IMPROVEMENTS IN RECKONING, COUNTING, OR CALCULATING APPARATUS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, of the Firm of Robert-
son, Brooman, and Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London,
Patent Agents, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RECKONING, COUNTING,
OR CALCULATING APPARATUS."-A communication from abroad by Charles
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Edgcumbe
Brooman at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 5th November 1867.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RECKONING,
COUNTING, OR CALCULATING APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is based upon the following principles
1st. That the reckoning of a salesman having much business can be obtained
only by means of rapid and economical processes.
2nd. That the senses of sight and hearing should mutually control each
other.
3rd. That a central cashier should always be acquainted with the movements
of those whose operations he centralizes.
4th. That an apparatus to be worked. by a person little accustomed to
it, and with rapid manipulation serving to add receipts or expenses (money or

page_text: goods) having a correct movement or action, and made quickly and cheaply,
has not yet been introduced.
5th. That existing apparatus require instruction and apprenticeship on the
part of those who are to work them.
6th. At sporting meetings and matches the engagements to which they give
rise require that a person may find the counterpart of his engagement or
stake either directly or through an agent, but if on the contrary an evident
system which would leave unknown neither the means of regulating nor the
mode of working, and which had no uncertain chances for those managing or
using it was offered to the public admitted to follow in a permanent manner
the rise or fall of each competitor, the engagements could be, as it were
capitalized, and those entering into engagements would without treating
separately become counterparts of each other. For this purpose several
modes of reckoning or calculating might be employed, but the modes hitherto
adopted receive by means of the present Invention a new application.
The apparatus which forms the subject of this Invention will be 'fully
-understood by the accompanying Drawings, and by the following description
-thereof.
A mechanical table (see Figures 1 and 2 of the annexed Drawings)
composed of one or several panels A, A', A³, carries counters or adding or
reckoning appliances C, C, C2, Figure 3, in as great a number as is required,
-one for each variety, and one for recapitulation, whence there is a double check.
The table is placed in a frame D mounted on legs or supports E which move
on rollers F, F; the upper part of the frame has a piece H to indicate the
object of the table. The panels or board may be composed of elements
carrying the pins and fixed points which the counters or reckoners require.
The panels are pierced with holes or openings allowing the figures carried
by the counters or reckoners to be seen; the counters or reckoners are
decimals, duodecimals, or otherwise according to the units employed; their
subdivision changes with the system of numeration employed. The wheels,
bands, or slides of which they are composed can be worked from behind so as
to leave the totals unknown to the markers. A hook or key, Figure 5, is used
to work the apparatus; the hook is formed with a point which is introduced
through holes o in the movable wheel of the arrangement shewn in Figure 3.
The counter or reckoner preferred is composed of a pair of wheels a and b,
the wheel a being moyable, and 6 being fixed; the movable wheel a is formed
with the holes o for working it, and turns on a fixed axis c with its nave f,
and with its teeth d, d, forming stops for the springs. The fixed wheel b bears
the Figures 1, 2, 3, and so on serving as indicators to the markers; it is

page_text: furnished with a stop 9 placed in an inviarable position, and: with a nave h.
keyed to the fixed spindle or axle. Movement is communicated from one
wheel to the other by a double spring lever j (see Figure 3.), or as seen in
Figure 6 by an appliance with pins (aiguilles), the movement of which is
regulated by a spring m and an excentric n. In the first case all the wheels
turn in the same direction and gear or engage according in the system of
numeration employed. In the second case the even wheels turn in a contrary
direction to the odd wheels, and the number of surfaces is diminished. The
springs vary in power, length, and consequently in the noise they make,
according to the position of each wheel. The working of this mechanical
table is very simple; to operate on one of the panels which are appropriated
to a special use, it suffices to introduce the hook B into the eye or hole o of
the movable wheel a of the reckoner C, for example, and to mark or indicate
on the latter the desired figure. The recapitulative reckoner can be worked
by straps, cranks, springs, or otherwise at the same time as one of the
reckoners for marking, but to have double control or check, and for economy,
it is preferred to have a double operation of registering by series and by
recapitulation, thus the mechanical reckoning table or board presents by its
constitution a quadruple control.
Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings represent a portable board ready to act
for a race of five competitors, it bears the movable indications.
Figures 3 and 4 represent two views of a reckoning apparatus for adding
monetary value, such as pence, shillings, and pounds. The plate or frame
carries with it the pins of the wheels, but it may be of one piece, and then
the reckoners have movable frames on which are set out the fixed points..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLINTON.
EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and Company, of
166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said

page_text: Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN RECKONING, COUNTING,
OR CALCULATING APPARATUS," (communicated to me from abroad by Charles
Denis Labrousse, of Paris, France,) upon the condition (amongst others)
that I,, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say:-
This Invention is based upon the following principles, videlicet, that the
accounts or reckonings of banks or cash offices, shops, stores, and other
places require checking or means of control, which can only be advantageously
effected by rapid and economical mechanical processes; this check or control
should be as well for the use of the public as for the proprietor of the shop to
show receipts or disbursements.
The apparatus which form the subject of this Invention may be worked
with little practice and rapidly manipulated; they are counting or reckoning
instruments which apply wherever counting or calculating is required; they
allow of a new mode of betting or competing for prizes or stakes at sporting
meetings, or at fine art, agricultural, or other meetings or events; thus they
serve, first, to register all the amounts which the public desire to engage before-
hand in favour of such or such competitor; 2ndly, to capitalize the amounts
on each competitor on the one hand, and on the other hand to add up the
total of the amounts engaged on all the competitors in each race or event;
3rdly, to call upon the bettors or persons who have entered in favor of the
winner to divide in proportion to their stakes the sum thus collected.
The object of the Invention is to introduce a simple and evident system

page_text: which leaves unknown neither the mode of regulating nor the manner of
operating it, and which does not leave uncertain chances for the managers;
thus in an office of receipts the check or control will follow permanently the
payments or disbursements. The mechanical counters or reckoners allow by
their combination of introducing what is called a reckoning board or table; it
is as it were a mechanical board composed of one or several panels; it carries
counters or adding appliances in as great a number as the account requires,
one for each variety, besides one for recapitulation (which constitutes a double
check or control). The panel or board may itself be composed of parts
carrying the pins and fixed points which the counters require; it is consequently
formed with holes and openings, allowing the figures carried by the counters
to be seen. The counters are decimals or duodecimals, or are based on any
required system of numeration, according to the nature of the units employed.
The wheels, bands, or slides of which they are composed may be worked at
the back in order to leave the totals unknown to the markers; a button or
other convenient appliance may be used to move them. This appliance is
provided with a point which is introduced into the eyes of the movable wheel
of the counter. The counter may be composed of pairs of wheels, one movable
and the other fixed; the movable wheel has the holes for moving it, also the
arresting teeth of the springs and the nave, which turns on a fixed axis; the
fixed wheel bears figures serving as indications to the markers; it carries a
stop placed in a fixed manner relatively to the openings of the panels, and a
nave keyed to the fixed axle. The movement is communicated from one
wheel to another by an arbitrary intermediate appliance, which may be a
double lever with springs or an engaging wheel with pins (aiguilles), the move-
ment of which is regulated by a spring and an excentric.
In the first case
the wheels all turn in the same direction and gear together according to the
system of numeration employed; in the second the even wheels turn in the
contrary direction to the odd wheels, and the number of surfaces is diminished.
The springs vary in power, in length, and consequently in the noise they
make, according to the position of each wheel. The recapitulative counter
may be moved by means of straps, connecting rods, springs, or otherwise, at
the same time as one of the counters moved by the marker; but to have a
double control or check and for economy it is preferred to have a double
operation of registering, by series and by recapitulation; thus the mechanical
reckoning table or sporting board presents by its constitution a quadruple
control, whatever be the kind of counters or markers employed.
Figure 1 of the annexed Drawings is a front view of a mechanical reckoning
table or sporting board with the arrangement of movable counter which is

page_text: preferred; Figure 2 is a transverse section shewing the internal mechanism;
Figures 3 and 4 show on a larger scale the mode of transmitting the move-
ment of each ticket to the rod which acts on the reckoner or counter of the
total.
גידי.
Tickets are given as receipts in exchange for the amounts paid or goods
supplied if the table be used for that purpose; these tickets are acted upon
by a pushing appliance, the action of which is to expel them from a case
adapted to their particular value and to the series to which they apply; its
action is communicated by suitable connections to an upper mechanical
counter, and causes that wheel of this counter to act which corresponds to the
value for which the ticket has been delivered. In the mechanical counter or
totalizer counting the total the arithmetical part is operated with the aid of
gearing. or a commutator, levers, bell movements, or otherwise; the arith-
metical. part is on the contrary operated manually in the lower counters. A
bell movement gives notice that the mechanical operation has been effected
and that the parts of. the movement have returned to their state of rest. In
the lower counters the pressure necessary to bring the tickets to the orifice by
which the pushing appliances deliver them is obtained by a spring, or by the
compression of a gas or a liquid. Each lower counter C, C, is composed of
several compartments and supplied with tickets which are numbered with a
figure progressing from 0 to 19 for shillings, from 0 to 9 for the decimal
units, and so on. When the numbers 0 appear in the distribution it is turn
for a ticket from the compartment placed at the left. The tickets are brought
to the front by artificial pressure. The part. of the mechanical counter which
receives the total of the sums entered in the other counters is indicated at M.
The pushing appliance p adapted to each compartment of the lower counters
works the mechanism for counting the total; it is composed of a lever and of
a plate of dimensions equal to those of the tickets sliding in a groove or guide
where a single ticket is presented. The lever in its movement acts on a com-
mutator which opens an electric current; this current with the aid of a Morse
apparatus regulates the proceedings or procès verbal of the operations.
Each lower counter rests on a bracket t. The outer case A, B, C, D, E, of all
the counters forms the sporting board or table. A bell T gives intimation that
the total has been calculated at the time of the delivery of each ticket, and
that the apparatus has returned to the state of rest. The drawer G serves as
a receptacle for the tickets b, b; waste tickets are put into the box H; these
tickets arise from deduction or amounts brought forward withdrawn by hand to
operate the arithmetical part. The return to zero is effected by means of the
rack j fitted in the portion M.
The slide or piece r. of each lower counter

page_text: assists the pushing appliances in their guides; it is withdrawn to lift the
pushing appliances to disengage the counter and refill it. The ticket repre-
sented in Figures 3 and 4 is provided with its figure; its mode of communi-
cating the movement dispenses with the employment of a pushing appliance;
the ticket is delivered with the thumb nail of the marker; this acts on a
detent n solicited by a spring and causes it to release the ticket which falls
and is replaced by the next following which is stopped by the detent having
returned to its first position, turning round the spindle x.
This Invention can be applied in commerce and to industrial purposes in
all cases where it is useful to have an evident check or control, such as in the
issues of bank loans, in sales of merchandize, in distributions of food, medicines,
and utensils by hospitals, charities, &c.
The apparatus can be transformed into a theatrical board for the booking or
letting of seats, and into an elective board to receive and calculate the numbers
of the votes of electors; it may also be adapted for many other purposes.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim constructing
reckoning, counting, or calculating apparatus, substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-eight.