Patent GB-794252-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to record card controlled statistical machines
Inventor: DAWSON ERIC
Filed: 1955-04-28
Abstract: 794,252. Statistical apparatus. POWERS-SAMAS ACCOUNTING MACHINES, Ltd. March 5, 1956 [April 28, 1955], No. 12349/55. Class 106 (1). In a record card controlled statistical machine conditioned to perform a normal sequence of operations a programme unit is provided comprising a plurality of normally inactive programme control shafts 3-10, Fig. 1, a driving gear 11-18 for each shaft continuously rotatable in timed relation with the main shaft of the machine to rotate the associated control shaft a predetermined number of revolutions, or fraction of a revolution of the main shaft and a normally inactive clutch for each control shaft to couple it to the driving gear. The clutches are one- or part-revolution dog clutches comprising a dog 20 fixed on the shaft adapted and spring-loaded pawls 21 rotating with the driving gear. Normally a control arm 25 is positioned in the path of the pawls to trip each out of engagement with the dog 20 as the gear rotates. The arms 25 are displaceable through Bowden cables 29 to allow the associated clutches to become operative. The cables 29 pass to a card-sensing device of known kind so that the programme shafts are rotated under the control of a record card. A plurality of pairs of normally closed and normally open switches A1 and A2, B1 and B2, &c., Fig. 12, are common to the programme control shafts to control machine operations. The switches are arranged as shown in Fig. 7 in a horizontal line on blocks 44 (see G and E2). The switches are constructed so that when operated, the normally open contact (A1) closes and the normally closed contact (A2) opens. The pairs of switches when operated render operative an associated connection box. Each connection box includes contact positions equal in number to and corresponding to the whole of the dataindicating positions of a record card. The connector portions of the boxes are removed to vary the operation of the machine as described in Specification 794,251, [Group XVI]. Each connection box is connected through a decoding unit with imprinting mechanism and/or adding mechanism. As shown in Fig. 7 the pairs of switches A1, A2, &c. are actuated by rods 45 one for each switch. The rods are raised by bell-crank levers 48 rotated by longitudinally movable bars 57. The bars are each controlled by a set of cams (e.g. 67) on the control shafts 3-10, the cams acting through levers 61 and pins 60 on the bars. The control switches are in this way governed by' the rotation of the various control shafts. The operation of a switch opens the normally closed contact A2 to terminate the normal sequence of machine operations and simultaneously closes the normally open contact to start a predetermined operation in an alternative sequence of operations. Control shafts 9 and 10 are for read-out operations, shaft 9 is for total-taking and shaft 10 is for a grand total-taking operation. It is sometimes necessary to start a revolution of these shafts and stop it again during a machine function, e.g. a long feed of the result sheet which is not necessarily controlled by the programme unit but which must take place in precedence to the total taking operations. For this purpose the clutches for shafts 9 and 10 are provided with normally inactive interrupter members 30, each secured to a rocking spindle 31 movable into the path of pawls 21. The shafts 31 are rocked by cable connection, e.g. with the long-feed mechanism. A link 34, Fig. 7, connects the interrupter members of shafts 9 and 10 together with lost motion so that a total-taking operation is effected when a grand-total-taking operation starts. Specifications 672,294 and 769,805 also are referred to.