Patent GB-345306-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to calculating, recording, registering or like machines controlled by perforated records
Filed: 1929-12-20
Abstract: 345,306. Typewriters. BRITISH TABULATING MACHINE CO., Ltd., General Buildings, Aldwych, London.- (Assignees of Lorant, R. ; 7, Parkstrasse, Dahlem, Berlin.) Dec. 20, 1929, No. 39087. Convention date, Dec. 22, 1928. [Class 100 (iv).] Strip and like record-controlled driving mechanism.-A perforated recordcontrolled statistical machine comprises in combination (1) a device for reading the cards whilst stationary, including a reading element for each hole-position in each card-column, (b) punching (or typewriting or typesetting) apparatus including entering devices (magnets 41), and (c) a commutator connected in succession to the reading elements and their corresponding entering magnets and operated synchronously with the punching &c. apparatus. Each card 11 is fed between plates 12, 13 and read by pins 14, any pin which rises through a card hole raising a member 20 to make contact with a corresponding plug 28. The plate 16, in which the members 20 are guided, is connected by line 30 to battery 31 and the plug 28 are wired through a plugboard 66 to the contacts 61 on the stationary shell 60 of the commutator. The rotary brushes of this commutator are connected by lines 72 to a single row of punching magnets 41 so that column by column the hole positions in a card are connected to the magnets 41. These latter are mounted on a bridge 42 which is supported by wheels on rails 42<1> and is moved from one column to the next of the punches 46 by a tension device 51 and an escapement 57, 59. A rack on one rail 421 gears with a wheel 58<1> mounted on bridge 42 and rigid with ratchet 58 coacting with two parts 57, 59 secured to a shaft mounted on bridge 42 this shaft having an arm 591 coacting with levers 56, links 55 and a bail 54. When one of magnets 41 is energized its armature 52 depresses bail 54, thus rocking arm 591 and shaft of pawls 57, 59. The latter are thereby rocked and subsequently returned so that the ratchet escapes one tooth and the bridge 42 slips with its magnets 41 to the next column of punches 46. Coacting with the contacts 61 on the shell 60 are twelve brushes 70 and twelve stationary slip-rings 71, the latter wired to the lines 72. The brushes 70 contact with 61 and 71 and are carried in a support 80 journalled on the shaft 85 supporting the slip-rings. Each brush comprises contact pins 81, 82, Fig. 4, mounted in a tube 83 and pressed apart by springs 84. To prevent sparking at the brushes a circuit-breaker 87, 88 in the line 72 to the battery is opened and closed by a pin 91 on lever 92 carrying the contact 88, this pin coacting with a ratchet 90 which rotates with the brush-carrier 80. By use of the plugboard 66 the order in which the columns are punched may be changed as desired. Also, if the original card is punched according to a code, say each hole is punched three positions lower than it should be, it is possible to punch the copy in the normal manner. Such a transposition is shown at 96, 97 in Fig. 1. If a typewriter is used instead of the punching mechanism, the magnets 41 are above the corresponding character or digit keys, the escapement mechanism then controlling the letter-spacing mechanism so that the platen carriage moves synchronously with the commutator. Characters may be represented by a combination of holes in a column and the size of the card thereby reduced.