US2630271A - Calculator - Google Patents

Description

March 3, 1953 I s. A. AYRES CALCULATOR Filed Jan. 23, 1952 000 I EVE-N 55790 468.

EQUAL o2 OVEQ- ADD! UNDER.

1 4 1 mm y I T I Patented Mar. 3, 1953 CALCULATOR Sarah Ann Ayres, Hermosa Beach, Calif.

Application January 23, 1952, Serial No. 267,828

8 Claims.

This invention relates to calculators of the type in which an inner cylinder with numbers and. other indicia carried thereby is rotated within an outside hood suitably rendered opaque except for one or more windows flanked by other numbers and indicia through which the numbers and indicia on the inner cylinder are successively visible as the inner cylinder is turned. The windowed hood may take the form of an outer transparent cylinder concentric with the inner cylinder and carrying a sheet of opaque paper, in which case it acts also as a protector for the inner cylinder. Or the windowed opaque hood may be protected by a separate overall transparent housing.

It is one object of the invention to so mount the windowed hood that the characters on the cylinder beneath the window may be easily readable irrespective of the angle of the line of sight of the operator with respect to the horizontal plane of the axis of the cylinder.

This invention relates particularly to calculators in which the windowed hood takes the 2 ing the assembled cylinders removed from the support.

form of an outer concentric cylinder carrying a I windowed sheet of opaque paper or other opaque material. It is another object to provide for the ready assembly a nd disassembly of the two cylinders. Interchangeability of outer and inner cylinders thereby is made possible as occasion may require. It is still another object to provide for novel arrangements of the indicia on one or both of the indicia carrying elements to facili-' tate the calculating operation.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a lightweight, inexpensive, sturdily constructed, and attractive appearing calculator possessing convenience of operation and manipulation.

Other objects and advantages will be evident from the following description of the invention and from the appended claims, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing. While the description and drawing illustrate one embodiment of the invention, the invention is not limited to the particular calculator herein shown but embraces all devices coming within thescope of the definitions set forth in the claims.

In the drawing,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a calculator embodying the invention, shown partly in section;

Figure 2 is an end view of the calculator;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the assembled calculator showing one end thereof; and Figure 41s aviewsimilarta Eigure 3, bu-t show- The calculator comprises a support i I, an outer hollow cylinder I 2 and an inner cylinder I3. Each of these three parts of the calculator are shown as a permanently and fixedly assembled whole, and the three parts may be disassembled as three separate bodies without alteration of their structure.

The support or base I I takes the specific form as herein described of an elongated core Id of any suitable material, aS for example wood, presentin in cross section a trough shaped contour as shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4. This core is surfaced on its horizontally flat bottom face with a strip I5 of felt or similar non-slip material and is surfaced over the rest of its longitudinally extending area with a strip IS of metal or other light friction material, affording a wear resisting, relatively low friction supporting surface for ready rotary movement of the outer cylinder thereon, and providing a strong base for the securement of the cylinder retaining holders IT as will later appear.

The outer cylinder 52 is made of a transparent preferably plastic material. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the cylinder I2 serves both to provide a windowed hood movable over the face of the inner cylinder and as a protector for the inner cylinder. This is brought about by fixing to either the inner or outer surface of the cylinder I 2, an opaque sheet which may be formed of a suitable paper having a windowforming opening therein and upon which appears numerals, characters, words, symbols and other indicia pertinent to a particular calculating" operation. In the calculator shown in the drawing, the operation happens to be that of computing the income withholding tax and the federal old age benefit for the full range of salary and Wage payments covered by the federal law in these two respects. The opaque sheet is adhesively bonded to preferably the inner surface of the cylinder I2, to bring the characters closer to the exposed surface of the inner cylinder. This sheet is then preferably protected from wear and tear againstthe inner cylinder by a backing (not shown) of a thin cylindrically shaped sheet of transparent plastic material.

' Although in the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the opaque sheet is bonded to the inner surface of the outer cylinder I2, it is obvious that it could be movably mounted between the twocylinders so that it may be arcuately moved relative to both cylinders to'vary the angular relation of the window therein to the supporting base.

The sheet, referring now to Figure 1, has a cutout longitudinally extending slot l8 reaching across the entire area of the sheet upon which the indicia appear. It may also be formed with a circumferentially extending slot perpendicularly intersecting the slot I8 such as is shown in the drawing and designated by the numeral l9. These slots may, of course, be provided by se curing a plurality of spaced apart sheets of paper to the cylinder instead of by cutting the slots in a single sheet of paper.

In order to clearly set forth the manner of-;operation of the calculator, the particular arrangement of indicia on this sheet for the above named computation will be described. Centrally of the sheet and just above window [8 appears a block of words and arrows as shown to point out :two adjacent circumferential columns on the inner cylinder which, as will be described below, state upper and lower wage limits. To the right of this block appear the numerals to to register with the amounts of withholding tax specified bylaw as the deduction for each number of dependents of the employee from 0 to 1-0 which appear in the window [8 alined with these numerals 0 to 10. To the left of the arrow-marked block appear two blocks of characters above the Window slot I 8 and two other blocks of characters below the window l8 circumferentially alined, respectively, with these upper blocks for computing the federal old age benefit deduction. The upper left hand one of these four blocks has the odd numbers l to 9 and the upper right hand block, the

even numbers 0 to 8. The lower left hand block carries the legend Under 67" and the lower right hand block, the legend Under 34. Un der .both of these legends appear the words Equal or over--add 1. The manner of using these four blocks of indicia will be considered in connection with the description of the inner cylinder.

The inner cylinder I3 is of a diameter to fit snugly within the outer cylinder i-2, with just enough clearance to allow free relative rotation, the inner cylinder resting upon and slida'bly en gaging the bottom of the outer cylinder. This cylinder is shown with circular end walls '26. Its cylindrical surface has adhesively bonded to it a sheet of paper 21 on which is printed the above mentioned two columns of numerals designating wage limits, and on which is also printed ten longitudinally alined rows of figures to the right designating the income tax deductions for ten numbers of dependents, respectively. To the left of the wage limit columns appear ten columns of figures showing the old age benefit deductions for each Wage numerically between the two horizontally alined wage amounts in the wage limit columns. To more quickly orientate a users eye, the directions odd and even are placed, as shown, just above the window and odd and even digits are horizontally arranged intermediate these designations and the window. These digits indicate the unit dollars of a wage earned by an employee. Thus, for instance, if the em ployees wage is $283.75 for a stated period, the wage is an odd or uneven amount and the deduction will be found under the number 3 in the upper left hand block on the outer cylinder, i. e. $4.25 to which, however, must be added 1c making the deduction $4.26 since the direction in the lower left block instructs the operator for wages 4 of odd number of dollars to add 1 if the cents portion of the wage is equal to or over 67.

To facilitate the location of the particular Wage figure for any given employee, a narrow circumferen'tially extended space clear of figures is provided just to the left of the wage limit figures, which thus registers with the circumferentially extended window 19. This space carries a row of colored bands 20, each band corresponding to a given range of wages, as, for instance, a red band for wages from $80.00 to $120.00 for a given wage period. The band of any color, as for instance the red band as shown in the drawing,

may be broken intermediate its ends to indicate an intermediate wage amount as, for instance, $100.00.

.A pair of holder clips I! are secured, as by welding, to the metal strip l6 of the base support. These clips each have an inwardly extending horizontal section 2.2 (see Figure 3) and an upturned ton ue 23 at the inner end of the section 22. The outercylinder 1.2 has secured to its outer surface at each of its ends a curved band 24 which extends outwardly beyond the end face of the cylinder forming a flange, extending over a limited arc of the end edge of the cylinder. The two flanges :24 are longitudinally alined with each other.

The lower face of the section 22 of the clip .2! frictionally engages the inner surface of the flange 24, allowing the cylinder to be manually turned on its base, but holding it, in the absence of manual force, from being dislocated from any chosen position. The ton ues 23 are spaced apart to loosely and non-frictionally engage the ends of the outer and inner cylinders-which are of substantially the same length, and thus prevent endwise movement of the cylinders relative to each other or on the base support H, as long as the holder section 22 holds the outer cylinder against the base. But when the outer cylinder is turned until the gaps between the ends of the [flanges 2 4 are adjacent the holders, the two cylinders may be readily lifted from the base and separated from each other. A pair of knobs 25 is provided on the ends of the inner cylinder for use by the operator in turning it within the outer cylinder and in lifting the cylinders from the base.

The mounting and securement of the two cylinders to the base, as just described, permits the outer cylinder to be turned to place the window t8 perpendicular to the line of sight of the operator, whether the eyes of the operator be level with the calculator, vertically above the calculater, or at an intermediate position. It also permits the two cylinders, toibe readily removed from the .base and readily disassemble-d for making a change of one or the other. For instance, the inner cylinder shown in the drawing has a sheet f paper mounted thereon with deductions suitable for a bi-weekly wage period as indicated at the right hand end of Figure 1. Usin the same outside cylinder, the calculator may be readied for computing deductions from wages or salaries paid on a weekly, monthly, or semi-monthly basis by removing the biweekly inner cylinder and in serting the properly marked inner cylinder in its place.

Iic laim:

1. Ina calculator, the combination of: a support; a hollow first cylinder of transparent material ounted on the support and having a rotary slidable frictional engagement therewith, said-cylinderthereby mounted for angular movement of the cylinder about an axis; a sheet of opaque material secured to one of the surfaces of the cylinder, said sheet having a longitudinally extending window and having longitudinally alined first indicia circumferentially adjacent the window; a second cylinder mounted for co-axial rotation within the first cylinder, with its peripheral surface closely adjacent the inner surface of the first cylinder, the said peripheral surface having marked thereon a circumferentially disposed series of horizontally alined rows of second indicia, the indicia in each row being of a height to be successively and separately readable through said window upon rotation of the second cylin der relative to the first cylinder.

2. The combination defined in claim 1 in which the support is of an elongated trough like shape adapted to rest in horizontal position on a desk or the like with the trough directed upwardly, and is provided with end holders for the first cylinder frictionally siidably engaging the circular ends of the first cylinder.

3. The combination defined in claim 2 in which the first cylinder is provided with longitudinally alined, arcuate, longitudinally outwardly extending fianges, and the said holders extend inwardly toward the ends of the first cylinder and frictional'ly slidably engage the inner surface of said flanges.

4. The combination defined in claim 3 in which the longitudinal axis of said window intersects the gaps of said arcuate fianges.

5. The combination defined in claim 4 in which the first and second cylinders are of substantially equal length, and the second cylinder is loosely supported by and within the first cylinder, and the holders are in the form of clips each anchored at its outer end to the support, thence extending inwardly over and in slidable frictional contact with the inner surface of the corresponding flange and. having at its inner end an axially centrally directed finger engaging the rim of the first cylinder and loosely engaging the circumferentia'lly outer portion of the end face of the second cylinder.

6. The combination defined in claim 5 in which the second cylinder is provided on at least one of its ends with a central outwardly projecting manually operable knob for rotating the second cylinder within and relative to the first cylinder.

7. In a calculator, the combination of a sup- .port; a hollow transparent housing member carried by said support; a sheet of opaque material mounted within said housing, said sheet having a longitudinally extending first window and a circumierentially extending second window intersecting the first window, and said sheet having longitudinally alined first indicia circumferentially adjacent the first window; a cylinder mounted for coaxial rotation within the housing and sheet of opaque material, said cylinder being of a length substantially equal to the length of said housing and mounted with its peripheral surface closely adjacent the inner surface of the opaque material, the said peripheral surface having marked thereon a circumferentially disposed series of horizontally alined rows of second indicia, the indicia in each row being of a height to be successively and separately readable through said first window upon rotation of the cylinder relative to the sheet of opaque material, and the said peripheral surface having additionally marked thereon a circumferentially disposed row of third indicia longitudinally registering with said second window; and means carried at opposite ends of said support and normally interengaging with the opposite end faces of said cylinder and holding said cylinder against longitudinal movement, thereby to prevent retraction of said cylinder from said housing without restricting rotation of said cylinder.

8. A calculator of the type described, comprising: a support; a hollow transparent housing member movably carried by said support; an opaque sheet member formed with a longitudinally extending window mounted within said housing and having a surface facewisely engaging the inner surface of said housing; a cylinder removably mounted for rotation about its axis within said housing; indicia carried on said cylinder and viewable through said window; second indicia means carried by said opaque member laterally adjacent said window and cooperative with the indicia aligned with said window for conveying intelligence; means for angularly displacing said opaque member relative to said axis to vary the angular position of said window relative to said support whereby the line of sight of an operator relative to said window can be varied at the will of the operator; and means carried at opposite ends of said support and normally interengaging with the opposite end faces of said cylinder and holding said cylinder against longitudinal movement, thereby to prevent retraction of said cylinder from said housing without restricting rotation of said cylinder.

SARAH ANN AYRES.

REFERENCES error) The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 731,175 Goodman June 16, 1903 760,360 Wile May 17, 1904 862,232 Benedict Aug. 6, 1907 894,042 OBrien July 21, 1908 1,041,204 Van Renselaer et al. Oct. 15, 1912 2,378,863 Posson June 19, 1945

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