An Automatic Accountant.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7006, 19 June 1894, Page 4

An Automatic Accountant.

the cleverest inventions which ingenuity has lately produced ■Pbnaohine apparently specially designed K save the wear and tear on the brains of Khoso much abused young men, bank k clerks, which is caused by the necessity fef adding up day after day long columns mt figures. The machine is called the Hgiatenag accountant, and it is described H copying down with lightning speed ■blumn after column of figures, much in Km way of a typewriter. ,When all the Kgurea have been put down a knob is struck, and without further trouble to tho operator he finds his sum •• neatly added tip, the pence carried over to the shillings, the shillings carried over to the pounds the wands totted up with an accuracy^ and dispatch that no one on earth could •verhope to equal." Some idea of the working of this remarkable machine may be gathered from the following desoriprw n :rr 9 8tensibl y th «e * a keyboard, line tbat of a typewriter, with six rows of keys, numbered from 1 to 9, for pounds : then there is a single key for 10s ; and then rows of keys for pence up to 11. As the keys are struck the amounts range themselves in type at tho back of the machine, and in pressing over a lever are printed, line after line, in their proper order, the paper being automatically fed upwards off a roll. The interval between setting and printing the line, permits accidents or mistakes to be rectified. All the time the amounts aro being set down they are being simultaneously recorded on a number of toothed wheels in front of the apparatus. Thus, When twelve pence have been recorded, a cam engages the nest wheel, and automatically records one shilling, setting the penoe wheel once more ac zero. The shillings wheel has nine teeth, and then passes the sum on to the 10s wheel, which marks up on the first or unit pound wheel at every second turn. The pound wheels are simply an ordinary train, arranged in units, tens, hundreds, etc. There is no limit to the amounts capable of being recorded, but the ordinary machines are registered up to one million starling. As soon as the column is ready for addition, and the knob is pressed, the wheels are instantly reversed right through their process, causing the sum which they have recorded to be^rinted in proper fashion at the bottom of the column of figures. In this way books may be made up, or cheques added, in the course of a minute or two ; one clerk being able to do the work of three or four without any labor, and with absolute accuracy." Pity the sorrows of the poor clerk ! He has for along time been bringing his wares to a falling market, and now he is confronted by a new competitor, a thing of cogs and pivots, wood and steel, which will never get tired, and never ask for a "rise." With the object of still further increasing the usefulness of the instrument a specially constructed typewriter has been added to it, to enable complete invoices to be prepared without further trouble, and the company which owna the Registering Accountant has, in addition, obtained the patent rights of another marvel of mechanism in the shape of a calculating machine. The process of making oat an invoice by the aid of all three machines, accountant, typewriter, and calculating machine, is described as follows :— " One clerk, operating the combined typewriter and accountant, reads oub *16801bs chocolate creams, superfine, at Is 4d,' and while he is typing this out on the invoice form a boy at the calculating machine gives him the amount, which is Lll2. The account* ant instrument then prints this in the columns. The next item may be ' 180 dozen chocolate wafers at 12s,' which the boy instantly figures out to be LIOB. This is added, and bo on. Eventually, when the invoice is complete, the clerk presses a knob, pulls over his lever, and prints the correct total at the bottom, which may be LBO4 16s 6d. The whole thing would be done in the course of two or three minutes, the typing, cal* culating, and adding operations being practically instantaneous." The invention and construction of an automatic clerk to work these automatic machines is the only thing needed to complete the extinction of the ordinary human clerk. Perhaps in the course of time some genius will invent wha£ was badly needed in Australia a few .years ago— an automatic bank director/ warranted not to oblige other companies in which he is interested with loans,oh insufficient security.