US1230196A - Counting-machine. - Google Patents

Description

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D. F. MERRIMAN & C. W. HARRIS.

COUNTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION men JUNE 12. I916.

Patented June 19, 1917.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DAVID F. MERRIMAN AND CHARLES 11V. HARRIS, OF WATERLOO, IOWA.

COUNTING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters iatent.

Patented J line 19, 1917.

Application filed June 12, 1916. Serial No. 103,293.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, DAVID F. MERRI- MAN and CnAnLns 1 V. I'IARRIS, citizens of the United States of America, and residents of aterloo, Blackhawk county, Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Counting-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to improvements in counting machines, and the object of our improvement is to supply means for automatically counting sheets of paper or the like, when delivered to it by any appropriate means of carriage.

This object we have accomplished by the means which are hereinafter described and claimed, and which are illustrated in: the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is an elevation of our improved counting device as'mounted cooperatively on a sheet-carrying apparatus; Figs. 2, 3 and 1 are like end elevations of our machine, showing the operative parts thereof in three different positions.

Similar numerals of reference denote corresponding parts throughout the several views.

Our counting mechanism is in Fig. 1, shown as mounted on the rear or deliveryend of a ruling-machine such as is commonly used in book-binderies, and is adapted to automatically receive and count or register a number of sheets of paper as fast as received from the carrier of said machine. It is obvious, however, that our counting device could be used in cooperation with any other kind of delivery-means for carrying such sheets to it.

The counting-device is supported on a standard 21 fixed on a frame-bar 22 of the rulingmachine. The standard has a fixed cross-bar 25, on one end of which is mounted a registering device 13 of a well-known type actuated by the rocking of a lever 14 eX- tending through a vertical slot in its casing. On the outer end of the lever 14 is fixed a thin arm 15 of spring metal free to yield laterally.

In bearing-openings in the right-hand end of the cross-bar 25 and in the upper end of the standard 21 is mounted a rock-shaft 7, on, one end of which is fixed. a pendulous rod 6 whose lower part is curved to the right. On the other end of said rock-shaft are fixed two depending arms 8 and 9, the forwardly curved arm carrying a block 10 whose rear face is formed convex, with its oppositefac'e flat. hen the rod or trigger 6 is in itsinoperativc vertical position, the block 10 is a little above and parallel to the upper edge of the outer end of the springarm 15. The other arm 9 is a little to the rear of the arm 8, and inclined somewhat to the left behind the spring arm 15, as shown in full lines in said Fig. 1.

A curved depending plate 12 is fixed on the lower end of a hanger 11 fixedly depending from the right-hand end of the cross-bar 25, the upper end of said plate being lo cated somewhat forwardly and below the outer end of the spring arm 15. A short rotatable shaft 20 is mounted in the upper ends of a supporting body 21, and has thereon a circumferentially grooved wheel 18, and on its forward end a crank supplied with a diskshaped crank-pin 16 provided with a circumferential groove 23. This groove is beveled inwardly so as to leave a sharp forward annular edge. The wheel 18 is rotated by means of any suitable source of power, such as a driving cable 19, to continuously rotate the crank 17 Referring to Fig. 1, the numerals 2 and 4 denote wheels arranged one above the other and carrying respectively the-carrying-belts 3 and 5, the belts being spaced apart enough to permit of the transportation of a sheet of paper or other material. 1 between them.

Operation.

are shown the positions of the parts when the trigger 6 has been swung outwardly. This rocks the shaft 7 and also the arms 8 and' 9 in the same direction. The function of while descending, to engage the forward face of said spring arm, the convex rear part of the block pushing the resilient end of the arm back into the path of movement of the crank-pin 16. The upper edge of the spring arm is then received in the groove 23 of the crank-pin, which latter then swings down the arm to the position indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, thus actuating the register 13. i

As shown in Fig. 1, the end of the springarm 15 slides down along and in contact with the concave face of the curved plate 12 and passes the lower end of the latter and then being released, springs forward of said plate and returns upwardly to its first position as Shown in Fig. 2. Ihe sheet 1 having passed out from under the trigger 6, gravity causes the trigger to swing back to its first position, thus rocking the abutment arm 9 back of the spring-plate 15, ready for another actuation when another sheet 1 is delivered from between said belts. A pawl 24 fixed on the rock-shaft 7, by engaging the upper bracketed part of the standard 21, prevents the trigger 6 from swinging too far in the reverse direction.

It will thus be seen that the device cannot be actuated until the trigger 6 has been swung out by the sheet 1 impinging thereon. Various changes may be made in the dimensions, form and relations of the parts of said device, without departing from the principles of our invention and the scope of its protection.

Having described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a counting machine having a registering device, a trigger supported movably to be swung in one direction by the impact thereon of an object to be counted, and to return to its initial position by gravity, said registering device having a resilient actuating arm, a continuously rotatable crank located out of the path of movement of said register-arm, a deflecting plate and movable elements connected to said trigger and set thereby when moved by said impinging object to move said register-arm against and about said deflecting plate and into the path of movement of said crank to cause the latter to actuate the register by shifting said arm, releasably.

2. In a counting machine having a registering device, a trigger mounted to be moved by impact thereon of an object to be counted, said registering device having an operating arm formed of a plate spring, a rotatable crank adjacent to and rotatable in a plane parallel to said spring-arm, and means connected to said trigger adapted to move the spring-arm into the path of rotation of said crank, releasably, when the trigger is moved in one direction by an impact and then returned by gravity.

3. A counting machine, comprising a registering device, a spring-arm adapted to swing to actuate said device and yieldable laterally, a crank rotatable in a plane parallel. to said spring-arm to one side thereof, and means for pushing the spring-arm lat erally into the path of movement of said. crank to permit the latter to push it down to actuate the registering device, consisting of a trigger suspended to swing in a vertical plane, a rock-shaft on which said trigger is mounted having two laterally-spaced arms on one end adjacent to the outer end of said spring-arm, the outermost arm having a shifting-block on its lower end with convex rear face, said. block adapted to swing downwardly before said springarm and push the latter back into the path of rotation of said crank when said shaft is rocked in one direction by the swinging of said trigger, the second arm 011 said shaft located behind said spring-ar1n and acting as an abutment therefor when the trigger is not operated and swinging to release the spring-arm when the shifting-block swings to push back the spring-arm, and a fixed rearwardly curved hanger below said spring-arm with its upper end in advance of the spring-arm and its lower end in the rear thereof, adapted to serve as an abutment when the spring-arm is rocked downwardly by contact with said crank to hold it in engagement with the crank until released therefrom when the spring-arm has passed below the lower end of the abutment to move back to its initial position.

4. In a device of the character described, a depending swinging finger, a register having a movable actuating arm, a fixed concavo-convex plate. a rotating crank having a crank-pin, and means operatively connected to said finger for moving the said. actuating arm into the path of said crankpin along the concave face of said plate, to return along the convex face of the plate to its first position out of the path of the crank-pin.

Signed at Waterloo, Iowa, this 24l'th day of Way, 1916.

DAVID F. MERRIMAN. CHARLES IV. HARRIS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0.

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