Patent GB-190427072-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Machines for Compiling Tabulating or Sorting Statistical or other Data.
Inventor: HOLLERITH HERMAN
Filed: 1904-12-12
Granted: 1905-03-02
Abstract: 27,072. Hollerith, H. Dec. 12. Statistics, c o m p i l i n g mechanically; calculating- apparatus; counting-apparatus.-Record cards, such as those described in Specification No. 327, A.D. 1889, are sorted into groups according to the data they bear, and are likewise counted by combined electrical and mechanical apparatus. The card shown in Fig. 11 has twelve divisions A, B, . . . L for recording data with regard to the handling of freight by means of identifying numbers, the record being effected by punching out the required numbers. Some of these may represent weights, mileage, or the like and be afterwards totalized by the machine, the main operation of which consists in sorting the cards according to the markings in any one selected vertical row of figures. The cards are piled broadwise against the crossbeam 12, Fig. 5, and upon a table formed of a stationary part 15 and a movable part 17, which reciprocates on the rods 16 and has a raised rear strip 18 which at each forward stroke forces the lowest card through the aperture 24, the cards being pressed down by a weighted cover 22 sliding between guides 23. Feed-rollers 39, 40, 47, 49 then carry the card on until it is in position to be pressed forwards by the fingers 90 upon a travelling band 88, with slats 89, passing over two sprocket-wheels 84, one at each end of the band ; the edges of the card enter a selected groove of the eleven formed in the sides 94, which are pivoted at the further end and are coupled by means of rods 97 attached to the lever 98. Fig. 6 shows these parts in cross-section, the slats riding on angle-irons 91 carried by vertical pieces 92 on the rods 93. Each of the grooves 96, Fig. 7, ends at the beginning of the corresponding box 6, 7, 8, 9, there being one compartment for each digit of a row and one for cards which have escaped marking. An electromotor drives the main shaft 56 of the machine, from which motion is communicated by spur-wheels and linkwork to the cam shaft 58, the slide 17, the sprocket-wheel 84, and the feed-rolls, the upper roller of each pair being spring-pressed against the lower. The collar 61 is fast on the cam shaft, and has jaws with adjustable screws 60 bearing on a projection 62 upon the cam 59 to permit of accurate setting thereof. As the card travels through the feed-rolls, the rack 102 on the lever 99 is slowly moved upwards by the cam from the lowest to the highest position, the pawl 103 being held out of gear by engagement of its end 106 with a slot in the armature 109 of an electromagnet 105 ; the roller 63 on the cam strikes the tail of the pawl lever at the commencement of each upward stroke of the rack to set the parts to. this position. Two other cams 64, 65, Fig. 10, are carried by tbe cam shaft, of which the former closes an open contact 67, 68 in the electromagnet circuit when the card is passing under the metallic finger or brush 115. This finger is adjusted for the particular column of data for which the cards are to be sorted, and forms with the metal plate 113 a second contact in the electromagnet circuit, which is closed normally, is open when a card is under the finger, but is closed again when the hole in the card is beneath the finger, at which time only can the circuit be energized to attract the armature and throw the pawl into gear, thereby stopping the upward motion of the lever, and ensuring that the card shall be fed into its proper groove 96. The second cam 65 opens the contact '71, 72 in the motor circuit once every revolution ; but, normally, the circuit is completed through the two contacts 140, 141, placed one on each side of the card path, and adapted to be closed by the card tilting their fingers 145. If the supply of cards foils, or if one is fed in askew, the motor 135 will stop. A main switch 124, key 125, and starting-connection 123 across the relay 120 are provided, this relay breaking the motor circuit permanently under the control of the three automatic contacts described. As the cards are fed past the contact-figures, they may control the actuation of counting-apparatus for summing the numbers recorded in any column, whether of two or more figures. This is done by providing the necessary number of fingers, which make contact with the plate below, and thus close a circuit in which is an arm moved synchronously over nine contacts corresponding to the nine figures of a column coming beneath the finger. At each of these nine positions, the circuit may thus be completed through an electromagnet operating its own counter, there being nine counters each for the units, tens, &c. The total is got by summing the readings of these counters. Direct reading of the totals is possible with the apparatus described in Specification No. 10,502, A D. 1901, in which the energization of one of the nine electromagnets determines the distance through which a driving-arm operates the recording- counter.