The Bookkeeping andBilling Machine

The Bookkeeping andBilling Machine

Anoutgrowth of the recording-machine Art is represented in a new type of recording machine especially adapted to bookkeeping and the making out of invoices or reports where typewriting combined with arithmetical recording is necessary. This class of work demands a combination of the typewriter with adding and multiplying mechanism, having a capacity for printing the totals of either addition or multiplication.

Early Combinations

Several attempts have been made to combine the typewriter and adding-recorder; and there have been combinations of multiplying and recording. Another combination that has been used to some extent for bookkeeping and billing is an adding attachment for typewriters, but all these combinations were lacking in one feature or another of what may be called a real bookkeeping machine and billing machine.

The combination of the typewriter and multiple-order keyboard recording-adders was too cumbersome, and the means employed for multiplication on such machines required too many manipulative motions from the operator. In simple cases of multiplication as high as fifty manipulative motions would be required to perform an example on such a machine.

“Moon-Hopkins” Billing and Bookkeeping Machine

“Moon-Hopkins” Billing and Bookkeeping Machine

The combination of multiplying mechanism, either direct or by repeated stroke, with the multiple keyboard has been made, but without the typewriting feature they do not serve as a real bookkeeping and billing machine.

The combination of the typewriter and the adding attachment lacks automatic means to print totals. The operator must read the totals and print them with the typewriter. Multiplication on such a combination is, of course, out of the question.

First Practical Combination

The culmination of the quest for a practical bookkeeping machine is a peculiar one, as it was dependent upon the ten-key recorder, which has never become as popular as the multiple-order keyboard on account of its limited capacity. The simplicity of its keyboard, however, lent to its combination with the typewriter, and the application of direct multiplication removed a large per cent of the limitation which formerly stood as an objection to this class of machine when multiplication becomes necessary.

For the combination, which finally produced the desired result, we must thank Mr. Hubert Hopkins, who is not only the patentee of such a combination, but also the inventor of the first practical ten-key recording-adder which has become commercially known as the “Dalton” machine.

Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine

His bookkeeping machine is commercially known as the “Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine.”See illustration on opposite page.

The term “Bookkeeping Machine” has been misused by applying it to machines which only perform some of the functions of bookkeeping.

The principle of “Napier’s Bones” may be easily explained by imagining ten rectangular slips of cardboard, each divided into nine squares. In the top squares of the slips the ten digits are written, and each slip contains in its nine squares the first nine multiples of the digit which appears in the top square. With the exception of the top square, every square is divided into parts by a diagonal, the units being written on one side and the tens on the other, so that when a multiple consists of two figures they are separated by the diagonal.Fig. 1shows the slips corresponding to the numbers 2, 0, 8, 5, placed side by side in contact with one another, and next to them is placed another slip containing, in squares without diagonals, the first nine digits. The slips thus placed in contact give the multiples of the number 2085, the digits in each parallelogram being added together; for example, corresponding to the number 6 on the right-hand slip we have 0, 8 + 3, 0 + 4, 2, 1, whence we find 0, 1, 5, 2, 1 as the digits, written backwards, of 6 x 2085. The use of the slips for the purpose of multiplication is now evident, thus, to multiply 2085 by 736 we take out in this manner the multiples corresponding to 6, 3, 7 and set down the digits as they are obtained, from right to left, shifting them back one place and adding up the columns as in ordinary multiplication, viz., the figures as written down are

Fig. 1.Fig. 2.Napier's BonesFrom Napier Tercentenary Celebration Handbook

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Napier's BonesFrom Napier Tercentenary Celebration Handbook

Napier’s rods or bones consist of ten oblong pieces of wood or other material with square ends. Each of the four faces of each rod contains multiples of one of the nine digits, and is similar to one of the slips just described, the first rod containing the multiples of 0, 1, 9, 8, the second of 0, 2, 9, 7, the third of 0, 3, 9, 6, the fourth of 0, 4, 9, 5, the fifth of 1, 2, 8, 7, the sixth of 1, 3, 8, 6, the seventh of 1, 4, 8, 5, the eighth of 2, 3, 7, 6, the ninth of 2, 4, 7, 5, and the tenth of 3, 4, 6, 5. Each rod, therefore, contains on two of its faces multiples of digits which are complementary to those on the other two faces; and the multiples of a digit and its complement are reversed in position. The arrangements of the numbers on the rods will be evident fromfig. 2, which represents the four faces of the fifth bar. The set of ten rods is thus equivalent to four sets of slips as described above.

From Drawings of Barbour Patent No. 130,404

From Drawings of Barbour Patent No. 130,404

It is unnecessary to go into the history of the Hopkins Bookkeeping Machine to show the evolution of the Art relative to this class of machines, as the features that have made such a machine practical were developed by Hopkins himself, and at the present date there is none to dispute the title since his is the only machine having the required combination referred to. The scheme used by Hopkins for multiplication in his billing machine is, as stated, direct multiplication or that of adding the multiples of digits directly to the accumulator numeral wheels instead of pumping it into the accumulator wheels by repeated addition of the digits as is more commonly used.

John Napier

John Napier

The direct method of multiplying is old, as a matter of fact, the first mechanical means employed for multiplying worked by the direct method. But its combination with recording and typewriter mechanism invented by Hopkins was new.

Napier’s bones first direct multiplier

Napier, in 1620, laid the foundation of the mechanical method of direct multiplication when he invented his multiplying bones. The scheme of overlapping the ordinal places is shown in the diagonal lines used to separate units from the tens in each multiple of the nine digits (see illustration, page 179), thus providing a convenient means by which the ordinal values may be added together.

First direct multiplying machine

The first attempt to set Napier’s scheme to mechanism that would add and register the overlapping ordinal values was patented by E. D. Barbour in 1872.See reproduction of patent drawingson opposite page.

The accumulator mechanism of the Barbour machine, including the numeral wheels and their devices for transferring the tens, is mounted in a sliding carriage at the top of the machine (see Fig. 1), which may be operated by the hand-knob.

Description of Barbour Multiplier

Extending through the bottom of the carriage are a series of pinions, one for each ordinal numeral wheel, and connected thereto by a ratchet and pawl action. The pinions are each so arranged as to be operative with a gear rack beneath the carriage when the carriage is slid back and forth.

Thus the wheels received action from one direction of the motion of the carriage and remain idle during the movement in the other direction. The degree of motion so received would, of course, depend upon the number of teeth in the racks below encountered by the pinions.

The gear racks employed by Barbour were numerous, one being provided for each multiple of the nine digits, arranged in groups constituting nine sets mounted on the drums marked B (see Fig. 4). Each of these sets contain nine mutilated gear racks, the arrangement of the teeth of which serve as the multiples of the digit they represent.

The teeth of the racks representing the multiples of the digits were arranged in groups of units and tens. For instance: 4 × 6 = 24, the rack representing the multiple of 4 × 6 would have two gear teeth in the tens place and four gear teeth in the units place, and likewise for the eighty other combinations.

Adding the multiples of the digits by overlapping the orders was accomplished by a very simple means, the arrangement of the racks being such that as the carriage was moved from left to right the numeral wheel pinions would move over the units rack teeth of a multiplying rack of one order and the tens rack teeth of a multiplying rack in the next lower order.

By close examination the reader will notefrom the drawingsthat the lower one of the sets of multiplying gear racks shown on the drum B, tothe left inFig. 4, is the series of one times the nine digits, the next set or series of racks above are the multiplying racks for the multiples of two, the lowest rack in that series having but two teeth, the next higher rack four teeth, the next rack six and the next eight.

So far no multiple of two has amounted to more than a units ordinal place, therefore these racks operate on a lower-order numeral wheel, and are all placed to the right of the center on the drum B, but the next rack above for adding the multiple of two times five requires that one shall be added to a higher order, and is therefore placed on the left side of the center of the drum.

Thus it will be noted that by reading the number of teeth on the right of each rack as units and those on the left as tens, that running anti-clockwise around the drum, each series of multiplying racks show multiples of the digits from one to four, it being obvious that the racks for adding the multiples of the higher digits are on the opposite side of the drums.

From the layout of the racks it is also obvious that the starting or normal position of the carriage would be with the numeral wheel pinions of each order in the center of each drum, so that as the carriage is moved to the right the units wheel will receive movement from the units teeth of the rack on the units drum, while the tens wheel will receive movement from the units teeth of the tens drum and the tens teeth of the units drum, and so on with the higher wheels, as each numeral wheel pinion except the units passes from the center of one drum to the center of the next lower and engages such teeth as may be presented.

Each of the drums B are independently mounted on the pivot shaft C, and are provided with the hand-operating setting-racks I and E, co-acting with the gears R and D, to help in bringing the proper racks into engageable positions with the pinions of the accumulator numeral or total wheels.

The hand-knob G,Fig. 4, and the gears f, fast to a common shaft, furnish a means for operating the whole series of drums when the right multiple series of racks of each drum have been brought into position.

As an example of the operation of the Barbour calculator, let us assume that 7894 is to be multiplied by 348. The first drum to the right would be moved by its setting-racks until the series of multiplying racks for adding the multiples of four are presented, the next higher drum to the left would be set until the series of multiplying racks for adding the multiples of nine were presented, the next higher drum would be set for the multiples of eight, and the next higher drum, or the fourth to the left, would be set for the multiples of seven. Then the hand-knob G, first turned to register zero, may be shoved to the right, engaging the pinions f with the gears D, and by turning the knob to register (8), the first figure in the multiplier, the racks are then set ready to move the numeral wheels to register as follows: The drum to the right or the units drum has presented the multiplying rack for adding the multiple of 8 × 4, thus it will present three teeth for the tens wheel and two teeth for the units wheel. The tens drum presenting the rack for adding the multiple of 8 × 9 will present seven teeth for the hundreds wheel and two for the tens wheel. The hundreds drum presenting the rack for adding the multiple of 8 × 8 will present six teeth for the thousands wheel and four for the hundreds wheel.

From Drawings of Bollee Patent No. 556,720

From Drawings of Bollee Patent No. 556,720

The rack of the thousands drum representing the multiple of 8 × 7 will present five teeth for the tens of thousands wheel and six for the thousands wheel. Thus by sliding the carriage to the right one space, the numeral wheel pinions will engage first the units teeth on one drum, then the tens teeth on the next lower drum and cause the wheels to register 63152. The operator, by turning the knob G to register (4), the next figure of the multiplier, turns the drum so that a series of multiplying racks representing multiples of 4 times each figure in the multiplicand are presented, so that by sliding the carriage another space to the right, the multiple of 4 × 7894 will be added to the numeral wheels. The operator then turns the knob to register three and moves the carriage one more space to the right, adding the multiple of 3 × 7894 to the wheels in the next higher ordinal series, resulting in the answer of 2747112.

There are, of course, many questionable features about the construction shown in the machine of the Barbour patent, but as a feature of historic interest it is worthy of consideration, like many other attempts in the early Art.

Probably the first successful direct multiplying machine was made by Leon Bollee, a Frenchman, who patented his invention in France in 1889. A patent on the Bollee machine was applied for in this country and was issued March 17, 1896, some of the drawings of which arereproduced on the opposite page.

Description of Bollee Machine

Instead of using eighty-one multiplying gear racks for each order as in the Barbour patent, Bollee used but two gear racks for each order; one for adding the units and the other for adding the tens; these racks operate vertically and are marked respectively Bb and Bc. (See Fig. 3.)

The racks are frictionally held against gravity in the permanent framework of the machine, and are moved up and down by contact at each end, received from above by bar Ie, and from below by pins of varying length set in the movable plates Ab.

The bar Ie forms part of a reciprocating frame which moves vertically and in which are slidably mounted the pin plates Ab. These plates are what Bollee called his “mechanical multiplication tables.”

The arrangement of the pins and their lengths are such as to give degrees of additive movement to the units and tens gear racks equal to the multiplying racks in the Barbour multiplier.

The pin plates are moved by the hand-knobs Ab², and the plate shown inSee Fig. 3is positioned for multiples of nine.

The means for setting the multiples correspond to the index hand-knob of the Barbour machine, and consists of the crank Am, which, when operated, shifts the whole series of plates laterally. A graduated dial serves the operator to set the multiple that the multiplicand, set by the positioning of the plates, is to be multiplied by.

The accumulator mechanism is mounted in a reciprocating frame which moves horizontally, causing the gears of the numeral wheels to engage first the units racks on their upstroke under action of the pins, and then the tens racks on their down-stroke under the action of the top barof the vertically moving frame, the downward motion, of course, being regulated by the upward movement it receives from the pin that forces it up.

As may be noted inFig. 1, the multiplying plates are held in a laterally movable carriage that is shifted through the turning of the multiplier factor setting hand crank Am, by means of the rack and pinion action. This gearing is such that each revolution moves the multiplying plates under a higher or lower series of orders, thus allowing the multiples of a higher or lower order series to be added in the process of multiplication or subtracted in division, as the case may be.

Although the Bollee machine is reputed to be a practical machine, as is attested from the models on exhibit in the Museum of Des Arts and Metiers of Paris in France, it was never manufactured and placed on the market.

Bollee’s principle commercialized

Bollee’s principle has, however, been commercialized by a Swiss manufacturer in a machine made and sold under the trade name of “The Millionaire,” the U. S. patents of which were applied for and issued to Steiger.

Hopkins constructed his multiplying mechanism on the Bollee scheme of using stepped controlling plates for his reciprocating racks to give the multiples of the digits, but the ingenious method of application shown in the Hopkins patent drawings illustrates well the American foresight of simplicity of manufacture.

During the past ten years there have been a large number of patents applied for on mechanism containing the same general scheme as that of Bollee and Steiger, but up to the present writing no machines with direct multiplying mechanism have been commercialized except “The Millionaire,” which is non-recording, and “Moon-Hopkins Bookkeeping Machine.”

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