US1916969A - Accounting means - Google Patents

Description

Y s. K. DECKER ET AL 1,916,969

ACCOUNT ING MEANS Filed June 20, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 m W M E6 C 67 8 E awvento'c y 1933- s. K. DECKER ETAL 1,916,969

ACCOUNTING MEANS Filed June 20, 1929 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIGB.

July 4, 1933. s. K. DECKER El AL ACCOUNTING MEANS 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed June 20, 1929 FIGS.

July 4, 1933.. s. K. DECKER ET AL.

ACCOUNTING MEANS 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed June 20, 1929 MA W W 951, fig

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Fate-med July 4, 1933 SHERVIIN K. DECKER AND GORDON ROBERTS, OF LOS ORS T0 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, OF

A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK ANGELES, CALIFORNIA ASSIGN- NEW .YORK, N. Y.,

ACCOUNTING S Application filed June 20,

The invention concerns mechanism designed to extend the utility of mechanical accounting systems of the perforated card type and has for its principal object the provision of devices facilitating the use of perforated cards as ledgers in businesses which have large numbers of small accounts.

An equally important object is the provision of such mechanism which permits statements, bills or invoices to be prepared directly from such perforated ledger cards by the use of well known types of tabulatmg machines thus obviating the necessity for clerical work in the preparation of such statements.

The present application is a continuation of the inventors prior application Serial No. 217,620, filed September 6, 1927.

The invention, while adapted to various uses, will be illustrated and described in connection with the accounting system of a public utility corporation supplying services 1n connection with water, light, power, gas and the like. It is customary to install meters on the premises of users of water, electricity and gas on which the consumption of these several commodities is registered. An employee of the corporations makes periodic visits to read the meters, entering the readings in a meter read book which forms the book of ori inal entry. This book shows the last previous and present readings of the meters and the difference between the two, representing the consumption of the commodity during the selected period. According to the present. invention it is proposed to form perforated ledger cards from these books of original entry. The ledger cards are punched in differential locations. in the well known manner, to represent different data and ordinarily a single card is prepared for the consumption of each commodity by each consumer during the accounting period. Thus each ledger card is punched with identif ing data of the consumer, identifying data 0 the particular commodity, present and revious readings of the meter, the diflerence etween the readings, representing consumption during the period, and the amount due for this consumption.

1929. Serial No. 372,367.

These punched cards constitute the sole ledger and obviously present all the advantages for auditing and statistical purposes which usually result from these mechanical accounting systems.

The statements, bills or invoices which are sent out to consumers at the end of the accounting period may be prepared directly from the perforated ledger cards. Each consumer may have a card for gas consption, another for water consumption and a third for electricity consumption. The cards of each consumer are collected by the well known perforated card' sorting methods and the several groups passed'through a tabulating machine to prepare the bills. In order to save postage it is proposed according to the present invention to prepare these bills on post cards although, of course, the system is not to be limited to this manner of operation. Suitable feeding mechanism is provided to feed the post cards to the printing mechanism of the tabulator while the perforated ledger cards are fed through the accounting section. The tabulator is provided with mechanism to accumulate data from successive cards until certain classification data changes, whereupon accumulating ceases until a total is taken of the items in the particular classification group.

Each customers ledger cards constitute a different classification group. The post cards are fed to the platen of the tabulating machine by special feeding mechanism and the present reading, previous reading, consumption and amount due for the consumption are printed on the post card from each perforated ledger card. Incidentally the amount due is entered into an accumulator and at the end of the card group the total of the amountdue for the particular consumer whose cards constitute the group is also printed on the post card. The line spacing for the several items on each post card is obtained from the usual line spacing mechanism ofthe tabulator and at the end of the group, after the total for the group has been printed, the special feeding mechanism feeds the printed post card out of the machine and feeds a blank post card into printing position. to receive printed data from the following card group. Thus the consumersitemized bills are obtained in convenient form directly from the ledger without any clerical or copying work.

The particular method of handling the ledger cards may vary. Ordinarily after the statements or bills are made and mailed the ledger cards are placed in a special container and as each bill is paid its particular ledger cards are withdrawn from the special container. and placed in the permanent file. At the end of a certain period of time all the ledger cards remaining in the special container which new represent overdue accounts are again run through the tabulator and special follow up notices are printed from them in the same manner as the original bills were printed. These ledger cards are then re placed in the special container and removed as before when the bills are paid. At the end of another period of time the ledger cards still remaining in the container may be again run through the tabulator to print special shut-0d notices.

Another form of accounting might be employed in which the original bill, follow up and shut-off notices would be printed in one operation on the original passing of the ledger cards through the tabulating machine. The number of follow up and shut off notices which are actually needed is small, however, and the former method is preferred.

The invention will now be explained more explicitly in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

Fig. 1 shows a tabulatingcard punched ,to form a ledger according to the invention;

Fig. 2 shows a post card arranged as a bill and having amounts and totals printed from certain perforations of cards similar to that shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 shows a tabulator arranged to prepare bills as in Fig. 2 from ledger cards as in Fi 1 Fig.2 is an enlarged section on line 4.4 of

Fig 3; F ig. 5 is an enlarged section on line 5-5 of Fig. 6 is an end elevation from the right of Fi 3 as indicated by line 3-3;

Fig. 7 is a detail of the usual line spacing device for the platen of the tabulator;

Fig. 8 is a detail of a special platen operating device for efi'ecting certain spacings necessary to the present system;

Fig. 9 is a plan view of the special bill feeding device according to the invention and illustrated at the right in Fig. 3;

Fig. 10 is a circuit diagram of a complete tabulator on which bills or statements may be prepared according to the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1 a ledger card is shown which is punched to represent all the data pertaining to consumption of electricity for aeiaaee light for a certain consumer during an accounting period. This card is of well known form and carries indicia arranged in columns to represent the numerals from 0 to 9. The card is prepared from the meter read book and the book is identified by perforations in columns 13 to 16. The class of service, in the present case light, is represented by a perforation in the one position of column 17. A card dealing with Water or power would be represented by a perforation in the two or three positions respectively of this column. In columns 19 to 29 are punched the present and previous meter readings and in columns 30 to 34 the diderenee, showing consumption of electricity for light during the period. This data is all taken from the meter read book. Columns 35 to 40 are punched to represent the amount due for the consumption shown in columns 30 to 34 and columns 42 to 45 are punched with a number identifying the consumer. This last number is the same for each card belonging to the consumer so that by means of it the consumers cards may be sorted into groups and the data from each group separately added by a tabulating machine to obtain complete individual bills for the different consumers.

In Fig. 2 a bill in post card form is shown Which has been prepared on a tabulating machine from ledger tabulating cards. similar to that shown in Fig. 1. The ledger cards are sorted into consumers groups, in the present instance consisting of a light consumption card followed by a water consumption card. By mechanism which will be hereinafter described a blank bill post card is first fed to the platen of the tabulating machine so that its first printing impression from a particular consumers group of cards will occur along the line designated Light, the printing impression of the second card of the group will occur along the line designated Water. Cards for other commodities could be handled in a similar manner. At the end of the card group the total of the amount is printed along the line designated Due. The amount is the only total printed, as, of course, the totals of the other items would .be meaningless. Preferably the 0st card is scored orperforated as at to divide it into two readily detachable portions of which the left hand portion may constitute the consumers receipt and the right hand portion the cashiers stub. The amounts due and their totals appear on both portions of the bill and hence this series of items and totals must be printed from the same columns of the ledger tabulating card from two different sets of type as will be hereinafter disclosed.

A tabulator of well known type which is fully illustrated and described in the patent to Daly and Page, No. 1,762,145, dated June 10, 1930 is shown in Fi 3. The machine as usual is provided wit a tabulating card feed section illustrated at C, an accumulating section illustrated at D and a printing section illustrated at E which is provided with special feeding mechanism for feeding the bills or post cards. The printing section contains type bars coordinated to the counters so that the several amounts entered into the counters and the totals thereof may be printed. In the present example those columns of the ledger cards which-contain perforations representing present reading, previous reading and consumption are each connected with an accumulator or counter so that the data may be printed from .the associated printing bars.

These particular counters are arranged so that they will not total print as anaccumulation of these particular figures would have no meaning. Those columns of the ledger cards which contain the amount perforations are connected with two separate counters so that the itemized amounts and their totals may be printed both on the consumers receipt portion and the cashiers stub portion of the bill card. The columns of the ledger card containing the perforations of the bill number which identify .the consumer automatically control the tabulator so that it will remain in operation as long as the card group of each customer is passing and cause it to print the total at the end of the group before accumulating starts on the following 'group.

The general arrangement of the post card or bill feeding mechanism is most clearly illustrated in Fig. 5. The platen of the tabulator is shown at 20 and opposite it, arranged for vertical movement, are the type bars 21 each of which carries a type head with ten type 22 representing the digits from O to 9. A rock shaft 23 rocks first clockwise and then counterclockwise during each printing cycle, both listing and total taking, to first raise the different type 22 successively to printing position opposite the platen and then lower the type bar to home position. The perforated ledger cards are fed through the card feeding section synchronously with the movement of the type bars and suitable analyzing mechanism causes difi'erentially timed electric impulses according to the location of "the perforations in the several card columns. These impulses control electromagnetic devices to arrest the upward movement of the type bars so that the type corresponding to the perforations are stopped in printing position andat a certain time hammers 24 are tripped to force the selected type against the platen 20 and cause printing. This is the listing operation. The total printing operation is entirely similar except that the differentially timed impulses which arrest the type bars originate from. devices which feel out the positionoi the counter wheels and time the impulses according to the accumulated amounts standing on the coun-' fed one by one by means of a reciprocating picker 27 operating on the lowermost card of the stack. The picker operates on a total taking and reset operation and feeds the lowermost card into the bite ofrolls 28.' These rolls are also operated only on a reset and total taking operation but on this first card feeding movement they do dot actually operatetofeed the card. On the following reset and total taking operation the rolls 28 feed the card into the bite of a second set of feed rolls 31. The rolls 31 alsooperate' during reset and during the third reset operation feed the card to the platen 20, in position to receive the first line of printing. After the. operation is once started each reset and total taking operation feeds a fresh card to the platen. in addition to its usual line spacing movement is given an extra movement on total taking and reset so that after the total is printed the card is fed into constantly running eject rolls 32 and 33 which deliver it to a discharge receptacle 34. These operations and the mechanisms for eifectin g them Will be described in detail. hereinafter but first the usual linespacing devices for moving the platen (luring listing will be briefly explained.

The rock shaft 23 (Fig. 5) rocks clockwise during each listing cycle and an arm 35 fixed thereto carries a pin 36 which rocks a frame 37 counterclockwise about its pivot 38. A link 41 pivoted to frame 37 is thereby lowered and rocks a lever 42 (see Fig. 7) about its pivot 43. The lever 42 has a pin and slot connection With a lever 44 freely supported on platen shaft 45. The lever 44 carries a spring pressed pivoted pawl 46 which coopcrates with a ratchet wheel 47 fixed to shaft 45 and thereby feeds the platen one line space after each listing printing operation. This mechanism as usual serves to space the post card bills one line space after each item is printed on them.

The special feeding mechanism which operates aftertotal printing to feed the printed bill free of the platen and to feed a fresh card bill to the platen is detailed in Figs. 4, 6 and 9. In Fig. 6 the total print shaft which makes one revolution on each total printing and reset operation is shown at 51. During the first half of its revolution total printing is etl'ceted and during the last halfof its revolution the counters are reset to 'zero. The picker and the several special feed rolls are operated from this shaft during the last half of its revolution so that the special bill feeding operation occurs after total printing. A,

disk 52 is fixed to shaft 51 to operate apitman The platen 53 of adjustable length. The pitman reciprocates a rack 54 guided in. a grooved block 55. The rack meshes with a gear 56 to which is fixed an arm 57 carrying a pivoted pawl 58. This arrangement, on rotation 'of the total print shaft 51, causes gear 56 to rotate substantially one third of a revolution in a counterclockwise direction and then one third of a revolution in a clockwise direction. Free pivotally connected at one end to the, picker 27, is pivotally connected at the other end by an eccentric pin 100 to a disk 101 fixed to the shaft 65. A gear 102 (Figs. 6 and 9) fixed to the shaft 65 is driven through a gear train from the gear 61 as previously described. The sprocket connection to the platen 20 (see Fig. 8) includes a one way clutch 62a so that the platen may be line spaced by the usual line spacing mechanism without interference from this special drive.

The lower rolls 28 are mounted on the shaft 65 which carries the eccentrics for picker operating links 63 (Figs. 4 and 6). Fixed to shaft 65 at the opposite end from gear 102 is a similar gear meshing with a gear 103 (Fig. 4). Fixed to this gear is a sprocket 66a (:0- operating with a chain through which is driven a sprocket 66b fixed to a shaft 104. The roll 31: (Fig. 6) is fixed to the shaft 104. The constantly running eject rolls 32 and33 are driven by a special motor 67 (Fig. 3) through a belt and pulley arrangement shown at 68 in Fig. 4. In this latter figure the driving shafts of reject rolls 32 and 33 are shown at 71 and 72 respectively.

' The operation and coordination of these mechanisms will be briefly explained in connection with Figs. 5 and 6. Assuming that a stack of post cards has just been placed in the hopper .26 it is first necessary to effect three reset operations of the tabulator to bring the lowermost one of the stack in 0 its first printing position on the platen 20. The. first reset operation on rotation of shaft 51 first moves rack 54 upward to the right and rotates gear 56 counterclockwise to bring pawl 58 into cooperation with one of the notches in disk 62. Then as the rack moves downward to the left gear 56-rotates clockwise and pawl 58 rotates disk 62 and attached gear 61 a third of a revolution. Owing to the three to one gear ratio this causes-picker 27 to make one complete reciprocation and special feed rolls 28 and 31 to make one revolution. The picker 27 therefore feeds the lowermost card bill 25 into the bite of rolls 28. On the next reset operation rolls 28 feed this first hill to the bite of rolls 31 and the .picker 27 feeds the next bill to rolls 28. On the third reset operation the first card bill is fed into printing position on the platen.

After this the several items may be printed on the bill from the tabulating ledger cards. After each item the platen is stepped one line space by the, usual 'line spacing mechanism. This line spacing has no effect on the special bill feeding device owing to the presence of the one way clutch in the latter shown in Fig. 8. After the first customers tabulating cards are itemized and totaled the reset operation causes the special feeding mechanismto again function whereby the movement of the platen feeds the printed bill to the constantly running reject rolls 32 and 33 which deposit it in the discharge container 34. Incidentally a blank post card bill is fed to the platen.

The operation of the complete machine so that the previously described printing and adding operations may be accomplished will now be explained in connection with Fig. 10 which shows a simplified but substantially complete circuit diagram of the tabulator disclosed in Patent No. 1,762,145 previously mentioned. During adding and listing operations the tabulator is driven by the tabulating motor TM which is controlled by a group of circuits and relays in the upper right hand figure of the drawings. During totaling and reset operations the tabulator is driven by reset motor RM controlled through associated. circuits and contacts. Both of these motors are so arranged that the machine performs complete cycles after they are once started. In order that the counters of the machine may be cleared of previous data for starting a tabulating run, the circuits are arranged so that a reset cycle must precede the first adding cycle. As previously explained, three reset cycles are necessary to get the first bill post card onto the platen. To simplify the explanation, it may be assumed that automatic restart switch 81 is open at this time. The three reset cycles may be obtained by depressing the reset key R three separate times, waiting each time until the reset operation is complete. The closure of the contacts of reset key establishes a circuit through the reset motor in series with the total clutch T which is a one revolution clutch serving to clutch the total print and reset mechanisms tothe drive shaft of the motor. Immediately after starting, a cam contact P1 closes, shortcircuiting the initial circuit for the reset motor. Toward the end of the cycle the cam contacts P-l open and. stop the reset motor at the end ofa single reset operation.

After three such operations, card has been fed to the platen receive its first line of printing.

It is now necessary to start the tabulating ledger cards through the machine and owing the first post in position to control relay 83 closing its contacts 83a, and v after the reset operation the circuit of motor control relay 83 is maintained through a stick circuit controlled by relay 85 and including automatic control contacts 91a. It might be mentioned that in order to make the explanation clearer, Where relay magnets and their respective contact points are disassociated,

the relay magnets have been given a reference numeral and the contact points have been given the same reference numeral with a. letter suflixed. This does not apply to contacts which are operated incidental to a mechanical operation controlled by a magnet such, for example, as the functioning of the adding magnets 92 which control the opening and closing of contacts 93 and 95 respectively, incidental to the operation of the counter clutch by the magnet 92. After one card feeding cycle the machine stops because the automatic control system is not yet in operation as no card has reached the lower brushes and the failure of the automatic control contacts 91a to make during the cycle breaks the circuit of the motor control relay 83 opening its contacts 83a to stop the tabulating motor TM at the end of the cycle. At this time another reset cycle is necessary to again energize the motor control relay 83 and one of the three previous ones serving 9 to feedthe first post card to the platen may profitably be saved until this time to avoid unnecessary machine operations. The

switches 81 and 82 may now be closed so that at the end of each card group automatic totaling will be initiated and after the totaling the machine may automatically start tabulating on the following card group. The start key ST is now again depressed to feed. the first card to the lower brushes of the machine whereupon the machine remains in continuous operation, totaling at the end of each card group being initiated by contacts 86 which close as soon as tabulating and card.

feed ceases and cam contacts L-1 which close 9 toward the end of each tabulating cycle. Au-

tomatic restart is controlled through the cam contacts P-1 which close, toward the end of each totaling cycle and which are inparallel with the start key contacts ST so that their closure has the same effect as depressing the start key. These operations are well understood and need not be further explained.

The group control unit indicated at GO serves to keep the machine in tabulating operation as long as classification data in selected columns does not change in successive cards and to interrupt tabulating when this data changes. 45 (see Fig. 1) of the tabulating cards has been selected for the group control data, this data in the present case being the bill number which identifies the several customers. The lower brushes LB corresponding to these columns are plugged to the four lower control magnets 91 and plugging for group control is completed through the four corresponding upper brushes UB. As the cards with their perforations pass the upper and lower brushes the magnets 91 will be energized. at some time in the cycle when the perforations in the columns 42 to 45 agree In the present case, columns 42 to and at least one of these magnets will remain deenergized throughout the cycle when the control perforations in cards under the upper and lower brushes fail to agree. Whenever a magnet 91 is energized during the cycle, its contacts 91a close and remain closed until toward the end of the cycle. These contacts 91a are wired in series with each other and the particular ones selected for group control are connected in parallel with the cam contacts C1 included in the circuit of the motor control relay 83. The contacts C-1 open each tabulating cycle after the tabulating operation is complete but before the time of opening for"the contacts 91a. If all contacts 91a'which are plugged for contacts C open, another adding and listing cycle ensues while if any pair of these conautomatic control are closed when the cam tacts 81a is open when the contacts C open,

motor control relay 83 is deenergized opening its contacts 83a and stopping the tabulating motor TM whereupon automatic total ingkensues.

eferri-ng again to Fig. 1, columns 19 to 34 of the tabulating cards are to be printed but not added. For this purpose the lower brushes LB corresponding to'these columns are plugged to counter magnets 92. As the cards pass the lower brushes their perfora tions cause differentially timed impulses to pass through the counter magnets and enter the numbers represented by the perforations j ontothe associated counters. Energization of the counter magnets 92 automatically breaks their own circuits through contacts 93 and makes the circuit of printer magnets 94 throughcontacts 95. This gives the dif ,ferential operation for arresting the type bars shown in Fig. 5 in proper position to print the numbers, the type bars being controlled by magnets 94. The total is printed from totaling contacts 96 which cooperate with stepped cams on the counter wheels and are rocked during totaling to feel out the position of the cams thereby energizing the printing magnets 94 at differential times in I accordance with the data'standing on the counter. Each counter is provided with a zero button 97 controlling the total printing circuits so that these circuits may be cut out of operation if total printing is not desired. In the present case totals of the quantities in these particular columns are not desired so the zero buttons 97 for the particular counters involved are opened. V

Referring again to Figs. 1 and 2, it will be noted that the data in the amount column is printed twice, once on the-consumers receipt portion of the bill and again on the cashiers stub portion. The lower brushes corresponding to these columns to are therefore plugged to two separate counters so that they may be separately accumulated and printed on the two parts of the bill. The zero buttons 97 of these counters are closed so that the total will be printed on the bill at the end of each group.

The operation of thei machine will now be briefly summarized. The post card bills 25 are first placed in the hopper 26 and the corresponding tabulating ledger cards are placed in the card feeding section of the machine. Three reset cycles and two card feeding cycles are then initiated through the reset key R and the start key ST. The card feeding cycles serve to feed the first card under the lower brushes and the reset cycles serve to feed the first post card into printing position on the platen 20. The machine is now started in automatic operation. As long as a single customers group of cards is passing, the automatic control contacts 91a maintain the tabulating motor in operation so that the data from each card is printed on the bill. At the end of the card group the automatic control contacts 86fail to close,

adding operation is interrupted and total taking operation instituted whereuponthe total of the amount is printed on the bill.

Directly after total taking, the bill post card is fed to the discharge stack and an inserted fresh bill fed to the platen. At the end of this total takingoperation the machine automatically resumes adding on' the following group of cards whereupon the operation is repeated.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification it will be understood that'variious omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the s irit of the invention. It is the intention t erefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims: We claim:

1. In a; record controlled accounting machine having item accumulating, item re- "cording, and total taking mechanisms, means for feeding individual slips into position to be operated upon by the item recording mechanism, and means controlled by the total taking mechanism for operating said feeding means after item recording operations on one of the slips to feed the slip free from recording position subsequent to a total taking operation.

2. In a record controlled accounting machine having item accumulating, item recording and total taking mechanisms, the, combination of means for feeding successive individual slips into position to be operated upon by the item recording mechanism, and means controlled by the total taking mechanism for operating said feeding means a'fter item recording operations on one of the slips to feed the slip free from'recording position subsequent to a total taking operation and another slip into recording position for subsequent entries. 3. Ina record controlled-accounting machine having accumulating mechanism, total taking mechanism, and recording mechanism for recording both individual items entered into the accumulating mechanism under control of records and totals of an accumulation of items, means for feeding individual slips into recording position and thereafter step by step while in recording position to receive successive item recordings, and means controlled by the total taking mechanism and called into operation by the controlling records for feeding the slips entirely free of recording position subsequent to the recording of a total thereon.

4. In a record controlled accounting machine having accumulating mechanism, total taking mechanism, and recording mechanism for recording both individual items entered into the accumulating mechanism under control of records and totals of an accumulation of items, means for feeding individual slips IlI) into recording position and thereafter step signatures.

SHERWIN K. DECKER. GORDON ROBERTS,-

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