US881019A - System of tabulating cars. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED-MAR. a, 1908.

0. F; MULLER, F. M. DRISGOLL & R, JQBARRY.

SYSTEM OF TABULATING CARS. APPLIOATION FILED MAY 18, 1907. i

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No. 881,019. 'P'ATBNTVED MAR. a, 1908,

- 0.1. MULLER, F. M. DRISGOLL & R. J. BARRY.

SYSTEM OF TABULATING CARS.

APPLICATION FILED IAY18, 1907.

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UNITED STATES PATEN CHARLES F. MULLER, FLORENCE M. DRISCOLL, ANDRICHARD J. BARRY, OF OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA.

SYSTEM OF TABULATING CARS.

\ Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented March 3, 1908.

Application filed May 18, 1907. Serial No. 374,471.

To all whom it may comern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES F. l.\/IULLER, FLORENCE M. DRIsooLL, and RIOHARD J. BARRY, citizens of United States, residing at Oakland, in the county of Alameda and State of California,-have invented new and useful Improvements in a System of Tabulating Cars, .of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to a system for keeping a complete record of the arrival, depart ure, location and disposition of freight cars, especially in yards where the number of cars handled daily is very' great. It will be manifest however that the system which forms the subject of the present application is capable of use in other lines of work where there is continual movement of the articles to be kept track of the principle of the plan being the use of the number of the car, coach, or other numbered article it is intended to keep records of, as the key of an indexing system.

In the handling of freight cars in large yards it has always been a source of great trouble, time and labor to keep anything like a proper record of the cars which are constantly arriving. A train of cars with perishable goods may arrive any time during the day or night. Some of the cars are for local use and are held; some have to be diverted to connecting lines; or rushed to another station. Every hour such a car is delayed may mean and often does mean, serious loss to the company. Then there are heavy consignees who want their goods delivered promptly and with thousands of cars in a yard with miles and miles of tracks, it is manifestly no easy job to know any minute just where such and such a car is, who it is for, what it contains, its destination, 620.

We have devised a system which after a thorough test in one of the largest yards in the United States has proven unqualifiedly and astonishingly successful and has enabled one man to do. with accuracy and speed what was only poorly and laboriously done before by the old system. This old system is still in vogue on other lines and is costing those lines heavily for the losses occasioned through movement of freight. Like losses are almost entirely done away with by our system.

Our invention will be more fully explained delays and misdirections in the by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of the device. Figs. 2, 3 and 4 show the forms of cards.

As is well known, all freight cars are numbered and bear the name or initial of the line to which they belong. In the keeping track of cars, various cars are known by their initial and number; thus indicates a Southern Pacific car of that num- In the practice of our invention we proceed as follows: In order to keep a continual and perfect record for ready reference of cars in the yard, two separate filing cases should be kept. The first or yard case containing cards showing cars actually in the yard, and the second or storage case holding cards representing cars which have left the jurisdiction of the office of which the record is being kept. The yard case is essentially the important one. Both cases contain index cards 2 having consecutively numbered visible tabs corresponding to the terminal figure, or the two terminal figures of the numbers of cars to be recorded, said consecutively numbered cards being headed by an index card A preferably of different color from the rest and bearing the initial figure of the number of the cars to be kept track of. Thus as shown in Fig. 1 the initial card A of the series bears the figure 8 representing the initial figure of the number of a car, while the succeeding cards 2 are numbered ((017)) (02, ((037!) &CH (99]7' instance car No. 88,986, would be indexed by placing a card bearing that number and the initial of the car in the column headed by figure 8 and behind the terminal card 86; if we had car No. 886, it would go behind the same 86 terminal card and in front of, the card for car No. 88,986. Ordinarily in order to keep track of cars of all numbers, at least nine columns or drawers of cards would be employed, differing only from each other in the initial figure of the index card; thus column or drawer one would be headed by No. 1 initial card, corresponding to card A Fig. 1; column two would be headed by No. 2, initial card, &c.

The nature of the record that is kept of every car varies according to circumstances; some cars requiring different or additional records to what other cars require, as will No.88,986, S.P.,

be pointed out hereinafter. When a car arrives or departs a history of this car is entered upon a card 3, such as shown in Fig. 2. These cards are ruled in vertical columns with all the necessary incoming and outgoing data, such as Where from, Date of Consignment, Destination, Contents, Oonsignee, Train, Conductor, Date of arrival, Time, &c. The necessary entries are made on this card from the way-bill and the number and initial of the car placed on the upper left hand corner of the card; thus No. 88,986, S. P.

y In addition to the incoming data above noted, it is essential to know the location of any car in the yard at any time, especially if the movements of the car are to be hurried, or if the car is to remain any length of time in the yard. Therefore in addition to the above data, I have this record card 3 pro vided with a track location chart as shown, in which there are three columns of figures, from 1 to 31, correspondin to the days of the month, with a space be ore each figure for the month to be written in, and with a space after each figure for the track number. Thus as shown in Fig. 2, the location of car No. 88,986, on three consecutive days is found to be as follows: Jan uary 21-, track 34; January 22, track 42; January 23, ferry. This card is then filed away in the yard case in the column headed by initial card 8, and behind the terminal card 86 as before described. When this car leaves the yard its card is taken out of the yard case and put in the storage case; by thus always adding cards for such cars as arrive and withdrawing cards when trains go out, the yard case must always accurately represent the cars in the ard. y WVhen it is desired to attract special attention to a car it can be done by using removable indicators or clips 6 as shown at Fig. 1, and by using different colored. or different shapes of indicators, a number of valuable segregations can be made: Thus a brass indicator to indicate time; that is time of arrival; a copper indicator, to indicate contents; a steel indicator to indicate consignee; a black indicator to indicate destination. The use of these indicators is an important feature of the invention, because it enables one to tell at a glance all the cars in the yard which are consigned. to any individual heavy shipper, or which carry any special class of goods, or which are intended for any particular destination. Of course the number and character of these indica tors can be varied without limit. These indicators are used in conjunction with a key card 4 which is placed in front of each drawer or column of cards in the yard set; said key cards ruled to indicate various classes of merchandise and time, A. M. and

P. M. as indicated. By using these key cards in conjunction with indicators of different colors, a complete chart can be made to show the time of arrival of perishable freight, or segregations of different kinds of freight, names of consignees, as well as to group cars by destination. For example, all brass indicators in a straight line behind 2 oclock, A. l\/ on key card will show the cars which arrived at that time, and similarly with other indicators in appropriate lines to show consignees, perishables, 850.. By this means a ready reference can be kept on delays, particularly consignments of large shippers, certain classes of freight, or a number of other points of information which different stations require.

Zbllow-up-plaw-Jn order to insure fast movement of perishable freight and special order cars, we make a set of guides as 5, shown in Fig. 4 to represent the hours of the day. A card is made for each car, and this card is placed behind the guide which represents the time of arrival of the car. The yard master or switch foreman is then notified to rush the car, such order being noted upon the card. Every two hours the cards are looked over in the section representing two hours back, and a fresh order given to move the car, again noting the time, and when, and to whom the order was given. The card is then moved into the section showing the last hour when the rush order was issued. By this means special cars will be always under a strict surveillance. A key card can be used for the front of the drawer showing segregations by indicators of different classes of freight, consignee, destination, &c., as illustrated in the general system.

Hush, divert and special 0rdcrs.For the better working of this branch of the railroad freight business, a separate card system should be kept. As messages or letters are received, relating to the movement of cars, cards are made out, white for rush, blue for divert and salmon for others. These cards are numbered in the upper left hand corner as before described, and sorted behind the nine sets of guides running from 00 to 99. Only slight details such as shown on the card in Fig. 3 are given, but the card is numbered by a duplicating numbering stamp corresponding to the number on the message or letter. The message or letter or other order is filed away numerically.

On the arrival of a train the conductors train tag is checked against the rush and divert case, and in the event of finding a card in this case corresponding to the number of a car arriving on the train, the meager details on the card makes it necessary to look up the original order which has been filed away numerically as just stated. This insures against any misdirection of the car, which frequently occurs by reason of some clerk or some one unfamiliar with the original message, misreading the abbreviated directions.

By this system, the clerk or whoever looks up the car, simply finds a card with a number of the car on it, and also another number which directs him to a file containing the original message governing the movements of this car; he has then got to go to the files and look up the original message; after that, the necessary orders can be issued to the switching department, or such other orders as called for may be properly given, and the future movement of the car independently and expeditiously directed. Perishable freight, Consignee, Destination, &c., can be indicated on these rush and divert cards by appropriate indicators such as previously described.

After a car has left the jurisdiction of the yard, its card is taken out of the yard case and put in the storage case, which contains index cards numerically numbered in multiples of 10, thus 102030, &c. The cards are filed in the storage case according to the number of the cars, and it is possible to look up at a moments notice the record of any car which has once been in the yard.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isv 1. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a series of index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order corresponding with the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, and an initial index card having a num ber corresponding to the initial figure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numbered correspondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, and said record cards'bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondingly with the terminally numbered cards aforesaid.

2. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a series of index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order corresponding with the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded. and an initial index card having a number corresponding to the initial figure of the num bers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numbered correspondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said record cards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondingly with the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, and a key-card bearing suitable notation corresponding with the notation on the record cards.

.3. A system of tabulating cars and the like which comprehends a series of index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order corresponding with the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, and an initial index card having a number corresponding to the initial figure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numbered correspondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said record cards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondingly with the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, a key card bearing suitable notation corresponding with the notation on the record cards, and removable visible indices carried by certain of said record cards, said indices corresponding to notation on said key card. i

4. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a series of index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order corresponding with the terminal fig ures of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, and an initial index card having a number corresponding to the initial figure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numbered correspondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said record cards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondingly with the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, and removable visible indicators on certain of said indicator cards representative of certain desired data in connection with the cars.

5. A system of tabulating cars and the like, which comprehends a series of index cards numerically numbered in consecutive order corresponding with the terminal figures of the numbers of the cars to be record ed, and an initial index card having a number corresponding to the initial figure of the numbers of the cars to be recorded, record cards numbered correspondingly with the numbers of the cars to be recorded, said record cards bearing suitable notation and being segregated correspondingly with the terminally numbered cards aforesaid, and a key card arranged in front of said index cards and vertically ruled into columns, which columns bear notation corresponding to the notation on said record cards, and removable indicators for the purpose described arranged in line behind said columns and carried by said record cards.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES F. MULLER. FLORENCE M. DRISCOLL. RICHARD J. BARRY.

Witnesses:

S. H. NOURSE, FREDERICK E. MAYNARD.

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