Patent GB-1001563-A (GB)
Title: Document processing and sorting apparatus
IPC: G06F7/52
Filed: 1961-07-20
Abstract: 1,001,563. Sorting machines for cheques. NATIONAL CASH REGISTER CO. July 20, 1961 [Aug. 30, 1960], No. 26410/61. Heading G4M. In a sorting machine for cheques or like documents the cheques are passed in succession past a sensing station to derive sorting signals for each document, a first store receiving their signals, a second store for receiving signals read out from the first store, means for developing a first synchronizing signal just before sensing a cheque to reset the first store, a second synchronizing signal just before the end of sensing each cheque to reset the second store and a third synchronizing signal shortly after the second for transferring the signals from the first store to the second store. The cheques to be sorted are placed on edge in a hopper 16, Fig. 2B, and fed one by one between forwarding belts 17, 18 to a turning device 19 which ensures that the leading edges of the cheques will be uniformly spaced. The cheques then move to the left and pass through the sensing station on the read belt 24 which is driven by a synchronous motor. This consists of a magnet 84 for magnetizing the special characters on the cheque, Fig. 3A, a photo-cell, which detects when a cheque is present, and a reading head 20. The sorter controls are mounted on a panel 25, Fig. 1, supported on a tower 26. There are buttons for switching the drive on and off, for starting and stopping the cheque feed and for selecting the mode of operation. Also the field and the digit which are to control sorting are selected by buttons 32-38 and 39-52, Fig. 2A. The number of cheques entering each output stacker is counted and the counts shown on twelve counter dials 59 and dial 72 gives the total count. Successive belts carry the cheques along the rear of the stackers 60-71 which deliver the cheques to associated pockets 76. Lamps 78 light when the corresponding pockets are full. The cheques are held against the belts by rollers carried in groups on " bogies." When a jam occurs the bogies are caused to drop away from the belts to release the cheques. The operator restores them individually. Timing pulses for the machine are developed from a pair of permanent magnet elements carried by the rotary timing device 19. Cheques.-The characters on the cheque are printed in a line along the lower edge. Fourteen characters are used, the decimal digits and four special symbols designated Q1-Q4. These symbols are used to mark the beginnings and boundaries of the various fields of data recorded on the cheque. The characters after magnetization are sensed at 20 to derive waveforms, one for each character. These are applied to correlation networks one for each of the fourteen characters and the corresponding character is indicated by a signal on one of fourteen output leads. An error signal is produced if no character signal, or more than one, is produced by the reading circuit. One of the digits in one of the data fields is selected by the control panel buttons as the digit upon which sorting is to be made. The final pocket is for rejected cheques. Cheques may be rejected if no character is detected, or two characters are detected at the character position, if the operation selects a digit beyond the proper capacity of the field, if the field is not present, if a field has the wrong number of digits or if the noise level in the selected field is too high. The operator may deliberately reject a cheque by entering a reject signal. The machine may be under " sorter control," where the sorting machine makes the sorting decision, or " process control " where the decision may be made either by ancilliary equipment or by the sorter itself. In normal sorter control the sensed digits are converted in a circuit 105, Fig. 5, to binary scale form and entered in turn into input store 107. When the selected position is reached the binary equivalent of the selected digit is passed to a datastore 110, Fig. 6. The binary digits are passed to a converter bringing the value back to decimal form and used to select the appropriate stacker for the cheque. Timing signals.-The photo-cell 190 in the sensing station produces a signal when the cheque is in the sensing position. This signal is amplified and the leading edge is differentiated and applied to trigger a mono-stable circuit which gives a pulse of 10À4 milliseconds, the first synchronization signal, after differentiation this pulse passes as an enabling signal to the sorter control and the character reader. It also passes to a 70-millisecond mono-stable circuit which prevents operation of the first monostable circuit while it is in the unstable state. This ensures that there must be at least 70 milliseconds between successive " cheque present " signals. The second, third and fourth synchronization signals are derived from the first during the time the cheque is passing through the reader. Jam detection.-The movements of the cheques along the sorting path are tested by a series of photo-cells and if they are not properly synchronized. There are three photo-cells in the feeding and sensing section, Fig. 2B, two in front of the photo-cell 90 and one after it. The spacing is such that three adjacent cheques having the necessary 12 inches between their leading edges will pass the three photo-cells simultaneously. Along the path to the stackers are thirteen further photo-cells testing the position of cheques at every stacker. The photo-cells are connected in two serial groups in a circuit which responds to the reduced conductivity of one or more photo-cells owing to misplaced cheques, and causes stopping of the cheque feed. Digit and field selectors.-The field selector buttons 32, 38 are connected in a gating circuit 104, Fig. 5, with the output leads of the character reader representing Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4 which marks define the various fields of the line of characters on the cheque. The field mark signals are gated together so that the field being read is represented as a signal on a field line and for each of these lines there is a gate having as a second input the selector button. The outputs of all the gates are mixed in an OR gate to provide a signal that the selected field is being sensed. The digit selector 106 consists of a four-stage binary counter which counts the digits in the selected field as they are sensed. The outputs from the stages are applied in combinations representing counts 1-14 to fourteen and gates, a further input coming from one of the digit selector buttons 39-52. When the selected digit is reached one of these gates will give an output. The signal is used to read out the input memory 107 which comprises four flipflops and enter the selected digit in the output memory 110, Fig. 6. Any of the above-mentioned reject conditions, such as there being fewer digits in the selected field than the number indicated on the buttons 39-52, causes the reject circuit 108 to be set to pass the cheque to the reject pocket. Special sort.-The circuit 109 responds when the selected digit and all the digits to the left of it in the selected field are zeros. This means that the selected digit is not a significant zero and the cheque passes, not to the " zero " stack, but to the special sort stack. Output memory.-The selected digit, which is the final sort decision, entered in the memory 110, Fig. 6, is available to a decoder 111, to a store 113 and to the ancilliary equipment 14. If the sort is to be under the control of the ancilliary equipment the decision is entered into store 110 in place of the digit from store 107. The sort decision from store 110 is either recoded in decoder 111 and delayed by a mechanical memory 112 designed to operate the appropriate stacker just before the cheque arrives, or an electronic store 113 may be used for the same purpose. In this circuit the binary scale signal from store 110 is recoded into another four-bit code and each bit is applied to one of four shift registers. The entered bits are stepped in parallel along the shift registers and at each step "1 " and "0" outputs are gated together in appropriate combinations to derive the digit equivalent. The stepping signals coincide with the movement of the cheques and there will be an output on one of the digits lines 0, 1, 2, 3 ... 9 coinciding with the approach of the cheque to the corresponding stacker. Specifications 868,349 872,020, and 1,001,564 are referred to.