Patent GB-498753-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to cash registers and similar accounting machines
IPC: G06K13/10
Filed: 1937-07-08
Abstract: 498,753. Perforating mechanism for cash registers. NATIONAL CASH REGISTER CO. July 8, 1937, No. 18992. Convention date, April 16. [Class 31 (ii)] [Also in Group XIX] A cash register or similar accounting machine having means for perforating record material is provided with a plurality of sets of members to control the perforating means, common differential setting means for the members and selective means to determine which sets of members shall control the perforating means. The invention is described as applied to a machine of the Shipley type forming the subjectmatter of Specifications 8119 /15, 208,705, [both in Class 106 (i)], and 490,524, [Group XIX], &c. In addition to controlling the perforation of items in a set of columns of a record card, the amount keys are now utilized to control the perforation of non-additive data in another set of columns of the card. The machine is adapted for registering the transactions of a co-operative society. If the customer is not a member of the society, the item is entered in usual manner, printed on a record strip and issued voucher, and perforated on a record card retained in the machine. On the other hand, if the customer is a member, the item-entering operation is preceded by a " Member's number " operation in which the customer's number is printed and perforated. " Member's number " operation. The member's number is set up on keys 148, 149, Fig. 1 ; a " Member's number " key 203 and the appropriate clerk's key 201 are depressed, and the machine released by a motor bar 87. In the ensuing operation, the number, the clerk's letter and the symbol " No " are printed on a voucher, Fig. 5, and record strip 276, Fig. 2, perforations corresponding to the number are punched in the appropriate columns of a record card, Fig. 7, and a perforation indicative of the kind of operation (i.e. " Member's number ") is punched in the transaction column of the card. Item-entering operation. After the item has been set up on the amount keys 148 and the appropriate clerk and transaction keys 201, 202 have been depressed, the machine is released by the motor bar. In the operation thus initiated, the item and the clerk's and transaction symbols are printed on the voucher and record strip and perforated in the appropriate columns of the record card together with manually set data comprising the date and the register and department numbers. If the customer is not a member, the fact is recorded on the record materials by selecting the " Non- member " transaction key for depression. The machine is conditioned to register a multipleitem transaction by a " List " key 200, which remains depressed, together with the selected clerk's and transaction keys, until a multipleitem total is taken by adjustment of the usual control lever 122. The items and total are printed on the record strip and voucher, Fig. 3, and the total is perforated in the record card. At the conclusion of a single-item or multipleitem total operation, the perforated card is ejected into a tray and a new card fed from a magazine to punching position. - Keyboard. The machine is provided with the usual banks of amount keys 148, Fig. 1, clerks' keys 201, transaction keys 202, multipleitem or "List" key 200, motor bar 87 and control lever 122. In addition, a key 203 is provided in the transaction bank to condition the machine for a " Member's number " operation and, to permit numbers of six figures to be set up in such an operation, the differential mechanism for the overflow denomination of the totalizers is also provided with a bank of keys 149. A " Group total " key 204 is situated in the transaction bank to select the required totalizer in grand total and subtotal taking operations. Keyboard interlocks. The machine is normally conditioned for an item-entering operation wherein the keys 2 ... 9 of the tens of shillings bank and the keys 149 of the overflow bank are locked by slidable plates of usual construction and the remaining keys are free. Upon the depression of the " Member's number " key 203, Figs. 1 and 24, a plate 336 is shifted downwardly to lock the remaining transaction keys, release the tens of shillings and overflow keys, lock the multiple-item key 200, and disable the engaging mechanism for the clerk's and transaction totalizers. The depressed transaction and clerk's keys remain depressed in multiple-item operations until the second cycle of the total-taking operation. Manual setting means. In addition to the keyboard, the machine is provided with a group of manually adjustable levers for setting up constant data to be printed on the voucher and record strip and perforated in the record card. The group, Figs. 25, 26B and 27, includes three levers 484 ... 486 for the date, two levers 487, 488 for the department number, and three levers 489 ... 491 for the register number. A further lever 502 is adjustable to " On " and " Off " positions to render the card feed and perforating mechanisms operative or inoperative. The levers are accessible through hinged parts 494, 500 of the casing, normally held closed by a lock 501, Fig. 26B. To retain the setting levers in set position, detent levers 505, Fig. 27, are spring-urged into engagement with toothed sectors 503 integral with the setting levers. A lock 508, by a yoke 509, normally prevents adjustment of all but the date levers. Sequence arrangements. The lock for the main shaft is controlled in usual manner by the key release shaft and is freed after the depression of a transaction key, a clerk's key and the motor bar. First modification. The machine may be modified for the requirements of a society operating in two districts, e.g. " East " and " West." For this purpose, corresponding keys are provided in the clerk's bank, the key corresponding to the district in which the customer resides being depressed in a " Member's number " operation whereby a perforation recording the member's district is punched in the clerk's column of the card. In the ensuing item-entering operation, a further perforation is punched in the card, under the control of a manually-set lever, to record the district in which the branch is situated. Second modification. The machine may be modified for printing and perforating non- additive data simultaneously with amounts. As shown in Fig. 60, the keyboard is arranged for decimal currency and is provided with four banks of amount keys 953 and three banks of non-add keys 954, the " Member's number " key is replaced by a " Data " key 952 and the " Group total " key by a " No Sale " key 957. In an operation controlled by the data key, all the keys 953, 954 are effective to control the perforation of non-additive data in columns 8 ... 14 of a record card, Fig. 61. Whereas, in an item-entering operation, the keys 954 control the entry of non-additive data in columns 15 ... 17, and the keys 953 of the item in columns 18 ... 21. Differential mechanism. The differential mechanisms for the amount and clerks' banks are of the usual Shipley type, while that for the transaction bank has the latch arranged on the indicator shaft in the manner described in Specification 490,524. The mechanisms are connected to indicators, type-wheels and totalizer-selecting means in usual manner, and to punch-selecting racks in a manner described below. Totalizers. The machine has the usual three lines of totalizers comprising a multipleitem totalizer, a line of four clerks' totalizers, and a group totalizer selected by all the transaction keys 202, Fig. 1, to accumulate a grand total of the items. Printing-mechanism. The machine is provided with a single line of type-wheels 272, Fig. 22, some set by the differential mechanisms and some by the manually set levers 484 ... 491, Fig. 25. Upper and lower platens 277, 281 impress a voucher, Figs. 3 and 5, and a record strip, Fig. 2, respectively. Voucher feeding and issuing mechanism. Mechanism somewhat similar to that described in Specification 486,438, [Group XIX], is provided to feed the voucher strip 275, Fig. 22, one line-space at the end of each item-entering operation of a multiple-item transaction and two line-spaces at the end of a " Member's number" or multiple-item total operation, and to issue a voucher from the machine at the end of a single-item or multiple-item total operation. The voucher strip is fed in known manner by a roller 278, Fig. 22, driven by a pawl 292 mounted on a pinion 294 meshing with a feed sector 295, Figs. 20A and 22. The sector is urged counterclockwise by a spring 306, but is normally held in its clockwise position by a cam-actuated pitman 297. Towards the end of each machine cycle, the pitman releases the sector and the latter rotates idly counterclockwise to full extent or until arrested by the abutment of one of two shoulders 311, 312 with a control stud 310. The pitman now restores the sector clockwise and rotates the feed roller to issue the voucher or feed it one or two line-spaces in dependence upon the position in which it was previously arrested. The control stud 310 is carried by a plate 309 rockable on a shaft 308 and flexibly connected by known means to a yoke 343, Fig. 11. Springs urge the plate and yoke clockwise normally to maintain a stud 342, on an arm of the yoke 343, in abutment with a shoulder 341 of a lever 333. In a " Member's number " operation, the control stud 310, Fig. 20A, must be adjusted to intercept the shoulder 312 and thus permit double line-spacing of the voucher. Depression of the " Member's number " key 203, Figs. 1 and 24, shifts the locking plate 336 to the right, and, by a stud 338 and link 322, Fig. 11, rocks a lever 326 clockwise. A stud 327 of the lever 326 abuts the upper edge of a pitman 328 pivoted to an arm 329 of the usual release shaft 99, the arrangement being such that the pitman rocks clockwise with the lever 326 to align a shoulder 331 thereon with a stud 332 on the lever 333. Clockwise releasing movement of the shaft 9