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.
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.
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.