US2492056A - Batteryless ringing device - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 20, 1949 w. J. MULDOON BATTERYLESS RINGING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 22, 1946 l m mmmm u INVENTOR. WiLLlAM J. MULDOON BY I Dec. 20, 1949 Filed Nov. 22, 194$ FIG. 2

W- J- MULDOON BATE ERYLESS RINGING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. WILLIAM J. MULDOON I flk ywmlzf AT TOR NEYS Patented Dec. 20, 1949 U N I T ED STATES PAT ENT' 2,492,056

BATTERYLESS RINGIN'G DEVICE. William J'. Muldoon, Garden City, N..Y.,.assig'n0l';

by: mesne assignments, to The Wheeler Insu lated Wire Company, Incorporated, Bridgeport,- Qonn., a corporation of Delaware, Application November 22, 1946, Serial No. 711,505 Claims. (Cl. 179-87) Thepresent invention relates to; signaling devices, and more particularly toabatteryless ringing device for a telephone system.

The development oi sound-powdered telephone units has made it. possible to communicate over short distances without; the use of external sources of power. For example, my prior application, Serial No.7 670,585, describesv an inexpensive and efficient sound-powdered transducer which isespecially suitable for toytelephones, inter-officetelephones, and; the like. In such a system it is desirable to. have aringing unit and since the,- telephone system requires no battery, it is likewise desirable toprovide a ringing unit in which. a battery is; not required.

Accordingly, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a batteryless signaling unit which is especially adaptable for telephone systems of this type.

.In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is an elevation of a telephone instrument embodying a signalingunit. According to the present invention; Figs. 2 and 3 are plan. views or. the ringing unit; Figs. 4 and 5-are detail views of the, operating device; andv Fig. 6 is a sectional detail view or" the transducer.

The illustrated embodiment of the invention comprises a'ringing unit for a pair of telephones, here shown as a pair of toy telephones. Each telephone instrument 2 is. provided with. a soundpowered transducer preferably, although not necessarily of the type described in my above-mentioned prior application. The unit may be conveniently mounted in a. hand-set 4 of conventional form.

The ringing. system for the telephones comprises two synchronous wire reeds 5, one for each telephone instrument, together with manual means for vibrating the reed at the transmitting end, whereby the reed at the receiving end will be caused to vibrate in synchronism therewith. Associated with each reed. is a, bell so arranged that the receiving reed will strike it and give a signal. For a toy telephone which, is designed to simulate a standard telephone unit, the reed is conveniently arranged to be actuated by a rotary dial 6;

Each telephone instrument has a metal base 3. Mounted onthe base is a transducer l0, which is substantially identicalirr structure with the sound-powdered transducer described in my prior application. As shown in Fig. 6, it comprises two magnets of high coercive force indicated at 12 and carrying between them a magnetic armature I4. A coil l5 surrounds the armature. The

. 2 magnets are: provided with suitable pole pieces it extending. into proximity with'the armature. near its end. This type. of; unit is particularly suitable although any conventional vibrating magnetic armature typetransducer-maybe used.

The armature is, instead of being. connected with an acoustic; diaphragm, is provided at its end with an ear ZE! having; a hole. through which passes the vibratory wire reedi. Asshown in Figs. 2 and oneendot the. reed is:-Supp0rtecl' in a frame 25 andQt-he free end extends out.-. wardly into. proximity with a vbeill- 25.. If thereed i5 is vibrated manually. acurrent generated in the coil 4 Sci the transduceri andthus. a signal is transmitted to the similar unit ill-oi the. re.-

ceiving telephone. The ourrenttransmitted tov the receiving unit causes vibration- 0f its armature and its reed 5, whichv thereby strikes the-bell, and gives the desired signal. The reeds 22 are preferably of such characteristicsthat the reed.-

armature systems resonate at. about cycles per second, and the two reeds should. be tuned; approximately within 5 cycles of. each other for maximum sensitivity.

As heretofore noted, the reed 5may-be vibrated manually in any desired manner.- In-a toy unit the vibration of the. reed is. preferably initiated by rotation of the. dial, 6. Itv islikewise. desirable to, move the bell. 26 of the transmitting; unit out of the way of the reed so thatthe transmitting reed will. not be damped by engagement with its hell. with a bracket 352. having aportionSZ extending toward the reed. P'i-votedv on. the part 32 is a dog 3 which is adapted to engage. the. reed, upon a clockwise rotation of the dial; The, bellis mounted, onv an arm 36 pivoted to. the base. at 33 and normally held by spring 40'. against a stop di' in, the positionshown in. Fig- 2. As the dial is turned, the dog 34 moves the bell and reed to a position as indicatedinlii'g. 3, atwhich point a bracket M deflects. the reed downward to a point where further motionv of the dog 34 releases the reed. When the dog moves out. of engagement with the reed, thev reed. snaps back with a whiplik'e motion and. then. vibrates for av number oi cycles. Thebell'. is fi'ee toreturn under the influence, of the spring W51 because. of the high inertia of the, b e1l'.however, as compared with that of the reed, the reed will undergo several vibrations before the bell returns to a position where the reed will engage with it. Accordingly, the hell does not damp the reed until the vibration of the reed is substantially completed. The electrical signal generated in the To these ends, the dial shaft is providedv transducer by vibration of the reed is transmitted over the line to the transducer In of the receiving telephone, thus causing the reed of the receiving unit to vibrate in unison with that of the transmitter. The receiving reed strikes the bell several times and gives the desired signal.

The electrical connections may be made in any suitable way whereby the transducer units 4 are used for talking and the units ID for ringing. In most systems and particularly for toy telephones, it is desirable to have a single line connecting both units. The diagram for the preferred simple unit is illustrated in Fig. 2, in which the sound-powered transducer 4 and the reed transducer in of a single unit are connected in series. The base of each unit is provided with a terminal block 43 having terminals 44 and 46 to which the line wires 48 and 50 are respectively connected. The coil l of the unit It) is connected between the terminal 44 and a connector 52. As indicated at 54, one side of the coil is grounded to the metal base 3. The acoustic transducer unit is connected between the terminal 52 and the terminal 46 by a suitable cord 56. As heretofore noted, the unit may be mounted in a suitable handset 4 to be carried in the cradle 69 at the top of the instrument.

The connections thus far described place the two acoustic transducers and the two reed transducers of both instruments all in series. Since the toy ringing unit herein specifically described operates at a very low power level, it is desirable to exclude the acoustic transducer 4 of the transmitting telephone from the circuit at the time the ringing operation is being carried out. To this end the terminal 46 is provided with an extension 62 in proximity with the bell. When the bell is swung about its pivot 38 by the dog 34, the extension 62 is engaged by the bell. As shown in Fig. 1, this extension is inclined and is of springlike material so that it is engaged by the bell for a considerable portion of the ringin cycle. It has been heretofore noted that one side of the coil, corresponding electrically to the terminal 52, is grounded to the base. Thus when the bell engages the contact 62, the acoustic transducer unit 4 is short-circuited. The short-circuit path runs from the terminal 52 through the ground connection 54, the pivot 38, the arm 36, the bell 26 and the contact 62, to the terminal 46. This construction, which is a simple one, results in short-circuiting of the acoustic transducer at the transmitting end during the ringing cycle.

It will be understood that cradle switches 0perated by the handsets, or similar devices known to those skilled in the telephone art, may be used to short-circuit both acoustic transducers. Such switches would be used in more expensive units but for a toy system the simple means for shortcircuiting the transducer at the transmitting end is usually adequate.

In its broader aspects, the present invention comprises an electro-mechanical transducer having a vibrating reed. Two of these units are used, one for each telephone of the pair. The reed which is at the transmitting end is vibrated mechanically. It will be understood that any suitable means may be used for vibrating the reed. For a toy telephone the rotary dial is pror contact engaged by the vided in order to simulate an actual telephone, and the dial is also conveniently used to vibrate the reed. It will be understood that the energy supplied to the reed for a single operation of the dial is rather small. The invention, however, is not limited to the particular means for setting the reed in vibration, and other means which will maintain the reed in sustained vibration may be preferred for telephones other than toys, as will be clear to those skilled in the art.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A signaling unit comprising an electromechanical transducer having an armature, a permanent magnet and a winding, a vibratory reed connected with the armature, a bell adapted to be struck by the reed, manual means for flexing the reed, and means operated by said manual means for moving the bell out of engagement with the reed during vibration thereof subsequent to such flexing.

2. A signaling unit comprising an electromechanical transducer having an armature, a permanent magnet and a winding, a vibratory reed connected with the armature, a bell adapted to be struck by the reed, manual means for manually flexing the reed and for moving the bell therewith out of the range of motion of the reed, whereby the reed when set into vibration by manual flexure, is not clamped by the bell.

3. A telephone unit comprising two transducers connected in series, one of said transducers being an acoustic device and the other having a vibratory reed, means for manually setting the reed into vibration to generate a signal, and means operated by said manual means for short-circuiting the acoustic transducer during said period of signal generation.

4. A telephone unit comprising two transducers connected in series, one of said transducers being an acoustic device and the other having a vibratory reed, means for manually setting the reed into vibration, a bell to be rung by the reed. means operated by said manual means to move the bell out of engagement with the reed and a bell to short-circuit the other transducer.

5. A signaling unit comprising an electromechanical transducer having an armature, a vibratory reed connected with the armature, a permanent magnet and a winding, a bell adapted to be struck by the reed, manual means for flexing the reed, and a pivotal mounting for the bell, and means to cause the bell to be swung to a position out of engagement with the reed when the reed is manually flexed.

WILLIAM J. MULDOON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 251,097 Currier Dec. 20, 1881 289,834 Herzog Dec. 11, 1883 372,404 Deprex et al. Nov. 1, 1887 1,262,359 Kropp Apr. 9, 1918 2,192,216 Woodruff Mar. 5, 1940 2,293,166 Olson Aug. 18, 1942

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