances the switch wipers CAS to the next position. The process repeats for the remaining keying units. When the CAS switches reach the twenty-first position, relay RC releases, and self-interrupting circuits to HM, CAM advance the hundreds type wheel and access switches to home position. At succeeding five-minute intervals, the above process of recording the time and number of late arrivals proceeds. Privileged employees with a later starting time, say 9.00 a.m., have the contact 19 of their keys connected electrically, not to contact 21, but to contact 20. Arrivals of such people before 9.00 a.m. are not recorded, but at 9.05 a.m., relay RD energizes to put line 25 into parallel with line 26, to record all late arrivals. At a time such as 10.00 a.m., all non-arrivals are recorded as absent when relay AB energizes to connect up relay PR to line 27, so that each undepressed key causes relay PR to record the time 10 a.m., and number of the absentee. Five minutes later, relays Z and CT energize and a release magnet RLM is energized in each keying unit in turn to lift the plates 12, 16 sufficiently to allow all keys to return under spring action. Subsequent exit and entry times may also be recorded. Instead of a separate set of conductors from the central unit to each keying unit, a ring main set of conductors may be employed.