US2820543A - Stop means for a typographical composing machine - Google Patents

Description

Jain. 21, 1958 H. e. ELLIOTT 2,320,543

STOP MEANS FOR A TYPOGRAPHICAL COMPQSINGMACHINE Filed Sept. 5, 1952 hi ed rates STOP WAN 503 A TYPOGRAPHICAL COMPOS- ING MACHINE Application September 5, 1952, Serial No. 308,048

3 Claims. (Cl. 199-18) This invention relates to typographical composing machines of the general organization represented in United States Letters Patent to O. Mergenthaler, No. 436,532, wherein circulating matrices and spacehands are composed in line in an assembling elevator by the operation of a keyboard, the elevator raised to line transfer position, the composed line transferred therefrom to the face of a mold for the casting of a type bar or slug, and the matrices and spacehands thereafter separated and returned to their places of storage. More particularly, the invention relates to machines of that class adapted to be equipped with an automatic control unit, such as the Teletypesetter unit, which automatically operates the keyboard and raises the assembling elevator.

In these machines, the character bearing matrices are stored in magazines and are selectively released therefrom in response to code perforations in a tape. Upon release, the matrices fall by gravity onto an inclined continuously moving conveyor belt which transports them to an assembler chute. The matrices travel through the assembler chute and are directed thereby in front of a rotating star- 3 wheel which stacks them one by one in the assembler elevator in the order of their release.

When the machine is operating at high speeds under the control of the tape and without supervision, the matrices travel through the assembler chute at very appreciable velocities and, due to conditions beyond control, they occasionally jam or pile up in the assembler chute. Notwithstanding any such jamming, the feed of the tape continues until the last matrix of the line has been released, thus aggravating the condition. When the end of the line is reached, the tape feed is automatically interrupted for the raising of the assembler elevator, but the elevator is prevented from rising, due to the short condition of the line, by a safety device such as shown and claimed in a pending application of Louis Rossetto, Serial No. 286,986, filed May 9, 1952, now U. S. Patent No. 2,681,138. Although the feed of the tape is not continued after the completion of the line until the clogged condition of the assembler chute is remedied, nevertheless the release of additional matrices after the jam occurs and prior to the completion of the line only adds to the pile up and requires additional time wasted in cleaning out the jam, not to mention possible damage to the matrices or machine parts as a result of the pile up.

According to the present invention, provision is made for detecting a pile up of matrices in the assembler chute and immediately stopping the automatic control unit at the initial stage of jamming.

For a complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the accompanying drawings and the detailed description which follows.

Referring to the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view of an electrical control circuit contemplated by the present invention, and illustrating the assembling portion of the machine in front elevation and a portion of the drive mechanism of the automatic control unit in rear elevation;

atent Fig. 2 is an enlarged front elevation of the assembler chute, illustrating a matrix jam; and

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the control unit drive mechanism shown in Fig. 1.

The character bearing matrices x are selectively released from their storage magazine (not shown) and fall by gravity between guides 1 in a vertical assembler entrance 2 onto an inclined continuously moving conveyor belt 3, passing around a lower driving pulley 4 and an upper idler pulley (not shown), which belt discharges the matrices into an assembler chute formed by a pair of lower parallel rails 5 and an upper resiliently mounted finger 6. In some forms, the finger 6 guides the matrices by their side faces and in other forms by their projecting ears. The invention is equally applicable to either form.

The matrices travel through the assembler chute and are directed in front of a constantly rotating starwheel 7 which stacks them one by one, in the order of their release, in the assembling elevator 8 and against a yielding line supporting finger 9. The matrices are composed in line along with spacehands y, separately assembled through a chute 10; and, when the line is complete, the elevator 8 is raised and the line transferred therefrom to the casting mechanism, all in the usual manner.

The automatic operation of the keyboard is controlled by the passage of a perforated tape through a record reader mechanism, such as the Teletypesetter control mechanism shown and described in U. S. Patent No. 2,091,286 and others. For present purposes, it suffices to say that the tape is advanced by a cam actuated ratchet in a step by step manner from a driven shaft 12. This shaft 12 is connected through a clutch mechanism 11 (see Fig. 3) to a worm or spiral gear 13 on a shaft 13 and the gear 13 is in mesh with a worm or spiral gear 14 on a shaft 15, which latter shaft is driven by means of a belt 16 and pulley 17 from the so-called intermediate shaft of the machine.

In the normal operation of the tape control mechanism, when a complete line has been composed in the assembling elevator 8, the rotation of the tape advancing shaft 12 is interrupted by the movement of a lever 18 about its pivot 18 into engagement With the shaft. The shaft 12 is provided with a projecting lug which, in the operated position of the lever 18, is adapted to enter a hole 20 formed therein, said hole presenting a beveled or inclined edge 20 which engages the lug i9 and causes the disengagement of the clutch 11 and thus brings the shaft 12 to a stop. While the feed of the tape is stopped, the assembling elevator is raised to deliver the line to transfer position. When the elevator returns to line receiving position, the lever 18 is pivoted back to inoperative position, releasing the lug 3.9 and permitting the re-engagement of the clutch 11 to restore the driving connection to the tape advancing mechanism.

The foregoing parts and their manner of operation are standard and well known, but, if desired, the above cited patents may be referred to for a more complete understanding of a type composing machine and the automatic control unit therefor.

Turning now to the present invention, the assembler chute finger 6, which is pivotally mounted at b and spring urged in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in the drawings, is provided at its upper end with an upward extension 22. A switch 23, having leaf contacts 23 23 is mounted on one of the plates of the assembler entrance 2 and, as best shown in Fig. 2, when matrices begin to pile up in the assembler chute, the chute finger will be pivoted in a clockwise direction, causing the upper extremity of the extension 22 to close the contacts of the switch. Under normal conditions, of course, the extent of movement of the extension 22 will not be great enough to close the contacts.

The closing of the switch 23 completes an electrical circuit from a voltage source 24 to a solenoid 25, and the operation of the solenoid attracts the lower end of a pivotal lever 26, the upper endof which is connected to the lower end of the lever 18 by means of a link 27. Thus, the energization of the solenoid pivots the lever 18 into operative contact with the lug 19 on the shaft 12 and stops the feed of the tape in themanner above described.

When the pile up of matrices in. the assembler chute is removed, the spring urged chute finger 6 will return to its normal position, and the switch 23 will be opened, breaking the electrical circuit. With the solenoid thus deenergized, the levers 18 and 26 are restored to inoperative position by springs 28 and 29, respectively, and normal operation of the tape is resumed.

The invention has been shown and'described in preferred form only and by way of example, but many variations and modifications may be made therein which will still be comprised Within its spirit. For example, if desired, the electrical controls may be replaced by mechanical controls. it is to be understood, therefore, that the invention is not limited to any specific form or embodiment, except insofar as such limitations are specified in the appended claims.

What is claimed is: 1. In a typographical composing machine equipped with an automatic tape control unit for automatically releasing matrices from a storage magazine, the combination of an assembling elevator wherein the matrices are composed in line, in the order of their release, a continuously moving assembler belt for delivering the released matrices individually and successively to the assembling elevator, an assembler chute through which the matrices pass on their way to the assembling elevator, said chute comprising a lower fixed guide rail which directly engages the passing matrices at their lower side and an upper pivotal finger which directly engages the passing matrices at their upper side, said upper pivotal finger being mounted to partake of a limited variable normal pivotal movement sufiicient in extent to accommodate and guide matrices of different thicknesses under normal conditions and also mountedto partake of an abnormal pivotal movement caused by a pile up of matrices in the assembler chute under abnormal conditions during the composition of any given line, and means unaffected by a variable normal pivotal movement of the chute finger but activated by an abnormal pivotal movement thereof to arrest the operation of the tape control unit.

2. In a typographical composing machine equipped with a tape control unit for automatically releasing matrices from a storage magazine, the combination of an assembling elevator wherein the matrices are composed in line in the order of their release, a continuously moving assembler belt for delivering the released matrices individually and successively to the assembling elevator,

an assembler chute through which the matrices pass on their way to the assembling elevator, said chute comprising a lower fixed rail which directly engages the passing matrices at their lower side and an upper pivotal finger which directly engages the passing matrices at theirupper side, said upper pivotal finger being mounted to partake of a limited variable normal pivotal movement suificient in extent to accommodate and guide matrices of different thicknesses under normal conditions and also mounted to partake of an abnormal pivotal movement caused by a pile up of matrices in the assembler chute under abnormal conditions during the composition of any given line, and an electrical switch unafiected .by a variable normal pivotal movement of the chute finger but activated by an. abnormal pivotal movement thereof to arrest the operation of the tape control unit.

3. In a typographical composing machine equipped with a tape control unit for automatically releasing the matrices from a storage magazine, the combination of an assembling elevator wherein the matrices are composed in line in the order of their release, a continuously moving assembler belt for delivering the released matrices individually and successively to the assembling elevator, an assembler chute through which the matrices pass on their way to the assembling elevator, said chute comprising a lower fixed rail which directly engages the passing matrices at their lower side and an upper pivotal finger which directly engages the passing matrices at their upper side, said upper pivotal finger being mounted to partake of a limited variable normal pivotal movement sufiicient in extent to accommodate and guide matrices of difierent thicknesses under normal conditions and also mounted to partake of an abnormal pivotal movement caused by a pile up of matrices in the assembler chute under abnormal conditions during the composition of any given line, a rotatable shaft for advancing the tape, driving means for said shaft, including aclutch and a pivotal lever which serves both to arrest the rotation of the tape advancing shaft and to disengage the clutch, an electrical solenoid for actuating said lever, and an electrical switch unaffected by a variable normal pivotal movement of the chute finger but activated by an abnormal pivotal movement thereof to energize the solenoid and thus arrest the advance of the tape.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 425,140 Mergenthaler Apr. 8, 1890 1,163,985, Drewell Dec. 14, 1915 1,218,988 Droitcour Mar. 13, 1917 1,970,566 Kleinschmidt Aug. 21, 1934 1,970,567 Potts Aug. 21, 1934. 2,086,547 Goetz July 13, 1937 2,129,230 ONiel Sept. 6, 1938 2,138,785 Freund Nov. 29, 1938 2,259,842 Stouges Oct. 21,1941 2,325,666 Czachorski Aug. 3, 1943 2,551,468 Schutt May 1, 1951 2,574,005 Albin Nov. 6, 1951 2,670,954 Bach Mar. 2, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS 116,446 Great Britain June 13, 1918 cont

Images