US3210000A - Calculating machine h. j. chall - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 5, 1965 H. J. CHALL CALCULATING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Original Filed Sept. 18. 1961 Oct. 5, 1965 H. J. CHALL 3,210,000

CALCULATING MACHINE Original Filed Sept. 18. 1961 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Oct. 5, 1965 H. J. CHALL CALCULATING MACHINE 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Original Filed Sept. 18. 1961 mmm MI I I-HI H N No United States Patent 2 Claims. (Cl. 235-434 The present invention relates to automatic calculating machines, and more particularly to accumulators therefor.

Objects of the invention include the provision of an improved accumulator control in which latches for springdriven tens-transfer levers for one direction of digitation are blocked during digitation in the opposite direction, and in which latches for spring-driven tens-transfer levers are blocked during the resetting of those levers, and the provision of an improved high speed calculating machine.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description of the specific embodiment thereof, and from the claims, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a right elevational, longitudinal section (lookirig toward the left) of the calculator embodying my present invention;

FIG. 2 is a similar section taken from a position to the right of that of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are right elevational views of part of the mechanism shown in FIG. 2 for explaining its operation;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged right elevational section showing the accumulator, and showing its gear pendant in the engaged position, and

FIG. 6 is a left elevational section of the calculator of FIG. 1.

The calculator of the present invention is described more completely in the parent application, Ser. No. 138,- 645, now Patent No. 3,145,923, issued August 25, 1964, of which this is a division, and in U.S. Patent No. 3,108,- 745. The machine is of the ten-key, reciprocating actuator type, and in its general features is constructed in accordance with U.S. Patent No. 2,832,530, and is similar to the well-known Friden adding machine.

General operation In a known manner, number entry keys 10 (FIG. 1) are depressed for differentially setting selector sectors 196 according to selected digit values. During an entry cycle, a front gear pendant 390 is swung toward the sectors 196 for connecting them through the gears of the pendant to actuator sectors 340. At the same time the actuator sectors are connected through the gears of a rear pendant 420, and drive gears 444 to the register gears 448 of an accumulator 446. Print wheels 1610 are also geared to the actuator sectors. With the selector sectors 196 and register gears 448 so connected to the actuator sectors, a drive bail rod 344, acting through spring-held, releasable sickles 345, drives the actuator sectors 340 counter-clockwise in FIG. 1. This action drives the selector sectors 196 to their zero positions Where they stop, so that the digit that had been entered in each selector sector 196 is transferred to the corresponding actuator sector 340, print wheel 1610 and register gear 448.

The print wheels are thereupon operated to print the number, the pendants 390 and 420 are returned to their home positions, shown in FIG. 1, and the bail 344 returns the actuator sectors to their home positions.

Accumulator drive gears Each of the drive gears 444 is in constant mesh with a register gear 448 and is arranged to occupy its normal, upper, or home position, shown in FIG. 1, and a lower, alternative position shown in FIG. 4 for engagement with the gears 424 and 426, respectively. The drive gears 444 turn free on a shaft 452 carried by a pair of brackets 454 and 456 (FIGS. 2, 4 and 6) journalled on the shaft 449 of the register gears 448, and are biased to their upper, normal position by a spring 455, as shown in FIG. 6. The forward end of the brackets 454 and 456 carry interlocking notches 457 (FIG. 4), which are aligned with the shafts 449 and 452. In the upper position of gear 444 (FIG. 3), notch 457 is aligned with the shaft 425 of the pendant gears 424, and in the lower position of the gear 444 (FIG. 4), the notch is aligned with the shaft 427 of the lowermost gears 426. These shafts enter the notches 457 for holding the gears in positive alignment during their engagement. The forward end of the drive gear brackets 454 and 456 also include an arcuate interlock portion 459 for obstructing the rearward motion of shaft 425 whenever the drive gear brackets 454 and 456 are between their extreme upper or lower positions. The upper and lower limits of the motion of the brackets 454 and 456 are determined by a pin 460 which extends through a hole 461 in the brackets. This interlock action between arms 454 and 456 and shafts 425 and 427 ensures proper alignment of the gears when engaged and also ensures that the pendant 420 is clear of the gears 444 as they move between their lower and upper positions.

In the operation of addition, a number is transferred from the selector to the actuator and simultaneously from the actuator to the accumulator 446. In this operation the drive gears 444 remain in their upper or normal position and the pendant 420 is moved rearward for engaging the gears 424 with the drive gears 444. The register gears 448 accordingly rotate (counter-clockwise as seen in FIG. 1) for the positive entries. The substraction is performed similarly except that the drive gears 444 are moved to their lower position (as shown in FIG. 4) and are engaged by the lowest pendant gears 426 for driving the register gears 448 clockwise in FIG. 1. When a total or subtotal is read out of the accumulator 446, the drive gears 444 are controlled by a credit balance indicator 536 (FIG. 2). For a negative value in the accumulator, the drive gears 444 remain in their upper, or normal, position for engagement with the pendant gears 424. For a positive value in the accumulator, the drive gears 444 move to their lower position for engagement with the lowest pendant gears 426.

Accumulator The accumulator 446 is best shown in FIGS. 2 and 5 and includes mechanism shown and described in the U.S. Patent No. 2,832,530 already referred to. Thus, the accumulator (FIG. 5) includes, for each numerical order, a twenty-tooth register gear 448 which is provided with a spring-pressed detent 502 for centering it in each digital position.

Fixed to each gear 448 is a two-pointed cam 504 which initiates the tens-transfers. The tens-transfer mech anism operable for positive entries (counter-clockwise in FIG. 5) includes a spring-urged lever, or gate, 508 carrying a spring-pressed live tip 510 arranged to be rocked by the cam 504 when the number in the gear changes from 9 to When rocked, the gate 508 releases a tip 512. of a three-armed, spring-urged lever 516, which is carried on a spring-driven lever 520. When the tip 512 is released, a spring 522 urges the lever 520 (clockwise as seen in FIG. The pawl 514 at the tip of lever 516 is arranged to drive against the teeth of the register gear 448 of the next higher order for driving it an additional tooth-space in the positive direction (counter-clockwise in FIG. 5) for elfecting the tens-transfer. However, the transfer lever 520 is restrained by a bail rod 524 during the entry of the number from the actuator, and is permitted to operate only after the pendant gear has been disengaged from the drive gear 444 of the accumulator. The bail rod 524 is carried by a pair of similar brackets 526 (FIGS. 2 and 6) on a shaft 528, which also carries a lever 530. The lever 530 (FIG. 6) is connected by a link 532 to a lever 484 which, through a shaft 486 and lever 488, is controlled by a tens-transfer cam 492.

The tens-transfer cam 492 is shown in its home position in FIG. 6. Upon the initiation of the machine cycle, the first action of the cam 492 is to rock the arm 488 down. This action swings the bail 524 (FIG. 5) to its lowest position for setting all the arms 520 and causing the tips 512 to engage the gates 508 for latching the levers 516 in a set position. By the time the pendant 420 (FIG. 1) has been engaged with the drive gear 444 and the motion of the actuator begun, the tens-transfer cam 492 (FIG. 6) has permitted the lever 488 to rise slightly and has raised the bail rod 524 enough to permit the levers 520 to be unlatched by operation of the gates 508 during the entry of the number from the actuator. Then at about midcycle, when the entry from the actuator has been completed, the cam 492 raises bail 524 to its uppermost position and permits the tens-transfer operation to be completed. At this time any secondary tens-transfers induced by the primary tens-transfers will be promplty completed, the whole tens-transfer operation being driven by the springs 522.

The present accumulator includes zero blocks of a wellknown type (FIG. 5 consisting of bails 542 journalled on shafts 544 for blocking the live tips 510 and 511. For example, when the register gear 448 and tens-transfer cam 504 rotate clockwise in FIG. 5 for the readout of a positive number, they will be stopped when the tenstransfer cam 504 abuts tip 510, which is, in turn, blocked by the bail 542, then in a position (clockwise or to the right of the position shown in FIG. 5) for blocking the tip 510.

Movable tens-transfer blocks Under certain conditions of operation, the maximum speed at which the machine may be operated is set by the occurrence of erroneous operations. This limit is, in part, determined by the relationship between the inertias of the parts and the forces exerted by the springs, as, for example, the springs on the gate 508, the live tip 510, the lever 520, the lever 516, and the detent 502 (FIG. 5). While the occurrence of such errors can be moved to a higher speed by increasing the tension of the springs 509 and others, heavier springs'are undesirable because they impose additional loads on other parts of the machine.

One tendency for errors occurs in the tens-transfer mechanism during the entry of values from the actuator. For example, if a cam 504 is in the position shown in FIG. 5' during a negative entry, additional rotation of the cam (clockwise in FIG. 5) will rock the live tip 510 of the positive tens-transfer mechanism. It is intended that this tip should simply rock counter-clockwise for letting the cam 504 pass, but under high speed operation there is a tendency for this action to rock the gate 508 down and release the lever 516.

A tendency for erroneous transfers occurs also as a result of the operation for resetting the tens-transfer levers at the beginning of the machine cycle. For example, in FIG. 5, when the bail rod 524 is swung down against the levers 520 for restoring any such levers as have been tripped during the previous machine cycle, the tip 512 of lever 516 strikes the gate 508. It is intended that tip 512 be rocked by gate 508 and then slip into the set position shown in FIG. 5 without having gate 508. But at high speed, the momentum of the lever 516 may oppose this rocking so that the gate 508 is moved down against its spring and then does not recover quickly enough to block the tip 512 before the bail 524 rises to release the levers 520.

In either of these situations the tip 512 is left disengaged from the gate 508 so that an erroneous tens-transfer is made from that order during that cycle. Accordingly, a bail 566 (FIG. 5) is provided, having a crosspiece 567 that underlies the rear tip of the gates 508. A similar bail 568 has a crosspiece 569 overlying the similar gates of the negative tens-transfer mechanism. These bails are journalled at 570 and 571 and are biased to non-blocking position by a spring 574 (see also FIGS. 2 and 6). A pin 576 on a down-extending leg of the left-hand frame member 454 of the drive gear assembly (FIG. 6) engages a cam edge at the forward end of blocking bail 566 for lifting the crossbar 567 of the bail 566 into position for blocking the gates 508 of the positive tens-transfer mechanism whenever the drive gears 444 are in their lower, or negative-entry, position.

As may best be seen in FIG. 6, the bellcrank 526 of the positive tens-transfer mechanism has a cam surface 580 at its lower end arranged to engage a pin 582 on the blocking bail 566. When the bellcrank 526 and the bail rod 524 are moved to their extreme clockwise position in FIG. 6 for resetting the levers 520 (FIG. 5) of the tenstransfer mechanism, cam surface 580 engages pin 582 and rocks the bail 566 for lifting the crosspiece 567 and locking all of the gates 508. Similar mechanism sets the bail 568 of the negative tens-transfer mechanism for blocking erroneous operation during the resetting of the tens-transfer levers.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms wtihout departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are, therefore, intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

1. In an accumulator for a calculating machine having a register wheel for each numerical order, a springdriven transfer lever for each certain of said orders for driving the register wheel of its order for entering tenstransfers therein, a latch for each of said tens-transfer levers for holding it against such register-wheel-driving motion, and a cam for releasing each latch, said cam being driven by the order below the order for the tenstransfer lever, and restoring means for restoring all said tens-transfer levers to latched position, the improvement comprising blocking means for blocking all said latches in transfer-lever-holding position, and means moving said blocking means into position for so blocking said latches during the lever-restoring stroke of said restoring means. 2. In an accumulator for a calculating machine having a register wheel for each numerical order,

(a) input means settable for digitation into said accumulator in the positive and negative directions,

(b) a first tens-transfer means for digitation in the positive direction, a second tens-transfer means for digitation in the negative direction, each said tenstransfer means including:

(1) a spring-driven transfer lever for each of cer- (2) means settable with said input means for moving said blocking means into position for so blocking the last said latches when said input means is set for digitation in the other of said 5 directions.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,508,531 9/24 Quentell 23s-134 10 2,774,536 12/56 Chall 235-134 LEO SMILOW, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. IN AN ACCUMULATOR FOR A CALCULATING MACHINE HAVING A REGISTER WHEEL FOR EACH NUMERICAL ORDER, A SPRINGDRIVEN TRANSVER LEVER FOR EACH CERTAIN OF SAID ORDERS FOR DRIVING THE REGISTER WHEEL OF ITS ORDER FOR ENTERING TENSTRANSFERS THEREIN, A LATCH FOR EACH OF SAID TENS-TRANSFER LEVERS FOR HOLDING IT AGAINST SUCH REGISTER-WHEEL-DRIVING MOTION, AND A CAM FOR RELEASING EACH LATCH, SAID CAM BEING DRIVEN BY THE ORDER BELOW THE ORDER FOR THE TENSTRANSFER LEVER, AND RESTORING MEANS FOR RESTORING ALL SAID TENS-TRANSFER LEVERS TO LATCHED POSITION, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING BLOCKING MEANS FOR BLOCKING ALL SAID LATCHES IN TRANSFER-LEVER-HOLDING POSITION, AND MEANS MOVING SAID BLOCKING MEANS INTO POSITION FOR SO BLOCKING SAID LATCHES DURING THE LEVER-RESTORING STROKE OF SAID RESTORING MEANS.

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