Patent GB-885384-A (GB)
IPC: G07C1/00
Abstract: 885,384. Workmen's time-recorders. ASSOCIATED ELECTRICAL INDUSTRIES Ltd. Nov. 19, 1959 [Nov. 20, 1958], No. 37421/58. Class 106 (4). A time recording system, e.g. for recording arrival and departure times of employees, comprises: (1) A number of registration stations each including: (a) a register T, U, capable of presenting for recording identity data in digital form; (b) a gate G12 distributer DA and gates G1 to G10 operable by keyboard KS to register identities and present a " waiting " signal indicating the presence of a registered identity. (2) A clock MC, Fig. 2, capable of presenting, for recording, time data in digital form. (3) A central control and recording station, Fig. 2, including: (a) a data recorder RM capable of distinguishably recording successive items of data in a form suitable for automatic processing; (b) a scanner S for sequentially scanning the several registration stations and the clock MC; (c) a gate G51 responsive to a waiting signal presented at a scanned registration station for initiating recording of the identity data registered at that station; (d) a gate G59 for initiating recording of the time data on scanning of the clock MC at least when the time data has changed since it was last recorded. Up to 500 employees are identified by threedigit numbers of which the hundreds digits represent the respective one of five registration stations to which they are allocated. Upon arrival and departure each employee enters his tens and units digits at the keyboard KS, panels DPT, DPU show by display the tens and units digits which have been marked in the registers T, U in two-out-of-five code and a signal over line 43 primes a gate G51 at the recording station to indicate that data has been registered at the corresponding registration station. The scanner S searches the gates G51 to 55 for one marked to indicate a registration station with data awaiting recording, such a gate will pass a signal and gate G50 will route it to pulse generator PG1, PG2, inhibiting the scanner S and starting distributer DB. Stage by stage, gates G61 to G65 will route signals to advance the record tape in the recorder RM, successively operate relays J, A, B and cause punching, in two-out-of-five code, of the hundreds digit, marked in the strapping field SF corresponding to the registration station, and of the tens and units digits marked in the registers T, U. On the seventh step of the distributer DB, removal of the signal on line N45, applied thereto on the sixth step, causes an end element C to produce a signal to reset distributer DA to stage one, thus removing the " waiting " signal on line N43 from gate G51 and from gates G21 to 40 to extinguish the lights in panels DPT, DPU. The output signal from gate G50 also ceases, PG2 stops DB, while end element P1 resets DB to zero and PG1 allows the scanner S to continue its search. At the last stage of each scan a gate G59 is primed and if a " time changed " signal from an element TT is already present, recording of time will proceed in two-out-of-five code, representing time in tens and units of hours and minutes, as marked by the master clock MC on four groups R1 to R4 of five time leads. The distributer DB controls the punching through relays E, F, G, H, finally resetting the element TT. Gates G59 and G50 then open, DB stops and S starts. The employees' arrivals and departures are thus punched chronologically between adjacent time records, a difference in line spacing distinguishing identity data from time data. With five registration stations the maximum time elapsing between operation of the keyboard KS and the extinguishing of the digit display on completion of recording may be one or two seconds. If a longer delay can be tolerated one recorder may serve up to ten stations dealing with 1,000 employees. To deal with more a plurality of recorders would be needed identified by a thousands digit. As an alternative to displaying the digits registered, those actually recorded could be fed back for display. Instead of a keyboard for entering identity data, coded markings could be sensed from inserted cards.