US2150209A - Supervisory system for watchmen - Google Patents

Description

J. HKDERBY March 14, 1939.

SUPERVI'SORY SYSTEM FOR WATGHMEN Filed Feb. 12, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ./0/-/N H DERBY Z BY HQ ATTORNEYS March 14, 1939. J -H DEIQBY 150,209

SUPERVISORY SYSTEM FOR WATGHMEN Filed Feb. 12, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR JOHN H 05/?5 Y w NW vATTORNEYS March 14, 1939. J. H. DlIRBY 2,150,209

SUPERVISORY SYSTEM FOR WATCHMEN Filed Feb. 12, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 I I I I --2'02 3 A STAT/0N5) 5 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS Patented Mar. 14, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SUPERVISORY SYSTEM FOR WATCHMEN John H. Derby, Scarsdale, N. Y., assignor of onethird to Charles F. Kelley, Brooklyn, N. Y., and one-third to Halford W. Park, New York, N. Y.

Application February 12, 1936, Serial No. 63,492

5 Claims. (Cl.'161e-20) This invention relates to systems for keeping a it does not insure to the building owner immedicheck on the activities of watchmen, and parate notification of any injury to or delinquency ticularly to systems which give an alarm provided of the watchman. A further object of the presthe watchman has failed for a predetermined ent invention, therefore, is to provide asimple,

5 length of time to operate a switch or other conreliable, easily installed and comparatively inextrolling device along the path of his tour of duty. pensive system that will supplement the protec- Alarms of this character, which are sometimes tion afforded the building owner by the usual designated delinquency alarms, have usually watchmans clock. been associated with complicated Watchmens An important feature of the present invention supervisory systems which make records of the is the provision of'a synchronous motor for drivwatchmans movements, or have been too coming the time control mechanism which can autoplicated in themselves or have been too unreliable matically be brought into operation as an de in their operation or have required too much atto starting the watchman on his tour of duty and tention to keep them in working order to permit which can automatically be S pp as an c e i them to go into extensive use. There are thus to his completion of his tour of duty, as, for ex- 1 today thousands of buildings, such as office buildp When the Watchman returns t s c f ings and industrial plants, in which watchmen the watchmans clock or other implement handed are employed, where the only check on the a tivhim when starting his tour and this is replaced ity of the watchman is that obtained after he has n its custodial cabinet.

completed his tour of duty or, in many cases, Another important feature of the invention 20 after he has left the premises altogether. In is the-provision of means for aut ma i lly ivmany cases also Watchmen are employed where g a a arm w en the Watchman, either under no record whatever is kept of their activities and compulsio o w t a w to beat the ptherefore even the satisfaction of knowing the l aratus, o ds t alarm intercepting Switch next day that they have been doing their duty is closed more than momentarily. 26

denied the building or plant owner. Other objects and important features of the A general object of the present invention is to ve t W pp from the following deprovide a simple, comparatively inexpensive and scription and claims when considered in connecthoroughly reliable means for giving an alarm tion'with the acc pa y drawiIlgS,ih which-- 2;) b th he something happens t a, w tchman Figure l is a horizontal section through the 30 which may prevent his attending to his duties casing in Which pp atus embodying the p ent and when he merely fails to perform his duties. invention is normally sealed, this view showin The protection afforded a property by a watchthe appara p y in D and p y in ecman depends fully as much upon his physical tion;

3,", ability t m ke hi r unds as upon hi f ithful- Figure 2 is a vertical section through the casing, mess to his duty. In the absence of a signal of showing the parts which are located on the front the delinquency type, accident, injury, sickness, f the insulating p death or hold-up may leave a manufacturing F gu e 3 is a Vertical on t ough the casplant or other building unguarded for many hours g. o g t p s. w ch are located on the ith n knowledge by anyone of this failure of rear of the insulating panel, some of these parts 40 the watch patrol. This not only is liable to cause being shown in section;

serious loss to the owner or owners of the plant, Figure 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3; but it is unfair to the watchman and may result Figure 5 is a front elevation of a cabinet which in serious injury or even death to him by reason encloses the casing n w i the app ratus is 43 of the delay in advising others'of his disability. o a y Sealed, the et being open to show 45 The simplest form of watchmens supervisory the location of the casing therein and also the service employed at the present time is a clock Suppo t for the ordinary watohmahs e clock; which is carried by the watchman from station Figure 6 isa View of the cabinet similar to that to station and in which a record may be made by shown in Figure 5, but with the casing containing keys located at the respective stations. This the apparatus removed therefrom and the com- 50 clock provides an effective means of determining partment for the lead-in. wires shown in section; Whether or not the watchman has made his com- F gure 7 is a transvers S ct o t h the plete rounds and the succession of the stations cabinet shown in Figs. 5 and 6, with the casing that he has visited, but it aiiords the Watchman in pos o h himself no protection whatever while on duty and gure. 8 is an enlarged ta Section t 5.?

part of the cabinet and the associated part of the casing in which the receptacle and the corresponding plug are respectively located;

Figures 9 and 9A are detail views of the operating mechanism of one of the resetting switches, and

'Figure 10 is a wiring diagram.

The apparatus of the present invention is preferably enclosed in a sealed casing 2, of aluminum or other suitable material, so that it may be bodily inserted in and removed from a cabinet 4 provided with a door 6 that can be locked if desired. The purpose of this, as will appear hereinafter, is to permit the bodily replacement of. the apparatus by another in good working order provided the one originally installed requires service, thus insuring uninterrupted supervision of the watchman.

The operative parts of the supervisory mechanism are shown as mounted upon an insulating panel 8, of bakelite or other suitable material, which is positioned vertically in the casing 2 and is maintained in its vertical position by guides l B riveted to the end walls of the casing 2. The supervisory mechanism itself consists essentially of a synchronous motor arranged to be connected to the alternating current with which the building in which the apparatus is to be installed is supplied, practically all public service alternating supplies being now provided with master clock controls to insure their uniform operation over extended periods of time, and means operated from the synchronous motor for closing an alarm circuit after a predetermined period of elapsed time from the starting of said means, provided the watchman, whose activities are being supervised, does not do something to reset said means to its starting point and thus prevent the closing of the alarm circuit.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention the field part of the synchronous motor is mounted upon the frame l2 which is carried on the front face of the panel 8 and the rotor I4 of the synchronous motor is provided with a shaft l6 mounted in bearings l8 and 20, the shaft l6 extending through the panel 8 and being provided on its rear end with a worm 22 which engages a worm wheel 24 having a hub 26 clamped upon a a shaft 28 mounted in bearings in a frame 36 attached to the rear face of the panel 8. i

The shaft 28 carries at its other end a disk 32, recessed to receive one member 34 of a face clutch, said member 3 5 being formed of rubber or other suitable clutch facing material. The other member 36 of the clutch, of similar material, is carried by a cylinder 38 of insulating material, such as bakelite, upon which the' alarm circuit closers hereinafter to be described are carried. The cylinder 38 is provided with a central threaded bushing 40 which receives one threaded end of a rod 42, the other end of which is prosion which fits into the open end of the core 48 to' form a second bearing for the rotary parts to insure their turning about the axis of the rod 42.

At its end adjacent to the electromagnet 55 the cylinder 38 carries an armature 5L3 which is normally held away from the electromagnet 50 by a spring 56 coiled about the rod 52 within the magnet core 48, the spring 56 having one end 58 inserted in a hole in the closed end of the armature core 48 to hold it against turning with respect to the armature core and having its other end 63 inserted in a socket in the bushing 46 so that the spring may be helically tensioned or wound up as the cylinder 38 is turned with the driving shaft 23 when the clutch members 3 2 and 35 are in clutching relation to each other.

It will be seen that when the electromagnet 50 is not energized the spring 55 will hold the clutch members 3A1 and St in clutching relation to each other and the cylinder 38 will be turned with the shaft 28, which in turn is driven from the synchronous motor through the shaft l6, worm 22 and worm wheel 24. When, however, the electromagnet M9 is energized the armature 5 carried by the cylinder 38 will be attracted toward the magnet against the longitudinal tension of the spring 5%, the clutch members 34 and 35 will be separated and whatever additional tension has been put upon the spring 5% by the winding up thereof will be permitted to act to rotate the cylinder 38 in the reverse direction until the stop member as carried by the cylinder engages the stationary stop 64. Preferably, of course, there Will be some initial tension on the spring 56 about its axis which will cause it to maintain the stop member 52 against the stop member 64 when the parts are at rest and which will tend to accelerate the return movement of the stop member 52 into engagement with the stop member 84.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention provision is preferably made for two alarms, one a warning alarm to the watchman to advise him that he has not operated the resetting mechanism, and a second delayed alarm, preferably sent to some place outside the building, which of course, that the periodicity may be selected to suit particular conditions, that is, the time interval before the initial alarm may be anything desired and the interval between the initial warning alarm and the final distress alarm may also be selected to suit the particular conditions. A

suitable periodicity is a 15 minute period between the starting of the circuit-closing cylinder and the closing of the initial alarm circuit, unless the watchman in the meantime resets the cylinder to its starting position, and a period of 10 minutes between the initial alarm and the outside alarm in the event that the watchman either fails to or is unable to heed the warning signal.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention the circuit closer for the initial alarm is shown as a metal insert 86 located, as shown in Fig. 4,

about from the circuit terminals to be bridged,

the cylinder 38 being geared to make a 90 rotation in fifteen minutes. The circuit closer 66 is arranged to bridge the two terminals 68 and. l0, it being a line terminal common both to the initial alarm circuit and to the emergency alarm circuit. The circuit closer 65, as will be seen from Figure 3 of the drawings, extends across the outer face of the cylinder 38, that is, lengthwise of the axis thereof only far enough to bridge the terminals 68 and ill and not to engage the terminal '52 of the emergency alarm circuit. To close this circuit, that is,'to bridge the terminals Ill and 12,

a second circuit closer M is provided which is so located on the cylinder 38 that it will bridge only the terminals 18 and I2 and will not bridge the terminals 78 and 68.

To prevent continued rotation of the cylinder 38 after both the warning alarm and the emergency alarm have been sounded, which might result in breakage because of the stops 62 and 64, means is provided for opening the circuit in which the synchronous motor is located, thereby stopping the motor after the cylinder has completed substantially a half rotation. The illustrative means comprises two switch members I6 and IS in the current supply to the motor, the switch member 18 having a finger 88 adapted to engage and ride on the cylindrical surface of the cylinder 38 and when thus riding on the outer periphery of said surface acting to hold the switch member I8 in circuit closing relation to the switch member I6, the switch member I8 being carried by a spring so tensioned that it tends to move the switch member I8 away from the switch member I6, when permitted to do so. The cylinder 38 is provided with a depression 82 in the path of movement of the finger 88 of the switch member 18 over the surface of the cylinder and when this depression 82 comes beneath the finger 88 it permits the switch member I8 to move away from the switch member 16 and thus open the motor circuit, thereby stopping the synchronous motor and stopping the rotation of the cylinder 38.

The electromagnet 58 is in a normally open circuit which includes a series of switches 84 arranged in parallel and located at different stations along the path traversed by the watchman in performing his tour of duty, one of these switches being illustrated in detail in Figures 9 and 9A of the drawings. Closing of any one of the switches 84 will close a circuit through the electromagnet 58 and energize the magnet to attract the armature 54, thus releasing the clutch members 34 and 36 from engagement with each other and permitting the spring 56 to return the cylinder 38 to its starting position, with the stop 62 in engagement with the stop 64.

To insure long life of the switches 84 and to insure that a complete switch closing movement will be effected by the watchman when he visits each of the stations at which the switches are located, each switch is preferably constructed as shown in Figures 9 and 9A. For convenience in installing the switches each is located in an iron box 86 provided with a cover 88 held in place by screws 98 preferably riveted at their rear ends, the cover 88 being preferably formed of brass to receive a brass plate 92 of a Yale lock casing 93 which is preferably permanently attached to the plate 88, as by soldering thereto. The rotary barrel 94 of the lock extends beyond the rear end of the lock casing 93 and is provided with a ratchet wheel 96 engaged by a ratchet 98 mounted on a pin or bolt I88 carried by a bracket I82 on the lock casing. The purpose of the pawl and ratchet is to prevent the lock from being turned backwards and to require a complete turn of the key in the lock before it can be removed, after the watchman has" started to turn the lock, thereby insuring first closing and then opening.

Mounted on a second stud or pin I84, carried by the bracket I82 on the lock casing 93, is a plate I88 provided with a slot II6 into'which a. pin II2 projects from the ratchet wheel 96 on which it is eccentrically located. The revolution of the pin I I2 about the axis of the ratchet wheel 96 oscillates'the plate "I 88 between the two. dotted line positions shown in Fig. 9. A mercury tube switch II4 is carried in a clamp II6 attached to the upper edge of the plate I86 and, as shown in Fig. 9A, in its normal position is so tilted that the mercury in said tube is at the end of said tube remote from the switch terminals H8 and I28. In other words, when the lock is in the position to permit the key to be removed the switch H4 is in its open circuit position.

When the key I I1 is inserted in the lock and the barrel 94 is turned in a clockwise direction as viewed from the front, or in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from the rear, the movement of the pin H2 in the slot I II] of the plate I88 oscillates the plate I68 on the stud I84 so that the tube H4, is tilted to bring the mercury into circult-closing relation to the switch terminals II8, I28 and then is tilted back to its initial position in which the mercury is at the end of said tube remote from said terminals.

Should the watchman make a half turn of the key in the look so that the mercury bridges the terminals H8 and I28 and then leave the key in this position with a view to causing the magnet 50 to remain energized, thereby preventing the turning of the cylinder 38 with the shaft 28, the current flowing through the circuit thus closed will flow through a heating coil I22 included in a. shunt of said circuit. The heating coil I22 is connected to and also surrounds a thermostatic couple I24 which constitutes one member of a thermostatically operated switch, the other member I26 of which is stationary. 'As' the thermostatic couple I24 is heated up by the flow of the current through the coil I22 and through the couple itself the difference in the coefiicients of expansion of the two metals making up the couple l24 will cause the switch member I24 to bend into contact with the switch member I26 and thus close the circuit to an outside alarm.

To insure automatic starting of the supervisory mechanism when the watchman starts on his tour of duty, a switch is provided for closing the circuit to the synchronous motor, which switch is normally pressed towards closed position and is preferably held in open position by the weightof some article such as the watchmans time clock which is handed to him when he starts his tour of duty As herein shown, the automatic switch comprises a stationary switch member I28 and a movable switch member I38 tending normally to move to open switch position and a lever fulcrumed at I32 and having a switch-engaging arm I34 engaging said movable switch member and a hook arm I36 on which the watchmans clock, or other article providing the required weight, is hung. A spring I38 engaging the arm I36 tends to move said arm I36 up whenever the weight is removed from said arm thus causing the arm I34 to move the movable switch member I38 into engagement with the stationary switch member I28 and close the circuit to the synchronous motor, thereby starting the supervisory mechanism. In Figures 5 and 7 a watchmans clock I48-is shown as hung from the hook arm I36.

In Figure 10 is shown the diagram of the wiring of the supervisory mechanism and of the control stations and also of the warning alarm and the emergency alarm. Current for the apparatus is taken from the alternating current supply for the building through wires I42 and I44 going through a fuse box I46 to terminals I48 and I 58 on a separate panel I52 contained in a chamber in theupper backpart of the cabinet 4, said chamber being partitioned from the remainder of the cabinet by a bottom wall I54 and a side wall I56 and being provided with a removable cover I58. From the panel terminal I48 connection is made to one of the motor terminals through wire I60, wire I52, switch member 18, switch member 16 and wire I64. From the panel terminal I 58 connection is made to the other motor terminal through wire I I38.

7 Current to operate the Warning alarm I10 is carried to'the common alarm terminal 10 from the panel terminal I68 through a wire I12. The other terminal 68 of the warning alarm circuit is connected by wire I14 to panel terminal I16 which in turn is connected by wire I18 to one side of the alarm ill), the other side of the alarm I10 being connected by a wire I to panel terminal I82 which in turn is connected by a wire I84 to the panel terminal I55, thus completing a circuit from the positive to the negative side of the current supply whenever the circuit closer B6 on the cylinder 38 bridges the terminals 68 and 10.

The circuit through the emergency alarm I86 includes the wire I12'from the positive side of the circuit to the common alarm terminal 10 and the wire I88 from the terminal 12 to the panel terminal I95, the wire I92 from the panel terminal I to one side of the alarm I85, the wire I94 from the other side of the alarm I86 to the panel terminal I32, and the wire I84 from the panel terminal I82 to the panel terminal I56, thus coming back to the negative side of the circuit. The alarm I85 will, therefore, be operated whenever the circuit closer 16 on the cylinder 38 bridges the terminals 1!) and 12.

To prevent the giving of the warning alarm by the closing of the circuit through the alarm gong I19 and also to prevent the giving of the emergency alarm by the closing of the circuit through the alarm gong I86, the watchman will periodically close a station switch 84, of which there are a series located along the path of his tour of duty, in order to energize the magnet 50 and thus unclutch the clutch members 34 and 35 and permit the spring 56 to return the cylinder 38 to its starting position. The circuit through the magnet 55 comprises the wire it from the terminal I88 on the positive side of the electric circuit and the wire I95 and the wire I98 to a second panel terminal 265 to which one side 202 of the station switch circuit is connected, the other side 204 of said station switch circuit being connected to another panel terminal 206 which is connected by the wire 2% to the panel terminal I82 and thus through the wire I82 to the panel terminal I50 on the negative side of the circuit. Closing any one of the switches 84 which are in parallel will complete a circuit through the magnet 56 and thus energize said magnet and cause the opening of the clutch between the driving shaft 28 and the cylinder 38.

In the event that any one of the switches 84 is left closed more than temporarily the coil I22 and thermostatic couple I24, which are in a shunt 259 about the magnet 59, will have a sufficient flow of current through them to heat up the thermostatic couple I25 and cause it to engage the other member IZIS of a switch which will complete a circuit to the emergency alarm I86. This circuit will be made up as follows: Starting from the panel terminal I23 on the positive side of the current supply, the current will fiow through the wire I65, the wire 210, the thermostatic couple I2 l, the switch member I26, the wire 2I2, the panel terminal I90, the wire I92 to one side of the gong I85, the wire I94 from the other side of the gong I86, the panel terminal I82 and the wire I84 back to the panel terminal I50 on the negative side of the circuit.

For convenience in removal of the casing 2 from the cabinet 4 the electrical connections between the terminal on the panel I52 and the apparatus on the panel 8 are completed by means of a plug 2M provided with seven terminal pins 2; adapted to enter a corresponding seven terminal sockets 2| 3 in a socket member 220, said plug 2I4 being screwed into a housing 222 on the rear Wall of the casing 2 and being provided with studs 224 to which the wires from the panel 8 can be attached.

It will be seen that the housing 222 fits over the socket 220 and serves, together with a central guiding stud 226, to guide the pins 2I6 into the corresponding sockets 218 of the receptacle 220 thus permitting the casing to be removed and inserted without disconnecting the wiring.

To permit observation of the apparatus, that is, to permit the superintendent of the watchmen to see whether or not the apparatus is in operation, a window 228 is provided in the casing 2 opposite the synchronous motor so that the superintendent can look into the casing and see whether or not the motor is rotating.

What is claimed as new is:

1. In a delinquency alarm system, an alarm circuit including a warning signal, a patrol circuit having a switch therein, chronometrically operated means for energizing said alarm circuit if the switch in said patrol circuit is not operated within a predetermined period, and an emergency alarm circuit including an emergency alarm arranged to be energized from said chronometrically operated means within a predetermined time after the alarm circuit has been energized, said chronometrically operated means including a synchronous motor and. a circuit breaker in the motor operating circuit operated from said motor after said emergency alarm has been energized.

2. In a delinquency alarm system, an alarm circuit including a signalling device, a patrol circuit having a switch therein, chronometrically operated means for energizing said alarm circuit when the switch in said patrol circuit has not been closed within a predetermined period and a thermostatically operated switch for energizing said alarm circuit independently of chronometrically operated means when the switch in the patrol circuit is left in closed position, the thermostatic operation being effected by heat generated by the current in the patrol circuit.

3. In a delinquency alarm system, an alarm circuit, including a signalling device and chronometrically operated means for energizing said alarm circuit, at the end of a predetermined interval of time after said means has been actuated, comprising a chronometrically driven shaft, a second shaft coaxial with, movable lengthwise into clutching-relation to and normally clutched to said driven shaft, appropriate clutch members being carried by said shafts, alarm circuit closing means rotatable with said second shaft into circuit-closing position and a spring on said second shaft tensioned both to maintain said shafts yieldingly in clutching relation to each other and to reversely rotate said second shaft to'it's starting position when said shafts are unclutched, and means for automatically stopping said chronometrically operated means after a predetermined rotation of said second shaft when said shafts remain clutched to each other.

4. In a delinquency alarm system, an alarm circuit having a signalling device therein, a patrol circuit having a switch therein, a chronometrically driven shaft, a second shaft coaxial with, movable longitudinally into clutching relation to g and normally clutched to said driven shaft, ap-

propriate clutch members being carried by said shafts, alarm circuit closing means carried by said second shaft, a spring on said second shaft tensioned to maintain said shafts yieldingly in clutching relation to each other and to reversely rotate said second shaft to starting position when said shafts are unclutched, and a magnet in said patrol circuit arranged when energized to move said second shaft against the tension of said spring into unclutched relation to the driven shaft, said second shaft and its spring being coaxial with said magnet and mounted within the core thereof.

5. Chronometrically operated means for closing an alarm circuit within a predetermined period after said means has been actuated, comprising a rotatable cylinder having a circuit closer thereon and having a magnet armature at one end thereof, a shaft on which said cylinder is mounted having a helical spring thereon so anchored and so connected thereto as to be tensioned both longitudinally and helically, a magnet, within the: core of which said shaft has bearings permitting it to move both longitudinally and rotatably, respectively against the longitudinal tension of said spring and against the helical tension thereof, and a chronometrically driven shaft to which said cylinder shaft is adapted to be clutched by the action of said spring when said magnet isnot energized, appropriate clutch members being car- JOHN H. DERBY.

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