Patent GB-260643-A (GB)
Abstract: 260,643. British Tabulating machine Co., Ltd., (Tabulating Machine Co.). May 7, 1925. Statistical machines. -A complete perforatedcard machine of the mechanical type is described wherein positive and negative amounts on the cards are separately totalled in their respective accumulators and are also entered in a balance accumulator. The positive or negative character of the amount is determined by the absence or presence of certain arbitrary perforations in a particular field and the negative amounts are entered by the use of the complementary method, the direct numbers represented on the cards being converted into their complements before transmission to the various accumulators, and automatic control of the fugitive ones being provided for. Cards employed and system of use. The invention is described as applied to insurance work. The usual card 10 shown in Fig. 2 is printed according to the various classifications and the amount of insurance and other details and corresponding perforations to a four-hole code are provided in the lower half of the card. In addition to these individual cards, balance-cards 18, Fig. 3, are employed, there being one of these for each classification. These latter cards record the results of a previous tabulation and are substituted for the individual cards represented by them so that in the compilation of a new summary only the recent cards followed by the balance-cards need be run through the machine. To control the machine in accordance with the positive or negative character of the entries, a field 19 is provided having two columns. If a digit appears in the left column the amount is to be treated as positive and if in the other it has a subtractive value. The precise digit used, moreover, determines to which of the different accumulators the amount of the insurance is to be transmitted; for example, the digit 1 to the right controls the machine to enter the amount on the " died " accumulators and to subtract it from the " existing " accumulators. Under manual or automatic control the machine takes and prints totals at the end of each " age " group upon a summary sheet (Fig. 6) and at the end of a " kind " series also prints totals from each accumulator in turn upon a report sheet (Fig. 5). Driving-mechanism. An electric motor drives through a belt and worm wheel 29 a sleeve 30, Fig. 36, on a shaft 30<1>. Loose on the sleeve is a gear-wheel 31 carrying a clutch member adapted to engage a groove in the worm-wheel 29 under the control of a cam arm connected with a latch serving to prevent rebound when the clutch is thrown out. The gear-wheel 31 drives through a chain of spur wheels a gear 39 universally jointed to a shaft 41 effecting the return of the paper carriage. A number of cams is mounted on a shaft 45 geared with a wheel 42 clutchable to wheel 31 under the control of a shaft C<2>, Fig. 44. Another set of gears 55, 56, driving shaft 72 and gears 73, is fixed to a sleeve 58 rotated by sleeve 30 through a. clutch dog 60, Fig. 41, controlled by a shaft C<6> through link 63 and stop-arm 62, a latch 68 co-operating with a projection 65 on a disc 57 to prevent rebounding. Slidably keyed on the sleeve 30 is a cam-grooved wheel 78 cooperating with a roller 82<1> carried by an arm secured to gear-wheel 42. Consequently when the latter is held from rotation the relative movement of the roller and cam groove will slide the wheel 78 along the sleeve and through another groove and roller 83 and arms &c. 85, 86 rock a shaft C<7>, this occurring in total-taking. Card feed. The cards are fed singly and in two stages from a stack 88, Fig. 14, to a stack 134 by a picker 95 reciprocated by means of arms &c. 102, 103, Fig. 32, by a shaft 104 rocked from a shaft 112 through a duplex resilient connection permitting the feed to be suppressed, as in totaltaking, while allowing shaft 112 to rock. The reciprocating movement of this shaft is derived through cam mechanism from a shaft 119, Fig. 36, geared with wheel 42. The picker feeds a card to a position where it is gripped by a pair of clips, 131 on a vertically-reciprocated frame which then draws the card downwardly to the sensing position, the descent of the card being limited by a pair of automatically-controlled retractile stops. After the sensing operation another set of clips 133 on the frame receives the card and, the stops being withdrawn, carries it to the discharge position. The clips are controlled by a pivoted cam lever 141 adapted to be held by a latch 143 so as to be engaged by and deflect an arm 140 on the upward journey to rock the clips to cpen position, the clip frame then unlatching the arm to allow the clips to close on the card. During total-taking the feed of the cards has to be suspended and for this purpose the latch 143 is disabled, to prevent closure of the clips, by a rod 170 operated by a link 166 connected to shaft 168. A latch 171 on this shaft is also adapted to seize an arm 172 to hold the shaft 104 against rocking movement and thus prevent the reciprocation of the picker, and a further arm on the shaft 168 maintains the retractile card stops in operative position. Sensing the cards. The feeler pins 181, Fig. 27, are suitably guided and are advanced by their springs under the control of a pivoted plate 189 swung by a cam on shaft 112 or by a manual lever when it is desired to retract the pins. The cam on shaft 112 has two high portions and during its return stroke the plate 189 is held from swinging by means of a latch so that the pins advance and are retracted once only during the cycle, the latch being eventually thrown off by connection with the card-stop mechanism referred to above. Groups of feeler-pins may be held out of action by means of arms or slides shifted to engage and hold collars on the pins by means of finger levers adapted when displaced to spring behind shoulders of their guide slots. Translating the card-feeling into type and actuating-rack movements. To the feeler-pins 181 are secured blocks 223, Fig. 27, each having a slot 224 in which plays a pin on a lever arm 226, 226<a>. One lever arm co-operates with the two lower blocks and the other with the upper two, and each arm is connected by its shaft with a stepped stop-arm 229, 229<a> disposed to limit. the descent of a pair of comb-plates 233, 233<a> normally held up by a bar 234, Fig. 24. The stop-collars 187, Fig. 27, are staggered on the feeler-pins to permit different degrees of advance ; thus the lowest pin may move through one unit of distance while the pin next above it is capable of advancing through one, two or three such units. The upper of each pair of blocks is shouldered to obstruct the lower block so that if the lower pin only is free to advance it will be stopped by the upper block after two units of distance. If the upper pin only can advance it will move but the one unit, being stopped by its collar 187, whereas if both are able to penetrate the card the lever arm 223 can rock through three units, the corresponding stop arm being of course positioned accordingly in each case, and the comb-plates 233, 233a descending through the equivalent distances. The bar 234 controlling these plates, is held up to prevent the descent of the plates when no card is present in the sensing position and for this purpose a latch normally inoperative is shifted to support the bar, the mechanism for effecting this involving a resilient connection between the latch and the driving-gear of the machine and a control exercised upon the latch-restraining means by a cardsenging pin 221, Fig. 14, disposed opposite a non-perforated portion of the card. By reference to Figs. 24 and 27, it will be seen that each pair of comb-plates 233, 233<a> has notched edges cooperating with lateral lugs 264 on ten horizontal feeler-bars 262 spring-moved towards the plates, when freed bv members 265 reciprocated bv cams 280, 281 on shaft 45 (Fig. 36), through intermediate connections, disabled in total-taking operations to prevent advance of the feeler-bars. These bars, when freed, advance to an extent determined by the notches in the comb-plates and the end of one of them forms a stop for the type-bar 294, Fig. 24, provided with a stepped block 303, the arrangement being such that the type-bar, when allowed to rise by the ascent of a cross-bar 298, ascends to a degree corresponding with the value of the digit represented on the card. Type-bars. These are raised to take up their differential positions by means of springs 295, Fig. 24, anchored at their upper ends to a crossbar 297 connected with the cam-reciprocated restoring-bar 298 so as to move up and down therewith and thus enable weaker springs to be employed. The rear edges of the type-bars are notched at 316 to co-operate with pawls 317 adapted to be held inoperative by a pivoted plate 318 carried by a rod 320 rocked by cam mechanism to free the bars for their upward movement. When a wrong card has to be removed from the sensing position, the manual lever previously referred to is operated to withdraw the feeler-pins, the card is removed, and the lever then released. When the machine resumes operation the false reading must not be transmitted to the type-bars &c. and means are therefore provided for breaking the connection between the cam mechanism and the pawls, this connection comprising a link having an L-shaped slot and connected with the manual lever, the result being that the pawls remain engaged with the bars to prevent them from taking up the false setting. Hammer-impression mechanism; controlling printing of zeros. The hammers 301, Fig. 24, moved to strike by springs 339 are normally restrained by spring-controlled latches 340 rocked to release the hammers by a shouldered arm 342 suspended by a link 344 from a shaft 345 rocked by a cam on shaft 45, Fig. 36. When the typebar is in home position it engages a spring-controlled lever 347 to rock it free of arm 342 so that