AN IMPROVED ADDING MACHINE
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Edward Waller at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th May 1877.
JOHN EDWARD WALLER, of Montpelier Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman. 'AN IMPROVED ADDING MACHINE."
The object of this Invention is the construction of an improved machine for
performing both simple and compound addition with great facility and with
mechanical accuracy.
In carrying out the Invention I employ a rectangular-shaped box or case.
Under the top plate of the box or case I place a number of wheels, which for
facility of description I will call the wheels A. Each of these wheels is marked
(for simple addition) with the numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, so that when the
wheel is turned by means of a knob on the outside of the plate such numerals are
brought successively under a hole in the plate; or the wheel may be simply provided
with a hand or pointer which may be turned to indicate the said numerals, arranged
in a circle concentric with the axis of the wheel on the face of the plate; in either
case each of these wheels is provided with a coil spring capable of giving the wheel
one turn so as to bring the wheel to 0, as herein-after described, and also with a
spring and click arrangement. Each of the said wheels A is placed and works
inside another wheel, which wheels I will designate as the wheels B. The wheels B
are marked with the numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and when turned the numerals
will be brought under a hole in the plate of the machine. These numbers are for
giving the results, as herein-after described. The wheels A and B are so connected
together that when one of the wheels A is turned from left to right it carries its
corresponding wheel B with it; but when the click of the wheel A is released by
suitable disconnecting gear, this wheel A is carried back in the opposite direction
by means of its coil spring, so as to register 0 without carrying with it the
wheel B, which is retained in its position by means of a spring click or catch.
For example, to add 2 and 3 together, turn the wheel A so as to mark 2, and the
wheel B moving with it will bring its numeral 2 under the berein-before described
hole in the plate; the spring of the wheel A being released, this wheel will be
brought back to 0, the wheel B still registering or indicating 2. The wheel A must
now be turned so as to indicate 3, and as this wheel will move with it the wheel B
'

page_text: this latter will bring the figure 5 under the hole in the plate, which is the sum of
the two figures.
The method of carrying from units to tens, and so on, is as follows:--Each
wheel B has sixty teeth or cogs, videlicet, six for each numeral, and each wheel B has
also a circular rack having six teeth or cogs so placed as to come into connection
with the next wheel (by means of an intermediate wheel) while the wheel B is
travelling from 9 to 0, so as to move the next wheel from 0 to 1, or 1 .to 2, and so
on, as the case may be.
It will be understood that if the machine is to be used for the addition of money,
extra wheels A and B must be placed to the right and numbered so as to register
0 to 11 for the pence, and 0 to 19 for the shillings respectively, the number of teeth
in the racks being varied accordingly.
For weights and measures there must be a number of wheels corresponding in
number with the different denominations, and numbered accordingly.