Patent GB-475943-A (GB)
Abstract: 475,943. Photo-electric calculating- apparatus. BROIDO, D. May 28, 1936, No. 15087. [Class 40 (iii)] [Also in Group XIX] In a combined calculating and ticketprinting machine, variable factors are combined and the digits of the result and of the factors are transmitted to a printing register and to an accumulator during a single cycle of a scanning body by means of a single relay operated by a single device sensitive to radiant energy. The invention is shown applied to a machine for multiplying weight by price per unit weight to determine the cost of a given weight. Selecting the factors and the result. Scanning- mechanism. The price is set by depressing one key on a keyboard 1, Fig. 1 and the weight by depressing one key on a keyboard 2. Depression of a price key 1 rocks a corresponding lever 10 into the path of a projection 20, Fig. 3, on a set of screens 16, one screen being connected to each weight key 2 so that on depressing one of the said weight keys 2 a corresponding screen is rocked differentially by a spring 18 until its projection 20 engages the set price lever 10. When a key 2 is depressed a projection 31 thereon rocks detent bails 30 to release any other depressed key, the first-named key then being locked down by a detent bail. The keys 1 are controlled by similar bails. The screens 16 are provided with slots 32 arranged in three main areas 1, 11, 111 to represent respectively weights, prices, and costs resulting from the multiplication of the corresponding weights and prices. The main areas are subdivided into eight smaller areas a ... h. A series of slots representing the selected weight and price and the resulting cost are thus brought to a reading line between a lamp 33 and a light-sensitive cell 35. In a modification, one keyboard only, for cost per unit weight, is provided, each key being connected to a screen having an indicating sector, the key representing the chosen price being depressed gradually until a graduation on the selected sector indicates the chosen weight. A single weight screen is moved by each price screen. In a further modification, the machine is adapted for printing railway tickets and totalizing the fares printed. There are sixteen screens 16, one for each of a series of different kinds of ticket, e.g. first class, excursion, &c. Each screen is divided into sets of zones corresponding to distance. By means of the keys 2 and 1 a screen is selected and positioned according to the zone desired, and slots representing the kind of ticket, the zone and the corresponding fare are positioned adjacent the reading line, these data being printed on the ticket and the fare entered in the totalizer as described below. Scanning-mechanism. Operating-mechanism. The cell 35 is housed in a scanning cylinder 37 having a series of helically-arranged slots so that the whole length of the reading line is scanned during one complete rotation of the cylinder. The cylinder is secured to a shaft 41 given one rotation when an operating handle 55, Fig. 23 is moved in an arcuate slot 76, the handle being attached to a quadrant 52 driving a pinion 53 on a shaft 54 carrying a clutch member 61 driving a pinion 47 gearing with a pinion 46 on the shaft 41. At the end of one rotation the pinion 47 is stopped by a pin 64 but the actuating movement of the shaft 54 is continued, the part 60, Fig. 1, of the pinion 47 forcing the clutch 61 to the right, Fig. 23, to connect a pin 70 upon it with a gear 72 and drive this gear to actuate the printing mechanism as described below. Transmitting the factors to the printing mechanism and to the totalizer. A series of discs 80, Figs. 1 and 7, is secured to the shaft 41, each disc having a toothed portion, the portions being staggered relative to each other on the various discs. These teeth mesh with pinions 82 free on a shaft 83, each pinion having slidably keyed to it a clutch member 94, Fig. 13, carrying a pin 107 which can be slid into or out of engagement with a wheel 111. Each clutch member 94 is actuated by a lever 95 pivoted at 100 and operated by the camshaped horizontal part of a lever 96 pivoted at 97. All the levers 96 are operated by a common electromagnet 38 but one lever only at any one time is moved sufficiently into the field of the electromagnet to be operated thereby, this movement being effected by a staggered series of cams 98, on a shaft 105 driven in synchronism with the shaft 41, the arrangement being such that when the teeth of a disc 80 engage a pinion 82 the clutch mechanism relating to that pinion becomes effective. The pinion 82 remains clutched to the wheel 111 and drives this wheel until a slot in the scanning cylinder 37 coincides with a slot in the screen 16, the electromagnet then being energized through a relay to disengage the clutch, the wheel 111 thus having been differentially actuated in accordance with the position of the slot in the screen 16. There is a disc 80, a set of clutch mechanism and a wheel 111 for each of the eight areas a .... h of the screen 16. Each wheel 111 is geared to a printing wheel 75 connected by pawl and ratchet mechanism to a totalizer wheel 143 viewed through a casing aperture 144. The wheels 143 are interconnected by a genevatype transfer mechanism 151. Printing-mechanism. When the shaft 48, Fig. 1, has completed one rotation, the shaft 41 is locked and the driving connection transferred to the pinion 72 as described above. This pinion is geared to the shaft 74, Fig. 7, on which are freely carried the printing wheels 75 and to which are secured eccentrics which draw to the left a frame carrying a pad 120 to press a record strip 121 against the printing wheels 75. The printing wheels 75 are inked by a roller 124 and the record strip is advanced by wheels 126, 127 driven from the shaft 74 by ratchet and pawl mechanism. The strip is torn off by pulling it against a blade 160. Specification 446,338 is referred to.