US1236153A - Printing apparatus. - Google Patents

Description

F. C! DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS. I APPLICATION FILED AUG-5.1914.

4 SHEETSSH\EET l- Patenfed Aug. 7,1917.

I Inventor:

F. C. DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.5, 1914.

Patented A11 7, 1917.

4 SHEETSSHEET 2.

flwelzzforfiederl F. C. DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS- APPLICATION FILED Aus.5,1914.

Patented Aug. 7, 1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- [I2 yen for F. C. DOLCATER.

PRINTING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED Aue.5. 1914.

1,236,153. Patent-ed Aug. 7, 1917.

4 SHEETSSHEET 4.

UNITED STATES OFFICE.

mnnnmcx 0. m, or WASHINGTON, nrs'rnic'r or COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOB r0 monsoon MAILING maonnvnar co., or cna'rranooea, 'rnnnnssnn, a con- POBATION OF TENNESSEE.

To all wlwm'it may concern:

'Be it known. that I, FnEDEBioK C. D01.- oarnn, a citizen of'the United States, residing at Washington, District of Columbia,

record plates bearin addresses or otheninformation are passe through the machine, and the impressions taken therefrom, and

. [my present invention concerns particulaily means whereby certain of the record plates may be selected for printirig and the others skipped in the printing. y my invention it is possible to send the wholelist of plates through the machine,'but to print from onl certain of these'plates accor ing to the di ferent classes in which they belong.

Another feature of my invention relates to selecting mechanism to determine the kind *or color of the form which is to be fed into the machine by the attendant, thecall for a blue form, for instance,being indicated by a blue flash light, for a yellow form by a yellow flash light, and a white form by a white flash light.

Another feature of my invention contem.

plates the selection of values, which the pplates represent, and. their accumulation on a register mechanism which also may be employed for printing the total of the values or numbers which the plates represent. s The invention consists in the features of construction and combination and arrangement of-parts'hereinafter described and particularly set forth in the appended claims.-

'. Ilsaid machine with some parts omittedand with the mech- In the accompanying drawings Figure l isa side elevation of a portion of the machine embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view; p

-- Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig.- 3, but

anism in a difi'erent osition;

' Fig. 5 is a detail view of one of the arms ofthe bell crank lever;

Fig. 6 is a view of the. other arm of said lever;

Specification of Letters I'atent.

. rnimme arranartrs.

Patented Aug. 7, 1917.

Application .flled August 5, 19M. 1 sem m. 565,238.

7 a detail view ofthe shuttle bar; Fig. 8 is a detail view ofthe record plate;

Figs. 9 and 110 are views respectively of the back and front sides of the record plates In these drawings, 1 indicates the impression bar which is mounted to slide vertically in the frame, and" is operated from a shaft 2 through arms "3 fixed on said shaft and connected by links 4 to cross bars 5 which are connectedwith the vertically'extending rods 6, these rods being connected at their upper ends to the impression bar. The shaft 2. is

rocked; by an arm 7 fixed thereto having a pin 8 to be borne upon by a pawl 9, said pawl being pivotally mounted at 10 to one of the arms 11 of a bell-crank lever, the other arm of which shown at 12 is loosely connected with the arm 11, and both are loosely mounted on the shaft 2. The arm 11 of the bell crank lever is operated through any suitable link connection-as 13 extending to a crank or other elementto which power is applied in any suitable way. The arm 12 of the bell crank lever is utilized to opcrate the record plate "feed :mechanism, it being-understood that these record plates are brought to the impression. point by a step bystep movement from a s'uitable'hopper, the runway for the said plates being indicated generally at it. This plate feed mechanism may be of variousforms, and the particular form of this mechanism does not constitute a: part of my invention, and I have therefore". shown it only generally. This mechanism consists in a'linlr' 15 operated from an arm16 on a shaft 17, the said shaft being operated througharm 16. it'rom j the lever arm 12 through. what may be termed Du-tri mechanism. This term is coined from the 1 words. duplicate and triplicate. This mechanism, under the control of the operator, may be set to regulate-the plate feed for making either single, duplicate, triplicate or multiple impressions from the same plate. The arm 12 has a projection 12. which enters a channel l6 the arm 16 indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The link 15 is connected with a bell crank lever 18 which, in turn, through a link 19, connects with a shuttle bar 20 havlng dogs 21 thereon for engaging the plates and feeding them forward one step at each reciprocation of the shuttle bar. The arm 12 of the bell crank lever i1-12 engages the arm 16' of the Du-tri mechanism. I refer to this Dutri plate feeding mechanism as an example oi any desired mechanism that may be used for the purpose. The arms 11 and 12 of the bell crank lever, as stated above, are each. loosely mounted on the shaft 2, and they-are connected by toggle links 23, 23, by which, when the arm 11 is moved in the arrow direction, the links will move the arm 12 in the same direction, and through the connections described the. shuttle bar for feeding the plates will be retracted to get into position for a new feed of the plates. This same movement of the bell crank arm 11, through the pawl 9, will move the impression head down. On the reverse movement of the arm 11 the impression bar will rise and the downward movement of the arm 12 will efl'ect the movement of the plate feed mechanism to feed the plates forward. this movement of the arm 12 being due to a spring connection between the arm 11 and the link 23, and I have shown this spring at 25, the purpose being to allow the arm 12 to yield or lag in its movement downwardly should a record-plate become jammed in its guideway.

Detector mechanism.

The detector mechanism for selecting certain of the plates for printing involves a specially constructed series of record plates and mechanism to coiiperate therewith to determine which of the plates shall be printed as they pass through the machine. Selective. record plates heretofore have been employed, but in my system'I employ the well known Montague form of one piece embossed record plates and the selectin means I emboss on the plates, and preferab y I employ the characters of the alphabet or numerals or other alphabetical signs as the selecting means. I have shown, for instance, a row of selecting embossings at X on a record plate, consisting in this instance as shown in Fig. 8, of the characters A, B, C, D, F, and Z, and this will indicate that this plate belongs in a number of different classes and will be printed when the different classes to which it belongs are to be selected and printed. Cooperating with the record plates are contact points, or only a single point may be used, this point or points being indicated at'Y, and being carried removably and interchangeably in a holder 26. This holder may be constructed in various ways, but I prefer to form it of insulating fiber having slots or openings for receiving the detector fingers Y. These detector fingers are rubber covered at their exposed portions excepting their extreme ends, which are left bare to contact with the selecting points or embossings on the record plates. The holder 26 is carried on stems 27 movable vertically through the bed of the machine at '28, and connected by a cross pin 29 against which arms 30 may bear, said arms being mounted on a rock shaft 31 suitably journaled in a bracket of the frame, and operated through an arm 32 fixed thereon and a link 33 which is connected with the arm 12 of the bell is connected. with the arm 12 of the bell crank lever 1112. The holder 26 is normally pressed upwardly by a spring 34. The detector consisting of the plate 26 with its detector fingers is located one step in advance of the impression point, that is to say, the record plates as they are moved step by step from their hopper to the impression point arrive first at the detector station indicated at A in the plan view, Fig. 2, and after resting here the plates are given another step to the left which brings them to the impression point. While at the station A each plate is instrumental in determining whether it will be printed upon or skipped when it arrives at the next station, t, 6., the impression point. It will be observed that as the bell crank lever 1l-12 rises, and the impression bar descends, the arms 30, through the link and arm connection 33 and 32, will lower the detector plate and brin a detector finger into contact with any 0 the contact points or embossings X which may underlie the same. This will close the circuit to an electro-ma-gnet 36 and this, through its armature 37 and rock shaft 38, will set a latch 39 from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 3 to that shown in dotted lines in saidfigure. The upward movement of the bell crank lever 11-12 has brought the pawl 9 to its uppermost position, and a pin 9' on said pawl now overlies the slot 40 in the latch 39, this latch having been adjusted as just stated to the dotted line position. Now when the movement of the parts is reversed and the bell crank moves downwardly or opposite the arrow direction and consequently when the impression bar is rising, the pin 9 of the pawl 9 will enter the slot 40 of the latch 39 and in the final part of the movement the pin will come against the lower edge of this slot and therefore the pawl will be tipped so that its right hand end will be thrown I machine being embossed with the address it other.

ment will be transmitted to the shaft 2, and,

the impression baror head will not be moved downwardly. When, however, the reverse movement ust above described is taking place, that is, the movement of the bell crank ever,1112 in. a direction opposite to the arrow, the plate which had been resting at station A has been moved by the plate feedlng mechanism from said station to the impression point below-the impression bar, but as the impression bar does not move down owing to the setting of the pawl 9 in ineffective. position, no impression will be made from the plate just mentioned, but on the contrary on the next cycle this plate will be moved from the impression point toward the discharge point of the machine.

A spring 9 returns the pawl or controller 9 to normal position.

It will be observed that the record plates having the selective device embossed thereon are of advantage over any form of plate having removable tabs or'other adjustable,

The plate can be made ,of'

selective means. a selective character at the same time that the address or information vis embossed thereon, that is, while the plate is in the can be embossed at the same time and by the same machine with the character or charac 'ters which are to classify the plate.

Furthermore, it happens that a customer must be transferred from one class to an- To do this, it is simply necessary with my invention to blank out, i. 6., press down or obliterate the selector character and reemboss the plate with the selector character at the proper point to put the cus-' tomer in his proper class. With the em-' bossed selector devices danger of loss of identity of the plate is prevented.

By employing alphabetical characters or numbers as the selective devices, the class or classes to which the plate belongs can be read at a glance. For instance, if the letter a'ap'pears as the selective character, the plate belongs to the a or first class If 0 appears it can be seen that it belongs in the third or c class. Each class, therefore, will be designated by its own particular si or combination of signs which will be di erent from the signs or combination of signs des- I ignating other classes. These signs will not only be distinctive in themselves, but their location will be distinctive; thus a will 00-- cupy the first position; (1 the fourth, and

so on throughout the list of signs, so that the operator, in embossing the plate, will be able to place the sign in proper position quickly andcertainly, and the liability of mistake will be reduced.

- Furthermore, the embossed classifying 7 sign can be printed on the 'wrapper, en-

' velop, card or other matter, because the said embossed. By reason of this the article when printed will have a class indication thereonby which it may be identified and treated differently and separately as may be desired from all printed articles belonging to other classes- As above stated, the record plate is of the type known 'asthe Montague manufactured under patents of Owens, 939,739, November 9, 1909, and Lee, 982,076, January 17, 1911. a

The plate has a main portion with embossed characters thereon, and it has margins oflset to one side of the plane of the plate by which the plate is guided. The main portion of the plate is elevatedand the printing characters are thus brought to the proper plane.

The selecting embossings are made in this raised or main part of the plate. These embossings aremade preferably near one edge of theplate, and it will be noticed that the detector plate is so located that its fingers will extend over the guideway in the table and over the depressed rolled margin of the plate into position to contact with the selective embossings on the plate. The plate feeder is arranged below' the surface of the table and in'position to engage one of the depressed margins of the plate.

Reverting to the latch 39, of course it will be understood that when a plate comes along that is to be printed the latch 39 will remain in its normal position shown in full l1nes,.because the circuit Wlll not be closed,

by arranging the s ring 40* tov move the latch 39 tothe dotte line position while the magnet will pull the latch into the full line position. The arm 11 has a lag 11 to engage the pin, 8 and raisethe impression head.

Selecting and number items.

.' v In certain classes of work, for instance wherea number of checks are being printed, it is desirable to register the values that the 'plates represent on accumulator mechanism,

so that when the list of plates has been run through the machine, the total will appear, and an imprint of this total may be made feitheron a separate slip' or on the record strip or sheet which has just received there- 'on the list of items.

Referring to Figs. 9 to 13, the record plates are adapted to receive embossing 'X at or near one end thereof, representing numbers of the desired denominations.

The spaces for receiving the embossings are indicated by the lines X shown 111 Fig. 9 impressed in the back of the plate when it is formed. I show as an example five columns representing units, tens, hundreds, etc., and each column havin nine spaces representing digits running rom 1 to 9. I have indicated the position of these digits by the numbers 1 to 9. Supposing the plate is to represent a value of one hundred and eighty-six dollars and twenty-five cents, the embossings would appear in the positions indicated in Figs. 9 and 10. Cooperatin with such a plate I employ a contact hea having as shown in Figs. 12, 13 and 14 a fiber body 26 supported on fiber posts as before described and pressed up by springs, as indicated. In this fiber plate a series of contacts 42 are mounted. These consist of pins having enlarged heads 44 and nuts or collars 45 screwed on their lower ends. A s ring 46 presses each pin normally downwar this spring resting against the contact plate 47 fixed in the opening in the fiber plate, and against the lower collar or nut 45.. The pin 42 is held by the spring with its lowerend and the face of the collar or nut about flush with the lower face ofthe fiber contact head, the head 44 of the pin acting as a stop to limit the downward movement of the pin. There is a row of these pins for each order of digits, units, tens, hundreds, etc., and each row contains nine pins representing digits from 1 to 9 inclusive. Cooperating with these pins there is a series of slides 48, one slide for each order of digits. In the example shown there are five rows of digits, and consequently there are five slides 48. These are adapted to move in ways formed in the fiber plate and just above the plane of the upper ends of the pins when these are in normal position. The slides are confined in their grooves by a glass plate 49 fixed to the fiber plate. Each of these slides has a rack 50 connected with an item wheel 51, there being one such wheel for each slide, and the connection may be made in various ways. In the particular construction shown this connectionis made through a gear wheel 52 carrying a pawl 53 engagin a ratchet wheel 54 connected with the num erwheel.

The slides are moved to the right, Fig. 12, or in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 11, to be set u in positions corresponding to .the values or the di its which are selected. Fig. 11 shows the slides in set up position resting against the stops 44 which have been elevated by coming in contact with the embossed points on the record plate, this being due to the depression of the head carrying all the pins. Only, those pins will be raised which come in contact with the embossed points. The slides 48 are moved to set-up position by electro-magnets 54 which, when rise and fall as the contact head moves up and down. The magnet is energized through suitable circuit connections by the contact pins of the contact head coming against the embossed selecting points on the plate, and the slides will thus be moved to different degrees according to the position of the stop pins raised in the contact head. On the movement of the slides to set-up position shown in Fig. 11, no movement of the number wheels takes place. For restoring the slides to normal position and therebytransferring their values to the number wheels, the levers 56 are provided with arms 59 overlying a pin 60 carried by the cross bar 61 of the impression frame,so that when the impression frame rises the slides will be moved and the number wheels will be turned according to the values of the digits to be added. 7

An sort of carrying mechanism common in a ding machines may be employed for carrying tens from one order to the next higher order and any sort of accumulator mechanism may be used, such not forming a part of my invention excepting in a broad sense.

The mechanism just described for selecting numbers may be employed in the same organization with the means for selecting and printing only certain of the plates.

The counting wheels may be located either at the'front or rear of the runway.

In respect to the circuits in Figs. 11 to 14, each series of-contacts 44 will be connected upwith a magnet 54 before mentioned, there being one thesemagnets for each order of digits which it is desired to count. The stop and contact pins 44 of each order are connected together electrically in any suitable manner, as by making the seat 47 in the form of a strip in which all the stops of one order are seated, this strip being in circuit with the magnet, but there is a separate circuit for each order of digits. When any one of the contacts 44 of either order of digits contacts with the selector embossing on the record plate, the magnet will be energized and the slide 48 will be moved until it is arrested by the elevated contact stop 44.

The circuit wires are indicated diagrammatically in Figs. 12. 13 and 14 at w and 3 It will be clear that the mechanism of Figs. 1 to 8 for controllingthe impressions from detector mechanisms of which the plate forms a part and the counting'mechanism of Figs. 9 to 14; of which the printing plate also forms a part are" to housed in the same machine, it being obvious that the detector orcontact mechanism willbe disposed along the runway at different points.

The printing plate 1767' se-is not claimed herein as this has been made the subject matter of application #145,480, filed J anuary 30, 1917. I claim as my invention:

1. In a printing apparatus, a table having runways below the surface thereof, an impression member operating to and from the table, andprintmg plates having a main portion exposed between the runways an with depressed margins in the runways, said plates having printing characters embossed from their exposed main portions and having selector embossings also raised from said exposed main portions, and detector means coiiperating with the selector embossings, substantially as described,

2. In combination in. a printing apparatus, a series of record-plates each having a raised main portion and depressed margins, a guideway receiving the depressed margins, said record plates having embossed printing characters and selectors extending up from said plate thereon, and detector means having detector fingers reaching across the depressed margin of the plate and over'the main body of the plate to engage only the projecting selector with means for" operating the detector means, substantially as described.

3. In, combination in a printing apparatus, a series of record plates each having a raised mainportion and depressed margins, a guideway receiving the depressed margins, said record plates having embossed printing characters andembossed selectors thereon, and detector means consisting of a holder having detector fingers reaching across the. depressed margin of the plate and over the main, body of theplate to .en-'

gage the embossed selector with means for operating the holder, said holder being located to one side of the path of the record plates and having movement vertically, substantially'as described.

4. In combination in printing apparatus,

an impression head, a series ofrecord plates, some of. which have selecting means thereon, arockingarm, means for rocking the arm, a shifting controller or pawl carried thereby, a rock shaft, a connection from said rock shaft to the impression head, means on the rock shaft to be engaged or disengaged by the controller, and means controlled by the selector means on the record plate to set the controller in position to cause said head to make or miss an impression, substantially as described.

5. In combination in a printing apparatus, a series of record plates some having selecting means, a rock shaft, an arm loosely mounted on the rock shaft, means for oscillating the arm, a pawl pivoted to the arm, said pawl engaging with or disengaging from a part on said rock shaft, an impression head, connections from the rock shaft for operating the impression head, a latch the two-armed lever, substantially as described.

7. In combination an impression head, a two-armed lever, a shiftable controller mounted on said lever, connections controlled by the controller for moving the impression head, record plates some having selector means, a detector cooperating with said selector means to determine the making of impressions through the controller, a connection for operating the detector from the two-armed lever, a plate feeder operated from said two-armed lever, and a yielding connection between the arms of the lever to stantially as described.

8. In combination impression means, a table having a straight runway, individual record plates having printing characters, feed means for moving the record plates seriatim and step by step along the runway 'to and past the impression point, selector means on the record plates indicating numbers, number wheels, and mechanism for antomatically operating said number wheels,

' yield on failure of the plates to feed, subsaid mechanism being controlled by the selector means, substantially as described.

9. In combination impression means, a table having a straight runway, individual record plates having printing characters and selector means indicating numbers or digits of numbers, means for feeding the plates along the runway step by step, number.

wheels, a contact head having members to contact with the selector means on the record plate, and means controlled by the said contacts for actuatin the number wheels in accordance with t e values represented by the selector means with which. contact is made, substantially as. described.

10. In combination an impression head,

individual record plates bearing printing characters and selector devices,'a contact head having movable contact devices to be set by engagement with said selector devices, digit wheels, actuators for said digit wheels, means for setting the actuators up against the contact devices as adjusted into stopping position by engagement. with the selector devices, and means for returning the actuators to normal position to thereby transfer the values onto the digit wheels.

11. In combination. impression means, in dividual record plates, bearing printing characters and selector devices, a contact head having movable members to engage the selector devices and be set thereby, said members acting as circuit closers and as stops, number wheels, actuators therefor to be arrested in set-up position by said stops, electro-magnetic means for operating the said actuators, said electro-magnetic means being controlled by a circuit made by engagement of the movable members of the contact head with the selector devices on the plates, and means for restoring the actuators to normal position to thereby transfer the values onto the number wheels, substantially as described.

12. In combination an impression head, a. table, a plate feeder for moving printing plates along said table, an oscillating arm, a. member mounted co'axially with the arm, a pawl shiftable on the arm and when in one position engaging the said member to move the same, a connection between said member and the impression head to move the latter when the pawl is in engagement with said member, and a member to set the awl and detector connections extendin to tie printing plate for controlling the ast mentioned member, substantially as described.

13. In combination an impression head, a table having a runway for printing plates, a rocking lever consisting of two arms coaxially mounted, a connection for operating one of the arms, toggle link connections between the arms, connections leading from. one of the arms for feeding the printing plates, a rocking member coaxially mounte with the arm of the lever, a connection between said rocking member and the impression head, a shifting pawl on one of the arms for operating said rocking member, and detector means coiiperating with the printing plates for controlling the shifting pawl, the said toggle link connection between the arms allowing one of the arms to yield in. respect to the other to eliminate the plate feeding function should a plate become jammed in the runway, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FREDERICK C. DOLCATER.

Witnesses:

WALTER DONALDSON, HENRY E. Coornn.

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