Patent GB-690308-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to record card controlled statistical apparatus
IPC: C08K5/15
Filed: 1951-05-10
Abstract: 690,308. Statistical apparatus. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. May 10, 1951 [May 20, 1950], No. 11009/51. Class 106 (i). Record cards are sensed in column by column fashion at a reading station, to which they are fed successively. The cards are read by means of a reciprocating carriage carrying a set of sensing brushes or elements, one for each index position in a column. The apparatus comprises means for holding each record card at the reading station, a carriage movable in a path extending transversely to the columns of the card at the reading station, driving means for advancing the carriage in one direction along its path, means for coupling the carriage to the driving means, a set of sensing elements on the carriage, means for releasing the carriage from the driving means when the carriage has advanced to a selected point in its forward travel, and restoring means for return ing the released carriage in the opposite direction along its path. The cards are fed from a hopper H on the right of Fig. 25 by means of a picker of known type 59. A sliding base-plate 52 advances the card into engagement with feed rollers 96, 98, and the card is fed forward until it is engaged by card stop 106, when it is just free of the rollers 96, 98, at this point a second card stop 105 springs up behind the card which is then located in stationary position at the card reading station. After the reading cycle the card stops 105, 106 are advanced to bring the leading edge of the card into engagement with a second set of feed rollers 97, 99, which advance the card into the stacker compartment S. During this period the card stop 106 advances further, Fig. 25b to hold the stack down to prevent movement of the cards which may be caused by the presence of static charge built up on the cards during passage through the machine. Figs. 25 and 25 a-d show the sequence of operations in a complete card feeding and stacking cycle. Fig. 6 shows a plan view of the layout of the machine with the hopper on the right reading station in the centre and stacker on the left. In the reading station twelve reading brushes 118 are shown, one for each index position of the usual 12-point code system employed. The brushes 118 are advanced downwardly over the columns of the card in the reading station by means of a threaded rod 120, Fig. 11, which supports a carriage 119. The carriage 119 engages the threaded rod by means of a toothed wheel 129, Fig. 12, when the wheel 129 is held fast by a gear 130 and ratchet arrangement the carriage is advanced downwardly, when the ratchet is released and the wheel 129 is free to rotate on its shaft the carriage is free to return upwardly under the influence of a restoring spring, suitably clamped. The carriage carries a further set of brushes 150 which co-operate with conducting segments on an interchangeable plate 151 for controlling various circuit functions in the machine. The locking mechanism of the carriage is so arranged that the brushes are retracted away from the card or plate 151 during the upward movement and are lowered into engagement with the card and plate 151 during downward movement. The carriage locking mechanism is tripped to return the carriage by engagement of a lever 174, Fig. 10, with adjustable stops on a tab bar 160. The tab stops 172 are constructed as shown, Fig. 23, and may be positioned anywhere along the length of the tab bar 160 to return the carriage when it reaches a predetermined point associated with the end of a particular field on the card. If the lever 174 does not engage one of the tab stops during its downward travel, it is tripped by engaging a fixed stop 161 at the end of its downward travel. The tab bar may be reciprocated slightly by the mechanism shown in Fig. 19 so that the ears 173 of the tab stops which engage the lever 174 are swung out of the path of the lever 174 and are thus rendered non- effective until the mechanism returns the tabs to their normal position when they will engage the lever 174 and return the carriage to its starting position. The carriage need not be returned to its original starting position, but may if required be arrested by the tab stops at an intermediate point in its upward travel and thus particular fields on the card may be sensed in any order. For example, a card bearing three fields A, B and C, may be completely sensed in three cycles of the sensing brushes, field B being sensed first, then field A, and finally field C, Operation.-When a card at the reading station is to be read, the brush carriage 119 is coupled to the shaft 120 which causes the carriage to move in a downward direction and causes the brushes to sweep over successive columns of the card. The shaft 120 may be rotated at two different speeds, of which the lower speed is for card reading, and the higher speed is for skipping card columns. When the shaft 120 is to be rotated at its lower speed a card reading clutch assembly 48 is rendered operative, and when the shaft 120 is to be turned at its higher speed a skip clutch assembly 48a, Fig. 30, is rendered operative in addition to the read clutch, a ratchet 261 taking up the difference in the speed of the two drives when both are driving the shaft 120. To start the machine, start key 350 is closed, Fig. 36, this prepares a circuit under the control of the circuit breaker CR10 from the positive side of the line over the key 350 and the registration test magnet R202 to ground. The circuit breaker CR10 and other similar circuit breakers bearing the prefix " CR " are located on a constantly running shaft 67, Fig. 10. Registration test magnet R202 operates a test finger adapted to slide over the upper edge of the cards in the hopper H to check that the cards are correctly positioned in the hopper. This causes test contact 354 to close completing a circuit through the coil of start relay R214, causing this relay to operate its several contacts. Circuit breaker CR4 opens and interlock relay R45 drops out, causing the contacts R45-2 to close. Circuit breaker CR5 then closes a circuit through R47-2, R45-2 and R217c to the read clutch magnet 270. Screw shaft 120 then commences to rotate and card reading commences. On the read clutch shaft 252 is a pair of cams 357, Fig. 9, which operate a function signal circuit breaker 358, Fig. 6, for emitting pulses in synchronism with the reading of the card columns by the brushes 118. Assuming that a " 4 " hole is punched in the first card column, the conductor strip 288-4 receives battery voltage from the corresponding brush 118 through the perforation conductor 359 to the recording magnet R120 corresponding to the numeral 4, energizing the magnet. The magnet 120 may be one of a series of magnets controlling the operation of recording elements such as printing type members. Reading continues until the carriage reaches the end of its travel when it is returned. At the time a circuit is established through CR13, R214b, R210a, R215a to the brush control magnet 223. The brush control clutch operates and moves the brush control cam so that the brushes are retracted and the carriage is restored. In order to skip unwanted columns, operation of skip clutch magnet 280 will cause the skipping operation to take place at any desired position by connecting the appropriate contact of the emitter plate 151 to the column skip relay R53 as indicated by the connection 365, Fig. 36. Skipping will continue until brush 150b reaches a contact on the emitter plate 151 which has been plugged to stop the skipping operation. As a consequence, the function signal occurring at this time will energize the trip coil of relay R53 and thereby drop the contact armature of this relay, interrupting current to the hold winding of the column skip control relay R217. Automatic tab operation.-When a card having, for example, three fields A, B and C not to be read consecutively but, say, in the order A, C, B, the tab bar 160 is caused to intercept the carriage 119 at the necessary times to effect return of the carriage together with skipping of the unwanted columns in each cycle. The operation is as follows: emitter plate contact brush 150b will at the end of field A permit a junction signal to reach pick-up coil of relay R53 causing skipping from this point until the brush 150b reaches a contact point 305 corresponding to the column immediately preceding the first column of field C, causing operation of the trip coil of R53 and thereby causing cessation of skipping and a resumption of reading over field C. At the end of field C the brush 150b will contact a point 305 and due to connection 369 will pass a junction signal to and over the coil of relay R210 and thence to ground. This will cause closure of transfer contacts " a " of this relay. The circuit then closed will extend battery over this contact R210a and over contacts R215a closed at this time, to and over the brush control clutch magnet 223 to ground. At the same time because of closure of contact " b " of relay 210 battery will be extended over this contact to the tab bar clutch magnet 207 and thence to ground. Operation of the tab bar clutch magnet 207 will cause tab bar 160 to be turned into a position where a tab stop 172 corresponding to the first column of field B will be moved into the path of stop arm on the brush carriage 119. The brush carriage 119 will be released and will start to return to its initial position, but will be arrested by the tab stop at the commencement of field B. Card reading is now resumed and a junction signal will be directed to the tab bar clutch magnet 207 causing the associated clutch to operate so that the tab bar is turned to prevent the tab 172 from interrupting the brush carriage when the latter is released at the end of field C. Programme stepping switch.-The programme stepping switch 315, Fig. 33, is a powerdriven element for progressively treating connections which determine the programme of recordi