Patent GB-491917-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to machines for sorting statistical record cards
Filed: 1937-03-08
Abstract: 491,917. Statistical machines. REMINGTON RAND, Inc. March 8, 1937, No. 6847. Convention date, March 6, 1936. [Class 106 (i)] A machine for sorting cards has card-reading mechanism (pins 48, Fig. 2), means 66, 69 for storing set-ups from different card records (master cards, Fig. 7 or 8), means 66, 69 for comparing the readings from subsequent (data) cards with these set-ups, and means 82, 83, 250 for sorting a card into an appropriate box when its reading agrees with one of the set-ups. In the machine described the motor is started and a handle 199, Fig. 22, is pulled out. The parts are all first reset to normal automatically ; five master cards are then read in succession and each reading is set-up by major pins 66 into a different one of five sections of minor pins 69. Plunger 199 then moves automatically to the left to prevent any addition to, or obliteration of, the set-ups and thereafter as each data card is read the pins 48 depress the major pins 66 and the minor pin assemblies are moved to the left to test the setting of pins 66 received from the data card. If the latter setting agrees with one of the five settings of the minor pin assemblies, that one is able to move further to the left, Fig. 2, and cause its cable 250 to operate the appropriate sorting-box deflector through known delay-action mechanism which causes the deflector to be raised only at the moment the data card reaches the correct box. At the end of the run, or beginning of the next run, it is necessary to move the handle 199 manually to the right before new master card settings can be entered. The machine may be arranged to deal with more than five master cards. The cards are fed by a picker 9, Fig. 1, from magazine, 3 to pin box 47 and thence to five boxes 212 and between conveyer bands 270, 271 to a second set of five boxes 213. The master card may have an upper and a lower field each of 45 columns, Fig. 7, using a five-point code, or may be of the 45-column kind in which in each column a single hole is punched in one of ten positions, Fig. 8. Special small and large holes may also be punched in the upper and lower margins, which decide the card zones not to be effective. Card-reading means. As the pin box 47 descends, Fig. 5, a lever 57, having a roller 58 coacting with a fixed cam 59, moves counterclockwise and moves the slides 53 to the right so that wherever a pin 48 has passed through a card hole a lug 54 locks over a pin 55 on the pin 48 and the latter is forced down with the further movement of the pin box so as to depress the corresponding major pin 66. Minor pin assembly. The machine is divided vertically into five sections by horizontal strips 63, Figs. 2 and 10, having slots 64 to guide the major pins 66. In each section and for each card column, there are two halfcolumns of minor pins 69 mounted in carriers 70 and 71, the latter being slidable on rods 72 and 73 and on rods 73 and 74 respectively. The rods 72, 73 and 74 may be raised subsequently, to release the minor pin carriers 70 and 71 from locking means, by vertically moving bars 75. Each minor pin 69 has transverse studs 77, 79 which are gripped by a pair of resilient fingers 76 on the carrier so that the minor pin is held in its upper or lower position. Each pin 69 also has a lug SO coacting with a notch 81 in the corresponding major pin 66. During the master card reading the minor pin assemblies are moved under spring-control successively (one for each master card and commencing with the uppermost section) in successive cycles to the left. The minor. pins are normally in their upper positions and enter the notches 81 in the major pins 66. When a master card is read, the depression of certain pins 66 moves the minor pins engaging those pins 66 to their lower positions and the minor pin assemblies then move to the right before the pins 66 rise again so that the master card reading is set-up and represented in the appropriate section by the lowered pins 69. Each pair of carriers 70 and 71 is adapted to control either an operating slide 82 for the upper card boxes 212 or a slide 83 for the lower card boxes 213. All the upper slides 82 in a section are rigidly 'connected together by bars 86 and 87, and all the lower slides 83 are so connected by bars 86<1> and 87. Latch members 94, 94<1> are provided for operatively associating any slide 82, 83 with either a front (right, Figs. 2 and 10) or rear half-column of minor pins or for disassociating any slide from either or both halfcolumns. Latch 94 is vertically slidably mounted on studs 93 on minor pin carrier 71 and may engage with bar 86 or bar 86<1> or neither so that as slide 82 or 83 moves left, it may or may not carry the minor pin half-column with it to test the setting of the major pins 66. Latch 94<1> on carrier 70 is similarly movable to coact with bar 86<1> or 87<1> or neither. The latches 94, 94<1> are selectively positioned by horizontally moving members 96 which are, controlled by triggers 98, bars 137, 137<1>, linkage 142, 141, 139 and special double pins 138, 138<1> which read respectively abovementioned small or large holes in the upper and lower edges of the master cards. Set-up from master card reading. During the five cycles used to read the five master cards, the five sections of minor pin assemblies are released, in turn by the following means. In each horizontal section a bar 110, Figs. 2 and 14, is housed in opposing notches in all the card box operating slides 82 and 83 of that section. The five bars 110 coact with five notches 111 in a vertically moving bar 109, which notches are so spaced that only one bar 110 may, during any one cycle, enter its corresponding notch 111. It is only when bar 110 enters its notch 111 that the corresponding minor pin assembly is able to move sufficiently to the left for the raised minor pins 69 to enter the notches 81 in the major pins 66 and take the setting (i.e. be lowered) from the pins 66 according to which latter are depressed by the master card reading. The bar 109 (there are actually a pair, but only one is shown) is raised one step each card reading cycle by pawl 117 operated from the main camshaft 124 so that, commencing with the topmost section in the first cycle, each rod 110 in turn enters its notch 111 and allows the five set-ups to be effected in five successive cycles. Change over from major-card to minor-card reading. During master card reading the parts are driven in their correct timed relationship from a main cam-shaft 124, Figs. 1, 2, 14, and 22, which is connected by a clutch to the main shaft 38 of the machine and makes one rotation in six card-reading cycles. The clutch is engaged by a yoke 192 which is controlled by a trigger 194 (not shown). When the latter is actuated at the end only of the series of master card readings by a cam 199 (not shown) on shaft 124, the yoke is moved to disengage the clutch and towards the end of the movement the yoke is again released. By this time, however, a plunger 199, Fig. 22, has moved in to block the return of the yoke. The machine may not, therefore, resume master card reading and set-up these readings until plunger 199 is pulled to the right manually. During master card reading the card box operating slides 82 and 83 are pulled to the left by springs to carry the minor pin assemblies with them. When the above-described declutching occurs a shaft 172, Fig. 2, is rocked so that continuouslydriven cams 163, positioned axially by forks 174 on the shaft 172, now come into the path of, and actuate, the slides 82, 83. The slides are thus actuated positively to compare the stored settings on the minor pin assemblies with the successive readings from the data cards. In each section of the machine one half-column minor pin assembly corresponds to a box 212 and the other half-column assembly to a box 213. If a data card bears the correct patterns in both fields then the corresponding box 212 is operated in priority to the associated box 213. In a modification, Figs. 38-40 (not shown), the interconnections of the deflector operating slides and the relationship of the minor pin assemblies to the sorting boxes are re-grouped to deal with cards punched according to the Henry system of finger print classification. U.S.A. Specifications 1,315,370 and 1,476,161 are referred to.