US1537745A - Printing telegraphy - Google Patents

Description

May 12, 1925. 1,537,745

W. M. BRUCE, JR

PRINT ING TELEGRAPHY Filed Feb'. 12, 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 12, 1925. y W. M. BRUCE, JR

PRINTING TELEGRAPHY Filed Feb. 12. 1921 Fig.2 7v b b o o o 0 GOO 000 O ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo OO O O0 OO O 0 O O O O O 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 12, 1925.

PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD BRUCE, JR, OF SPRINGFIELD, OHIO.

PRINTING TELEGRAPHY.

Application filed February 12, 1921.

To all whomz't may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM M. Barron, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county, of Clark and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Printing Telegraphy, of which the following is a specification. I

My invention relates to improvements in telegraphy and particularly relates to improvements in the method of operating printing devices over electric conductors so that the message is received in printed form.

In printing telegraphy as now employed it is customary to provide rotating distributors in connection with transmitters and receivers whereby certain combinations of elec tric impulses are transmitted over the connecting conductor to operate mechanism at the receiving station which will determine the desired letter and print the same, one rotation of the distributors being usually employed for each letter. Letter spacing, that is the spacing between letters, is generally automatically performed in the actof printing the letter. For word spacing, however, it has been usual and necessary under the present systems to transmit over the conductor impulses for the word spacing similar in kind and employing the same element of time (that is, one distributor revolution) as for letter printing so that the time occupied in setting up and printing a word of four or five letters and properly spacing the same is increased to 25, per cent of the actual time necessary to transmit and print the letters forming the word. In operating over lines ofhigh capacity such as submarine cables where the number of impulses which can be passed through the conductor is limited, this loss'of time in spacing between words becomes very important.

My invention has for its-object the saving of this time in word spacing by providing a method-of automatically operating the word-spacing mechanism between words without the necessity of transmitting this additional combination of elements by the extra revolution of the distributor.

I accomplish this object primarily by providing for an additional impulse at the beginning of the letter which constitutes the end or the beginning of a. word so that this impulse becomes in effect substantially a part of the letter combination, and I so time Serial No. 444,531.

this impulse that the word spacing is accomplished between words by the same automat- 10 action and within the same limit of time as is now necessary to select and print the letter which has been selected (at the beginn ng or at the end of the word), thereby providing means for increasing the speed of ordlnary printing telegraph from 20 to I per cent over the known methods of operating devices of this character now in use, partlcularly over lines of high capacity.

Inasmuch as my invention may be applied to many of the systems already in use, I have illustrated myinventionlargely diagrammatic views illustrating the methods, circuits and devices employed for carrying out the invention.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the method of transmitting and receiving impulses to produce automatic word spacing when used. in connectionwith or applied to systems of printing telegr'aphy now in use.

Fig. 2 isa view of the transmitting tape showing an arrangement of the punching or transmitting openings for sending the extra impulse in connection with the letter combination at the point where the word spacing is to be applied.

Fig, 3 is a modification in the said drawings, a represents the usual distributor at the sending station and b shows a similar distributor at the receiving station.

It will be understood that these distributors are provided with any of the usual methods for synchronizing.

' I have illustrated my improvement to operate in connection with an ordinary five unit system having the usual five code bars and code bar relays to set up the necessary type for printing and in a system of this character I- add an extra contact segment to the distributors, making six contact segments which are shown in the drawings as numbered from 1 to 6.

In order to send and properly time the extra impulse for operating the word spacing mechanism, I, supply means for applying to the transmitter an extra impulse which will preferably be impressed upon the distributor when the distributor brush is on segment No. 1 and I preferably accomplish this by punching in the transmitting tape an extra hole h which willfoccur at (and preferably in) the same combination which sets up the letter at the point where the word spacing is to take place: that is, at the end of the word or the beginning of a subsequent word and as I preferably so arrange the circuits and devices that the impulses from the transmitting opening is sent to the sending distributor when the distributor brush is on the first segment the remaining segments are adapt ed thereafter to successively receive the usual impulses which constitute the combinations which will select the various letters which go to make up the word.

At the receiving station I connect, preferably to the corresponding No. 1 segment, a relay which when an impulse is received on the number 1 segment of the receiving distributor, thus operating said relay, which in turn operates .the word spacing mechanism in the printing device so as to move the printing carriage sufficiently to produce the spacing between words, during the time that the distributor is picking up and transmitting the impulses from the other segments which set up the letter at the point where .this word spacing is to occur. so that whenever an impulse comes over the conductor with the distributing brush on this partic-' ular (No. 1) segment the word spacing mechanism will be operated.

I have shown two methods of accomplish-- ing this. One of these methods consists in providing means for causing an additional operation of the spacing magnet, following the ordinary letter space in the act of letter printing, and when so operated I arranged to send the spacing impulse at the beginning of the letter which constitutes the beginning of the succeeding word so that the ordinary letter spacing attheend of the letter will be immediately followed by another movement of the spacing magnet at the beginning of the next letter which begins the next word.

Another arrangement which I have shown consists in providing for an enlarged movement of the spacing mechanism when the word spacing impulse is received so that the carriage printer is moved two spaces instead of one in the act of printing the letter at the end of a word and in this case the spacing impulse will be sup lied at the beginning of the last letter oi the Word and as apart of the letter combination.

eferring to the drawings, 0 \represents the rotating brush of the transmitting distributor a at the transmitting station and 0 the corresponding brush of the distributor b at the receiving station. These brushes are connected together through the ordinary conductor 0 connecting the stations and preferably through an interposed relay 0 which repeats the impulses which come over the conductor into a local circuit from a battery :1: and ground at 9. From the first contact segment of distributor b, a wire Z leads to aspacing control magnet (l and to ground at y. The armature d of this mag-- net is adapted when the mechanism is energized to make contact at d and close a circuit through the spacing magnet s. This circuit being traced through wires 2 and 3 battery 00, wire 4 and the armature d.

In Fig. 1, I show this spacing magnet as the same spacing magnet that is now used for the usual letter spacing and this circuit may be readily applied to printing devices now already in use.

At the sending station the segments 2, 3, 4, '5, and 6 of the transmitter are connected to the usual transmitting relays operated in the ordinary way by the transmitter so that whenever one of these relays is operated a current impulse of a given sign will be applied to that particular segment to which it is attached and will in turn be taken up by the distributor brush and transmitted over the conductor to the distributing brush at the receiving station which will in turn transmit this impuse through the corresponding segment on distributor b to one of the code bar relays e, e, 6 e 6, in the-usual way so that the automatic movementof the spacing relay by the impulse which is applied at the "beginning of the formation of a letter at the particular point where the word space is to occur, will in nowise disturb the setting up of any one or more of the 00 e bars for the letter combination, but wil prior to the letter printing, properly set up and operate the mechanism necessary to cause the additional space to be made between words and thus obviate the necessity of sending over the conductor a s ecial combination for' the word space as is now customary.

It will be understood that as-shown in Fig. 1 this spacing impulse is transmitted at the beginning of the letter which constitutes the beginning of the word following the point where the space occurs and causes the usual spacing magnet to make an extra movement immediately following the, spacing movement automatically provided for in the act of printing and during the time the letter at the beginning of the succeeding word is being set up.

In Fig. 3 I have illustrated a simple method of providing for this additional space by causing an enlarged movement of the spacing magnet so that it moves two spaces instead of one in operating the printer carriage. This is accomplished by providing an extra magnet 7 whose armature f normally constitutes a stop to limit the spacing movement of the spacing mag net to one notch on the carriage. When this stop is withdrawn this spacing movement wil be enlarged so as to cover two notches of the carriage spacing mechanism instead of one. In this case the impulse to operate this auxiliary magnet f will be transmitted at the beginning of the last letter of the word so that while the letter combination is being transmitted and the mechanism operated to set up this particular letter, the

stop f will be withdrawn and when the operation of the spacing magnet is automatically performed in the act of printing, it will move the carriage two spaces instead of one, thus providing both the letter and the word space.

so timed "as to not interfere with the letter formation thereby producing a word space within the same time element as now occupied by the setting up and printing of the letter itself and with the corresponding increase in the speed of printer as noted.

Having thus described my invention, I claim 2- 1. The method of producing word spacing in printing telegraph systems which con-- sists in supplying an extra impulse as a part of a lettercombination and causing this impulse to operate mechanism at the receiving end prior to or during the time that the letter combination is being transmitted and set up so as to operate the spacing mechanism of the printer as for the purpose specified.

2. The method of-producing Word spacing in printing telegraph systems, which consists in supplying an extra impulse as a part of a letter combination at the sending station and causing this impulse to operate mechanism at the receiving station and utilizing this impulse for operating the spacing mechanism to produce. an additional space at the end of a word.

3. The-method of producing Word spac-' ing in printing telegraph systems which consists in supplying an impulse as a part of a letter combination to a distributor at the sending station, and distributing this impulse to a circuit at the receiving station ter combination, and means at the receiving station for causing said additional impulse to operate separate mechanism to modify the spacing movement of the printer as set forth.

5. In a printing system, a transmitter, means for supplying letter combination impulses to said transmitter, and an additional impulse in connection with certain letter combinations, a printer at a receiving station, and atransmitter to cause said letter combination impulses to operate said printer and separate mechanism operated by the additional impulse to modify the spacing movement of the printer.

6. In a. printing system, a transmitter, means for supplying letter combination impulses, and an additional impulse in connection with certain letter combinations to said transmitter, a distributor and a printer at a receiving station to distribute said letter combination impulses and cause them to ope ate said printer and separate mechanism connected with said distributor operated by the additional impulse to produce an additional spacing movement of the printer when said additional impulse is transmitted with the letter combination inr pulses.

7. Ina printing system. a transn'iitter,

means for supplying letter combination impulses, and an additional impulse in connection with certain letter combinations to said transmitter, a distributor and a printer at a receiving station to distribute said letter combination impulses and cause them to operate said printer, and separate mechanism connected with said distributor operated by the additional impulse to produce an additional spacing movement of the printer when said additional impulse is transmitted with the letter combination impulses.

8. In a'printing system, a transmitter,.

means for supplying current impulses representing letter combinations to said transmitter, and an additional impulse in connection with certain letter combinations, a distributor at a receiving station to receive and distribute the current impulses repres enting letter combinations, and a separate circuit connected with said distributor to which the additional impulse is supplied by said distributor, and a magnet in said separate circuitoperated by said additional impulse to produce an additional spacing movement of said printer.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 3rd day of February, 1921.

WILLIAM MANSFIELD BRUCE, .Ir.

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