US3037695A

US3037695A - Record bearing instrumentalities

Info

Publication number: US3037695A
Application number: US731737A
Authority: US
Inventors: Arthur H Dickinson
Original assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Current assignee: International Business Machines Corp
Priority date: 1954-04-16
Filing date: 1958-04-29
Publication date: 1962-06-05
Anticipated expiration: 1979-06-05
Also published as: US3112152A; NL196467A; DE1045130B; US2943907A; FR1141387A; US2936112A; GB773967A; GB773966A; NL110582C

Description

June 5, 1962 A. H. DICKINSON RECORD BEARING INSTRUMENTALITIES Original Filed April 16, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l r WWW mmm N u M 0 m W Q A M 0 e W E w U R p m M .A Fll Coma/afar Campu/ing and Printing lmpu/se LOW Vol/age Genera/or gg CONTROL C/RCU/TS Pick up Respanse Compare Respons e June 5, 1962 A. H. DICKINSON RECORD BEARING INSTRUMENTALITIES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,037,695 RECORD BEARING INSTRUMENTALITIES Arthur H. Dickinson, Greenwich, Conn., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New

York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Original application Apr. 16, 1954, Ser. No. 423,774, now Patent No. 2,936,112, dated May 10, 1960. Divided and this application Apr. 29, 1958, Ser. No. 731,737

3 Claims. (Cl. 235-61.12)

In the class of machine popularly known as business machines, cards are employed upon which data are registered, usually by perforations placed at diflerent locations in the cards, the locations of the perforations in the cards with respect to one or more of the edges of the card being the differentiating characteristic whereby the information registered on the card may be utilized by the machine for accounting, computing, recording or other purposes. The conventional card as now employed in such machines has the perforations arranged in columns parallel with the short dimension of the card, the perforations in each column being spaced from one of the longer edges of the card the proper distance for the perforations to register the desired value. Perforated cards such as described are also used in electronic computing machines so that, although the computations performed by such machines are relatively instantaneous, their capacity is limited by the rate at which the cards can be fed through the machine.

, Cards capable of retaining magnetic recordings have also been used, the discrete magnetized areas being located at selected positions in the columns in the same manner as the perforations.

- In utilizing these cards in machines of the kind described, the cards are fed continuously through the machine in a direction parallel with the short dimension of the card past sensing coils which take account of the position of the perforation or magnetized area in the column with respect to the card feed cycle, the elapsed time between the passage of the perforation or ma'gnetized area past the sensing coils and the end of that cycle constituting the factor which determines the number of impulses which are conveyed to the computing section of the machine. With such machines the capacity of the card is limited to the number of columns which the card can contain. Ordinarily some of the columns are used for designating the nature of the numerical data recorded in the remaining columns of the card, so that the actual number of numerical values recorded on each card is slightly less than the number of columns.

My pending application Serial No. 423,774, filed April 16, 1954 for Method and Apparatus for Electronic Computing, now U.S. Patent No. 2,936,112, issued May 10, 1960, discloses a new method of registering numerical values or other data on a card or other recording medium and using such data in machines of the class described in such manner that each separate record on the card, regardless of its position in the column, constitutes a complete record of a predetermined value to be fed into the computing section of the machine, whereby the capacity of the card is not limited to the number of columns which may be provided on a single card, but instead each card will have a capacity equal to the number of insignia which may be placed on the card sufiiciently spaced from each other to individually effect the operation of the sensing mechanism. Thus cards having eighty columns with twelve separate positions in each column will have a capacity of recording twelve times eighty separate values.

Otherwise stated, instead of the passage of each card effecting a single complete operational cycle of the machine, such operation is effected by the passage of a 3,037,695 Patented June 5, 1962 single row of insignia on the card, and assuming the same speed of movement of the cards through the machine, the work done by the machine in the same period of operation is increased twelve fold.

In the above designated application there were also described and claimed certain new record bearing instrumentalities for use in connection with the new method and apparatus, which instrumentalities are the subject matter of this application, and this application is a division of said application Serial No. 423,774, Patent No. 2,936,112. The new record bearing instrumentalities herein described and claimed are also disclosed in my applications Serial No. 423,816, Patent No. 2,779,147, filed April 16, 1954 and Serial No. 423,817, Patent No. 2,774,979, filed April 16, 1954 directed to methods and apparatus for making such instrumentalities.

The new method disclosed in application Serial No. 423,774, Patent No. 2,936,112, may be carried out by an electronic computing machine wherein magnetizable cards such as described in U.S. Patent No. 2,254,931 are employed. Instead, however, of representing the recorded numerical values by the positions of the magnetized areas in the columns on the cards as described in said patent, each magnetized area in itself represents a predetermined value regardless of its location on the card. These differently magnetized areas are produced by subjecting the card in the recording apparatus to the action of recording heads wherein the impressed voltage is caused to build up to a maximum during the recording operation at a difierent rate for each different numerical value or digit. As the cards are fed through the recording machine at a uniform speed and as the total recording time is the same regardless of the rate of voltage increase, the magnetic recordings produced in the cards are difierent for each digit and effect different responses in the computing machine corresponding in value with the differences in the rate of voltage increase.

My improved method of operation may also be employed with computing machines wherein the recorded data are in the form of photographically produced images difierin'g from each other in accordance with variations in the rate of change in the quantity of the light impinging on a light sensitive pick up cell, as will be later described.

My novel method of representing diflerent values for recording purposes by recording such values by symbols capable of generating responsive forces at ditferent rates of increasing intensity may also be employed by photographic means. That is to say, photographic images may be produced on a film or other suitable record from which a responsive of increasing light intensity varying in rate of increase is employed to produce correspondingly different responses in a photo electric cell, and I have disclosed herein a method of utilizing such images in an electronic computing machine of the character referred to above.

My invention will be understood from the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a portion of a card with magnetic recordings indicated by outlines illustrating the envelopes of the impressed voltages;

FIG. 2 similarly illustrates the magnetic recordings for each digit on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the various sections of a computing machine as modified to operate in accordance with my improved method;

FIG. 4 is a length of film showing photographic recordings such as employed in the modified procedure above referred to;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the optical system employed for generating from the images on the film diffen 3 entially increasing voltages in the pick up circuits of the computing machine; and

FIGS. 6 and 7 show details of the system.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates the card feed which continuously feeds the cards past the two rows of

sensing heads

2 and 3, respectively. The sensing heads are connected to the analyzer section of the computing machine which has one or more complete group of analyzing instrumentalities for each column on the card. There is also in the analyzing section for each column on the card a high voltage trigger for controlling the gate through which the successive impulses measuring the digit recorded on the card are transmitted to the computing and printing sections of the machine. The machine has also the usual impulse generator and commutator for making available a predetermined number of impulses for each recording cycle or machine point. The details of one form of the apparatus are completely described in US. Patent 2,936,112, and since they are not pertinent to the present invention will not be further shown or described in this case.

In my application Serial No. 423,816, filed April 16, 1954 there is disclosed a machine for making on the cards the magnetic recordings used in carrying out my improved method. Such magnetic recordings are made simultaneously in all the columns of the card where data are recorded, the recording interval being maintained uniform and also the speed of movement of the card, so that the dimension of the magnetized area of the card is in a line with the direction of movement of the card, that is, the short dimension of the card, is always the same. The voltage impressed on the recording heads is increased from zero to maximum at a different rate for each digit recorded. Thus, in FIG. 2 the period wherein an increasing voltage is impressed on the recording heads is represented by the portion of the symbol wherein the transverse dimension of the symbol is increased at different rates. Hence when the rate of increase in voltage is the smallest, as for the digit the time required for the voltage to be built up to the desired maximum is the longest. With each succeeding digit the period of increasing voltage is shorter and the period of maximum impressed voltage is longer. FIG. 1 illustrates a record card having a plurality of markings as shown in FIG. 2.

One upper coil and one lower coil are usually provided for each column of the card so that the number of columns for the recordings designating the grouping, etc. and the number of columns containing the recordings of the numerical values to be applied to totals previously accumulated in the machine may be modified by varying the connections of the sensing coils to the comparing and computing sections of the machine. Several of the sensing coils in both rows are utilized for sensing the recordings designating the grouping. These recordings in the usual manner determine the disposition to be made of the recorded numerical values. For example, if the digits representing the grouping on the card being fed past the upper sensing coils are the same as the digits representing the grouping on the preceding card, which is sensed at the same time by the lower coils, the numerical values transmitted to the computing section by the sensing coils in the second row will be applied to the previously accumulated totals. If, however, the grouping is not the same on the two cards, the card feed will be stopped when the final row on the first card has been sensed and the printing mechanism will be energized to print the accumulated totals and reset the computing instrumentalities of the columns printed at zero.

As shown in FIG. 3, the two rows of sensing coils are separated by a distance equal to the width of the card plus the distance between two cards so that the same rows in the two cards will be simultaneously sensed by the coils in the two rows respectively. This positioning of the sensing coils is the same as in the IBM machines above mentioned, using perforated cards, and is required in those machines so that all the digits in the columns of the second card representing the grouping will be sensed and transmitted to the comparing instrumentalities of the machine a sufficient time before the perforations representing numerical values to be transmitted to the register orders reach the sensing coils of the second row, to allow for a total print operation in case the recordings on the second card representing the grouping are different from those on the first card.

In carrying out my new method of operation I may use the same grouping response to which end the data will be so recorded on the cards that there will be no change in the recordings representing the grouping on any one card. That is to say, whenever in the preparation of the cards, as, for example, in the machine disclosed in my copending application above referred to, a change in the recordings indicating the grouping is required, no further recordings will be made on the card in the machine but that card will be taken out of the machine and a new card brought into position. Hence, in preparing the cards the operator may, if desired, make the recordings indicating the groupings merely in the bottom row of recordings on the card.

Instead of using the above-described instrurnentalities of prior machines I may in carrying out my new method of operation provide for a comparison between the recordings in two successive rows of the same card or other media, for example, a continuous film such as illustrated in FIG. 6 of the drawings. In such case the spacing of the rows of sensing coils, the spacing of the recordings on the card, film or other medium, and the rate of movement of the medium bearing the recording past the sensing coils are so coordinated that the time between the pick up by the coils connected with the comparing instrumentalities and the pick up by the coils for sensing the recorded numerical values to be transmitted to the register orders is suflicient for the desired operations to take place.

In FIGS. 4 to 7, inclusive, I have illustrated an apparatus for utilizing a record of photographically produced symbols in a manner to obtain predetermined quantitative responses from photoelectric cells and utilizing such responses in an accounting machine of the kind described.

The photographic images employed in lieu of the magnetic recording are shown in FIG. 4. A method and apparatus for producing such images is disclosed in my above-identified application. The film section shown carries images for three orders, the numbers selected being in the direction of film travel 987, 654, 321 and 098. It will be observed that the images representing the several digits differ from one another in a manner similar to the wave envelopes representing the magnetic recording shown in FIG. 2, that is to say, the image for digit 9 is of trapezoidal configuration with its leading edge at a small angle to the horizontal and the leading edge of the image for each succeeding lower digit has its lower edge at an increasingly greater angle. The responses produced in the photo-electric cells are of increasing intensity, the rate of increase being proportional to the slant of the leading edge of the image, as will now be described.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic showing of the principal parts of a projector unit required for sensing the data on the film. In general, as shown in FIG. 5, the film F comes from the supply reel 8, around idler pulley '9, under idler pulley 10, over sprocket 11, under idler pulley 12, around idler pulley 13, and is wound up on the take up reel 7.

As shown in FIG. 7, the right end of sprocket 11 has an integral gear portion which meshes with a gear 16 on the drive shaft which is driven continuously. The left end of sprocket 11 has projecting teeth which engage the perforations in the film on one side only. The film, as it goes around the sprocket 11, is supported on one side by the sprocket 11 and on the other side by a roller 17 which is axially in line with sprocket 11 and the same 5 diameter. The center portion of the film is thus unobstructed and light can be directed through the film as Will be later explained. As the film describes a curved path around sprocket 11 and the roller 17, the film is rigid and does not tend to buckle in the center.

As the film passes over sprocket 11 (FIG. 5), a point on the film first passes the position 14 which corresponds to the upper sensing coil, and later advances to position 15. This corresponds to the lower sensing coil station.

Light from a concentrated arc light 18 is condensed into a line of light across the film at the position 14 by means of two cylindrical lenses 160 and two spherical lenses 170. The position 14 is imaged by the projection lens 180 on a mask 19 containing a slit 2% through which a portion of the projected image may pass to the photo cell 26 immediately behind the mask. The quantity of light thus received by the photocell depends on the position of the projected image with respect to the slit. See FIG. 6. In this figure the projected image 21 (illuminated) falls across the slit 20 and the area 22 represents the light falling on the photocell beneath the opaque mask 19. It may be seen as the image moves in the direction of the arrow of light falling on the photocell will increase at a rate which represents the digit value. Similarly the image on the film in passing point 15 is projected on the mask 23 and then passes through the slit 24 and falls on the photocell 25 in the row corresponding to the second row of sensing coils above described. It will be understood that there are one photocell 26 and one photo cell 25 for each column of images on the film.

The specific embodiments of the invention herein described may of course be variously modified in carrying out my improved method of operation the essential features of which are the provision of recordings which give different responses by virtue of their inherent character- 6 istics and not by virtue of their position on the medium carrying the recordings. It is to be understood, therefore, that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed, but includes all such modifications thereof as fall within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Data storage means comprising a record medium having a plurality of data-representing locations thereon, and a discrete data element at each of said locations, each of said discrete data elements comprising a recording of fixed length and consisting of a first and a second portion, said first portion having a detectable characteristic vari able betwen a first and a second magnitude at one of a plurality of different rates, said second portion having a detectable characteristic of said second magnitude and having a predetermined length representative of the value assigned to said data element.

2. Data storage means as claimed in claim 1, in which the recording is a magnetic recording in which the intensity of magnetization constitutes the detectable characteristic.

3. Data storage means as claimed in claim 1, in which the recording is an opaque area in which the detectable characteristic is the width of the area.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,224,646 Friedman et a1. Dec. 10, 1940 2,247,905 Bryce July 1, 1941 2,272,366 Dickinson Feb. 10, 1942 2,362,004 Heidinger Nov. 4, 1944 2,673,033 Gruver Mar. 23, 1954 2,704,187 Beach et al. Mar. 15, 1955 2,779,540 Hoeppner Jan. 29, 1957