GB136499A - Improvements in and relating to Timing and Registering Apparatus. - Google Patents

Abstract

136,499. Benson, L. B. July 17, 1919. Time checks.-In a timing- apparatus for billiards and other games or for other purposes, one spring only is employed to actuate a clock, a game counter, and an alarm, means being also provided to ensure that the timing cannot commence until the spring is fully wound, and whereby the whole of the clock movement is disengaged from the spring at the expiration of the period for which the device is constructed. At the commencement of a game, a wind-shaft 3, Fig. 1, is rotated in a clockwise direction by a one-way key until a stud 28 on a wheel 17 has moved from the left-hand side of a bracket 5 to the right-hand side, a train of wheel J8, 32, 33 being simultaneously operated. A spring 30, Fig. 2, on the spindle 31 of the wheel 32 starts a balance wheel 38, and a disk 35 on the minute-hand spindle 34 raises the arm of a counter 2. The wheel 18 is loose on a movement arbor 19 to which is secured a ratchet-wheel 20 provided with two teeth. The arbor 19 is in driving connexion with a clock movement 29. A slide 22 on the wheel 18 is pressed by a spring 23 so as to keep a pin 21 on the slide against the ratchet-wheel. During the winding-up movement of the shaft 3, the wheel 18, together with the slide 22, rotates, and the pin 21 slides over the periphery of the ratchet-wheel 20 until, at the end of the winding movement, the pin re-engages the same tooth as shown in Fig. 1. During the reverse rotation under the influence of a clock spring 6, Fig. 2, the ratchet-wheel, the movement arbor 19, and the clock movement 29 are rotated until, at the expiration of the time allowed, the stud 28 pushes up the slide 22, as shown in Fig. 3, and thus disengages the wheel 18 from the arbor 19. The shaft 3 then rotates more rapidly, owing to the disconnexion of the arbor 19 and its clock mechanism, and a wheel 8 thereon accelerates an escapement 9, 10 carrying a hammer 12, the increased movement being sufficient to cause the hammer to strike a succession of blows on a bell 14 and thus give warning that the period allowed has ended. The wheel 35 also thrusts down the arm of the counter 2 to record another unit. A ratchetwheel and pawl 15, 16 are arranged on the shaft 3 to avoid rotation of the wheel 8 and ringing of the bell 14 during the winding-up of the spring 6. The arm 12 may be arranged to close the circuit of an electric bell during its accelerated movement.