Patent GB-745444-A (GB)
Abstract: 745,444. Record-controlled printing-machines. COMPAGNIE DES MACHINES BULL. April 16, 1953 [April 23, 1952], No. 10496/53. Class 100 (4). A control apparatus for operating in conjunction with a record-controlled printing- machine having a numerical register and an alphabet printing mechanism comprises means to translate a registered amount of money into its literal wording and to arrange the spacing of the wording in a suitable form for printing on a cheque, money order ot the like. The total number of letter-spaces available on the cheque &c. is predetermined, and if the amount of letter-spaces required to print the wording exceeds this predetermined amount, the wording is carried over to a second line. Line spacing normally takes place after printing one line, but this is suppressed if the wording is already complete. If it should happen that a word, e.g. Seventeen, could be partly accommodated on one line, it is automatically divided into arbitrarily predetermined syllables comprising two, three or four letters. To facilitate this the initial letter of each syllable has an index number and if sensed in any one of the transmission lines associated with the last three letter-space printing positions (lines 21-24, Fig. 3b) certain relays are operated and by other electrical circuits, that part of the word, e.g. the part teen of the word seventeen is carried over to the next line by a syllable cutout device. As each figure is sensed there are electrical relay circuits which by their manner of operation count up the number of letter-spaces that the corresponding wording will occupy. In the case mentioned, and in the machine described, where there is a line length of thirty-two characters, the word seventeen may want to occupy the 25th to 33rd letter-space positions but as this is not possible a " 32 carry device " arranges for part of the word to be printed and part to be printed on the next line. In the case of the word seventeen it is divided into syllables : se (two letters), ven (three letters) and teen (four letters); thus t of teen has an index number of four and it falls in the thirtieth letter-space or printing position. The effect of this on the relay circuits is to prevent the printing of the letters teen and print instead a series of dots while at the same time arranging for the four letter-spaces to be counted towards the spaces required for printing the second line. The actual figures are sensed in an " amount sensing device " comprising a series of relay circuits operated cyclically from the recording machine. This device detects the presence of zeros in the sensed amount via a read-out commutator and positions the first significant digit; the sensing device also translates this digit into corresponding words and determines the order word, e.g. " Thousand," " Hundred," " Dollars or " Cents " as the case may be, the letter "s'' in ''Dollars " being suppressed if the unit 1 only is sensed. After the sensing of the first significant digit the word is formed and printed and the sensing device initiates a second sensing operation to sense the next significant digit but in so doing all previous digits are regarded as zero. The tens and units portion are concurrently sensed which usually results in the determination of two words, e.g. eighty four, but when the digit 1 is registered at the " tens " order, the " units " order determines the words eleven ... nineteen according to the particular units digit. This concurrent sensing occurs both in the " Dollars " or " Cents " portion of the wording. In a particular example the accounting machine read-out commutator manifests the amount $602.35. Firstly the digit 6 is determined in a " Units digit word determination device," Fig. 3a, and the word " Hundred in an "Order word determination device." These words are printed a second sensing occurs and in effect senses $2.35, whereupon the " Units digit word determination device " determines the word two and the " Order word determination device " determines the word Dollars." After printing these words a third sensing operation occurs and senses in effect $000.35, whereupon the words " Cents " is determined by the " Order word determination device " and the words thirty and five by the " Tens and Units digit word determination devices " respectively. At each sensing operation one or two " Order word formation devices " are brought into play. The first forms the words " Thousand &c. above mentioned, and the second formation device forms the word " And " or " And No " under control from the first formation device. All the word formation devices receive the letters in the form of timed pulses through a " Letter formation device " which itself receives said pulses from a pulse distributer mounted in the recording machine. Each formation device enters in a character space counter or totalizer the number of character spaces it requires, plus one for space between that and the following word. The space following the last word may, however, be used for printing if it enables all the printing to be completed in one line. The space totalizer comprises four counters, viz. " Order No. 2 which counts the spaces for the words " And or " And No"; " Tens " ; " Units " ; and " Order No. 1 " which counts the spaces for the words "Thousand" etc.; a " storage device " which sums up the total letter spaces; and a " previous total " counter to which is transferred the resulting total in the " storage device." This enables the space total to be carried through to the second and third sensing cycles for the control of printing in the total line space available and for the proper functioning of the " 32 carry " device and the means for effecting line-spacing. The apparatus may be constructed integral with the recording-machine or as a separate unit attached to the machine by multiple cables, and may be adapted to print the words " Pounds " and " Shillings."