The first Burroughs patent to show the successful combination referred
to was No. 504,963, applied for May 5, 1892, and issued September 12,
1893. The printing scheme, however, while indicated in the said patent,
was applied for in a divisional patent, No. 505,078, issued on the same
date. Drawings from both these patents are shown on opposite page.
[Sidenote: _Description of first practical Burroughs recorder_]
[Illustration: Burroughs Recorder]
The new printing device, as will be noted, instead of operating at
the bottom of the machine, operates at the rear and prints the paper
against a roll mounted outside of the casing.
Outside of adopting the Felt method of printing, the general scheme
of construction used in the machine of the former-described Burroughs
patent was maintained, except that the levers D, used to drag the
denominational actuators down, were omitted, and a series of springs,
one for each actuator, was supplied to pull such levers down as are
released by key-depression when the common actuator drops under crank
action.
Thus the description previously given will suffice for a general
understanding of the mechanical functions of the adding mechanism
and the general scheme for the setting up of the type in these later
patents.
The construction of the type sectors, the printing-hammers and the
trigger-latches used to retain the hammers against the action of their
operating springs is best shown in the drawings of patent No. 505,078
on page 136. Fig. 1 shows the normal relation, while Fig. 2 illustrates
the same mechanism in the act of printing.
The type sector as shown in drawings of patent No. 505,078 is marked K,
while in the drawings of No. 504,963 it will be found marked 611ᵃ. They
are formed from a continuation of the denominational actuators for the
total register in the same manner that the type-wheel gear racks h, of
the previously described Burroughs patent were formed.
The type u, are arranged on movable blocks marked 618, which are shown
held in their retracted or normal position by springs 682, but when
pressure is brought to bear against these type blocks in a direction
outward from the sector, the spring 682 will give and the type blocks
will slide outward in the slots provided to guide their action.
The paper, as will be noted, is fed from a roll, up between the type
and the printing-roll 599, in the same manner as the paper of a
typewriter, and through the interposition of an ink-ribbon between the
type and the paper, the pressing of the type against the ink-ribbon,
paper and roll gives imprint.
The pressure brought to bear on the type is through the hammer-blow
of the printing-hammers 715, of which there is one for each ordinal
printing sector. These hammers are pivoted to the rod 701, and
are spring-actuated through the medium of the pin 741, the lever
716, and spring 780, which, combined with the cam-slot w, in the
printing-hammers, serve to force the printing-hammers into the position
shown in Fig. 2.
The printing-hammers are normally retracted and latched by a series of
trigger latches 117, through the latch-tooth b, which engages the lever
716 at v.
Each trigger-latch 117, is pivoted on the rod 700, and provided with
an overlapping lug as shown in Fig. 4. These overlapping lugs, like
those described on the trigger-latches in the Felt patent, serve as
an automatic means of filling in the ciphers in the same manner as
described in the Felt machine.
The means for tripping the overlapping trigger latches naturally
differed from the means shown in the Felt machine, as the Burroughs
machine was not key-driven.
A very ingenious means for the tripping of the trigger-latches is
shown, consisting of the dogs 718, and rock-frame 711, and tie-rods
703-704, which co-operate with a cam-shoulder y on the arm of the
printing-sectors, to remain neutral or to disengage the trigger-latches
through a reciprocating action, shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, patent
No. 505,078.
The tripping action takes place at the end of the forward motion of the
actuating hand-crank through connections not shown in the drawings.
It may be understood that on account of the overlapping of the
trigger-latches of the printing-hammers that if, as described in
relation to the Felt recording-machine, one of the trigger-latches in
any order to the left of the units order should be tripped, it would
cause all the trigger-latches to the right to be also tripped, and the
printing-hammers thus released to spring forward, giving an individual
hammer-blow for each type impression.
Thus, if the five-hundred-dollar key should be depressed, only the
trigger latch in that order need be tripped. This is brought about
through the fact that normally the tripping-dogs 718 are held out
of tripping engagement by the cam surface y of the type-sector, as
the rock-frame in which the dogs are mounted is moved forward in its
tripping action. But as the hundred-dollar order type-sector has been
lifted through the setting of the (5) key in that order, it allows the
tripping-dog to engage the trigger-latch of that order, and through
the overlapping feature of the trigger-latches to trip and print the
ciphers to the right.
It will be noted that the application of the printing-hammers varied in
detail from that of Felt much the same as placing the latch on the gate
post instead of on the gate. In the generic principle, however, the
individual hammer-blow for each individual impression was maintained.
[Sidenote: _Date of use of first practical Burroughs recorder_]
There have been many conflicting statements made regarding the date of
the first Burroughs listing or recording machine, which is probably due
to the fact that the statements were not qualified by such terms as
“practically operative” or “legible recording.”
Dates given as that of the first Burroughs recording machine range from
1884 to 1892. In a book published by the Burroughs Co. in 1912, under
the title of the “Book of the Burroughs,” there was a statement that
the first practical machines were made in 1891.
[Illustration: From the February 1908 Issue of Office Appliances
Magazine]
H. B. Wyeth, at one time sales agent for the Burroughs Co., and
whose father was president of the company in 1891 and several years
thereafter, testified in court that the first sale of a Burroughs
recording machine was made about December, 1892. Corroboration of his
testimony is set forth in a Burroughs advertisement which appeared
in the February number of Office Appliances Magazine in 1908, a
reproduction of which is shown on the opposite page.
That Burroughs was experimenting as early as 1885 is no doubt correct;
and that in this respect he antidated Felt’s first attempt to produce a
recording-adder, is not questioned. But when it comes to the question
of who produced the first practical recording-adder, there is no room
for doubt in face of the evidence at hand.
[Illustration]