Patent GB-580864-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to sensing mechanism for record card controlled statistical machines
Filed: 1944-03-30
Abstract: 580,864. Statistical - machines. THOMAS, A., and GAUSDEN, A. H. March 30, 1944, No. 5921. [Class 106 (i)] In record-card controlled statistical-machines provided with means for sensing a card in sections and for transmitting the items sensed in each section to a single accumulator, means are provided for selecting, for sensing, any two or more of the total number of sections of the card together with means for predetermining the order in which the selected sections shall be sensed. In order to reduce the number of idle cycles of the machine, means are provided for controlling the card feed according to the number of sections to be sensed. The totaltaking mechanism is also controlled in accordance with the number of sections to be sensed so that the total is always taken immediately the last section has been sensed. Cards from a magazine 8 are fed by a picker 9 and rolls 10 between the plates 11 of a sensing-pin box of the general construction described in Specification 401,012, but in place of a shutter plate common to all the columns of pins, there is provided a shutter 50 individual to each column, a common restoring-bail 60 actuated once for each revolution of the main-shaft 2 serving to restore all the shutters 50 to positions in which they are locked by latches 70. Rods 82 for releasing these latches bear at their upper ends, Fig. 6, against slides 80, which may be set by individual hand levers 86 and toothed plates 84 to bring their lugs 93 into any one of five consecutive positions with relation to an actuating bail 94 common to all the slides 80. The bail 94 is moved to the left one step for each successive revolution of the shaft 2 by means of a cam 123 rocking lever 120, thus moving link 114 and rocking lever 110, causing pawl 106 to move a ratchet bar 103, Fig. 2A, to the left one step. This moves link 101 and rocks a shaft 98, moving the bail 94 one step to the left. In each of the five positions which the bail 94 can occupy during successive revolutions of the shaft 2, it is depressed. The cycle is as follows. During the first revolution of shaft 2, the bail 94 in its first position is depressed, engaging the lugs 93 of any slides 80 which have been set in the first position, thereby releasing the latches 70 for the corresponding shutters 50 and rendering the corresponding columns of sensing pins operative to sense one field of the card. Similarly, different fields of the card are sensed during the second, third and fourth revolutions of the shaft 2. When shutters 50 are released by the-latches 70, spring- urged transmission rods 36 rock such intermediate pins 31 as have been released by the pins 16 in the reciprocating pin-box 13, 14 which sense the cards between the plates 11. The shutters 50 are restored by the bail 60. In the upper part of the machine is an adding and printing accumulator of the kind described in Specification 405,666. Columns of sensing pins in each of the (say) four fields are connected through boxes 162, 164, 174 so as to actuate a single column of stops 180 in the stop basket 161, these stops setting toothed sectors 160 operating type carriers 158 in known manner. Sectors 160 are held in restored positions by a restoring bar 181 as described in Specification 483,234. The lower connection box 162 is divided into four fields A, B, C, D, Fig. 11. In field A, the No. 9 wire 163A9, for example, is connected by intermediate box wire 175A9 to the No. 9 wire 1769 in the fifth column of the upper box 174. In fields B, C, D, the No. 9 wires are also connected to the same No. 9 wire 1769, the upper box wire 176 having an extended foot -177 overlying the top of all four intermediate operating wires. Thus, corresponding value positions in each of the four fields are-connected to a single value position in the upper box. The engagement of the accumulator wheels 150, 151 with the sectors 155 is controlled by a cradle 154 and mechanism similar, to that described in said Specification and including a rack 198 pivoted to an arm 200 secured to a shaft 201. The shaft 201 has secured thereto a disc 205 carrying two pins 206, 207 co-operating with slots 208, 209 in the head 210 of a link 211 pivoted at its lower end to a lever 120 actuated by the cam 123 on the shaft 2. During card-reading cycles, the link 211 is held over to the left, Fig. 2A, so that the slot 208 remains in engagement with the pin 206. The cam 123 is timed so that at 0 degrees in the cycle the accumulator wheels are in engagement with the sectors 155, and before the restoring bar 181 moves out, the link 211 moves down, rocking shaft 201 counterclockwise to disengage the wheels. The restoring-bar 181 then releases the sector 160 to take a setting from the stops 180 and the link 211 is raised and rocks shaft 201 clockwise, whereby rack 198 rocks shaft 196 to tilt the cradle 154 to cause engagement of the wheels 150 or 151 with the sectors 155 after the latter have been set. The restoring-bar 181 then returns the sectors to normal, the amount to which they were set being thereby transferred to the accumulator wheels in the manner described in Specification 514,780. During adding cycles of the machine, the cards are held by the card stop 12, and when the last field has been sensed the total shaft 235 is caused to make one revolution, whereby the card stop is withdrawn and the card ejected by skid rolls 10a, and the card picker 9 is actuated to feed the next card.. Knob 262, Fig. 7, positions bell-crank 255 for engagement of its pin 254 by a lug 253 on a rack 103 which can be moved to four positions from the starting position. In the fifth position of the bell-crank 255, the pin 254 is out of reach of the lug 253 and the device is cut out of operation. Thus, if all four fields are to be sensed, the bell-crank 255 is positioned so that when the bar 103 moves from the fourth to the fifth position, its lug 253 will engage the pin 254 and rock bell-crank 255, lifting lever 269 clear of latches 267 (Fig. 2B), one of which thus engages clutch member 268, causing rotation of the total shaft 235, which makes one revolution during three revolutions of the mainshaft 2 and then stops. A detent as described in Specification 483,234 ensures the stopping after exactly one revolution. If only two fields are to be sensed, the bell-crank 255 will be positioned so that it is rocked by the bar 103 on the movement of the latter from the first to the second position. The total, which is the sum or difference of the items recorded on a single card, may be recorded by printing or by punching (as, for example, described in Specification 580,865)'the total in the same card as that from which the items were sensed. Specifications 483,235 and 518,752 also are referred to. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification, 584,984.