Patent GB-532200-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to recording machines
IPC: B41J5/36
Filed: 1939-08-21
Abstract: 532,200. Typewriters &c. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Aug. 21, 1939, No. 24050. Convention date, Aug. 31, 1938. [Class 100 (iv)] A record-controlled machine such as a typewriter is provided with means, operated in step with the record-feed, for exercising recurrent control independently of the record. The means may, for example, be employed for controlling line-spacing, blank-feeding, tabulating, and zerosuppression. Provision may be made for indicating, for instance by stopping record-feed, that a record-designation has been mis-analysed. The card-controlled machine shown in Fig. 1, consists of a control section, and a typewriter of the kind described in Specification 266,921, [Class 100 (iv)], and comprising levers 10 for unlatching roller-driven operating cams for the typelevers and the spacing, shift, tabulating and other mechanisms. The control section comprises a card magazine 136 from which the cards are delivered to an upper feed-roller 137 and a co-operating lower feed-roller by means of a sliding picker operated by cams on a shaft 129. The cards are ejected by the feed-rollers and a rotary rubber-arm 183 into a box 182 and are stacked on a pivoted plate geared to a spring- resisted rack 196. When the box is full, the pivoted plate opens a switch and thereby stops feed of the cards. The part of the magazine supporting the feed-roller 137 can be swung upwards to uncover the underlying mechanism. The machine is driven by a motor 35 which is geared to a shaft 39 provided with a worm 40, Fig. 5, engaging a worm-wheel 42 on a sleeve 43 loosely mounted on a shaft 44. A pinion 65 on the shaft engages pinions 66 on a carrier 67 secured to a loose disc 68, each pinion 66 being provided with a small pinion 69 gearing with a pinion 70 on a loose sleeve 71 which is geared to the shaft 129 and the feed-rollers. The sleeve 43 and disc 68 can be coupled to the shaft by means of quarter-revolution clutches A, B controlled by magnets 53, 91 respectively, the arrangement being such that when the magnet A alone is energized, the sleeve 71 is driven at one-tenth the speed of the shaft, whereas when both magnets are energized, the sleeve is driven at the same speed as the shaft. The clutch A comprises a pawl 48 mounted on a disc 46 on the shaft and normally prevented from engaging a toothed disc 45 on the sleeve 43 by a loose camshaft 47, which engages a detent 50 on the armature 52 of the magnet 53. A catch 57 cooperates with notches in the disc 46 to hold the clutch in normal position. The clutch B is similar to the clutch A but the detent 80 for the cam 78 can yield to absorb shock, and the latch 85 for the disc 68 is provided with a slidable keeper 86 for preventing premature re-engagement of the latch. When the clutch A alone is engaged, the card is fed from one column to the next during each quarter-revolution of the shaft 44 whereas when both clutches are engaged, the card is fed ten columns. The shaft 129 makes one revolution for each card-cycle, and during each of the ninety points thereof, corresponding to one ninety-point column-cycle the shaft 44 makes a quarter-revolution and the shaft 39 makes one revolution. The levers 10,. Fig. 1, of the typewriter are connected by links- 226, Fig. 8, and intermediate levers 224 to levers 218 co-operating with twelve sliding combs 210 actuated by the armatures 211 of magnets 212 in circuit with reading-brushes SB, Fig. 34a, co-operating with the feed-roller 137. The levers 218 co-operate with a cam 220 on a shaft 123 driven at the same speed as the shaft 39, and co-operate also with a bail 221 operated by cams 223 on the shaft 123. When a column is read, one or more of the combs are displaced, one of the levers 218 is permitted to move into the path of the bail 221, the lever 10 corresponding to the reading is depressed, and the selected' type-lever is actuated, or the selected operation such as shift, carriage-return, or tabulation is performed. At the end of a column-cycle, the combs are restored by means of a bail 252b operated by a cam 250 on the shaft 123. The characters 1 and l are selected by the codes 1 and 11, 3, but are represented by the same type on the L-type-bar. For this purpose, the intermediate lever 224-1 of the lever 218-1 that is selected by the 1-code is not connected to a lever 10 but is connected by bridges 236 to the intermediate lever 224-L of the L-type bar, Letters are selected by combinations of the holes 1 ... 9 and 0, 11, 12 and are printed as capitals, whilst numerals are selected by the holes 0 ... 9 and are printed in the lower-case. When a combination is read, a shift-magnet 240, Fig. 34a, is energized, through circuits described below, and the armature 241 depresses the lever 10-SH for initiating shaft. When the 12-hole or 11-hole alone is read, a lever 218-CR, or 218-TAB is selected and the lever 10-CR or 10-TAB initiates carriage-return with incidental line-spacing, or tabulation respectively. When the carriage has been returned, repeat operation of the lever 10-CR initiates repeat line-spacing. Tabulation and repeat line-spacing may also be effected under control of tappet-drums, described below. When a blank-column is read, the combs remain in normal position, a lever 218sp is selected, the lever 10-SP initiates operation of the letter-spacing mechanism. During each card-cycle contacts 153, 160, 167, 172 can be operated in accordance with a programme by means of tappets 147, Figs. 1 and 13, mounted in a drum 144 on the shaft 129. The contacts 153 control tabulation, the contacts 160, 167 control the clutch B, and the contacts 172 suppress printing of zeros to the left of the highest digit. The tappets consist of spring clips mounted in pairs of slots 144b formed in the drum, there being ninety pairs of slots and each pair corresponding to one point of the card-cycle. The contacts 153, 160, 172 are operated by a rocking block 150, a square sleeve 155 on a pinion 155a. and a pinion 168 respectively. The contacts 167 are operated five points in advance of the contacts 160, by a square sleeve 163 on a pinion 163a. The tappets have cross-pieces of different shapes for selectively operating the block 150 and the pinions 155a, 168, 163a. Repeat linespacing for blanking, and suppression of tabulation are controlled by contacts 292, 296, Fig. 22, which can be operated in accordance with a programme by means of tappets 277 on a drum 276 making one nineteenth of a revolution for each operation of the carriage-return lever 10-CR. The drum is geared to a shaft 263, Fig. 1, carrying a sleeve 262 which is geared to the shaft 39 and is provided with a clutch C controlled by the armature of a magnet in circuit with contacts 247, Fig. 8, which are closed when the carriage is returned. The tappets consist of spring clips mounted in pairs of slots formed in the drum there being ninety pairs of slots and each pair corresponding to one point of the card-cycle. The tappets co-operate with a pinion 288a on a sleeve 287 provided with another pinion 288b for operating the contacts 292. The tappets co-operate also with a pinion 294a on a square sleeve 294 for operating the contacts 296. Usually three thirty-line bills each comprising a heading, details, and a total are typed on one form, and the tappets 147, 277 are set to control, through circuits described below, tabulation of the items, repeat line-spacing after the heading and before the total, suppression of tabulation during typing of the heading, and suppression of redundant zeros in a detail. On depression of the start-key ST, Fig. 34a, the magnets 53, 91 are energized and the card-reading unit is operated at high speed during part of the first card-cycle to effect quick return of the picker. A commutator CF-6 then breaks the circuit of the magnet 91, the picker moves at normal speed to feed the first card into the feedrollers 137. card-lever contacts shunt the startkey, and the columns of the card are each read successively. When a single hole is read, the corresponding reading-brush SB closes the circuit of one of the magnets 212, and the selected lever 218 initiates typing of a numeral, or an operation such as carriage-return. When however two holes are read, a capital is printed, the shift-magnet 240 is energized. without the use of a separate shift-code, and the type basket is shifted or allowed to remain in shifted position. For this purpose, magnets R-5, R-4. R-23, and R-24, in circuit with the shift-magnet, are energized when the 1 to 9, 12, 11, and 0 holes respectively are read. When two holes are read. two of the contacts R-5a. R-4a, R-23a, and R-24a are closed and the shift-magnet is energized. The shift-magnet is in circuit with a magnet R-6 which closes contacts R-6a to form a holding-circuit. When the reading circuit breaks, contacts R-5b, R-4b, R-23b, and R-24b return to closed condition and form a second holding-circuit for the shaft-magnet. The holding-circuits persist from one column-cycle till early in the next, and if a blank column or a letter-code is then read, the second holding- circuit causes the shift-magnet to maintain the type-basket in shifted position. If however a single hole only is read. both holding-circuits break, and the type basket returns to lower-case position. When the 12-hole alone is read in an intermediate column, the associated magnet 212 initiates carriage-return and incidental linespacing, and a shunt circuit including contacts controlled by the margin stop is formed. At point 80 of the analysing circuit, the clutchmagnet 53 is de-energized, and card-feed stops until the carriage reaches the margin position. Thereupon, the margin-stop contacts are reopened the magnet 53 is again energized, and card-feed resumes. When the last column on a card has passed the reading-brushes, carriagereturn is automatically initiated by the closing of a circuit including commutators CF-3,