US1216267A - Counter mechanism for stamp-affixers. - Google Patents

Description

W. J. BALKWILL.

COUNTER MECHANISM FOR STAMP AFFIXERS.

APPLICATION FILED .MAY ll IBIS.

1,216,267.- I Patented Feb. 20, 1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

3 \llnu WESLEY JOSEPH BALKWI or EOQI-IESTERyN EW YOBK, AS-SIGNOR T0 MULTLPOS'L COMPANY, or nocrrnsrnn, vnw YORK, A CORPORATION or NEW YORK.

COUNTER MECHANISM FOR STAMP-AFFIXERS.

i .eieeer.

Application filed May 1, 1913.

new and useful Improvements in Counter Mechanism for Stamp-Affixersg and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,

clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, foru'iing a part of this specification, and to the reference-numerals marked thereon.

My present invention relates to stamp aflixers, especially those provided with de mountable stamp containers, and it has for its primary object to provide on said detachable portion of the machine a counter or register for keeping an accurate record of the number of stamps discharged from the machine, this arrangement of the registering mechanism permitting the use with a single affixing machine of a plurality of stamp containers, one or another of which may be selected for the afixing of stamps of different denominations, as the operator may desire. To these and other ends the invention. consists in certain improvements and combinations of parts, all as will be hereinafter more fully described, the novel features being pointed out in the claims at the end of the specification.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a stamp afiixing machine showing an arrangement of parts embodying the present invention, portions thereof being shown in section to illustrate the internal arrangement of the mechanism Fig. 2 is a view of the stamp case, with the guideway removed, showing the inner side thereof which faces the feeding mechanism;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional View taken on the line 06-64 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4: is a detail view illustrating the operation of the register. and

Fig. 5 is a perspective view illustrating a single stamp affixing machine and a plurality of stamp containers, together with a suitable receptacle in which the latter may be retained when not in use.

Similar reference numerals throughout the several figures indicate the same parts.

In illustrating my present invention I have shown it applied to a stamp aflixing machine comprising a casing 1 and contain- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented rep. 2c, 1917.

Serial No. 764,914..

ing an affixing member or plunger 2 carried on the shaft 3 provided with an operating knob or handle l by which it may be reciprocated, said shaft also carrying the feeding device by which the strip of stamps or labels is advanced forwardly in a step-bystep manner upon each reciprocation of the plunger or afflxer 2. One side of the frame of the machine is open and detachably fitted therein is afstamp receptacle or container comprising in thepresent instance a circular case 5, which receives the roll or cartridge 6 of stamps, and the downwardly extending guideway 7, along which the stamp strip is fed, having a laterally curved end 8 discharging the free end of the stamp strip over the cutter bar 9 into the path of the afiixing member The container 5 is preferably formed of a ring which'is open at one side and closed at the opposite side by a cover 10,

said open side fitting against a correspond ingly shaped segmental disk pro ect1ng from one of the sides of the shell of the main casmg 1.

The combinedcontainer and. guideway are preferably made as a unit and detachably secured at its upper end in the open side of the casing of the machine by the hook-shaped projections 11, which engage in rear of an abutment 12 and held in place at its lower end by a key lock 13 having a bolt 14 which engages a recess or depression on the base 15 which comprise a part of the frame 1 of the machine. The guideway extends downwardly from the container 5 and is inclosed between the parallel walls 16 and 17, the rear edges of which are united by a transversely extending wall 18 on which the lock 13 is secured. In the construction of these parts a space is provided directly beneath the container in rear of the guideway 7 in which is mounted the counter or register mechanism 19, the open side or observation window of which projects through the wall 18 where the number indicated by the register wheels may be conveniently viewed. The register 19 may be of the usual or any preferred construction and illustration thereof is, therefore, omitted with the exception of the operating shaft 20, the oscillation of which, it will be understood, causes the advancing step-by-step movement of the counter mecha nism. The oscillation of this shaft may be accomplished in various ways, but in the present disclosure I have shown it provided with an operating finger 21 which projects laterally beyond the stamp guide 7 and into a position to be engaged by a trip member or finger 22 moving vertically with the shaft 3 and the affixing member 2 thereon, it being so positioned that at the proper point in the downward movement of the shaft 3 it will engage the lever 21 and oscillate it from the position shown in Fig. l, to that shown in Fig. 4:, at which time a single stamp or label has been projected, severed and ailixed by the head 2. The finger 21 is oscillated into its normal position by a spring 23 or equivalent mechanism.

With a stamp affixer of the character described, comprising the main frame or casing and the demountable or detachable stamp containers, any desired number of such containers may be filled with stamp cartridges of diiferent denominations and always maintained in readiness for use and one interchanged for another as occasion may require. However, owing to the monetary value of the stamps it is particularly desirable that an accurate record of these should be maintained and this applied whether a single container is employed on the machine or several of them are supplied and used with a single atlixer, and these reasons not only point to the desirability, but to the extreme importance of mounting the indicating or recording mechanism on the detachable unit or demountable portion of the machine.

In practice where it is customary to use two or more stamp containers with a single afliXer, a suitable cabinet, such as shown in Fig. 5, is provided for the aifixer and its interchangeable parts having one compartment 30 in which the afliXer itself may be locked and rendered inaccessible by a door 31 fitted with a key lock 32 and a plurality of smaller stalls or compartments 33 in which the combined containers and stamp guideways may be placed when not locked in position on the machine, as shown in Fig. 1. The locks 13 on said containers serve to secure them in their respective compartments of the cabinet, the bolts of the locks engaging in recesses or depressions 34: formed in the cabinet base, the latter being also provided with suitable shoulders with which the hooks 11 on the containers 5 engage. It is customary to make the locks 13 and 32 operable by means of the same key so that this can be retained in the possession of the party who is charged with the responsibility of the use of the stamps. fin accurate record of the number of stamps is at all times obtained by the register 19 forming a part of the detachable element of the machine, and as this part, when in use is locked on the aliixing machine, the stamps can only be obtained by the operation of the latter and the element when not in use is locked to the cabinet thereby preventing the unauthorized removal of stamps therefrom.

I claim as my invention:

l. The combination with a stamp ailixer mechanism comprising a movable atlixing member, and a detachable stamp container, interchangeable with other like elements, of a counter mechanism carried upon said stamp container and arranged to be operated by the movement of said aliixing nicni- 7 her in one direction, when said container is in operative position on the stamp ailixer :echanism.

2. The combination with a stamp allixer comprising a frame and a reciprocating aflixing member, of a plurality of elements interchangeable one with another and each adapted to be applied to said frame and to contain different stamps, and a counter mechanism on each of said elements, for keeping tally of the number of stamps ejected therefrom, having an. actuating portion adapted to be moi'ed by the operation of the ailixing member, when said element is applied to the frame.

3. The combination with a stamp allixer comprising stamp feeding mechanism and a movable aliixing member, of a pin 'ality of stamp containers each adapted to cooperate separately with the ailixer and to contain stamps of different denominations and a counter carried by each container and means for operating said counters arranged on the aftixer and cooperating with them when their respective containers are applied to said aliixer.

a The combination with a stamp afiixer having a movable member and a detachable stamp case, of a counter mounted on the case for recording the number of stamps dis- 105 charged therefrom having an operating member and means carried by the movable member of the aifixer for actuating said operating member.

VESLEY JOSEPH PALKWILL.

Witnesses G. i/VILLARD RICH, RUSSELL B. Grinrrrrir.

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

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