Patent GB-912475-A (GB)
Title: Accounting or similar calculating machine
Filed: 1961-06-07
Abstract: 912,475. Accounting-machines. NATIONAL CASH REGISTER CO. June 7, 1961 [June 8, 1960], No. 20528/61. Class 106 (1).  An accounting machine has a totalizer for receiving key-set amounts in the normal manner and for receiving also in an automatic operation following certain types of normal machine operation, and under the control of a preset device, an additional predetermined amount. The invention is applied to the machine described in Specification 852,827 which is adapted for banking transactions and which reads an old balance magnetically recorded on an inserted ledger card and, after key-set cheque and deposit amounts have been entered, magnetically records the new balance on that card. The present invention provides pre-set devices for storing two different fee amounts and for causing appropriate ones of the fees to be charged automatically to the accounts in appropriate machine operations. A fee selector lever is settable to four positions; in the first two of these, one of the fee amounts is charged after each cheque entry or after each cheque and deposit entry respectively, in the third position, no fees are charged while in the last position, the other fee amount is charged after each Balance Pick-up operation. The machine has two lines of totalizers, three rows of control keys each associated with a differential mechanism, and a programme selector by which it may be set to perform different sequencies of operations.  Fee storage devices.-Each of several of the lowest orders of the machine has a storage device unit pre-settable to store the two alternative digits for that order of two alternative fee amounts. The storage devices are arranged on what would normally be one of the totalizer lines of the machine and each unit comprises two wheels 226, 230, Fig. 7, preset, in accordance with the digits to be stored, relative to the associated differential actuator with which the wide wheel 230 is constantly engaged. The wheels 226, 230 each have a long tooth for co-operation with a pawl 403, Fig. 25, as described below to control the differential mechanism and one or the other is made effective for this purpose by lateral movement of the supporting shaft under the control of the lockable fee selector lever. The shaft may also be set to a third position in which a spacer 231 is in alignment with the pawl 403 so that no fee will be entered. The wheel 226 is rigidly secured to a sleeve also secured to a wheel 227 and the latter and the wheel 230 are secured relative to one another in their preset positions by a pin 233 in an arm 225. Control of differential mechanism by fee storage devices.-When one of the wheels 226, 230 of each storage unit 220 is in effective position, then after it has been rotated by the differential mechanism by an amount corresponding to the preset digit, the long tooth engages the pawl 403 and so locks a stop arm 408 to cause the differential mechanism to be arrested in that position. Normally, the pawl 403 is in an ineffective position as shown, but in appropriate operations, a fee-entry solenoid, Fig. 19 (not shown), conditions a mechanism which then rocks a reset shaft 309 and also disengages the zero stops for the fee-entry denominations. The shaft 309 straightens a toggle 403, 404 in each of these orders so that the pawls 403 are moved into the paths of the long teeth. Automatic control of Row 2 differential mechanism.-In an automatic fee-entry cycle, the reset shaft 309, Fig. 22, is rocked as explained above and this causes a stud 345 to sense a plate 342 positioned in the previous cycle by the Row 2 differential mechanism and remaining in that position at the end of that cycle. The stud 345 in turn controls the setting of a stud 356, Fig. 24, so that it will enter the path of one or the other of two projections 357, 358 of a control plate 360 of the Row 2 differential mechanism. The arrangement is such that if the previous cycle was an entry operation in respect of which a fee is to be charged, the Row 2 differential mechanism causes the fee to be added into the Fee totalizer and subtracted from the Balance totalizer whereas, if the previous cycle was a correction operation, the fee is subtracted from the Fee totalizer and added into the Balance totalizer. Disabling cheque counting.-A known mechanism normally causes an automatic entry of one unit, in cheque operations, into the lowest order of a number of cheque-counting orders unless the number of cheques involved in a single transaction has been set on the corresponding order of keys. In a cheque-correction operation, nine is entered in each chequecounting order so as effectively to subtract one unit. In the automatic fee-entry cycles, this counting mechanism is disabled by the reset shaft 309. Column selection.-Special columns are provided on the ledger card for the printing of fee amounts and the hammers for these columns are selected by known mechanism sensing notched discs positioned by various control mechanisms. Certain of the discs have alternate high and low positions on their peripheries and are positioned by a ratchet-wheel 515, Fig. 11, having alternate high and low teeth for engagement by a cam-operated pawl 508. The height of the latter determines whether it will engage all of the teeth, the high teeth only, or none of the teeth and is itself determined by a sensing member 488, Fig. 12, associated with two control discs 522 positioned by the differential mechanisms of Rows 1 and 2 of the control keys and also by a sensing member 501 associated with a disc 505 positioned by the Row 3 mechanism. The effect is that during a series of, say, cheque-entry operations, amounts corresponding to the cheques and automaticallyentered fees are printed in the appropriate two columns alternately.  Initiating automatic fee-entry and New Balance operations.-At the end of an operation in respect of which a fee should be charged, a circuit is completed, through multi-position switches set by the fee selector lever, and Row 2 control differential mechanism and the programme selector, to a fee relay which in turn energizes the known initiating relay, except when an Overdraft exists, and also the feeentry solenoid. When the fee selector lever is set to its fourth (periodic fee) position, the automatic fee-entry cycle is initiated following a Balance Pick-up operation and during the automatic fee-entry cycle, when the Row 2 differential is arrested automatically in the fee position, its switch causes a know.i New Balance solenoid to be energized to initiate a further automatic operation in which the New Balance is taken. Interlocks.-An interlock, Fig. 26 (not shown),  controlled by plates associated with and operable by the rows of keys, and in an automatic fee-entry operation by a solenoid, prevents the release of the machine for an automatic fee-entry cycle or a Balance Pick-up operation if an amount, cheque-counting or transaction key is depressed. Another interlock prevents simultaneous operation of the fee-selector lever and the machine itself.