US2399229A - Alarm system - Google Patents

Description

April '36, i946. L. JAcoBsoN ALARM SYSMEM Filed'July 14, 1944 o? j y m M a M @Msg/af Patented Apr. 30, 1946 UNIT ED STATES 'lwilfiz.NT ortica ALARM SYSTEM Leo Jacobson, Los Angeles, Calif., assignor 'of onehalf toAlbert C. 'Kendig, Los Angeles, Calif.

Application July 14, 1944, Serial No. .544,937.9

( Cl. '1TB-#5i Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in alarmsystems.

Heretofore, alarm systems have been provided for use in conjunction with automatic telephone systems wherein a reco-rd .having recorded thereon a .message to the effect that either a fire, burglary,vor other contingency is occurring at a .certain address is caused to be played and reproduced in the transmitter of a telephone. In the devices heretofore designed, more or less elaborate .electrical mechanisms are provided for lifting the transmitter of the telephone and operating the dial mechanism to call the police department or the fire department as the case may be, and then to have the message recorded on the vrecord reproduced in the transmitter.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved alarm system 'for use in conjunction with a line of an automatic telephone system wherein it is unnecessary to' lift the transmitter nor to operate thedialing mechanism of the telephone set in order to call the police department, the fire department, or other subscribers to whom the recorded message 'is to be conveyed. In accordance with the present invention a calling record or message is recorded on the record which is electrically ltranslatable into electrical impulses applied directly to the telephone line corresponding to similar electrical impulses that `are applied to the line by the dialing Lsystem of the telephone set, whereby, in the event of iire or burglary the record is started rotating and the required impulses are applied directly 'to the line to call the re department or police department as the case may be by means ofthe recording on the record itself.

While the invention has been primarily designed for use in conjunction with an alarm system in a broader `'aspect it is an object of the invention to provide a method l'and apparatus for calling -a subscriber of an automatic telephone system by means of recordings on a record, with the `interposition of any mechanical device or 'electro-mechanical v device for operating the dialing mechanism of a telephone set.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will be made manifest in the following detailed description and specifically pointed Iout 'in t-he appended claims, `reference Vis 'had to the accompanying drawing, `for `an yillustrative embodiment of theinvention, wherein:

Fig-ure '1 is a diagrammatic or schematic view illustrating apparatus embodying the present invention; and Y Fig. 2`1s'a wiring diagram Vof apparatus that may be employed in the making of a record utilized in accordance with the present invention.

Referring to the kac-compamying draw-ing wherein similar reference characters designate similar parts throughout, the invention will be described in conjunction with an alarm system wherein I0 indicates a window or other Opening designed to be protected against unauthorized ingress and which when 'opened vwill serve to operate the alarm. fII indicates a thermometer lor -other temperature measuring device which when heated to an `excessively high temperature ywill also :serve to loperate the `alarm in :the event -of fire.

I2 indicates :a suitable Itransformer the vprimary of which is connected y,to a suitable .source .of current, such .as vfor example, house current. The secondary of zthis transformer may be in series with a readily breakable coil I3 designed to .be kbroken whenever the window I0 is open. The .secondary andscoil are in series with a yrelay I4, the armature I5 :of which is engageable with a contact i6.. Armature Ili may be electrically connected 'to one of the supply Vlines supplying electric .current to transformer I2. This arrangement is such `that as .long as the circuit through the Kcoil I3 remains closed armature I5 will disenga'ge contact :I6 .but when the circuit is broken armature I5 will vberno longer attracted and `may engage r'contacts I6 i-n circuit-closing position.

A lead -II8 -may kcome also 'from the ksupply of house current `and .be cormected to the thermometer I'I :so that when the ythermometer registers an excessive -temperature it will be effective vto close the circuit in the .same .manner that it is closed when armature I5 `engages contact I6. Whenever Ycurrent is supplied to contact I6 either by armature .I5 or bythe thermometer II, the circuit `through an electric 'motor I9 is closed, "whichserves to yrotate a turntable 2'0 on which r"there iis disposed a record 2|. jRecord has two sets of recordings therein, one of which is engageable by a tone arm k22 and the other engagea'ble 'by a tone arm23. ,A vcontact 24 may be engageable by 'the 4tone iarm r22 'to break the circuit through the 'motor I9 when the tone 'arm '22 has moved inwardly over the record Va `precieterminecl distance :so as to-shut off :the `phonographic apparatus and so it will not continue lplaying indefinitely.

Tone Larm 22 =`is electrically connected "to contact 25 fand 'similarly tone arm 23 is electrically connected to fa fcontact 26 between which 'there is fan armature 21 adapted to be attracted by a solenoid 28. Solenoid 2B may be in circuit with a thermometer 29 and a storage battery or dry cell 30. Whenever the temperature is excessive the circuit through the solenoid 28 is closed attracting armature 21 to engage contact 25, thus placing tone arm 22 in circuit with the amplifier 3| and disconnecting tone arm 23 from the amplifier. Whenever the thermometer does not register any excessive temperature armature 21 will be in engagement with contact 2B and disengaged from contact 25, thus placing tone arm 23 in electrical connection with the amplier 3| and disconnecting tone arm 22 therefrom.

32 and 33 indicate leads of a telephone line of an automatic telephone system. On one of these leads, indicated at 32, there is connected the secondary 34 of a radio transformer, the primary of which is indicated at 35. The primary 35 is connected to one side of the output of the amplifier 3| and toone side of a solenoid 36. A small condenser 31 is arranged in parallel with the solenoid 36 and the solenoid and condenser in turn connected to the other side of the output of the amplifier. The solenoid when energized serves to attract an armature 38 to cause it to engage a contact 3?!` on the telephone lead 33.

Assume for example that the number on the automatic telephone off the re department is 6957, or that it is composed of letters having the corresponding digits on a dial mechanism of. a telephone set. The outer recording on the record 2| is made up of two records which may be referred to herein as the .cal1 record and the message record. The call record is such as to cause the amplifier to deliver electrical impulses so as to make and break the circuit through'the solenoid 36,V six times, then after a pause, nine times, after a succeeding pause, five times, and after` a nal pause, seven times.` This will cause armature 38 to engage and disengage the contact 39 a corresponding numberrof times. When the-contact 39 is'thus engagedand disengaged, the circuit is closed 4throughthe lines 32 and 33 inthe same manner'as the circuit is opened and closed by means of the dialing mechanism 'of the ordinary telephone` set. Consequently, the mechanism at the substation of the automatic telephone system will be automatically operated to call the re department. VWhen the receiver is lifted atthe'iire department the message tothe effect that a re is occurring at the address where the alarm system isv installed is transmitted. Such message is recorded on the record 2| to be picked up by the tone arm 22 after the call record has been played. This message which is picked up by the tone arm is electrically translated through the amplifier 3| and through condenser 31 to the radio transformer having the windings 34 and 35. In'a similar manner, if the burglary is taking place resulting in a lrupture ofthe circuit, through solenoid |4 tone -arm 23 will -be connected to the amplifier through armature 21 being in engagement with Contact 26. Theflrst message on the record played by the tone arm 23 maybe -the call message for the police department. Thus, if the number of the police department on the automatic telephone exchange is 1231i the first message played by the tone arm 23 will cause electrical impulses to be supplied solenoid 36 that Will'cause armature 38 to close and open with contact 39 once, then twice, then three times, Yand nally four times, in the same mannerthat the dialing system of a telephoneset-wouldclose and vopen to operate the automatic exchange. FWhen the police department has thus been called tone arm 23 will play a message on the record to the effect that a burglary is taking place at the address where the alarm system is installed. After the record has been rotated sufliciently to cause the tone arm 22 to progress inwardly a sufficient distance to disconnect contact 24 the circuit through the motor I9 is broken so that the record will not continue to rotate indefinitely.

In Fig. 2, I have illustrated a portion of an apparatus that may be used to record on the record -2| the call message or call record that will operate through the amplifier the'solenoid 3B to effect the calling of the police department or the rire department as the case may be, through the automatic exchange. A simple Way in which this may be accomplished is to record on a suitable record the sound of a siren having a frequency of 500 cycles. This may be recorded with the use of an ordinary microphone in the usual manner. This sound as recorded may be picked up from such record by a magnetic pick-up indicated at 40 which is in circuit with the dialing mechanism indicated at 4| of a conventional telephone set. 42 indicates a suitable resistance connected" across the lines as indicated, which lines are connected to the grid 43 and filament 44 of the'i'lrst tube of an amplifier. The output of the amplifier is connected with a cutting head of any ordinary or conventional recording system for recording on theV record 2|. Thus, in order to record 'on' record 2| any recording which will operate solenoid 2B and armature 38 in accordance with the number that would be dialed by the dialing mechanism of a telephone set, it is merely necessary to operate the dial 4| in accordance with' the number of the police department or the lire de` partrnent as the case'may be. The lrecording made on the ,record 2| in this manner WillfbeA such that when it is played backthrough amplilier 3| it willV cause armature 38 to engage and disengage contact 3S in the same manner as would be accomplished by dialing the dialing mechanism of the telephone set. y

From the above-described construction it .will be .appreciated that with the improved alarm system no mechanical or electro-mechanical device is necessary to lift the receiver or the combined receiver and transmitter from the telephone set, nor is it necessary to provide any constructionV for operating the dialing mechanism. The same record which plays back the message transmitted on the telephone line to the party called also operates the armature 38 to effect a calling of the desired party. While the invention has ,been primarily designed for use in conjunction with alarm systems, it may l also be employed Wherever it is desired to automatically call a sub- ,scriber of an automatic telephone `system and transmit to the called partyV a recorded rnes-v sage.v t v Various changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asrderlned by the appended claims. 1 f

l[claim:V V Y 1. An alarm system comprising in combination an automatic telephonesystem,y a record having a message recorded thereon Vand'also a record translatable electrically into the call number of a subscriber of the telephone system, and means fortranslating the record and applying it to the telephone line to call the subscriber, and means for translating electrically the message. ci the record and applying it to the line so as to be audible by the called subscriber.

2. An alarm system comprising in combination an automatic telephone system, a record having recorded thereon a call record electrically translatable into the call number of a subscriber of the system and an audible message to be delivered to the subscriber, and means for electrically trans lating and applying to a line of the system the call recording and thereafter the message recording.

3. An alarm system comprising in combination an automatic telephone system, a record having a plurality of call records thereon electrically translatable into the calls of a plurality of subi scribers, and a message recording associated with each call record, means for electrically translating either call record and applying it to a line of the telephone system to cause a subscriber to be called, means for thereafter translating and applying to the line the message recording associated therewith, and means for electing the call and message records to be utilized.

4. In combination, an automatic telephone system, a record having recorded thereon, call recording electrically translatable into the call of a subscriber of the system and a message recording to be delivered to the called subscriber, and means for electrically translating and applying to a line of the system the call recording to cause the telephone system to call the called subscriber, and means for thereafter electrically translating and app-lying to the line the message recording to be delivered to the subscriber.

5. In combination, an automatic telephone system, a record having recorded thereon, call recording electrically translatable into the call of a subscriber of the system, and a message recording to be delivered to the subscriber, a tone arm for the record, an amplier connected thereto, a transformer having a primary connected to the output of the ampliiierl and a secondary inserted in a line of the automatic telephone system, an electro-magnetic means in circuit the amplier for opening and closing the circuit of the line in accordance with call recording to call a subscriber of the system.

i LEO JACOBSON.

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