US1278062A - Combined type-writing and computing machine. - Google Patents

Description

H. H. VICKERS.

COMBINED TYPE W'RITINGAND COMPUTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED F EB. e, 1915.

PatenhdSopt. 3, 1918.

2 SHEETSSHEET1 RN n w in 0 Q w w U 2 m .QN r %N 1 m 1 A mm l NVENTOR- Wm ATTo o mm WITNESSES 'H. H. VICKERS. COMBINED TY PE WRITINGQAND COMPUTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 6. 13m

PatentedSept. 3, 1918.,

2 bHEETSSHEET 2 citizen of the United States, residing m,

LUmT STATES PATENT oFFIoE."'

HARRY n. vrc'nnns, or ASTORIA, NEW YORK, nssienon, BY MEsN'n ASSIGNMENTS,

TO UNDERWOOID COMPUTING MACHINE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A COR- PO MTION OF NEW YORK.

commniin TYPE-WRITING To all whom it may concern:

Beitknown that I, HARRY H. VIcKERs, a

Astoria, Long Island, in the county :of

Queens and State ofNew York, have in- .vented certain new. and useful Improve- 'ments in Combined Type-Writing'and' Gom- 1 put'ing Machines, of which the following. is aspecification inventionv relates .to computingmachines,.'and is herein disclosed as applied to a combined typewriti'ng and computing machine of the Underwood-Hanson type,

wherein, as thetypewritercarriage travels along, the numeral keys ofithe typewrlter,

one after another, set up index pins which are. arranged on denominational computati on members, thus representing the" digits inthe numbers written andto be "computed.

After being thus written and set up, the numbers arecarried into a totalizer, or set 'of-c ompu-ting wheeis.

Such combined typewriting and computing machines are used for a great variety of work and it is found essential in making a machine that will stand. commercial use,

.thatmost of the parts of-the machine be solid and built to-sta'y in place. 'It is awk- 1 ward, andinadvisab1e mechanically, to add Keither "permanently or temporarily, computing wheels to a totalizer which is already complete. Yeton the other hand,-it' is advantageous. to sometimes have a totalizer -wh ich' isf-small, thereby covering only a small-mumber ofvletter-s'paces in the. travel showing a; computation member in effective 90 of'the typewriter carriage, this being so I because only such small totalizer s' 1 are fadapted-to cross-add numbers in adjacent columns where said columns icovera fewdecn'nal spaces such as thousands, hundreds I advisable and it is desirable to' have. a "Ina r. 45.

chine which shall be able toadd to or beyond hundreds of millions.

f invention isfespeci'ally 'directed to ward enabling atotalizer comprising a very .long series of computingwheels to be, so

far as the; numeral keys are-concerned, cut

down t,9-e, totalizer having-a smallernum b'cr of fyirheels. solfthat cross-adding can be done inedjacent columns on the typewriter AND COMPUTING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Sept, 3, 1918. Application filedIebr'uar'y 6, 1915 Serial N01 6,434.

" without any danger ot confusing digits writf' .tenin one column-With digits written in another column. a

from the'fact that in most combined type- .1 :The possibility of such conf usion arises writing and computing machines, there is to provide a seconddenominational selector, also traveling with the carriage. 1 :If;these I two selectors are set at letter-spaces closer together than the? number of computing.

wheels in the totalizer, one selector will be.-

"come effective on the computing wheels 3 forming the highest; denominations of the totalizer, before the other selector has passed.

from the highest :down .to and beyond the lowest compnting wheels in said 'tota-lizer. -This causes a digit sometimes to be set up simultaneously. in two denominations at once. In order to avoid such inconvenience and error, I have provided a device which is settable to silence certain wheels of said totalizer'fat will, so far as their connection to the numerahkeys is concerned.-

Other features and advantages willhereinafter a-ppear. a In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a sectional side view-of an Underwood Hansonscombined typewriting h and computing machine showing so much thereof as is convenient for illustrating my J invention as applied thereto. 7

Fig.2.is a diagrammatic detail section position to permit a digit'pin thereon to be set .upif any nume'ral' key is'depres'sed at- Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a silencing plate.

- Fig. 6-.is afperspective view of a guide plate cooperating .with thesilencing. plate,

Fig, -5., r 4

.7 is a diagrammatic View showing the relationship between a totalizer, carryover devices-and denomination selectors.

In the Underwood-Hanson combined typewriting and computing machine, alphabet keys 1 and numeral keys 2 when depressed, carry their key levers l downwardly, rocking bell cranks 5 to swing typebars G-carryingtypes 7, so that said types I swing upwardly and rearwardly to print on a platen 8. Said platen forms part of the usual carriage 9 which is drawn forward in letter-feeding direction by theusual spring barrel, (not shown),and is controlled by an escapement wheel 10, said escapement wheel being under the control. of the usual dogs 11 which are swung by a universal bar 12, so as to alternately engage-the cscapement wheel 10, said universal bar being operated by heels 13 on the type-bars, 'as said bars approach the platen. The es'ca'pement wheel -10 controls the carriage by means of a pinion 14: connected to said escapement wheel and meshing with a rack 15 connected to said carriage. T

The" numeral keys 2 of the typewriter as the carriage travels along in said machine, set up digits written in a computing column on computation bars or members 16, by depressing a pin 17 on eachof said bars, said pins each representing a digit, and therebeing one of the bars 16 for each denomination in which computing is done.

The bars 16 normally stand at the posi-- tion shown in Fig. 1, where they are out of the reach of pm-setting bar s-18,,-wh1ch bars are depressed whenever a numeral key is operated: In the adding zone, however, the computation bars 16 are raised one after another, as shown in Fig. 2, so that the pins 17 thereon, will be within the reach of part of a bracket frame 22, fast'on the rear side of the typewriter carriage- The tappet 19 is held against shifting on the bar 21 by a rack bar 23, whichis engaged by the rear end of an extension 2-1 of the arm 20.

As the tappet 19 travels along with the typewriter carriage, it lifts the computation membsrs 16 one after another, by means of jacks 25, which it rides under and lifts one at a time, camming the forward ends up from the posit on seen m F g. to the position seen in Fig. 2, swinging said jacks around the bar 26 on which they are pivoted,

so that the rear end of any jack which has been elevated by the tappet' 19 presses down described above.

-iication, one of the objects of the invention is to p'roylde means where y cer *tillIlOf the computing Wheels will be unafa wire or rod 27 at the rear side of the typewriting machine, with the result that said rod throu h' the lever 28 at the bottom thereof, w ich [operates through the usual transposition device 29, will raise the computation bar or member 16 from the position seen in Fig. 1 to the position seen in Fig. 2, thus permitting any pin to be set thereon as The operation of the pin-settin is effected from the numeral keys by means of pendants 30, of which there is one on each numeral key, and each pendant when it desoends, strikes its own rock arm 31 which rock arm is fast on the forward end 01 a shaft 32, and this shaft, by means of a rockarm 33 fast thereon, operates the pin-setting bar 18. This it does by means of a linkage including bell cranks (not seen), and an operating bar 34, cooperating with said bell cranks and pinsetting bar 18, to form' a linkage for setting the pins.

Whena series of pins havebeen thus set up on computation bars 16, then'umbers represented by them 'are carried into the com putmg wheels '35 at the front end of the bars 18 machine, this being done by means of av general operator including a cross bar 36,

which comes'forward and strikes the portion of any pin which is depressed below the bottom of the computation bar 16 and thereby drives each computation bar 16 to an extent depending on which .pin has been depressed thereon.

Each bar 16 drives its computing wheel by means of a rack 37 on its front end, which rack bar meshes with a pinion 38. on the computing wheel. On the return stroke of the general operator, the computation bars 16 are returned by the cross-bar 36 I which is effective on lugs 39, forming parts of said bars- The computing wheels are .not, however, turned backward by the racks 37 because of pawl-ancl-ratchet connections between them'and said rack bars. At the end of the return stroke of the general operator, all the set pins are restored to their normal ineffective position by means of the usual pin-restoring plate 40' which is momentarily raised against the bottom of the computation bar 16.

As described in the fore part of this specifected by the numeral keys of the typewriter. To bring about this result, I have showncertain of the rods'27 which are operresent,

ated by. the tappet 19 through the jacks 25, i

as movable to a position clear of their jacks, so that said Jacks will be ineffective on their rods, and therefore the tappet' 19 will be ineffective on certain bars 16. For this purpose, I have provided a special guide plate -I use this tomovetheseirods to -a position wherethe jacks 25 willwbe ineflective-on' When the speciaifuide plate 41 is actu 'ated to carry the r s- 27 which it actuates, to position clearoftheir jacks 25, said guide plate is moved'rearWardly-from the position seen in Figs. 1', 2, and 8 to the position seen in Fig. 4, in which position the nearest rod seenin the rear in Fig. 4,!pass'through. holes 27 stands clear of its jack 25.' The rods'27 43 in the guide plate 42, said guide platcbe ing fixedto a bracket'44, fast on the casing 45 surrounding the jacks This casing is usually fixed to a cross-bar 46 fast to a rearwardly extending bracket 47 attached .to the frame of the typewriter. Thus. the rods 27 whichpass through the holes 43 are permanently held in position where the jacks 25 will-be effective on them.

As illustratedherein, six of the nine rods '27 pass through the guide holes43 in the fixed. uide plate. The three remaining rods 2 pass through openings'48 and 49, said openings extending to the edge of the plate 42, thus freely back an forth in said opening.

The special sliding guide late 41 is pro vided .withthree' guide ho cs 50 through which the rods 27 pass, which are to be moved to the position clear of the jacks 25.

This slidable guide plate 41is a flat piece of metal havingdownwardly and inwardly bent ears 51 at the opposite ends thereof,

which engage and embrace the inwardly beveled ends 52 of the fixed guide plate 42. Thus the fixed plate forms aguidefor the sliding plate. A large portion ofthe plate 41 is cut-away as at 53 so that said platelhas an opening large enough to allow it to moveidly w th respect to the rods 27 which pass through the fixed guide openings 43. v

For convenience in ad usting the mecha-' nism, there is provided ahandle 54, forming the upper-end of a lever pivoted at 55, of

whichthe'downwardly'extending portion 56 enters an opening .57 in. the guide plate 41 to move said plate;v Thus said handle forms an easy means of shifting the guide'plate 41 to one position or the other. Said handle may be locked in either its rearward or its forward positions, by means of a detent arm '58, said arm comprising two notches 59, j

adapted'to catch thehandle 54 in either position. Said handle is sufliciently' springy so that it may be easily sprung'out by the finger of the operative from either of the notches 59 in which it, is caught, and may then be shifted to engage the other notch.

In order to have; a guide for the lower end of the arm 56, there isprovided an elongated ermitting therods to move wheels. 35 and driven serz'atz'm-byfa drive notch 60in they fixedguide plate 42 whichsteadies said arm 56 and helps'to make it shift the slidable guide plate 41,1toslide without jamming. f Y I In order to i surethat the slidable rods 27 shall never catch'behind their jacks 25, said jacks are provided at their rear ends with cam pieces 61 extending upwardly and .of the usual Underwood-Hanson machine unafiected,.it will be seen that if the total of Y the numbers written and addedis. large enou h torun over .from the computing wheels selected by the rdds 27 into the other computingwheels by carry-overs, said run- 'ning iover. will be properly computed because, in *my invention, the usual Hanson carrying-over mechanism has in no'way been '90 changed. Said Hanson 'carry-over'mechanism is fully disclosed in thepatent-to Han-, son 816,319, wherein the carry-over wheels.

62 are described as set by the computing Shaft 63 on the furn'stroke of'thegenerai Operator. 4

only for cross-adding, .my' invention is equally-applicable to machines for footing in each of several narrowadjacent columns on diflerent totalizers; one'method of a rranging tappets,. rods and jacks for crossadding being shown in the"co= pending application of Frederick -'A. 'Hart' No. 466,836,

file d December 10, 1908. By limiting thev number of denomination. rods on which the tappets are eflective in commercial machines of that type which have nine computing wheels per register, two adjacent columnso'f eight letter-spaces each, can be footed. in joining columns. and the denpmin'ation'cba'r-sje .of only one tot'alizer will be effective at any one time. 1 r

In the machine herein illustrated. I- -h'ave shown nine rods 27 which correspond to nine Though I have shown the ,machine as sell computing wheels of a single tot alize'r,-and' these rods are shown as spaced apart at ;cer-

tain letter spaces for pointing ofi between dollars and cents, and between hundreds-and thousands of dollars. and between-hundreds of thousands and millions, an d between Eundreds of millions andthousandsof millions.

These letter-spaces provide for the writing 2' of commas and periods in such spaces.

To illustrate how my jlnventionmaybe used in extreme cases, I show below, how

items of dollars and centscan be added in two'columns sep y Single column in which non-computed numbers are printed. Tapp'ets set for this are shown 1n the lower part of Fi 7 Item. No. Item. 3 5, 321. '00 1 5, 34a 00 1,421.00 2 1,213.12 etc. 3 etc.

It will be noted that if the full set of jacks had been used while writing said numbers, not only would the non-computed numbers have been added in somewhere, but also certa-in numbers of one column would have been added in at some irregular place in the other column because two denomination selectors would be efiective at different points on the same array of jacks at the sametime. Also with the silencing handle in eliective position, two adjacent or non-adjacent wide columns can be added in the same way 'on this machine without such non-computed numbers between them as below.

Item. Item.

etc. etc;

, It will be observed that this example isonly given to illustrate one of the uses of my mechanism, and such an extreme eX- ample is selected simply because it empha sizes points which might otherwise require examples of long columns of addition to properly illustrate the points.

Variations may be resorted to within the scope of the invention", and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1, In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a travelingcarriage and a totalizer compris ing a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selectors connected to be operable with said carriage for selecting said wheels, and a finger-piece settable to make said selectors ineffective at will on a certain group of said wheels of said totalizer, while remaining effective on the re maining wheels, whereby the denomination selectors may be arranged'to operate in closer succession, to permit closer spacing of typewritten columns on the work-sheet.

2. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a traveling carriage and a totali'zer comprising a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selecting tappets operable concomitantly with said carriage for select ing said wheels, acks operated by said tappets, one ack for each wheel, and a finger- -piece settable to make certain jacks inef fective at will on said wheels, while the other jacks remain effective on their wheels, whereby the tappets may be arranged to operate in closer succession, to permit closer spacing of typewritten columns on the worksheet.

3. In a combined typewriting and'computingmachine, the combination with a traveling carriage and a totalizer comprising a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selecting ta'ppets operable concomitantly with said carriage for-selecting saidwheels, jacks operated by said tappets, a rod for each wheel, cooperating with the jack for its wheel, a guide for said rods, and an auxiliary guide for shifting certain of said rods to a positionclear of their jacks.

4. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a traveling carrlage and. a totalizer comprising a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selecting tappets operable concomitantly with said carriage for select- 5, In a combined typewriting and computmg machine, the combination with a traveling carriage and a totalizer comprising a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selecting tappets operable concomitantly with said carriage for select ing said wheels, jacks operated by said tappets, a rod for each wheel cooperating with the jack .for its wheel, a guide for said rods, an auxiliary guide for shifting certain of said rods to a position clear of their jacks,

, and a finger-piece for setting the guide for said shiftable rods to hold the rods in either effective or ineffective position.

6. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a traveling carriage and a totalizer comprising a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selecting tappets operable concomitantly With said carriage for selecting said Wheels, jacks operated by said tappets, a rod for each Wheel, each under-lying its jack for its wheel, a guide for certain of said rods; a special guide for the remainder of said rods adapted to swing them clear of their jacks, cam extensions on said last mentioned jacks adapted to be struck by their rods when returning from a position clear of their jacks and adapted to lift said jacks abovetheir rods, and a finger-piece for setting the guide for said movable rods to hold them in either efi'ective or ineffective position. i

7. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a traveling carriage and a totalizer comprising a considerable number of wheels, a series of denomination selectors connected to move concomitantly with said carriage for selecting said wheels, and a finger-piece settable to make said selectors ineffective on certain of said wheels. i i i 8. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination with a seriesof jacks and a denomination selector for selecting them ser-iatim, of denominational rods on which said jacks are effective, a plate comprising a guide for certain of said rods holding them so the jacks will be effective on them, a second plate comprising a guide for-,the remainder of said rods, and a finger-piece for shifting said second guide to carry its rod clear of their jacks.

9. In a combined typewriting and computin machine, the combination with a series oi jacks and a denomlnatlon selector for selecting them seriatz'm, a plate comprisinga guide for certain of said rods holding.

them so the jacks will be effective on them, a second plate slidable on said first plate and embracing it and forming a guide for the remainder of said rods, and a finger-piece which shifts said second rods clear of their jacks.

' 10. In a combined typewriting and computing machine, the combination witha denomination selector and a series. of jacks, of

denominational rods associated with said jacks, a guide plate for certain of said'jacks, a second uide plate embracing all said jacks but mova le idly with respect to certain of them but adapted to move the remainder, a finger-piece comprising a lever adapted to move said second guide plate, and an extension of said lever worklng in an o ening in said first-named guide plate to stea y said lever.

11. In a combined typewriting and computing machine the combination with a carriage and a totalizer comprising a number of wheels, of a series of denomination-selecting tappets operable concomitantly. with said carriage for selecting said wheels, jacks operated by said tappets', a rod for each wheel cooperating with the jack for its wheel, certainof said rods being shiftable into and out of position to clear the jacks, and a key to shift said shiftable rods;

guide to carry its puting'machine, the combination with a carriage and a totalizer comprising a series of wheels, of denomination selectors connected to move concomitantly with said carriage for selecting said wheels, and. a, finger piece operable at will to make said selectors ineffective on the highest of said wheels and certain adjoining wheels, to thereby reduce the range of travel of the carriage within which a selector is operative on the series of wheels, said selectors being relatively adjustable toward and from each other, so that when the highest wheels are to be selected the selectors may. be correspondingly spaced apart, and when the selectors are not to se lect the highest wheels they'may be close together.

13. In a combined typewriting and com-- puting machine, the combination with. a traveling carriage to determine the zones of writing and computing, of a totalizer comprising a considerable number of computing wheels for computing numbers written, car

ry-over devices for said wheels constantly,-

connecting them all to form a carry-0ver tram, a series of denomination selectors connected to be operable with said carriage for selecting said wheels seriatz'min accordance with the travelof said carriage, a fingerpiece, and means shiftable thereby to make I said selectors ineffective for selecting the traveling carriage todetermine the zones of writing and computing, of a totalizer comprising a considerable number of computing wheels for computing numbers written, carry-over devices for said wheels constantly connecting them all to form .a carry-over train, a series of denomination-selecting tap v pets operable concomitantly with saidcarriage for selecting said wheels in accordance with the travel of said carriae, jacks operated by said tappets, one jack or each'wheel, a finger-piece, and means shiftable thereby to make the jack for the highest wheel and jacks for certain adjoining wheels inefi'ectivefor their wheels, thereby to reduce'the effective number of the jacks without making a corresponding reduction in the capacj ity-ofthe totalizer. j

- fHARRY H. VICKERS.

Witnesses:

W. O. Wns'rrrmm Dnnos G. HAYNES.

Images