US1526467A - Tabulating card - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 17. 1925.

C. EHRET TABULATING CARD Filed May 2, 1922v liatented Feb. 17, 1925.

UNITED STATESv PATENT OFFICE.

CLEMENT EHRET, F WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNQR T0 THE TABULATING MACHINE COMPANY, OF'BNDICOTT, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION' OF NEW JERSEY.

TABULATTNG cam).

Application mea may 2,

To all whom z't'mag/ cmcem:

Be it known that I, CLEMENT EHRET, a citizen of the United States of America, re-

siding at White Plains, in the county of 5 Westchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Tabulating Cards, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

In the tabulating machine art it has been the practice to lutilize so-called tabulating cards or sheets which usually, for convenience in reading and punching, are provided with a number of printed amount numerals y or so-called index point designations on the face thereof arranged in columnar arrangement. These cards are placed in a suitable perforating machine and perforations' placed therein to correspond with the data which 20. it is desired to tabulate. Thereafter these `cards may be passed through sorting machines and afterwards through tabulating machines which sense the perforations in the cards and accumulatlece'rtain items .and inl dicate or otherwise record other items which chine and the net result displayed at the end .of the run will be an accumulation of all non-complementary perforations less the total of the amounts Whose complements are perforated in said complementary7 cards. In this way subtracting operations 'can be performed without in any way changing the dey sign or mode of operation of the tabulatin machines themselves which are adapt primarily for arithmetical accumulating oradding purposes.

' The use of these complementary cards has become quite general in this art, but difiiculties have been encountered in that complementary cards are difficult to read and check,

, and their use has therefore led to occasional errors. 'Io eliminate this difficulty in checking complementary cards, various expedients 1922. Serial No. 557,825.

l1ave 'been resorted to. Some of these expedients have'necessitated the'reversal and turning over of the complementary cards relative to the other cards in a group t o view and tabulate the same for complementary readings and such cards further required a modification in the tabulating machine Wlien using such reverse cards. The present invention has for its object the provision of .a tabulating card upon which either accumulative data or datato be subtracted or both can be perforated and in 'which the data to be subtracted can be read directly' from the card without the necessity of involved mental computations upon the part of the operator and without the necessity of reversing or turning the card in Viewing and tabulating complementary quantities.

Referring to the drawings, a typical ernybodiment of a tabulating card embodying myn invention is illustrated. As shown, the card comprises a4 number of fields 10, 11, 12, 13, etc., containing the usual index point printed desi ations 14 and having the numbers increasing in value from the top to the bottom of the card. As thus far described, this is the customary and well known arrangement of a Hollerith tabulating card. Any desired amounts can be perforated in these various fields to designate different classesvof data which are `desired to be tabulated. Certain data can be accumulated and other data may merely be read without accumulating. l

In accordance with my invention there are disposed at any desired position on the card the so-called complementary fields 15 and 16. Any number of these fields may be provided. As shown, there is a field 13 for accumulating quantities and a corresponding complementaryy quantity field. There is also provided an Vamount field' 12 and a corres onding amount complement field 16.

t will be noted that .fthe index point.

printed designations 14b on the two complementary fields are arranged in reverse order to those in the accumulative fields. These printed designations in the complementary fields begin with 9 at the top and successively descend by units to 'zero at the bottom of the card. This arrangement of the complementary designations permits the user to visually read the direct number of which a complement is printed. For example, suppose the operator desires to sub tract the number 96430. The first step is to subtract mentally one unit from the right hand column of the figure and punch the resulting amount, i. e., 96429 in field 15. By comparison with the similarly located printed designations in the accumulating or adding fields 12 and 13, it will be seen that the perforations of field 15 in their location on the card designate a direct amount of 03570. This latter number is the complement of the amountlwhich was initially toA be subtracted, l

thus- 000000 number 96430 complement 03570 f since there is no necessity of going through a mental subtracting operation.

The dual card described provides for both accumulating operations land subtracting operations. -The tabulating machine can be set to add up all of the items in the accumulative field and to subtract all of the amounts visually shown in the complementary fields from the amount standing upon the various tabulating counters-at the beginning ofan operation. This will give net balances.

Amounts can be added to the balance froml which subtractions are made by merely run- .ning an accumulating card through the machine and adding the amounts to the.

counter from which subtractions are being made.

Other uses of the dual card will be readily ap arent to those skilled in the art. hat I'claim isv 1. A tabulatin record sheet having index lementary in the value of the correspondy 111g perforated index point locations relative to the same edge of the sheet as viewed from the same side of the sheet.

3. A tabulating record sheet comprising a plurality of numeral bearing printed fields,

the index oint printed designations of certain of sait fields being arranged in increasing order from the top to the .bottom and the index point printed designations of other of the' fields being arranged in a complementary manner to-the index points of the first mentioned fields as vviewed from thc same side of the sheet for the purpose described.

4. A tabulating card having a field adapted to be perforated and When perforated to be fed t0 a tabulating machine to cause the accumulation of a number corresponding to the relation of the perforations with respect to one of the faces of the card vand means upon the same face of the cardfor indicating the complement of the number corresponding to the particular 'perforations 5. A tabulating card having a field adapted to be perforated and when perforated to v be fed to a tabulating machine to cause the accumulation of a number corresponding to the erforations, and means upon that face of t 1e card `Which leads, when the card is presented to the tabulating machine for data accumulation, for ind-icatim1r the complement of the number` correspon ing to the per'- forations.

In testimony whereof yI hereto affix my signature.

CLEMENT EHRET.

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