US1282823A - Combined type-writing and computing machine. - Google Patents

Description

F. A. HART.

. COMBINED TYPE WRITING AND COMPUTING MACHINE.

APPLlOATlQN FILED FEB. 23. l9l6.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

I INVENTOR @Mc 4% $414 W TN 5555 N wE WQW COMBINED TYPE WRITING AND COMPUTING MACHINE.

HART.

APPLICATWN FiLED FEB. 23. \Jtj.

Patented Oct. 25], HHH,

2 SHEEIS SHEET 2.

a gl i l a II ll I. |I.\l J tttttt 1 mm H UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FREDERICK HART, 0F NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 UNDERWOOD COMPUT- ING MACHINE COMPANY. OF NEW YORK, N. L, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

COMBINED TYPE-WRITING AND COMPUTING MACHINE.

Application filed February 23, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDERICK A. IIAirr, a citizen of the United States. residing in Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Iinproven'ients in Combined Type-VVriting and Computing Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Thi invention relates to computing machines, and is herein disclosed as applied to a combined typewriting and computing machine of the type shown in the patent to Hanson, 816,319, patented March 27. 1906, and in my Patent 1,188,933, patented June 27, 1916. I

In such machines it has been found advantageous to provide connections such that the pointing otl' between the figures. as between dollars and cents, and between hundreds and thousands, etc., may be done in the regular course of writing numbers. The actual pointing oif, however. involves the operation of comma or period keys at inter vals during the writing of numbers, and consequently the depression of said comma and period keys is likely to be overlooked or to be effected at the wrong place. In the writing, however, of printed numbers such as a typewriter prints. the mechanical connections automatically ctfect the printing of such numbers in vertical lines. irrespective of printing in the pointing otl' spacings, and in actual practice it found that the printing in of commas and periods is unnecessary in most of the work for which such computing machines are used, just as such pointing ott' is unnecessary in ordil'iary bookkeeping in which the bookkeeper keeps the decimal position of the digits by writing said digits between ruled lines, and as a matter of practice, usually omits comn-ias and periods.

The present invention is adapted to relieve the operative of the necessity of printing said commas and periods. and at the same-time provide automatically for whatever spacing may be desired. without compelling the operative to effect said spacing either by the operation of a printing key or the operation of a space bar. To do this, I have found it advantageous to modifv the escapement mechanism and provide for a double letter-feeding of the typewriter carriage in printing the digit immediately to the left hand of the pointing-0H space. I

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 29, 1918.

Serial No. 79,969.

have found it possible to do this in such a manner that the speed of operation of the machine need not be reduced at all. and to accomplish thi effectively I have found it advantagtmus to provide an escipement'in which the usual. loose and "fixed"typewriter escapement dogs are provided, but Lhave found it possible to introduce means whereby, in the proper letter spaces in the computing zone, the loose dog. of the typewriter will selectively have suflicient additional throw to feed the. typewriter carriage the required two letter spaces at a singleopera- 'tion, and yet always have the positive condevice connected with the computing mechanism in such a way that at the proper pointing-01f places said denomination-selecting device will cause said member to modify the action of the loose dog of the typewriter. In the. I nderwood-Hanson machine I have found it advantageous to utilize the column stop which is usually placed to correspond to the denomination selecting dog for operating said member. In order toenable this column stop to effect such an operation while at the same time providing that other column stops shall not be effected thus, a tail may be provided on the column stop which is to control the typewriter loose dog, said tail being absent from the other column stops.

In order to decrease the number of possibilities of error by the'operative, I have found it advantageous to provide that the typewriter carriage shall be arrested by the decimal tabulatiug mechanism only at denominations where numbers are to be written in. and to obtain this. result I have found it merely necessary to omit certain of the usual l nt'lerwood decimal stop plungers. This last modification applies primarily to .ma chines in which the same kind of computation is done in every computing zone; and in some cases, as where a machine is used for con'i niting on one register in dollars and cents, and another in units, tens, huni U U dreds and thousands only, such modification of the decimal tabulator mechanism may be found inadvisable.

Other features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a transverse vertical section of the mechine, some of the partsbeing broken away and others omitted.

Fig. 2 is a detail front elevation of the upper portion of the tabulator sto bracket, showing part of the means for s ipping a space.

Fig. 3 is a skeleton perspective view, showing the toothed bail connected to a shiftable stop member with which a loose do of the escapement cooperates at different times for effecting a single or double space movement of the typewriter carriage.

Fig. 4 is a detail front elevation showing the arrangement and spacing of the selecting jacks and their corresponding thrust rod.

Fig. 5 shows the arrangement and spacing of the register wheels as seen through the sight opening.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary front elevation of the typewriter esca ement and shows the parts set for single fetter spacing.

Fig. 7 is a similar view with the. escapement dogs rocked rearwardly.

Fig. 8 is similar to Fi 7, except that the escapement is set for dou le space.

Fig. 9 is a detail sectional plan view taken 1 on the line 99 of Fi 6, and show the mounting for the shifta 1e stop member of the escapement.

The typewriting machine is of the usual Underwood construction, in which numeral keys 21 and alphabet keys 22, when dopressed, cause key levers 23 to swing about the fulcrum 24, rocking the bell crank levers 25, to swing the type-bars 27 pivoted at 28 upwardly and rearwardly causing the types 29 to print against a cylindrical platen 30, rotatably mounted on the typewriter carriage 31.

The typewriter carriage 31 is under constant tension of a spring drum 32 which tends to move the carriage from right to left. For feeding the typewriter carriage letter-space distances, it. is provided with a rack 34 which meshes with the pinion 35 to rotate an escapement Wheel 36 connected to said escapement wheel by the usual pawl.

This escapement wheel coiiperates with a loose dog 38 and a fixed dog 37 mounted on the dog carrying frame or rocker 39.

The typewriter escapement, except the double spacing feature herein described, is

in many respects like that disclosed in Pat-' cut 7 69.804, to Rice, at al;, and operates in the following manner:

Heels 40 on type-bars 27, as the type-bars rise, strike a curved universal bar 42 pressing it back against the tension of the usual spring 42 to rock the dog rocker 39 rearwardly against the tension of a spring 43, moving the fixed dog 37 into the path of the teeth 44 of the escapement wheel 36, and releasing said escapement wheel from the loose dog 38. The loose dog 38 immediately swings past the tooth 44under the influence of the spring 43 against a lug 45 of the stop member 46. The escapement mechanism is brought back to normal position, as indicated in Fig. 6, on the down stroke of the type-bars. To do this, the spring 43 moves the fixed dog 37, clear of the escapement wheel, thus allowing the adjacent tooth 44 of the escapement wheel to engage with the loose dog 38, with the result that the tension of the carriage spring causes the escapement wheel to carry the loose dog back to normal position against the fixed stop 47 on the dog rocker 39, so that the said loose dog again holds the typewriter carriage.

The stop member 46 is pivotally mounted on a stud 49 rigidly secured to the escapement bracket and held thereon by nuts 50.

To efiect the double space movements at predetermined positions of the typewriter carriage, I have provided means for shifting the'stop member 46, so as to vary the throw of the loose dog 38. In order to vary the throw of the loose dog 38, the edge of the stop member 46 is turned u at one point to form a second extra feed ug or stop 54, and when this lug 54 is in effective position the freeing of the loose dog on the rearward movement of the universal bar will cause the dog to be drawn back by its spring 43 to the next tooth 44 but one of the escapement wheel 36, with the result that the return or forward stroke of the universal bar 42 and dog rocker 39 will feed the carriage two letter-spaces, because the escapement wheel will carry the loose dog 38 along two teeth before being arrested thereby.

This shifting of the stop member 46 1s brought about by a bail 51 which is carried on pivot screws 52 and is connected by av link 53 to bring the stop 54 into position to permit this extra drawin back of the loose dog 38. Said bail is provided with cams 55, which are engaged by the extra long tail 56 of the tabulator stop 56, when the carriage moves transversely of the machine, said stop bein mounted as usual on a stop bar 57 carrier by the typewriter carriage.

The cams 55 are set at distances apart corresponding to the letter-spaces used for pointing off between numbers with the re sult that in writing numbers the typewriter carriage will automatically jump across the pointing-off spaces. even though the numeral keys are depressed as if to write the number without pointing otf,it being as- V of thousands position of the number being written, the carriage with its tabulator stop advances a letter-space distance to thensands position and engages with one of the cams or tappets on the bail 51, thus swinging the latter to shift the stop-carrying member 46 to bring the extra feed lug 54 into active position, so that while the escapement dogs at this time have the position shown in Fig. 6, the stop-carrying member 46 is in the position shown in Fig. 8.

The next digit is the one written in thousands column. When the ty e-bar is swung up to print in the thousan s position, the dog rocker 39 is rocked, causing the loose dog 38 to become disengaged from the es? capement wheel, and allowing it to be moved back the space. of two escapement Wheel teeth to the position shown in Fi 8 under the influence of its spring 43, w ere it is arrested by the stop 54.. On the return stroke of the type-bar, when the dog rocker comes back to normal position, the loose dog 38 will be brought into the path of the adjoining oncoming tooth of the escapement wheel, viz., one tooth farther back than normal. This tooth carries the dog back to normal position against the fixed stop 47 of the dog-carrying member, and owing to the fact that the dog started one tooth farther back than normal, the escapement wheel is only arrested by the dog after traveling one tooth farther than normal; in other words, the carriage is fed an extra letter-space.

The loose dog 38 is provided with a notch 59, to provide for the free movement of the dog which otherwise might strike the side of the intervening tooth 44 on the escapementwheel when the dog rocker 39 is returning to normal position, in giving the carriage the double letter feed shown in Fig. 8.

To return the bail 51 and dog 41 to normal position, there is a spring coiled about one of the pivot screws 52, one end being fastened to the bail 51, and the other end being held by a bracket 61 to which said bail is pivoted.

The bracket 61 is adjustably mounted on threaded rods fast on the tabulator plunger bracket 63, for the purpose of adjusting the cams 55, so that they cooperate with the .tabulator stop at the proper time during the travel of the typewriter carriage. After said cams have been properly adjusted, the bracket 61 is permanently secured to the tabulator plunger bracket by means of lock nuts 64 and 65.

The tabulator is'of the re ular Underwood construction in which t e depression of any key swiugsits lever 71 to move the upper end of its plunger 72 into the path of the tabulator stop 56 on the typewriter car riage, said typewriter carriage being released in the regular way by the plunger 72,

causing the short universal bar 73 to swing about a pivot 74 and rock the carriage release lever 75 which by the usual roll lifts the rack bar 34 pivoted to the typewriter carriage, the link 76 forming a connection between the'universal bar 7 3 and the release lever 75.

For the purpose of making the computing mechanism effective when the typewriter carriage reaches a computing zone, there is mounted on the typewriter carriage the usual adjustable denomination selecting tappet 81 which rocks a series of jacks 82, one at a timeyto move a thrust rod 83 downwardly, which swings a bell crank 84 about a fulcrum 85, causing'one of the linkages 86 to raise one of the computing bars 87, so that the pins88 are brought into-cooperative'relation with the linkages 89.

To set a pin 88 on the computing slide after it has been raised, there is a stem 90 on each number key 21 which, when depressed, rocks a shaft 91 by means of a rock arm 92, thus causing the corresponding linkage 89 to depress one of the pins 88, so that the lower 90 end thereof will enable its computation bar to be driven at the proper time by the horizontal bar 93, forming part of the general operator 94.

The computation is then completed on the 95 computing wheels 98. substantially in the manner described in the said Hanson Patent 816.319, patented March 27, 1906.

The stop member 46, it will be observed, is provided with a long extension 99 form- 100 ing a journal which encircles a long stub shaft projecting from the bracket on which thedog rocker is journaled, thus forming an adequate bearing for the stop member 46 on which it is held by the end locked nuts 100. The link 53 is connected to an arm' 101 of said stop member which lies close to said bracket. and the stops. 45 and 54 of said memberare connected to the journal extension by a double elbow 102.

By an inspection of Fig. 3 it will be seen that certain tabulator plungers, ordinarily used for punctuation positioning in a column of numbers, are omitted. so that there is only one tabulator key for cents, since units of cents are always written with a zero in the tens place. The operative is thereforeunable to arrest the typewriter carriage at a point where it is improper to write a number.

The jacks S4 and their respective thrust; rods 83 are omitted at punctuation points asshown in Fig. 4, so as to make effective the pin setting only when a denominational position in a column of figures is reached. 325 The register or computing wheels 98 are equally spaced with relation to each other, as shown in Fig. Thus my invention provides means whereby registers of uniform construction may be utilized for com- 130 puting numbers however pointed off, and since the jacks 82 may be shifted to the punctuation points. and the rods 83 variably adjusted as described in my aforesaid patent by the simple expedient of inserting a new bail 57, I can alter the punctuation spacing in a machine without altering the register, while at all times the machine is an ordinary typewriting machine outside of a computing zone. 'labulating stops ot' the ordinary kind may be employed for locating the carriage outside of the computing zone, these stops being substantially identical with the stop 56 but lacking the tail, or the stop 56 may be provided with av tail on one prong only. with the result that said. stop may be utilized either in typewriting only, or for computing purposes, by merely inverting it.

I In order to provide for the proper arresting of the typewriter carriage in a tabulating operation, the stop If) is out of the path of the loose dog 38 unless said dog is rocked back by the dog rocker. but turned up edge 54 ot' the dog stop is long enough to always lie in the path of the pin 54 on the loose dog 38, with the result that when the carriage is released from the escapment mechanism by depressing a tabulator key. the loose dog is drawn by its spring so that it turns the escapemeut wheel back two teeth. viz., till the pin 54 strikes the edge 54. Then on releasing the tabulation key, the loose dog receives the *arriage from the stop 56. and lets the carriage step forward about two letter spaces. This stepping forward is offsetby positioning the tabulator stop 56 properly on the carriage relatively to the plungers 72. In practice this may be conveniently done by adjusting the scale used for locating the column stops at), so that the final position of the carriage when released from its tabulator stop will agree with the proper position of the denomination selector tappet 81 relatively to. its scale, and with the usual front scale of the typewriter.

Variations may be resorted to within the scope of the invention, and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described my invention, I claim: v

1. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a totalizer having equally-spaced wheels, of type-writing mechanism including a traveling typewriter carriage for determining how numbers shall be printed by said typewriting mechanism, means for causing said carriage to select the wheels in which computation shall be effected, and means for causing said carriage at predetermined letter-spaces to make a two-letter-space movement to represent a punctuation space in a computation, the connections being such that said carriage in making said two-letter-space movement selects the wheel adj acent to the one just previously selected.

2. In a combined typewriting and computing machine. the combination with computing mechanism, of a typewriter carriage, a denomination selector for said mechanism settable on said carriage, typewriter print-' ing keys adapted to compute in said mechanism. reciprocating escapement devices operated by said keys to cause the carriage to feed letter-space distances, and means adapted to be set on said typewriter carriage in alinement with the denomination selector to cause said escapement devices to feed said carriage two-letter spaces at a single operation of one of said keys.

3. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with computing mechanism, of a typewriter carriage, a denomination selector for said mechanism settable on said carriage, typewriter printing keys adapted to compute in said mechanism. reciprocating cscapement devices operated by said keys to cause the carriage to feed letter-space distances, and a tabulator stop adapted to be set in alinement with said selector for positioning said carriage, said stop including means for causing said typewriter carriage to be fed two letterspaces by said escapemcnt devices at a single operation of one of said keys.

4. In a combined typcwriting and computing machine. the combination with computing mechanism including a denomination selector and computing wheels, of a typewriter ca rriage for causing said selector to be etiective to select said wheels, a tabulating stop adapted to 'be positioned to bring said carriage to rest at a point where said selector will be effective to select said wheels, typewriter printing keys adapted to compute in said mechanism in denominations selected by said selector, reciprocating escapementdevices operated by said keys to cause the carriage to feed letter-space distances, connections from said escapement devices, and an extension of said stop adapted to ope ate said connections, to cause said escapement devices to feed said carriage.

two letter-spaces at a single operation of one of said keys.

In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with computing wheels and a typewriter carriage, of connections including unequally-spaced jacks, whereby said carriage is adapted to select said wheels, a denomination selector carried by said carriage for operating said jacks to efl'ect said selection, typewriter numeral keys adapted to determine how far said computing wheels shall turn, and conneetionswhereby said keys cause said carriage to select adjacent jacks at any operation of said keys.

6. In a. combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with computing wheels and numeral keys, of a typewriter carriage, a denominational selector for said wheels settable on said carriage, jacks on which said selector is effective to select said wheels, certain of said jacks being at the normal spacing of one letterspace apart, others being two letter-spaces apart, escapement devices for said carriage adapted to normally feed said carriage one letter-space at *ach de1in'ession of a numeral ke between norinallv-spaced jacks. and connections whereby said carriage is fed by said escapement devices two steps at a time between jacks spaced two spaces apart.

7. In a combined tvpewriting and computing machine, the combination with computing wheels and numeral keys, of a typewriter carriage, a denomination selector for said wheels settable on said carriage, spaced jacks 011 which said selector is effective to select said wheels, certain jacks being spaced two letter-spaces apart. others being spaced the normal one letter-space apart, escapement devices for said carriage adapted to normally feed said carriage one letterspace at each depression of a numeral key, a. tabulating stop adapted to be set on said carriage in aliuemcnt with said denomination selector, and connections whereby said stop is adapted to control said escapement devices, to cause said devices to feed said carriage two letter-spaces between jacks spaced two letter-spaces apart, and permit said carriage to feed single letter-spaces between normall v-spaced 'jacks.

8. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with computing wheels, of a typewriter carriage, a denomination selector for said wheels settable on said carriage, spaced jacks on which said selector is effective to select said wheels, certain jacks being, spaced two letterspaces apart. others being spaced the normal one letter-space apart, escapement devices for said carriage adapted to normally feed said carriage one letter-space at each depression of a numeral key, a tabulating stop settable on said carriage in alinement with said denominational selector, a bail adjacent the line of travel of said step, tappets on said bail, and an extension on said stop Copies 0! this patent may be obtained for adapted to operate said bail by said tappets, to cause said escapement devices to feed said carriage two letter-spaces, said tappets being so located that they cause the typewriter carriage to feed single letter-spaces between norn1allv-spaeed jacks, and double letter-spaces between said jacks spaced double letter-spaces apart.

9. In a combined tvpewriting and computing machine. the combination with a totalizer having eqiuilly-s 'niced wheels, of typewriting mechanism including a traveling typewriter carriage for determining where numbers shall be printed by said tvpewriting mechanism. means including jacks and a denomination selector for causing said carriageto select the wheels in which computation shall be effected, a tabulating stop for positioning said carriz'ige, and means operated b said stop for causing said carriage at predetermined letter-spaces to make a two letter-space movement to represent a punctuation space in a computation. the connections between the jacks and wheels being such that said carriage in making a two letter-space movement selects the wheel adjacent to the one previously selected.

10, In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a traveling carriage and a denomination selector settable thereon, of equally-spaced computing wheels adapted to be selected by said selector, according to the position of said carriage, tabulating stops for positioning said carriage, unequally-spaced jacks whereby said selector selects said wheels, an escapement device for said carriage adapted to feed the carriage single letter-space intervals, a connectionwhereby said escapement device may-feed the carriage two letter-space intervals, one of said tabulating stops in alinement with said selector, comprising a tail adapted to operate said lastnamed connection. to cause a two letterspace feeding, and another tabulating stop adapted to be set out of alinement with said selector and always ineffective on said lastnamed device.

FREDERICK A. HART.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR A. JoHNsoN, EDITH B. LIBBEY.

five cents each, by addressing the Gommhlioner o! lntentl, Washington, D. 0."

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