US1769059A - Computing machine - Google Patents

Description

July 1, 1930. F. A. HART COMPUTING MACHINE Filed Feb 16', 1928 E M m m m v @EE? n N. muimwta on m EH35 INVENTOR 3 FK/(1* wnNsssss W have ATTORNEY Patented July 1,1930

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FREDERICK A. HART, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOB, TO REMINGTON TYPE- WRITER COMPANY, OF ILION, NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK COMPUTING MACHINE Application filed February 16, 1928. Serial No. 254,743.

My invention relates to computing machines and especially to combined typewriting and computing machines in which cross footing is done by jumping totalizers.

My invention has forits principal ob ect to provide improved means for proving clearance of two cross totalizers independently of each other.

To the above and other ends my invention consists in certain features of construction and combinations and arrangements of parts, all of which will be fully set forth herein and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the specific embodiment of the invention shown in the drawing a Remington combined typewriting and computing machine is equipped for the writing of public service bills in which on a single line of writing cross computation is made of two different kinds of numbers, namely whole numbers (meter readings) and numbers involving decimals (money). In doing this work two totalizers are mounted on a cross truck one of them acting in certain columns of carriage travel and the other in certain other columns, and one of these totalizers arranged for computing Whole numbers printed solid and the other provided with a space for the decimal point in United States money. Each of the totalizers is provided with its own clearance testing devices, both of which cooperate with the same lock-controlling cam-bar, as will be hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, only so much of the Remington machine is shown as is necessary to an understanding of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a front view with the parts in the positions they occupy at the beginning of the writing of a bill.

Fig. 2 is a similar view of a portion of the mechanism but with the cross truck in a different position.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of a portion of the clearance proof mecha- IllSIIl.

Except as hereinafter pointed out the machine is of the ordinary sort now known commercially as the Remington No. 23 machine. This comprises a Remington No. 12 typewriter on which is mounted the computing mechanism which in its essential design and construction is substantially as shown and described in the patent to J. C. VVahl, No. 1,270,471 dated June 25, 1918. The framework of the actuator of the computing mechanism comprises various vertical front-torear extending frame plates of which three are shown and numbered 1, 2 and 3. The numeral keys of the typewriter, through the usual mechanism, drive a vertical master wheel 4 and a cross master wheel 5. A main truck 6 connected to travel right and left with the typewriter carriage may have any desired number of vertical totalizers or dummies mounted thereon. In the present instance there are shown three totalizers 9, 10 and 12 and three dummies 7, 8 and 11. The cross truck 13 runs back and forth on suitable guides and is intermittently connected with the Vertical totalizers and dummies by means of a pick-up beam 14 having a tooth 15 adapted to engage certain pick-up feet on the vertical totalizers, and said truck is restored to normal position, shown in Fig. 1, by means of the usual spring 16. On the cross truck there are mounted a left-hand cross totalizer 17 arranged for numbers written solid and a right hand cross totalizer 18 arranged for amounts in money. Each of these dummies and totalizers carries a cam 20 which is adjustable up-and-down, said cam cooperating with a follower roller 21 mounted on an arm 22 projecting from a certain rock shaft and connected by well-known mechanism with the change gear mechanism for the cross master wheel 5. The construction is such that the roller 21 is normally spring held in its upper position where it sets the cross master wheel for addition, but when one of the cams 20 runs over this roller, said cam having been set in its lower position, the roller is depressed and sets the cross master wheel 5 for subtraction.

In Fig. 1, I have shown conventionally a fragment of one of the bills for which this particular machine is set up and the columns on said bill will be referred to by the nuinbers on the corresponding dummies and totalizers. In column 7 is written the present meter reading and dummy 7 set high to cause t'ls reading to be into cross totalizer 17. In column 8 is ten the previous meter reading, and the dummy 8 has cam 20 set low to cause to be subtracted totalizer 17, which will then show t the two readings whicn 's the case out or balance is copied 2 Vertical tc alizer has its cam 29 set low to cause the s balance to be subtracted t 1 cross totalizer 17, thus clearing J8 latter. In column 10 is written the amount of the bill for the gas or electricity consumed, as idicatezl in column 9, and totalizer 19 has s cam 2 set hi 'h to cause this amount to LO totalizer 18. 1-11 arrears merged a'-'ainst the customer would be written in column 11 and added into cross totalizer The sum of these two amounts, or the total bill, is written in column 12, whose totalizer has its cam 20 set for subtraction, so that this amount is subtracted from itself in cross totalizcr 18, which should thereby be cleared.

The means for causing the amounts written in columns 7, 8 and 9 to be computed in c oss totalizer 17 and for causing the amounts written in columns 10, 11 and 12 to be computed in cross totalizer 18 may be varied. That shown in the drawing is like that desc ibed in the application of J. H. Edwards filed Mch. 2, 1927, Sr. No. 172,059. According to that construction each of the totalizers 19, 11 and. 12 has a pick-up foot 23 of rdinary construction, so that when one of these totalizers is in computing position the comtalion will take place in totalizer 18,

which is located on the cross truck in the on of a cross totalizer. The totalizer 17 is at the left of totalizer 18 and is therefore displaced leftward several letter spaces f om the ordinary position of the cross totalizer, nine spaces in the particular in nee shown in the drawing. In order to me this totalizer 17 to be operated in the irst three columns, the cross truck in each of hose columns is picked up, not by the total appropriate to the column, but by the next one to the right of it, and these totalizcrs are so spaced that that arrangement causes the cross truck to lag nine spaces behind the Vertical totalizer or dummy that is 1 the computing column at the time. To iis end the first totaliZe-r or dummy 7 has its icl'-up foot ground oil entirely so that it does not pick up the beam 1 1. The pick-up feet are at the back of the totalizers and are i dicated in Fig. 1 by breaking away in front of .heni. Dummy S and totalizer 9 each has its pick-up foot 21 partially ground off so that these two feet project downward but not as far as the regular pick-up feet 23. The pickup beam is controlled in its up and down motion by means of a pin 25 which projects therefrom into a slot 26 in a frame plate 27. In this machine the right-hand end of this slot has been widened upward, as indicated at 28, this wide part terminating in an inclined shoulder 30. The parts are shown in the drawing in the position where they are ready to write in the first column 7. The pin 25 is in the high part of the slot and the lug or tooth 15 is therefore in position to engage the short pick-up foot 21 of totalizer 8. As the carriage steps leftward into column 7 bringing dummy 7 over the master wheel 4;, the cross truck will move with it bringing totalizer 17 over master wheel 5. In that step of the carriage from units to sub-units position the pin 25 will be drawn down the incline 30 into the ordinary part of the slot 26. This will free tooth 15 from foot- 24 and the cross truck will jump back until said tooth is caught on the foot 24 of totalizer 9. Totalizer 9 will draw totalizer 17 over master wheel during the time when dummy 8 is traveling across totalizer 4 and column 8 is being written in. In passing from units to sub-units position of this column the beam 14 will be depressed and freed from totalizer 9 and the cross truck will be jumped back until the tooth is caught on the foot 23 of to'l'alizer 10, which will cause totalizer 17 to travel over master wheel 5 while totalizer 9 is traveling over master wheel 4. At the end of column 9 the pin will be depressed by the incline as before but tooth 15 is now in engagement with a foot- 23 of full length and this depression of the beam will not free the cross truck, which therefore will not jump back at the end of this column but will pass on into column 10, drawing cross totalizer 18 to register with master wheel 5. From here on the operation is like that in any other cross footing machine, the final incline 31 of the slot- 26 being effective to release the cross truck at the end of each of columns 10, 11 and 12. At the end of the last column 12 the cross truck will jump clear back to its righthand position, shown in Fig. 1.

Each of the cross totalizers 17 and 18 is equipped with the clearance testing mechanism described in the patent to A. F. Poole, No. 1,483,679, dated Feb. 12, 1924. This mechanism includes a. finger 32 projecting upward from totalizer 17 and a similar finger projecting up from totalizer 18, these fingers being so controlled, independently of each other, as that when one of the totalizers is cleared the finger swings to a rear posit-ion and a" soon as any number is entered in that tot-a .01 said finger swings forward.

The inccaanis i for cooperation with these fingers is like that cescrihed in my prior application filed Oct. 9, 1925, Sr. 61,471. This application describes what is sometimes called a star proof of clearance mechanism as distinguisaed from the lock proof of clearance mechanism described in the Poole patent and used in the machine described in theEdwards application hereinbefore referred to. A lever 34 is pivoted at 35 to a frame plate or bracket 36 secured to the main framework of the computer actuator, and said lever has an car 37 bent off horizontally rearward therefrom and slotted to en gage in a well-known way an edge of the plate 36 for guiding purposes. Attached to the front face of the lever 34 and; spaced therefrom by posts 38 isa cam bar 40 adapted to be controlled b the fingers 32 and 33 as will be presently escribed, this cam bar differing in its construction from the one described in my prior application above referred to. A lever 41 is pivoted to the sta+ tionar framework at 42, and it has its free right-hand end connected with the lever 34,

preferably by having its end bifurcated as shown at 43 and embracing the ear 37 of said lever 34, the construction bein such that the levers 34 and 41 rock up and own together, being normally held down not only by their own weight but also by a spring 44. The

lever 41 has a depending arm from which a finger 45 projects into a suitable guide slot in the frame plate 2, this finger merely projecting into the slot as indicated in Fig. 1 when the levers 34 and 41 are in their upper positions but projecting through and beyond plate 2 as shown in Fig. 2 when said levers are in their lower positions. When in the latter of such positions the finger 45 does, and

. when in the former of such positions it does not,'obstruct the motion of or lock the upper arm 46 of a bell crank which is pivoted at 47 to the left hand side of the frame plate 2 and which has a rearwa'rdly directed arm 48 connected by a link 50 with the key lever 51 of a so-called star key 52. This key and key lever are simply one of the printing key levers of the typewriter, being connected to a type bar in the ordinary way, and said type bar prints some distinctive sign as a star to indicate clearance of the cross totalizer. It will be perceived that this key is locked when the levers 34 and 41 are down, as shown in Fig. 2, and that it is unlocked and the operator is free to print the star when said levers are up.

The cross totalizer 18 controls the locking of the star key in the ordinary way; that is to say, the cam bar 40 has an incline 53 so 6 located that when after writing the balance in column 12 the cross truck jumps back, if the totalizer 18 is clear and its finger 33 therefore occupies its rear position, said finger will run under the incline 53 and raise the levers as shown in Fig. 1, thus unlocking the star key and permitting the latter to be operated to print the star in the sub-units position of column 12. g

It is desirable, however, also to print the star after the balance in column 9 and in state of the totalizer 17 and entirely irrespective of what may be the condition of totalizer 18 at the time; and vice versa, when the carriage reaches the sub-units position of column 12 the ability of the operator to write the star must depend entirely on the condition of totalizer 18 and not on the condition of totalizer 17. This problem has been solved in the present instance by prolonging the cam bar 40 leftward and making its left-hand end with an incline 54 facing downward and to the right, the lower edge 55 of this bar between the inclines 53 and 54, being at such a height that neither of the fingers 32 or 33 can reach it even when the lever 34 is in its lower position. Preferably the two inclines bear a relation to one another that will be understood from Fig. 2 which shows the parts in the position where master wheel 5'is in engagement with the units wheel of totalizer 17 In this position finger 33 may be in actual contact with incline 53, and finger 32 is a short distance to the right of incline 54. If as indicated in Fig. 2 there is still a number in the units wheel, which number will be subtracted'out when it is written on the paper, the finger 32 will be standing in front of the bar 40 butas soon as the appropriate numeral key is struck and the units wheel is cleared the finger 32 will immediately move back to itsrear position, indicating clearance of the totalizer and the carriage will imme diately' step to sub-units position. In this step of the. carriage, finger 32 acting on incline 54 will raise lever 34 and unlock the clearance proof key 52 which should then be operated to print the star.

It will be understood that at this time the cross truck is under the control of the foot 23 of totalizer 10 and is not released for a jump-back but stepsto sub-units position and remains there. It is therefore possible to unlock the star key for totalizer 17 by the forward stepping of the cross truck whereas it is unlocked for the totalizer 18 by the j umpback of said cross truck.

It will be noted that in Fig. 1 the cross totalizers' are shown in the same position that they would occupy after writing the balance in column 12 and that in this position, the totalizer 18 being clear, cam bar 40 is held up by finger 33 whereas finger 32 is in such a position that 1t can have no influence over the bar 40 whether the totalizer 17 be clear or not. If totalizer 18 were not clear finger 33 would be in its forward position in front of bar 40 and would not have raised the latter. On the other hand, it will be seen that when the carriage makes one step to the left from the position shown in Fig. 2, finger 33 would be unable to influence the key lock whether totalizer 18 was clear or not. Totalizer 17 will unlock the key if said totalizer is clear and its finger 32 is therefore in its rear position. Otherwise said finger would move in front of the bar l0 and not raise it.

Various changes may be made in the details of construction and arrangement without departing from my invention.

\Vhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination with two jumping totalizers each having its own clearance testing device, of cooperating clearance proof mecha nism controlled by the clearance testing device of one of said totalizers on the forward travel of said totalizer and by the clearance testing device of the other totalizer on the jump-hack of said totalizer.

The combination with two jumping totalizers each having its own clearance testing device, of cooperating clearance proof mechanism including a cam actuated by the clearance testing device of one of said totalizers on the forward travel thereof, and an oppositely facing cam operated by the clearance testing device of the other totalizer on the ump-hack thereof.

The combination with two jumping totalizers mounted on the same jumping truck and each having its own clearance testing device. of cooperating clearance proof mechanism including a cam bar having two oppositely inclined surfaces so disposed that one of said surfaces will be actuated by the clearance testing device of one totalizer on the for 'ard travel thereof, and the other incline will be acted on by the clearance testing device of the other totalizer on the jump-back thereof.

t. The combination with two jumping to tali'liers each having its own clearance test ing device, of a star key for printing a clearance sign, a lock for said star key, and means for controlling said lock. said means held in unlocking position by the clearance testing device of one of said totalizers when said totalizer reaches the appropriate position on its forward travel and also held in unlocking position by the clearance testing device of the other of said totalizers when the latter is in its jumped-back position, such holding in both instances depending on the clear state of the respective totalizers.

5. The combination with a traveling carriage having a series of computing column positions, a jumping cross truck having two cross totalizers mounted thereon and means for picking up and releasing said cross truck so that in certain of said columns one of said totalizers will be brought into computing position and in other of said columns the other said totalizer, of clearance proof mechanism including a key for printing a clearance sign. a lock for said key, means whereby one of said totalizers when clear holds said lock in nnloclzied condition at the proper point in the fan rd feed of said cross truck and whereby the other of said totalizers when clear holds said 10'; in unlocked position when said cross truck in its jumped-thick position.

(3. The combination with a jumping cross truck, two totalizers mounted thereon. and clearance testing devices one in each of said totalizers and each of said devices including a finger which stands in one po tion when the totalizer clear and in ano position when the totalizer not clear, of coo 'ierating clearance proof mechanism including a cam bar having a cut-out and having at the ends of said cut-out two oppositely di! cted inclines, one of them in position to be actuated by one said lingers on the forward step of said cross truck to sub-units position of the totalizer having such finger and the other incline in position to be actuated by the other 0 i aid 1" jumps hack toward angers when the trucl: initial position,

T. The con'ibination with two totalizers both mounted on the same jumping cross trucl: and each having its individual clearance testing device, otcoopcrating clearance proof mechanism including a star key, a lock to said key. and a member for controlling d lock. said member having two cam surone acted on by each of said clearance .ng devices.

Signed at the horough of Manhattan, city of Yew York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 15th day of February, A. l). 1928.

FREDERICK A. HART.

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