AN IMPROVED COUNTING MACHINE AND NUMERICAL RECORDER
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Pollock Wilcox, of Mold, in the County
of Flint, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED COUNTING MACHINE AND
NUMERICAL RECORDER."
Sealed the 19th January 1869, and dated the 20th July 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Pollock Wilcox
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 20th July 1868.
I, CHARLES POLLOCK WILCOx, of Mold, in the County of Flint, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
COUNTING MACHINE AND NUMERICAL RECORDER," to be as follows:-
This machine consists of a number of elements comprising annuli or
wheels with numbers thereon, and the other adjuncts herein described,
a cover being provided with an opening therein so that one or more of
these numbers may from time to time be presented to view or for use.
These elements consist of an outer wheel, an inner wheel, an eccentric,
a cam lever, and a pin or rod. The circumference of the inner wheel
and inner periphery of the outer wheel are divided into teeth in the

page_text: proportion of, say, nine on the inner to ten on the outer wheel; this
proportion is preserved when each wheel represents ten only; but if it
be desired that each element represent one hundred the proportion
becomes ninety-nine on the inner to one hundred teeth on the outer
wheel. If it be desired to reduce pence to pounds, shillings, and pence,
the proportion is as eleven to twelve in the first element, as nineteen to
twenty in the second element, and as nine to ten in those following.
In reducing seconds to minutes, hours to days, and so forth, the pro-
portion is as fifty-nine to sixty in the first element, fifty-nine to sixty in
the second, twenty-three to twenty-four in the third element, and so
forth. The inner toothed wheel works upon the eccentric on the back
of the preceeding disc or wheel, and is restrained from revolving by the
cam lever kept in place by the pin or small rod, which lever also serves
to keep the wheel on the eccentric by working in a groove. These canı
levers are thin plates of steel or other material passing out between each
wheel or disc. Instead of the cam lever an arm may be substituted; it
is fixed to the wheels and allows it to work by means of a slot, the outer
wheel may also be worked by a pall instead of a wheel. The first
movement is given through the crank shaft on which the first eccentric
is fixed; this short crank shaft is hollow and receives the end of the
main shaft, which passes full size through all the elemental wheels and is
stationary, so that each revolves independently upon it. A latch is fixed
to the cover to keep the discs or wheels in place, and when the machine
is opened relieves them so that they may be slipped back and readily
reset for a new count.
This machine is applicable as an omnibus register, cab distance
indicator, and as a counting machine, and money counting and numerical
recorder generally, and if it be desired that its operations should be
permanently recorded impressions may be taken from it as from
printing types on cards, tickets, or things that require successive
numbering.
upon it,
The circumference of the numbered wheel has notches
which are held in position by a knob on a spring, and a spring arrange-
ment allows an inner wheel to revolve a distance equal to the space
between two notches on the outer wheel whilst the preceeding wheel
is making a complete revolution; a boss on the back of this preceeding
wheel then raises the spring and allows the wheel to pass to the next

page_text: following notch by the recoil of the spring arrangement that acts on the
inner wheel.
The principle of action in this machine is, that whilst
wheel
with its eccentric is making one revolution the next succeeding wheel
advances just such a proportion of its revolution as the teeth in the
inner wheel are less than those on the outer wheel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.
filed by the said Charles Pollock Wilcox in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th January 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
POLLOK WILCOx, of Mould, in the County of Flint, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Jetters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Pollok Wilcox, Her
special licence that I, the said Charles Pollok Wilcox, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Pollok
Wilcox, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "AN IMPROVED COUNTING MACHINE OR NUMERICAL RECORDER,"
the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Pollok Wilcox, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
upon
or
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Pollok Wilcox, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:--

page_text: The improved counting machine, or numerical recorder, or numerical
counting and registering apparatus, which constitutes this Invention
consists of certain elements, comprising annuli or flanged discs, the
flanges being graduated and the divisional spaces figured or numbered
as required so as to form circular or cylindrical scales. These circular,
graduated, and figured scales are placed side by side on a central shaft
upon which they are free to rotate, and are connected with and turned
by each other in succession by suitable wheelwork, cams, links, levers,
or their equivalents, the whole being enclosed in a cylindrical or other
shaped case, having an opening or openings therein, through which the
figures or numbers on the scale wheels are visible. The central shaft,
when turned by a crank or otherwise, gives motion to the first wheel or
scale (on the right), the first to the second, the second to the third, and
so on, the number of turns of the shaft being indicated by the figures
on the rotating scales from 1 up to 1,000,000 (more or less) according to
the mode of gearing and graduating the scales, and the number of scales
or wheels with which the machine is fitted. The details of construcnon-
will be best understood by reference to the accompanying Drawing, to
which the following explanation applies.
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWING.
The accompanying Drawing is intended to illustrate the mode of
forming one of the improved counters. By the following explanation of
the details the necessary variations to be made in the graduated scales
and other parts, in order to form similar counters for indicating and
registering numbers in various orders of progression, will be readily
understood. In the machine shewn upon the Drawing the scales are
in the peripheries of the counting wheels or discs, are similar to each
other, and are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0, respectively, and will
therefore count and indicate in arithmetical progression. The first
wheel, or that on the extreme right of the central shaft, indicating units,
the second wheel tens, the third hundreds, and so on, the proportionate
number of teeth on the turning wheel being as 9 to 10; but if it be
desired to reduce pence to pounds, shillings, and pence, the first scale
must be graduated into 12 equal divisions, while the proportion in the
teeth is made as 11 to 12, the second wheel being graduated into 20
equal divisions, and the proportion in the teeth made as 19 to 20, the
remaining scales being graduated into 10 equal divisions, and the pro-
portion of the teeth being as 9 to 10. In reducing seconds to minutes,

page_text: minutes to hours, hours to days, and so forth, the proportion is as 59
to 60 in the first and second wheels and pinions, as 23 to 24 in the
third, and by thus regulating the scales and teeth the latter by the
former, and the former as required, any order of " progression
obtained.
may be
Fig. 1 is an elevation or face view of the counter, and Fig. 2 an end
view thereof.
Fig. 3, a sectional view of the machine, with the cylindrical case
removed to shew the interior arrangement of the scale wheels.
Fig. 4, a transverse section at the line A, B, Fig. 1, looking in the
direction indicated by the arrow No. 1, shewing the face or right-hand
view of the first scale wheel and teeth.
Fig. 5 is also a transverse section taken at the line C, D, Fig. 2, and
shews the opposite side of the scale wheel.
Fig. 6, a longitudinal section at the line E, F (in part), and shews the
mode of placing and fitting the scale wheels and pinions.
The following reference applies to each of the above Figures where
the index letter is repeated. a is the central shaft, which may be turned
by the crank and handle b, or by a small pulley, or in any suitable way.
s is the first scale wheel or flanged disc, the flange being graduated
externally and toothed internally, and forming a cavity e to receive the
pinion or externally toothed wheel c, which is centred
upon the
eccentric d made fast to the central shaft a. is a link formed of a
thin piece of steel or other metal, one end of which is secured to the
pinion c and the other end fixed to the rod g, which runs along the
space outside the scale wheels and inside the cylindrical case h, to which
the two ends of the rod g are secured. The external teeth of the pinion
gear with the internal teeth of the flange of the scale wheels, and the
former simply traverse the latter until the eccentric arrives opposite
the point where a link is fixed to the pinion, when the latter will be
restrained from revolving, and in this case will cause the scale wheel to
move one-tenth of a revolution for each revolution of the eccentric. i is
an eccentric on the back of the scale wheel s, and j a pinion mounted
thereon, which gives motion to the second wheel s¹ in precisely the same
manner as the eccentric on the shaft a and its pinion c give motion to
the first scale wheel s, as just above described. The whole of the scale
wheels being similarly fitted, motion is transmitted from one to the
other through the entire series. In the position shewn at Fig. 1 another

page_text: turn of the crank b will cause the wheels s and s¹ both to move simul-
taneously and indicate 130. In the position shewn at Fig. 3 another
rotation of the shaft a will cause the wheels s, s', and also to move
simultaneously and indicate 1,300 (or one thousand three hundred)
rotations of the crank. When setting the machine for a new count, all
that is necessary is to remove the cover of the cylindrical case h, and
slide the scale wheels along the shaft clear of their respective pinions,
and turn the scales round till all the O's are in line opposite the
apertures in the cylindrical case, when they may be slipped back to
their respective normal positions and the cover be replaced, when the
machine will be ready for another count as required.
A counter actuated and indicating as above described may be
constructed as shewn at Figs. 7, 8, 9, and 10; Fig. 7 being a transverse
section as at Fig. 5; Fig. 9 shewing the details of the modified internal
actuating mechanism in longitudinal section; and Fig. 10, the same
details in sectional plan, or horizontal section through the centre axis,
with the shaft removed. a is the cylindrical case in which apertures b
are formed, and through which the figures on the scales are visible, as
at Fig. 1; c are the graduated and toothed flanges of the scale
wheels s, s, &c., as before described; d, a thin plate of steel formed
as here shewn fixed to the cylindrical case placed between the scale
wheels and pierced for the central shaft to turn therein; e, the central
shaft; f, angular brackets secured to the plate d; g, a spindle fixed
therein, upon which the broad pinion h is mounted and free to turn.
This pinion is formed with three teeth h¹, h2, h3, on one side, and with
three equi-curvilinear sides and points j¹, j, j³, on the other. The scale
wheels are formed with teeth c on one side, and with a cavity j and two
angular teeth i on the other, e" being hollow spaces on each side of the
central web or disc of the scale wheel. The arrows are intended to shew
the direction in which the scale wheels move. In the position shewn at
Fig. 8 the pinion h cannot revolve while the scale wheel c rotates, until
its angular tooth i comes in contact with the tooth h' of the said pinion,
when the joint j¹ of the opposite side of the pinion will enter the cavity j;
the pinion will thus be turned one-third round and turn the wheel s¹
through one-tenth of its rotation. The remaining wheels being similarly
formed and fitted they will be actuated in the same way, and indicate
the number of rotations of the central shaft, as before described. The
number of teeth on the internal surface of the flange of the graduated

page_text: wheel or disc, in the case just described, will be the same as when the
nine-toothed pinion is used. In lieu of the said pinion the internal
mechanism shewn at Figs. 11, 12, or 13 respectively may be used for
transmitting the motion from one scale wheel to another.
Having thus described the nature and object of my said Invention,
and illustrated and explained the means whereby the same may be
carried into effect in practice, without however restricting myself to the
precise details of internal mechanism shewn upon the Drawing, 1 hereby
further declare that what I desire to secure by the before-mentioned
in part recited Letters Patent, and claim as my said Invention is, a
counting machine, numerical indicator, or numerical counting and
registering apparatus, consisting of a number of graduated circular
rotating scales placed side by side and caused to rotate and transmit
motion from one to the other in arithmetical, geometrical, or other
anti-multiple order or progression, constructed and actuated as herein
described and explained, or in any manner analagous thereto.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Pollok Wilcox, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.
C. P. WILCOX. (L.B.)