US512929A - Cash-register - Google Patents

Description

(No Mode.)

J. A. WILLIAMS.

CASH REGISTER.

No. 512,929. Patented Jan, M1189@ Juve/nto@ UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

.lOl-IN A. lVIIiLIAMS, OF BATH BEACH, ASSIGNOR TO THE ADAMS rb SONS COMPANY, OF BROOKLYN, NFY YORK.

CASH-REGISTER.

SPECIFICATION forming` part of Letters Patent No. 512,929, dated January 16, 1894.

Application tiled September 25, 1893. Serial No. 486,404- (No model.)

T0 all whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that I, JOHN A. WrLLrnns, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bath Beach, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cash-Registers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to cash registers, and has for its obj ect the simplification and cheapening of the construction, and also the production of a machine which can not be readily read by unauthorized persons.

In the diawiiigs,-Figu1e l is a front face view; Fig. 2, a rear face view; and Fig. 3, a vertical sectional view (on the line 3h53 of Fig. 2) of my improved register; and Fig. 4, a diagrammatic view of the register wheels, illustrating the method of reading the register.

A indicates the case of the machine having on its front face the dial B, and being left open or covered with glass or other material on its rear face. The frame er case may be made of drawn steel, or any other suitable material, and of most any desired form or shape. The dial B is divided into one hundred spaces, each representing, in the presentinstance, one cent, and opposite each fifth mark or graduation is placed a number,a multiple of five. In the front wall of the case there is a row of small holes or openings, a, which pass entirely through said front wall and the dial B, there being one hole for each cent mark or graduation on the dial.

O indicates a hand or pointer carried by a shaft D which is journaled at its front end in the front plate of the case, and at its rear end in a bar or plate E secured to the case but set away from the (rear face of) front wall 5 the said hand or pointer being adapted to be moved over the face of the dial to indicate, in cents, the amount of the purchase. In order to prevent the hand from being accidentally carried too far, and the clerk registering in excess of the purchase, I provide a pin l), Figs. l, 2 and 3, which when inserted in one of the holes a, serves as a stop to limit the movement of the hand. In Figs. 1 and 2 the pin is placed in the hole a, that is, opposite or in line with the thirtysseven cent mark, and hence the hand C will be stopped at that point, as the pin when in any one of the holes, is in the path of the hand. It will be noticed upon reference to Fig. 3 that this pin b projects beyond the rear face or back of the front Wall of casing A in order not only to limit the movement of the hand, but alsoto limit the movement of an arm F keyed or otherwise fastened to the shaft D. By having the pin arrest both the hand and the arm, a uniform amount of movement of these two parts is insured, and the clerk protected against any over-movement of the arm, which it should be mentioned, actuates the registering wheels. To prevent the pin b from becoming misplaced or lost, I prefer to attach it to the hand C by means of a chain or cord, c.

Mounted loosely upon shaft D is the units or cents wheel G, which has one hundred teeth, and numbered graduations or marks corresponding to those on the dial. This wheel G meshes with a second wheel H directly below, but which has one hundred and one teeth and graduation marks, and may be termed the dollar wheel. W' heel II is mounted upon a pin or stud shaft d on the bar or plate E. Now, of course, if the wheel G be turned or rotated, motion will be imparted to the wheel II, but the graduations on the latter will be one behind those on the upper wheel at the end of each complete rotation of the upper wheel, thus effecting a differential rotation and registration. In order to effect this rotation of the wheels, I employ a pawl e, which is carried by arm F, and engages the ratchet teeth on the periphery of wheel Cfr-said pawl, while free to ride back over the teeth, is held down in engagement therewith by means of a light spring f. A pawl, g, carried by the bar E, also engages the teeth of wheel G, and prevents backward rotation of the said wheel.

In order that the pointer C and armF may always start from the zero point, I employ a pawl 7L to engage the arm F, as shown in Fig. 2, said pawl, however, being free to rise and allow the arm to pass thereunder should the latter be turned or moved entirely around; but the pawl will prevent any movement of the arm backward behind the Zero point.

If the clerk desires to register thirty-seven cents, he first places the pin b in the hole a,

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that is opposite 37 on the dial B, and then moves the pointer around until it comes opposite 37 and is stopped by the pin. At the same time the arm F travels a corresponding distance, and its pawl e being in engagement with Wheel G, turns or rotated said wheel a distance equal to thirty-seven teeth or spaces,-the lower or dollar wheel H, also at the same time turning a corresponding distance. If both Wheels be set at zero, and 37 and 68 be successively registered, the upper wheel G would indicate 5, while the lower wheel H would indicate 4. Such a reading would, ordinarily, indicate four dollars and live cents, but with the present register this would be an incorrect reading.

It must be remembered that after each separate amount is registered, the pointer C and arm F must always be brought back to zero.

In order to determine just how far each of the wheels G and H has been turned or moved, I employ pins t', which in the presentinstance are carried by the bar E, as shown in Fig. 2 in proximity to the graduations on the Wheels. Additional pointers or pins 71 may be employed as desired, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Let it be supposed now that it be desired to register the following amounts: twenty, twenty-tive, thirty, tifteen, andthirty, (total one dollar and twenty cents), and let it be assumed, as indicated at X, Fig. 4, that the dials G and H read before these amounts are registered, respectively 0 and 2. Upon the registration of these amounts, in succession, by the repeated movements of the pointer and arm as above described, the wheels G and Il will be turned or rotated, and, after the amounts have all been registered, these wheels will indicate, respectively, twenty and eighty-four. See Y, Fig. 4. It is known, as a matter of fact, that the amount registered is not eighty-four dollars and twenty cents, but only one dollar and twenty cents; and the next thing to be determined is the total amount that was registered. The person who now looks at the register and makes the reading, knows what the reading was in the morning before this total of one dollar and twenty cents was registered, and he can easily determine what amount has been registered since he took the morning reading. Seeing that the cents wheel G indicates twenty cents, he turns the wheel (by means of the pointer) until he brings the wheel to zero or other point at which he set it in the morning,-noting, however, that it required a movement, such as would be required to register eighty cents, to bring wheel G to the desired position,-zero. Wheel H was also turned in resetting wheel G, and the result oi' such turning is illustrated at Z, Fig.

4, where it will be seen that cents wheel G registers 0 and the dollar wheel H registers 4. This reading, $4.00 is also known to be incorrect, but if the eighty cents (representing the distance traveled in resetting wheel G) be deducted from the present reading of the wheels $4.00 there is left three dollars and twenty cents; vand if from this latter amount, there be deducted the morning reading of the register $2.00, there is left one dollar and twenty cents,-the total amount registered during the day. While, perhaps, this may seem a complicated method of arriving at the desired result, it is in reality a very simple plan, and may be carried out in connection with the machine in about a minute, no mat.- ter how large the amount.

A clerk or other person not familiar with the method of computation employed, will be unable to read the register or to set it to show on the wheels G H the amount, in dollars and cents, recorded during the day.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim is- 1. In a cash register, the combination with a graduated cents-wheel G; of a graduated dollar-wheel H engaging directly therewith; and means for rotating the cents-wheel.

2. In a cash register, the combination with a graduated cents-wheel G; of a graduated dollar-wheel H engaging directly therewith; a hand C for rotating the cents-wheel; and pointers i t' for the wheels G H.

3. In a cash register, the combination with the case A having the fixed dial B and the holes a; of the shaft D provided with arm F and hand C respectively behind and in front ofthe dial; a registering-wheel G; a pawl e carried by arm F to engage the wheel; and a pin b iitted to the holes ot and extending inward into the path of the arm to engage and limit the movement ot' both the arm and hand.

4. In a cash register, the combination with the cents-wheel G divided into one hundred spaces and having one hundred teeth; of the dollarwheel Hprovided with a greater number Y of spaces and teeth and gearing directly, at all times, with wheel G.

5. In a cash register, the combination with agraduated fixed dial B; of a cents-wheel G graduated to correspond with the dial; a hand C moving over the face of the dial and adapted to turn the wheel G; a graduated dollarwheel H gearing directly with the cents-wheel and fixed pointers i i for the wheels G H.

In witness whereof I hereunto lset my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN A. WILLIAMS.

Witnesses:

EDW. D. VANDERVEER, A. H. CLARK.

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