US1182765A - Recording device. - Google Patents

Description

W. HESS, JR.

RECORDING DEVICE. APPLICATION man FEB. 19. 1915.

Patented May 9,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET! W. HESS, JR.

RECORDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. I9, 1915.

1,182,765. Patented May 9,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

WENDELL Hess, an, or TROY, new YORK.

RECORDING DEVICE.

Application filed February 19, 1915.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, VVENDELL Hess, J12, a citizen of the United States residing at Troy, in the county of Rensselaer and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Recording Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates torecording devices of the generaltype described and claimed in my prior Patent No. 981,421, January 10, 1911.

The invention resides in various details of construction which will be understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which illustrate the preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a front elevation of the complete device, the case being shown in section; Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof with the case removed; Fig. 3 is a detail front elevation of'the paper feeding and printing hammer mechanism; Fig. 4 is a side elevation thereof; Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the printing hammer head and type wheels; and Fig. 6 is an enlarged'fragmentary view of the printing hammer cam and cam roller.

7 The device is mounted on a base plate 10 from which rise corner posts 11. These carry a cap plate 12 to which they are held by nuts 13. The cap plate 12 has a threaded stud 14 and on this is threaded a clamping wheel 15. The wheel 15 is screwed down against a cover or casing 16 of sheet metal which is held thereby in sealing engagement with a gasket 17 on base plate 10. The removal of wheel 15 and casing 16 is prevented by a padlock 18 passed through a hole 19 in stud 14. This produces a simple casing giving adequate protection against moisture and mechanical injury. Vhen the casing is in place the working parts are completely inclosed though small openings are necessarily present in the base plate 10 j for thepassage of the weight and float chains.

At the rear of the base plate 10 is an upright frame member 20 which extends upward and is connected to the cap plate 12. The form of. this frame is clearly shown in Figs.'3 and 4. The frame 20 carries a forwardly extending bar 21 and on this is mounted a clock movement of suitable form. This movement is carried by the plates 22 and 23 connected together by the pillars 24 Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 9, 1916.

Serial No. 9,319.

to form a rigid frame and has the usual gear trains indicated generally at 25. The dial and hands of the clock are shown at 26. The bar 21 is connected to the rear plate 22 at the top so that the entire movement may be angularly adjusted on this baras an axis to aline the hour shaft with the recording mechanism as will appear. This adjustment is determined by a heavy thrust screw 27 which is threaded in a bracket 28 on the left hand one of the forward corner posts 11 and bears in the countersunk recess formed in the lower left hand one of the pillars 24 of the clock frame. The thrust screw 27 is so located as to take directly the stress imposed on the frame of the clock movement by the clock-driving gear 29 thus avoiding twisting and other harmful stresses in the clock frame. The adjustment of the screw 27 is made at the factory and after adjustment the screw is babbitted in the bracket 28 to prevent its shifting.

The gear 29 is not mounted in the clock frame, but is journaled on a rod 30 which is carried in upstanding frame members 31.

These are mounted on base plate 10 and are tied together, by rods 32. The gear 29 is driven through the usual rewinding pawl 33 and ratchet 34 by a sprocket 35. Engaging this sprocket is a drive chain 36 and weight 37 similar to those used in ordinary weight driven clocks. A high drive gear ratio to the clock and a heavy weight 37 are used in order to secure a long period of operation for the clock for a relatively short distance of fall for the weight.

A bar 38 is rigidly mounted on frame 20 from which it projects forward and on this bar are journaled three type wheels 39, 40 and 41. The rear wheel 39 carries types printing 0.01 foot intervals in the position of a float 42 which is connected to rotate said wheel 39 by means of a perforated phosphor bronze tape 43. This tape 43 runs on a pintoothed sprocket 44 rigidly connected to wheel 39, the teeth entering the perforations in the tape. The tape is held taut by a light counterweight 45.

The middle type wheel 40 prints 1.0 foot intervals and is connected to be shifted by the wheel 39 through a transfer mechanism interposed between them. This transfer mechanism may be of any of the types familiar in the art and is not illustrated in the drawings. In the device as manufactwo type wheels and operates to shift wheel 40 one type interval as wheel 39 shifts between types designating .99 and .00. By, this arrangement the device may be given a very wide range of action with type wheels only twelve inches or thereabout in circumference.

The type wheel 41 prints time designations at 15 minute intervals through successive twelve hour periods. It is controlled by the minute hand arbor of the clock through a twelve to one reducing gear train indicated generally at 46', the terminal gears of the train being mounted respectively on the minute hand arbor and on a sleeve connected with the type wheel 41. Thus the type wheel 41 rotates at the same speed and in the same direction as the hour hand, but as in my prior patent, above identified, this type wheel is driven by the pull of the record strip and not by the clock, the clock serving merely to determine its speed of rotation.

As in my prior device periodic impressions are taken from the type wheels on a paper tape by means of a hammer platen. This consists of an upstanding arm 47 having a rubber or other platen face 48. The arm 47 is journaled at its lower end on a rod 49 which extends between a bracket 50 and the frame 20. The arm 47 is rather heavily counterweighted at 51 so as to have considerable mass and so as to stand under the action of gravity with the platen face 48 ad jacent to, but just out of pressing contact with, the type wheels. The counterweight is so located, however, as only sli htly to overbalance the arm 47, and thus allows the platen to be moved back by the exertion of slight force. The platen is thus readily retracted by the clock mechanism, and there is no cramping tendency on the record strip or type wheels due topressure of the hammer platen after taking an impression. The mass of the arm and counterweight is suflicient to acquire considerable momentum when the arm is released and sharp impressions are secured, without the use of much force, as a sharp firm impact is all that is required.

The arm 47 is periodically retracted and released at 15 minute intervals by a cam 52 mounted on the minute hand arbor and having four spiral portions and four intervening substantially radial portions. This cam acts on arm 47 through a finger 53 mounted on a stud-54 and having at its end a roller 55. The cam 52 thus acts against the roller 55 to retract the hammer, but just before the point of release is reached a hardened steel shoe 56 at the extreme end of finger 53 comes in contact with a hardened steel plate 52 mounted on the rear side of the cam 52 at the tip so that the release finally occurs when the shoe 56 overtravels the hardened steel tip or plate 52. Thus the friction reducing effect of. the. cam roller is secured together with a sudden release of the arm.

The blank record strip 58 is wound on a spool 59 and the carbon strip ()0 on a spool 61 both journaled on rods carried by frame 20. From these spools the strips pass in contact around the type wheels 39, 40 and 41, engaging the wheel 41 by means of the needle points 57 projecting therefrom (see Fig; 5), and are wound upon take-up rolls 62' and 63 respectively. The spools 62 and 63 are provided with inter-meshed peripheral gear teeth 6% and hence turn together in opposite directions.

The spools 62 and 63 are journaled on rods 65 and (36 carried by frame 20. A gear 67 fast on spool 62 is driven from shaft 68 by a train of gears 69, 70, 71, 72 and 73. The gears 71 and 72 are journaled on rod 66 but turn relatively to spool (53. The shaft 68 is mounted in bearing brackets 74: and 75 on base 10 and are driven through a pawl 76 and ratchet 77 by a sprocket 78. Over this runs a chain 7 9 having a driving weight 80. As in the case of the clock-driving weight, the weight 80 is relatively heavy and drives through a high ratio train so as to operate for a long period on one winding. The work of feeding the record and carbon strips thus is performed by the weight-driven take up rolls on which they are wound, but their rate of movement is controlled by the time wheel 41 which is connected with, and controlled in its movements by, the clock, and which engages the strips by means of the projecting needle points 57.

The advantages of the present construction over the one shown in my prior patent are many. The construction is simple and the parts are accessible. The use of electric batteries is avoided but without imposing any undue load on the clock. Further the proper mounting of the clock movement permitsthe use of heavy weights without subjecting the clock frame to harmful stresses and permits the necessary adjustment in assembling.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is 1. The combination with a recording device including a clock and a type wheel controlled thereby, of a weighted hammer platen adapted in its normal position under the action of gravity to stand close to but out of pressing contact with said type Wheel; and a cam driven by said clock and adapted periodically to force said platen from said type wheel and then release it, said hammer being of suflicient mass to exert aprinting pressure against said wheel by its momentum at impact.

2. The combination with a recording device including a clock and a type wheel controlled thereby, of a weighted hammer platen adapted in its normal position under the action of gravity to stand close to but out of pressing contact With said type Wheel; a contact member mounted on said hammer platen and having an antifriction roller and a rigid shoe; and a cam driven by said clock and adapted to engage said roller and retract said hammer platen and then engage and over travel said shoe to release said platen.

3. In a recording device the combination of a main frame; a recording mechanism mounted in said main frame; a clock frame adjustably mounted in said main frame; a clock movement carried in said clock frame, operatively connected to said recording mechanism and adjustable with reference thereto by the adjustment of said clock frame; a propelling device for said clock movement mounted independently of the clock frame in said main frame; and an ad justable thrust member for receiving the stress exerted upon said clock frame by said clock propelling device and for effecting the adjustment of said clock frame.

4:. In a recording device the combination of a main frame; a recording mechanism mounted in said main frame; a clock frame adjustably mounted in said main frame; a clock movement carried in said clock frame, operatively connected to said recording mechanism and adjustable With reference thereto by the adjustment of said clock frame; a propelling device for said clock movement mounted independently of the clock frame in said main frame; and an adjusting thrust screw mounted in said main frame and bearing at its end against said clock frame, to adjust the latter, and to support the same against the stress exerted thereon by said clock propelling device. In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

WENDELL HESS, JR.

WVitnesses:

H. McM. DIBERT, C. S. HALLENBEOK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

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