US1258540A - Synchronizing system. - Google Patents

Description

-A. F. D-iXON.

SYNCHRONIZING SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 11. 1914.

1,258,546. i Paixmted Mar. 5, 1918.

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SYNCHRONIZING SYSTEM,

APPLICATION HLED APR. 11 I914.

Patented Mar. 5, 1918.

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A. F. DIXON.

SYNCHRONIZIING SYSTEM, APPLICATION FILED APR. 11. m4.

1,258,540. Patented Mar. 5,1918.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3- Wiltmssw: jmmn 507? UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AMOS F. DIXON, 0F NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY IVIESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY, INGQRPGBhTED, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SYNCHRONIZING Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 5,1918.

Application filed April 11, 1914. Serial No. 831,157.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Amos F. DIXoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Synchronizing Systems, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description.

This invention relates to synchronizing systems and has for its object a system for maintaining in synchronism motor driven rotating mechanisms at the distant ends of a signal transmitting circuit.

The invention as herein shown and as it is particularly designed to be utilized is embodied in a printing telegraph system of the usual multiplex high speed type in which distributers are located at distant stations at the ends of a single signal transmitting circuit which distributers associate such circuit simultaneously with the corresponding transmitting and receiving elements at the distant stations.

In order that a receiving mechanism at one station may be associated with the signal circuit at such station during the same period that the transmitting mechanism individual thereto at the other of such stations is connected to such circuit some means must be provided for synchronizing the dis tributers. In systems of this character it is usual that the signals are made up of a plurality of current impulses of opposite character or polarity, the system being such that one of such signals comprising a plurality of impulses may be transmitted from a transmitting mechanism to its receiving mechanism each time they are associated with each other over the signal circuit by the distributers.

A particular feature of the present invention is the arrangement whereby the local correcting current impulses are provided by the employment of a greatly reduced number of circuit contacts. This result is accomplished by the use of a transformer made momentarily active through the agency of the changes in polarity or potential of the line current impulses and associated with the speed controlling mechanism in such a manner as to control the movement of one of the distributors to keep it insynchronism with another. By the use of a transformer, instead of the usual re lays pends he tannins ea ner impulses the number of moving contacts and consequently the amount of adjustment is reduced and the liability of defective or varying cooperation iat a minimum. The above, and other objects of this invention will. be fully set forth in the following description and claims, and will be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 shows diagrammatically the sending and receiving distributors and ohcuit connections therefor.

Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view of the circuits and apparatus shown atthe receiving station in Fig. 1, showing the distribut'er contacts in developed plan.

Fig. 3 is a side 'elevaton of the correcting mechanism for a distributor, and

Fig. at is a section on the line IV IV of F ig. 3.

P te to Fig. 1, the line from the transmitting station A, to'the receiving station B, is shown at 1, and the receiving line rela at 2. The line relay 2 is of the polar ized type and the armature thereof is moved against upper contact 3 by a positive current impulse and against the lower contact a by a negative current impulse so that for each range of polarity of the line cur rent the armature 5 moves from one contact to the other and always remains in contact with one the other of contacts 3 and 4:. A source of energy shown as a battery 6 is connected to the armature The upper contact 8 is connected to the four segments '7 of the receiving distributer by the conductor 8. In addition to the seg ments 7 coma ts O are provided located be tween the segments '7 and in circumferential alinement therewith so that the brush 10 carried on the rotating arm 11 will alternately rub over the segments 7 and the contacts Arranged in the circumference of a larger concentric circle are a plurality of contacts 12. In the receiving distributer siown there five of these contacts for each segment 7, as the well known Baudot alphabet requires various combinations of 5 impulses made up of positive and negative impulses. Obviously if it were desired to employ some other alphabet the number of contacts 12 could be'alter'ed to meet the requirements of such alphabet In the sys; tem disclosed as there are only four seg-. me s d mmed" there would be tw nty contacts 12. However only the contacts 12 corresponding to two segme -ts 7 are shown on the drawing it being understood that there may be as many segments 7 and con tacts 12 as may be desired. Between each set of contacts 12 an additional contact 13 is located radially opposite the contact 9. The brush 1% which is electrically connected to the brush 10 is adapted to sweep over and make contact with the contacts 12 and 13, during the motion of the brush carrying arm 11. The arrangement is such that as the brush carrying arm rotates the segments 7 and contacts 12 will be electrically connected and the contacts 9 and 13 electrically connected. The construction of the receiving distributor described thus far does not differ materially from the Baudot distributer the construction and operation of which is well known in the art.

In addition to the contacts described above, which are equivalent to the contacts of the Baudot distributer a set of synchronizing contacts 15-, which correspond in number to the contacts 12, are provided, as well as the continuous contact 16. As shown on the drawing the contacts 15 are arranged in a concentric circle of larger diameter than that of the contacts 12. It will also be observed tha the synchronizing contacts 15 are shorter than the contacts 12. The rela- 'tive positions of the contacts 12 and 15 will be more fully described in connection with Fig. 2, and the operation or" the system. The rotating brush carrying arm 11 is provided with two electrically connected brushes 16 and 17 which are insulated from the brushes 10 and 1 1, the arrangement of the brushes i6 and 17 being such that at certain times during the travel of the brush carrying member the contact 15 will be electrically connected to the contact 16.

Connected with each of the contacts 12 of a set is one of a set of 5 selecting magnets 18 which when energized in various combinations determine the actuation of apparatus not shown to cause the recordation of the corresponding character. This apparatus may be of any o1 several well known types and as it forms no part or the present invention will not be "further described.

Neglecting for the time the operation of synchronizing the operation of selecting a desired character may be briefly described. Assuming that the distributor brush carrying arm 11 is driven in the direction of the arrow in synchronism with a corresponding distributor arm 42 located at the sending station A, the brushes 10 and 11 will make contact with the segments 1' and contacts 12 at the same instant as the corresponding brushes of the distributor at the sending station make contact with th corresponding contacts and se ments. For every positive impulse of current originating at the sending nesaseo station A the armature 5 of the polarized relay 2 makes contact with the contact It" at the time a positive impulse is sent the brush is in contact with a contact 12 the corresponding selecting magnet 18 will be energized over a circuit which may be traced as follows: battery 6, armature 5, contact 3, conductor 8, egment 7, brushes 10 and 1 1, contact 1 selecting m gnct 18 to ground. If however at the 'ne the brush 1O maices contact with a contact a negative impulse arrives from the sending station the arn'1a ture 5 will be shifted to the contact ii and the selecting magnet corresponding to such contact 12 will not be enern'ivod. Thus 'w l the distributor brush cai-l'aung arm 11 pr s over a given set of contacts 12 as many of the selecting magnets 18 will be energized there are positive impulses sent during that time and such magnets will be energized or remain deencrgized in a sequence corresponding to the combination of positive and negative in'ipulses sent. immediately after the brushes leave the segment 7 the brushes bridge the contacts 9 and 13 and close a circuit for governing the recordation of a character. @bviously in order that the s'gelecting magnets may be properly energized it is necessa v that the distribute:- Uns of the di tributors at hot and receiving station be ma ained in practi' lly exact synchroni in accordance with the present in've..on this s ncrouism is obtained by means of circui and apparatus which wi i now be described.

.ch distributer is provided with a. motor which is adjusted to drive the distributor arms approximately in synchronism. These motors may be clockwork, a phonic motor controlled from a vibrating reed or tuning fork, or any other suitable construction. The distributor arm is driven from the mo tor through a correcting mechanism which will now be described. It is only necessary however to provide such correcting mechanism for one distributor of a pair, which distributor may for convenicce be referred to as the corrected or synchronized distributer the other as the correcting distributor. The motors are adjusted so that the corrected distributer normally rotates either slightly faster or slower than the correcting or noncorrected distributor, the only dilterence being that in the former case the correcting mechanism is employed to retard or slow down the corrected distributor and in the latter case to acvance or speed up the corrected distributer.

it. correcting mechanism for use in case the corrected distributer is set to run faster than the correcting distributer is shown in Figs. 3 and A motor of any type is indicated at 20, which drives a shaft 21 upon which is fixed a gear wheel 22. Cooperating 22 and mounted in a frame 23 with the gear is a pinion 24. The frame 23 is mounted to rotate about an axis in alinement with the axis of the shaft 21 so that the pinion 2 l and gear wheel 22 form an ordinary planetary gear. The electrical connections between the stationary and movable parts are maintained in the usual manner by means of a slip ring 40 and a current-carrying brush 41. The frame 23 is mounted on a shaft 25 and is rotatable therewith. The brush carrying arm 11 is also fixed upon the shaft so that the angular relation of the frame 23 and arm 1.1 is constant. It is obvious that if the pinion 24 were clamped so that it could not rotate the shafts 25 and 21 would rotate together at the same speed and if the pinion were rotated there would be a relative movement be tween said shafts. Assuming the shaft 21 to rotate in the direction of the arrow shown thereon the speed of the shaft 25 would be decreased relative to shaft 21 by an amount depending upon the amount and speed of rotation of the pinion 24:. The pinion 2lis arranged to be rotated through the agency of a magnet 26 carried on the shaft 25, which magnet is energized at the proper time as will be desc 'ibed later to slow down the distributor brushes. The magnet 26 is provided with a pivoted armature 27, which is in the form of a lever and carrie at one end a pawl 28, which coiiperates with a ratchet wheel 29 fixed to the shaft 30, which also carries the pinion 24. A spring 50 is provided to hold the pawl in engagement with the ratchet wheel and any suitable form of detent (not shown) may be provided to prevent over-running of the ratchet wheel. The arrangement is such that upon the energization of the magnet 26, the armature 27 moving toward the pole pieces 31 causes the pawl 28 to engage the ratchet wheel and rotate the pinion 2a in the direction of the arrow. Therefore it follows that for every ener ization of the magnet 26 th speed of the brush carrying arm is retarded, or in other words the brushes are mechanically set back. The armature 27 also operates a pair of normally closed contact springs 32 and 33, the operation of which will be described later.

Referring now to Fig, 2 wherein the receiving distributor contacts are shown as developed, that part of the system which relates more particularly to the synchronizing operation may be described. The parts shown in Fig. 1 are designated by corresponding numerals on Fig. 2 although but one segment 7 and one set of contacts 12 and 15 are shown. The contacts 15 are connected in multiple to a conductor leading to one winding of a locking relay. The lower contact 4: of the polar relay 2 is connected to earth through a winding of the transformer 35. The second winding of the transformer 35 is connected to the contact 16. As the line signals of five impulses are made up of combinations of positive anl negative impulses it may be safely assumed that under ordinary conditions the impulses will change, in polarity, on an average of at least once for each character. For every change in polarity the armature 5 will be shifted and a sychronizing impulse will be produced. A characteristic signal is graphically indicated above the receiving distributor contacts in the relation they bear to such contacts. This signal consists of two positive impulses, followed by two negative and a positive impulse, so that there are two changes of polarity for the signal. At the time the first change of polarity occurs provided the corrected clistributer is in exact sychronism with the correcting distributer the brush 1% will be just about to make contact with the third segment 12 and the brush 1'? just about to contact with the third segment 15. Although the armature 5 will shift and send an impulse through the transformer this impuse will be ineffective as there will be no connection between the contacts 15 and 16. If however the corrected distributer is moving faster than the correcting distributer then brush 17 will be in contact with the third contact 15 before the change in polarity occurs. In this case the shifting of the armature 5 will send an impulse from battery 6 through the primary of the transformer 35 which will induce a corresponding impulse in the secondary which will pass through the contacts 16 and 15 now connected by the brushes L6 and 17, through the relay 34. This causes the energization of relay 3% which causes the energization of magnet 26 and remains locked up over its holding winding until the magnet 26 opens the contacts 32 and 33. As the contacts and 33 are arranged so that they will be opened only at the finish of the movement of the stroke of the armature of magnet 26, the relay n will hold up until after the completion of the operation of magnet Th energization of magnet 26 through the. agency of the correcting mechanism described above, will mechanically retard or set back the brushes of the corrected distributor. The opening of the contacts 32 and 33 restores relay 3% and magnet 26 to normal. Upon the next change of polarity if the corrected distributer is still in advance, the shifting of the armature 5 from the contact l to contact 3 will remove potential of battery 6 from the primary of transformer 35, induce an impulse in the secondary, and as the last set of contacts 15 and 16 will be connected through brushes 17 and 4:6 in the case assumed, will cause the energization of relay 34 and magnet 26 as before to set back the distributer brushes.

Thus for every change of polarity a synchronizing impulse will be sent through the transformer and it the distributers are not in exact synchronism the brushes of the corrected distributer will be retarded or set back.

I claim,

1. A synchronizing system comprising a transmission. line, a rotatable body associated with said line and providing current impulses therefor, a second rotatable body also associated with said line, an independent source of power for driving said second body, a line relay responding to the changes of current polarity over said line, a transformer responding to the actuation of said relay to provide local correcting current impulses, and means controlled thereby for varying the speed of said second body.

2. A synchronizing system comprising a second mentioned body to control the speed thereof.

In Witness Whereoi I hereunto subscribe my name this 31st day of March, A. D. 1914.

AMOS F. DIXON. Vfitnesses F. T. Woonwann, E. N. Anairs.

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

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