Referring to the drawings of the Burroughs patent, it will be noted,
that in outward form, the machine is similar to the Burroughs machine
of today. To give a detailed description of the construction of the
machine of this Burroughs patent would make tedious reading and take
unnecessary space.
[Sidenote: _General scheme of Burroughs’ first inventions_]
The principle involved in the mechanism for recording the items is very
similar to that of the Pottin invention; the setting of the type wheels
being effected as in the Pottin machine by means of segment gears which
the depression of the keys serves to unlatch, and acts to gauge the
additive degree of their movement.
Burroughs used the inking form of type proposed as an alternative by
Pottin in his patent specification instead of the needles shown in the
Pottin drawings.
In the Burroughs patent, as in the Pottin, it will be noted that there
are two sets of wheels bearing figures, one set of which, marked J,
situated at the rear, are the type-wheels, and the other set, marked A,
at the front of the machine, are for the accumulation of the totals.
For each denominational order of the type and total wheels, there
is provided an actuating segmental gear, consisting of a two-armed
segmental lever pivoted to the shaft C, and having the gear teeth of
its rear arm constantly in mesh with the pinion gear of the type-wheel
J, and the gear teeth of the forward arm normally presented to, but out
of mesh with the pinion gear of its total wheel A.
Each of these denominational actuators or segment gears is provided
with a stop projection X², at the top end of its forward gear rack,
which serves as a means for interrupting the downward movement of
that end of the segment lever, and thus controls its movement as a
denominational actuator.
It will be noted that instead of the key-stems acting directly as a
stop for the denominational actuators, as in the Pottin invention,
Burroughs used a bell crank type of key lever and the stop-wire C¹ as
an intermediate means, and in this manner produced a flat keyboard more
practical for key manipulation.
[Sidenote: _Brief description of machine of early Burroughs patents_]
The stop-wires C¹, as will be noted, are arranged to slide in slots
of the framework, and while normally not presented in the path of the
stop-projection X², of the denominational actuators, it may be observed
that by the depression of the proper key any one of them may be drawn
rearward and into the path of the stop projection X², of its related
actuator, and thus serve as a means to intercept the downward action of
the actuator.
The denominational actuators in the Burroughs machine were not provided
with spring tension that would cause them to act as soon as unlatched
by depression of the keys as has been described in relation to the
Pottin invention.
While the keys in the Burroughs machine, as in the Pottin invention,
served also to unlatch the denominational actuators in their respective
orders, no movement of the said actuators or type-wheels took place
until a secondary action was performed.
The secondary action, or the operation of the hand lever, marked C⁵,
attached to the shaft C, on its initial or forward stroke dragged the
denominational actuators down by means of friction and thus set the
type-wheels, and by means claimed in the specification, brought about
the type impression to print the result of the key-setting or the item
so set.
The backward or rear stroke of the hand lever caused the accumulator or
total numeral wheels to be engaged and the item to be added to them.
From this single lever action it will be noted that there is an
improvement shown over and above the Pottin invention in the fact that
but one lever motion is required; Pottin having provided two levers so
that in the event of error the operation of one lever would reset the
machine without performing any addition or printing.
In the Burroughs invention, the motion of denominational actuators and
their type-wheels not being effected through depression of keys, as in
the Pottin machine, allowed any error in the setting up of an item to
be corrected by the resetting of the keys and relatching of the gears,
which it is claimed was provided for by operation of the lever marked
B⁷ (Fig. 1 of the drawings).
As a means of supplying power to his denominational actuators,
Burroughs provided what may be called a universal actuator common to
all orders, composed of a rock-frame (arms D², loose on each end of
actuating shaft C, and having their outward ends rigidly connected by
the bar a⁹) and the arms E, fixed to each end of the shaft C.
Projecting from the inside of each of the arms E, are two lugs, b¹ and
b³, which contact with the arms D² of the rock-frame as the shaft C is
rocked back and forth by its hand crank C⁵, and thus lower and raise
the rock-frame.
The means employed to transmit the reciprocating action of the
universal actuator to such denominational actuators as may be unlatched
by key depression, consists of a series of spring-pressed arc-shaped
levers D¹, pivoted to the rock-frame bar a⁹, which bear against a pin
b² fixed in the front arm of the denominational actuators.
Each of the levers D¹, is provided with a notch y, which serves on
the downward action of the rock-frame to engage the pins b², of the
denominational actuators and draw down with them such actuators as have
been unlatched by key depression and to pass over the pins of such
actuators as have not been unlatched.
When in the course of such downward movement the denominational
actuators are intercepted by the stop-wires C¹, the yielding spring
pressure of the levers D¹, allow the notches y, to slip over the pins
b², and leave the denominational actuators and their type-wheels set
for recording the item thus set up.
The means provided for impression of the type is shown in other
drawings of a patent not reproduced here. The means provided consisted
of a universal platen, which, the specification states, serves to press
the ink-ribbon and paper against the type after all the figures of each
item were set.
While Barbour, Baldwin and Pottin all used the universal platen to
print the collective setting of type represented in the items or
totals, as the case may be, each varied somewhat in detail. Baldwin
used a toggle to press the platen toward the type, while Burroughs used
a spring to press the platen against the type and a toggle to press it
away from the type.
Burroughs claimed to have combined in his invention the printing of
the totals, with the printing of the items, each of which it has been
shown was claimed by the patentees of previous inventions but had not
been combined in one machine prior to the Burroughs attempt.
The process for recording these totals in the Burroughs patent
consisted of utilizing the action of the total wheels during their
resetting or zeroizing movement to gauge the setting of the type-wheels.
The specification shows that, during the downward motion or setting
of the denominational actuators, as they set the type wheels, the
numeral wheels are out of gear and receive no motion therefrom; and
that after the recording of each item and during the return motion of
denominational actuators, the numeral or total wheels are revolved
forward in their accumulative action of adding the items and thus
registering the total.
Provision is made, however, when it is desired to print the totals, to
cause the totalizing wheels to enmesh with the denominational actuators
on their downward or setting movement, and for the unlatching of all
the racks so that by operating the hand lever C⁵, the downward action
of the racks will reverse the action of the totalizing wheels, which
will revolve backward until the zeros show at the visible reading
point, where they will be arrested by stops provided for that purpose.
By this method the forward rotation accumulated on each wheel will,
through the reverse action of zeroizing, give a like degree of action
to the type-wheels through the denominational actuators. Thus the
registration of the total wheels, it is claimed, will be transferred
to the type-wheels and the record printed thereof as a footing to the
column of numerical items that have been added.
[Sidenote: _All early arithmetical printing devices impractical_]
To pass judgment on the recording machines of the patents that have
been described, from the invention of Barbour to that of Burroughs,
demands consideration, first, as to whether in any of the machines of
these patents the primary features of legible recording were present.
The question as to operativeness respecting other features is of no
consideration until it is proven that the means disclosed for recording
was practical. As non-recording adding or calculating machines they
were not of a type that could compete with the more speedy key-driven
machines dealt with in the preceding chapters; therefore without
the capacity for legible recording, these patents must stand as
representing a nonentity or as statutory evidence of the ineffective
efforts of those who conceived the scheme of their make-up and
attempted to produce a recording-adding machine.
Without the capacity for legible recording, of what avail is it that
the machine of one of these patents should disclose advantages over
another? It may be conceded that there are features set forth in the
Pottin and Burroughs patents that if operatively combined with legible
recording would disclose quite an advanced state of the Art at the time
they were patented. But credit for such an operative combination cannot
be given until it exists.
There is no desire to question the ingenuity displayed by any of
these inventors, but in seeking the first practical recording-adding
or calculating machine we must first find an operative machine of
that type; one which will record in a practical and legible manner
regardless of its other qualifications.
[Sidenote: _Practical method for recording disclosed later_]
The fact that the fundamental principle used for the impression of the
type in the practical recorder of today is not displayed in any of
these inventions, raises the question as to the effective operativeness
of the printing scheme disclosed in the patents of these early machines.
In each of the four alleged recording-adding machine patents described,
it will be noted that the means employed for printing was that of
pressing the paper against the group of type by means of a universal
platen or plate.
While with such a combination it may be possible to provide a set
pressure great enough to legibly print a numerical item or total having
eight to ten figures through an ink ribbon, it would not be practical
to use the same pressure to print a single-digit figure, as it would
cause the type to break through the paper. And yet in the numerical
items and totals that have to be recorded in machines of the class
under consideration, such wide variation is constantly encountered.
We are all familiar with the typewriter and the legible printing it
produces. But suppose instead of printing each letter separately the
whole word should be printed at once by a single-key depression,
then, of course, single-letter words, such as the article “a” or the
pronoun “I” would also have to be printed by a single-key depression.
In this supposition we find a parallel of the requirements of a
recording-adding machine.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Drawings of Ludlum Patent No. 384,373]
[Sidenote: _Inoperative features of early recording mechanism_]
If it were possible to so increase the leverage of the typewriter
keys enough to cause a word of ten letters to be printed as legibly
as a single letter is now printed, ten times the power would have
to be delivered at the type-head. Then think what would happen with
that same amount of power applied to print the letter “a,” or letter
“I.” You would not question that under such conditions the type would
break a hole in the paper. And yet the patentees of the said described
inventions wanted the public to believe that their inventions were
operative. But to be operative as recording-adding machines, they must
meet such variable conditions as described.
It is useless to believe that a variation of from one to ten or more
type could be printed by a set amount of pressure through an ink-ribbon
and be legible under all circumstances.
While the needle-type of Pottin may have printed the items legibly
enough for a cash register, it would not serve the purpose of a record
for universal use. The use of regular type and the inking ribbon
proposed in his specification would bring it within the inoperative
features named.