Patent GB-526446-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to cash registers
IPC: G06C7/10
Filed: 1939-03-16
Abstract: 526,446. Cash registers. CAISSE ENREGISTREUSE IDEALE, and ATELIERS VAUCANSON. March 16, 1939, Nos. 8417 and 8418. Convention dates, March 18, 1938 and March 4, 1939. [Class 106 (i)] In a cash register for dealing with single item and multiple-item transactions, and provided with indicating mechanism and means for printing the items and totals and for issuing vouchers, the keyboard is provided with banks of keys each having nine spring pressed numeral keys and a zero-stop, spring pressed in the opposite direction, in co-operation with a detent plate that is released at the end of an operation and is restored to normal position by the zero-stop spring to free the depressed keys. Keyboard. The keys 17 Figs. 2, and 4, are arranged in banks in arcuate frames 14, 14a with the 9 key stem projecting below the inner frame 14. In addition to the nine digit keys a zero-stop 29 is provided ; the keys and zero-stop have control springs that act in opposite directions and carry pins 19 that co-operate with a slotted detent plate 22. When a key is depressed the detent plate 22 is raised to lock the other keys against depression and to withdraw the zero-stop 29. The detent plate is held in raised position by a pivoted latch 26 co-operating with a notched plate 28; at the end of an operation when the latch is freed the zero-stop spring acts to return the detent plate and restore the depressed key. The lower end of the latch 26 carries a fin 33 working in the forked end of an arm 35 fixed to the shaft 36. During operation the shaft 36 is rocked by a follower arm 37 and cam 42 on the shaft 40 to operate the latch 26. If a key is not fully depressed the latch, by its engagement with the upper inclined face of the plate 28, rocks the shaft 36 so as to set the end 37a of the follower arm into the path of a cam 39 adjacent the cam 42 and thus prevent operation of the machine. Differential mechanism. This mechanism comprises a cam 101 Figs. 3 and 4 secured to a shaft 97, an actuating sector 156 loose on the shaft, a fixed aligning sector 116 concentric with the shaft, an assembly of gears 125, 132 and 142 fast to a sleeve rotatable on the shaft, and a short shaft 107 rotatable on an arm 110 extending forwardly from the sector 156. The shaft 107 carries an arm 105 co-operating with the cam 101, a control spring 108 in association with the arm 110, an arm 113 with a nose 114 adapted to engage the sector 116 and a pin 123 engaging a spring controlled lever 119, and a pawl 124 engaging the gear 125. In operation the main drive shaft 63 through cams 64, 65, levers 90, 91, link 98 and cam 96 rocks the shaft 97. The segment 156 is held, by engagement of the nose 114 of the arm 113 with a notch of the sector 116, in the position to which it has been moved at the end of the preceding operation until, on the downward movement of the cam 101, a nose on the arm 105 enters a notch in the cam to disengage the nose 114 and free the segment 156 which then partakes of the movement. On the upward return movement the segment will be moved and the pawl 124 will actuate the gear 125 until the end of the lever 119 strikes the depressed key stem when the pawl 124 is freed and the nose of the lever 113 arrests the segment in its new position. The movements of the gear 125 are transmitted to a totalizer by gears 129, 130. Transfer is effected by the gear 132 co-operating with an arm 134 to rock a shaft 117 carrying a pawl arm 135a in engagement with the gear 142 of the next higher denomination ; the arm 135a is held in depressed position by a latch 137 the higher wheel being advanced at the beginning of the next operation when the arm 135a is restored by a cam 145a on the main shaft 63. Item indicators. The segments 156 engage pinions 157 in mesh with racks 172 driving indicator drums 165 viewable from the front of the machine. The racks also engage with pinions 171a on a shaft operatively connected to other racks 172b driving indicator drums 166 viewable from the rear. Crank drive. A handle 51, Fig. 6, is clutched to a disk 56 with a pin carrying an operating arm 57. To begin an operation the handle is moved slightly anti-clockwise until an arm 71 enters a notch 69 in the disc 56 ; this movement also rocks an arm 78 and with it an arm 80, the latter being held in displaced position by a latch 82 to free a disc 60 which can then be rotated by the operating arm 57 when the handle is rotated clockwise. Movement of the disk 60 is transmitted by gearing 61, 62 to the main drive shaft 63. A cam 66 on the shaft 63 releases the latch 82 at the end of the operation and permits the arm 78 to fall into its notch to arrest the handle at its normal position. Motor drive. An electric motor 501, through reduction gear, drives an annular gear 515 to which can be coupled a clutch disk 516, with notches in which work rollers 517, mounted on the main drive shaft 63. Depression of a start key 532 rocks a member 536 which engages a notch 77 in the disk 56 to lock the crank handle and displaces an arm 544 to rotate, through a double ratchet 531, a shaft 528 with a notched wheel 529 displacing a bell crank 553. to close the contacts 558, 559 in the motor circuit. At the same time a link 561, operatively connected to the bell crank 553, raises a pin 576 to lift the arm 80 and free the disc 60 while an arm 562 associated with the link rocks the shaft 79 and raises an arm 524 to free the coupling member 522 of the clutch and press the rollers into driving engagement with the gear 515. At the end of one revolution of the shaft 63 a pin 564 on the gear 62 rocks a bell crank 565 and a pawl 570 thereon displaces the ratchet wheel 531 and shaft 528 to open the switch when the cam 66 on the main shaft 63 restores the shaft 79 and arm 80 to normal locking position. The slot in the link 561 prevents closure of the motor circuit during manual operation by the crank arm 51. Printing mechanism for single item and multi-item transactions. The gears 157 of the differential mechanism are mounted on nested sleeves with pinions 159, Figs. 3 and 10, meshing with pinions 181 carrying elements 182 with two sets of type. The drive from the main shaft 63 to a secondary drive shaft 63a, for item operations, and to a sleeve driving portion 63b, Fig. 2, for total operations, is effected through pairs of pinions 361 or 362 on a rocker frame 356, 357, and gears 363, 364 and 369 on the respective shafts and sleeve. The pinions 361 are normally engaged and the pinions 362 are effective on depression of a total key lever 355. All item transactions are recorded on a control strip 242a retained in the machine while the items of a multi-item transaction are repeated and the total thereof recorded on a ticket or voucher strip 201 which is issued by the machine. The secondary shaft 63a drives a shaft 251 and through a cam 250 oscillates a shoe-shaped lever 253, 254 with teeth meshing with an actuator 256 that carries pawls 259, 274. The pawl 259 serves to drive a ratchet wheel 261 on the control strip storage roll on a shaft 248 while the pawl 274 operates a ratchet wheel 272 to advance an ink tape 404a. The shoe-shaped lever also carries a roller 262 that co-operates with the cammed portion of a lever 264 to press the platen roller 247 thereon, around which the strip passes, against the upper part of the type wheels 182 through an apertured guide plate 282. The shaft 63a also carries a cam 225 to operate a yoke-shaped follower 228 carrying a resilient platen 236 to impress the voucher strip 201 and the inktape 404a against the lower set of type 182. The voucher strip is fed between rolls 204, 209, the roll 204 is mounted on a stirrup member 205, Fig. 13, and can be depressed, for the purpose of inserting the strip, by manipulating a lever 211 which, at the same time displaces the cam 225 axially to disconnect it from the operating mechanism ; the roll 209 carries a ratchet wheel engaged by a pawl 218 on the rockable frame of the multi-item totalizer. The sleeved portion 63b of the driving shaft, which operates a total taking operations, carries a gear 372, Fig. 12, to actuate a gear 376 on the roll 209 and advances it a distance after it has received an impression from fixed information type plates 388 and serial numbering mechanism 382. The platen 396a, which produces the impression is mounted on a V- shaped frame rocked by means of a cam 374 on the sleeve 63b. Multi-item totalizing mechanism. The items entered in the machine on the type wheels 182 are transmitted through pinions 301, Figs. 9 and 9b, to type wheels 303. These pinions and wheels are mounted in a rockable frame to effect engagement and disengagement with the type wheels 182, at appropriate time in the cycle, by means of a cam 351 on the shaft 63, follower arms 346, 285 and stud 292 on the frame. Transfer between denominations is effected by a transfer tooth displacing a lever 307, and through a link 309, setting the lever 308 of the carry-over pawl 315 into the path of a spirally arranged set of cams 314 on a shaft 299. The shaft 299 is actuated, through a pinion 336 and segmental gears 334, 333 and 326, by an arm 330 and cam 331 on the shaft 251. Zeroizing mechanism. The totalizer pinions carry pawls 427, Fig. 11, to co-operate with notches in the shaft 295 when the shaft is rotated by a pinion 425 and rack 375 operatively connected to a double-armed lever 420a with rollers 421,422 engaging cams 370, 371 secured to the sleeve shaft 63b. The units wheel is restored to the zero position while .the higher denominations indicate " 9 " the transfer mechanism then operates to complete the zeroizing movement. Voucher severing and ejecting mechanism. After the items have been totalized and before the zeroizing operation a cam 373 on the sleeve 63b rocks an arm 405 and presses a platen 409 thereon against the type wheels 303. At the same time a knife 411 on the arm 405 passes over a guide 412 to sever the strip 201. The arm 405 is bent as shown i