Patent GB-407054-A (GB)
Abstract: 407,054. Cash registers &c. NATIONAL CASH REGISTER CO., Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A.-(Assignees of Shipley, B. M. ; 2021, Catalpa Drive, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.A.) Sept. 9, 1932, No. 25199. Convention date, Sept. 9, 1931. [Class 106 (i).] Printing-mechanism.-In an accounting machine, adapted to print items set up on the keyboard, and totals taken from the totalizers, in selected columns on a tabular statement, there are a group of type wheels and an impression hammer for each column, the type wheels for the amount columns are set simultaneously, and the selection of the columns is obtained by permitting or preventing the operation of the means for moving the type wheels to the printing position and for effecting impression. The invention is described as applied to the Shipley machine, adapted for dealing with gas and electricity accounts, the printing mechanism of the present invention being additional to that usually provided at the front of the machine and being situated at the top and rear of the machine. General arrangement. The keyboard consists of the usual amount keys, three transaction banks, total lever, motor key, and account or meter number keys. The front and back lines of totalizers accumulate the items entered under the various transactions denoted by the second and third transaction banks, the upper line consisting of an add-subtract totalizer controlled by the keys of the first bank. The differential mechanisms of the various banks are of usual or known construction and serve to set the type wheels of the front printer and through the links such as 132, Fig. 3, those of the upper printer also. The sheet to receive the tabulated impressions is placed over a feed cylinder mounted on a laterally slidable carriage and hangs vertically in a guard slot 525. Type wheels, mounting and setting. There are twelve groups of type wheels for printing in corresponding columns on the sheet. The first group prints the date which is set up by the usual knurled and nested sleeves. The twelfth group is set by the differentials of the meter number keys. The other groups are identical in composition and are set simultaneously by the amount and transaction differentials. Each such group of type wheels is supported in a frame 236, Fig. 6, mounted on a common rod 237 and adapted to be rocked by a link 289 to bring the type to the printing line. The individual wheels are rotated for setting by a gear wheel 242 in train with the differential mechanism through link 132, sector 138, link 244, sector 250 and a pinion 252. The pinions 252 are mounted on various shafts 255 allotted each to a denomination and the arrangement is such that each shaft receives its particular differential setting and transmits it through pinions 252 and gear wheels 242 to all the type wheels of the same denomination. The links 289 for rocking the frames 236 are pivoted to levers 291 each loose on a shaft 292 (rocked by the printer shaft 296) but selectively connected with it by a hook 301 pivoted on the lever and adapted to be engaged and entrained by a finger 302 fixed to the shaft. Type wheel aligners. Each group of type wheels is provided with an aligner 285, Fig. 6, pivoted on a fixed rod 286 and engaging with its nose all the gears 242 of its group. The aligner has a stud 287 projecting into an inclined slot in the frame 236 so that as the latter rocks for impression the aligner is cammed into engagement with the gears to hold them stationary. Hammer operating mechanism. The hammer 313, Fig. 17, for each group of type wheels is pivoted on a shaft 309, and is operated by a bell crank 333, also pivoted on the shaft and urged counter clockwise by a spring 331. The hammer is normally held retracted by an elbow lever 317 fast on shaft 309 and engaging a rod 318 forming part of the hammer. At each operation of the machine the shaft 309 is rocked counter-clockwise by cams on the printer shaft but the hammer operating bellcranks are temporarily held by pawls 341, Fig. 17, hook-shaped to engage the respective bell-cranks. The pawls are tripped, on further counter clockwise rotation of the shaft 309, by means of levers 320 pivoted on the elbow levers 317 and connected by spring controlled links 321 with bell-crank levers 322 engaging projections 348 on the levers 291 serving to rock the type wheel frames 236. Thus as a frame is rocked to bring the type wheels to the printing line the lever 320 is also operated to cam the trip pawl 341 clockwise to free the hammer operating bell crank 333. Hammer re-bound, preventing. The hammer-driving bell-crank 333, stopped in its operative movement by a bar 357, pivotally carries a plate 359, Fig. 32, urged counterclockwise by a spring 362. When the lever 320 is rocked to operate the trip pawl 341, it cams the plate 359 clockwise so that a hook 363 seizes the rod 318 on the hammer, but upon arrest of the bell-crank the plate 359 by its inertia and spring 362 rocks counter clockwise to free the hammer. When this rebounds the rod 318 cams the plate farther counter clockwise to cause a hook 364 to seize and hold the hammer against rebounding due to spring 331. Column-selection. The impressions in the various columns are permitted or prevented by automatic control of the coupling pawls 301, Figs. 3 and 17. These tend to rock clockwise under the action of springs and if permitted to do so fail to function for coupling up the cam rocked shaft 292 with the levers 291. In rear of and close to each pawl is a lug 398, Fig. 25, on a bar 399 pivotally carried by a slide 389, and provided with a frame 388 having edges for feeling four notched racks 372, 375, 376, 377, set differentially by connection with respectively the total lever, and the three transaction banks. The top edges of the racks are notched and the feeling edges are shaped in accordance with the particular scheme of column-selection chosen. During the operation of the machine the slides are lowered and if the two edges of a frame 388 meet with unnotched or notched edges of the racks causing it to tilt, the lug 398 will free the pawl 301 and printing in the column concerned will not occur. If on the other hand the notching is such that the bar preserves its vertical position when lowered, the pawl will function to couple the frame and hammer operating means to the shaft 292, to effect a print. In the example shown in Fig. 36, depression of the " prior electric" or " prior gas " key causes impression in the first or date column, the fifth and seventh columns and the last or meter number column. If the " present electric" or " present gas " key is set the fourth and sixth columns are selected, and if a total is taken the amount is printed in the second and eighth columns. Controlling printing of zeros. The sectors 250, Fig. 3, setting the type wheels through the shafts 255 are capable of being turned back through one step to shift the type wheels from the cipher to the blank position to prevent the printing of insignificant zeros. Inasmuch as the aligner 140 locks the sectors 138 after the differentials have positioned them, the links 244 must be disconnected to permit the backward step of the sectors 250. The link is normally held in effective position by the nose of a restoring-member 430, Fig. 22, the other end of which has a slot engaged by a rod 234 carried by an arm fast on shaft 251 rocked at each operation of the machine to withdraw the restoring member from the link. A disabling member 434, Fig. 37, pivoted to a stud in the end of a lever 435, Fig. 22, pivoted at 436 on the restoring-member 430, is then lowered and moved to the left to engage a stud 437 in the link 244 and rock the latter counter clockwise to disable it, and to draw the sector 250 to the blank position, a roller 443 on the lever 435 engaging a cam slot in a plate 445 pivoted on shaft 251 to control the movements of the lever. In the return movement of the shaft 251 the parts operate reversely to restore the sector 250 and link 244 to normal position. When an amount is set up the zero-eliminating mechanisms to the right are disabled due to a stud 455 rigid with sector 138 camming the plate 445 of the next lower denomination counter clockwise so that the member 434 is prevented by the cam slot from engaging the stud 437, overlapping connections ensuring similar disablements to the right. Paper carriage. This is manually shiftable along the machine to position the columns as desired and is mounted so that the last line printed is normally in view, the paper sheet being temporarily lowered during the operation to receive the imprint. The carriage 460, Fig. 39, supports a feed cylinder comprising two or more rolls 462, 467, Fig. 34, rotatable independently of each other but adapted to be coupled together by a slidable collar 470 to convey the feed movements of one to the other. Paper feed. The roll 462 may be rotated manually by a knob 477 geared through wheels 478, 479 the hub of the latter wheel being clutchable through a hub 482 to a gear 483 driving a wheel 484 fast with the roll 462. To shift the paper automatically to the printing line, a toothed sector 486, Fig. 39, rocked by the machine engages a gear 488 extended at 489 to carry a short shaft 490 supporting a pawl 492 co-operating with a ratchet wheel 493 fast with a wheel 494 meshing with a gear 495 loose on hub 482. Between this gear 495 and gear 483 is a spring-washer to convey the drive from the one to the other and by means of a finger-lever 509 cam-shaped to bear on wheel 479, the spring friction drive may be disabled. In order to line-space the sheet, mechanism is provided to check the movement of the feed cylinder to the printing line by means of a dog 500, Fig. 40, normally kept clear of the ratchet wheel 493 by means of a masking plate 503 provided with a recess and rocked at each operation from the gear 488. By means of a handle 506 the masking plate 503 may be adjusted into any one of three p