US2873838A - Strip feeding device - Google Patents

Description

1959 I A. w. METZNER 2,873,838

' STRIP FEEDING DEVICE Filed March 1, 1955 I 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 VIII/1151 HE INVENTOR. n4 ALBERT w. METZNER 5 WWW x4 TTOR/VEY Feb. 17, 1959 A. w. METZNER 2,873,838

STRIP FEEDING DEVICE Filed March 1, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 mm HIHHIHHHI INVENTOR.

ALBERT -W. METZ NER j lmm A TTOK/Vf Y Feb. 17, 1959 A. w. METZNER STRIP FEEDING DEVICE Filed March 1, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 b Illll Ill! llllllllllllll IN V EN TOR.

ALBERT W. M ETZNER g lmw A 7' TGPNE Y Feb. 17, 1959 A. w. METZNER 2,873,838

4 Shecs-Sheet 4 INVENTOR.

ALBERT W. METZN ER ATTORNEY United States Patent STRIP FEEDING DEVICE Application March 1, 1955, Serial No. 491,338

' 15 Claims. Cl. 197-126) This invention relates to strip feeding apparatus, and more particularly to a platen assembly forming a part 2,873,838 Patented Feb. 11, 19 5 9 Fig. 3 is a view in top elevation of the assembly as shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a view in cross section, taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a view in cross section, taken substantially along the line 55 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a view in cross section, taken substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 3; there being shown in each of Figs. 4, 5 and 6 a type bar of the typewriting machine in cooperative relation with the platen assembly;

Fig. 7 is a detail view of one of the pin feed devices,

I being a view in cross section through the shaft supporting of a typewriting or like machine or adapted for substitution therein for the conventional roller platen.

. The object of theinvention is to improve the construction as well as the means and mode of operation of pin type strip feeding devices, whereby they may not only be economically manufactured, but will be more efiicient in use, uniform in action and be unlikely to get out of repair.

I It is an object of the invention to facilitate installation and use of a carbon ribbon or strip feeding attachment in the platen assembly.

Another object of the-invention is to adapt the use of carbon strip material more readily to typewriting and like machines through use of an overhead record strip feeding means featuring a novel escalator movement of feeding pins.

. A further object of the invention is to free the carbon strip material and the record strip material intermittently for a more facile advance thereof.

Still another object of the invention is to enable the surfacehardness of the platen to be changed without substituting one platen element for another in the machine.

. Still more specifically it is an object of the invention to provide a platen member reciprocable bodily in its mountings for freeing of the strip material and adjustable in a tilting direction to place different portions thereof in the writing-line, it being proposed to cover different portons of the platen with materials of respectively different hardness.

It is still a further object to make the reciprocating movement of the platen a machine initiated operation, occurring regularly as upon each actuation of the line space mechanism, while the tilting adjustment of the platen is a selective, manually accomplished operation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a strip feeding device embodying the advantageous structural features, the inherent meritorious characteristics and the mode of operation herein set forth, or their equivalents.

With the above primary and other incidental objects in view as will more fully appear in the specification, the invention intended to be protected by Letters Patent consists of the features of construction, the parts and combinations thereof, and the mode of operation, hereinafter described or illustrated in the accompanying drawings, or their equivalents.

In the accompanying drawings wherein is shown one but obviously not necessary the only form of embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 1 is a view in perspective, showing a part of a typewriting or like machine in dotted outline, with a platen assembly in accordance with the illustrated embodiment-of the invention installed therein;

Fig. 2 is a view in front elevation of the platen assembly of Fig. 1, a spool case for the carbon strip material being broken away;

such device;

Fig. 8 is a detail view of the platen in its advanced position in the writing line;

Fig. 9 is a view like Fig. 8 showing the platen member in retracted position;

Fig. 10 is a view in detail and in cross section of the platen member showing a replaceable platen element installed therein;

Fig. 11 is a view like Fig. 10 showing the replaceable platen element released from the support therefor;

Fig. 12 is a detail view in cross section of a replaceable platen element showing an alternate covering construction for the face thereof; and Fig. 13 is a detail view of a modified platen structure in which the platen is adjustable in tilting directions to bring different parts of the replaceable platen element of Fig. 12 to the writing line.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the several view-s.

Referring to the drawings,.part of a typewriter is shown in Fig. 1 in dotted outline with a platen assembly in accordance with the illustrated embodiment of the invention shown substituted therein. In effecting such substitution it is necessary merely to lift the machine equipped roller platen out of its place in the carriage and replace it with the instant assembly. Thus, a main support shaft 10 (Fig. 2) has spacer sleeves 11 and 12 at opposite ends thereof mounted on the shaft and centering bearings 13 which are received into races in the typewriter carriage in the same manner that corresponding parts of the conventional platen roller shaft are received.

The platen assembly includes spaced apart side frames 14 and 15 mounted on the shaft 10 and rigidly held apart by interconnecting rods and shafts, to be described. A ratchet wheel 16 (Fig. 4) is secured to the shaft 10 and is acted upon by a pawl 17 connected through a rock arm 18 and a link 19 to the line space mechanism of the machine. The arm 18 pivots about the shaft 10, being secured to a sleeve 20 rotatably mounted on the shaft 10. One end of the arm 18 carries the pawl 17 while the other end is connected to the link 19. The link 19 extends into the machine for intermittent machine operation, as for example upon each carriage reciprocation. In response to a reciprocating movement of the link 19, as effected upon its intermittent machine operation, the arm 18 is oscillated and is effective through pawl 17 and ratchet 16 to turn the shaft 10 one increment of rotary motion. The shaft 10 also may be turned by knobs 21 and 22 on the opposite ends thereof, the latter of which is connected in the, assembly through an internal shaft 23 and variable24 and is effective in the usual manner in apparatus of this kind to initially locate the writing line with respect to the platen.

The platen is in the form of a bar 25 extending between the side frames 14 and- 15 and supported thereby in a manner later to be described. The front surface of the bar 25, which is generally rectangular in shape, is formed with a ledge 26 at its lower edge undercut to define a channel 27. A platen element 28 has a baseportion for resitigniaa n intima e. contact th h front surface of the bar 25 and on its opposite side edges are flanges, one of which is received in'the channel 27. The other flange on element 2 8 is positioned to be engaged and held by a latch 29 pivotally connected to upstanding brackets 31 on the top edge of the bar 25 On the rearward side of the bar 25 is a series of brackets 32 rotatably mounting a shaft 33. At longitudinally spaced apart points therealong cams 34 are fixed to the shaft 33, which cams have high portions arranged to underlie a rearwardly extending part 35 of the latch 29 and so hold the latch in the effective, platen locking position shown in Fig. 10. On one end of the shaft 33 is a lever 36 manipulative to rock the shaft 33 and thereby the cams 34. The high portions of the earns 34 may'thus be moved out of cooperative relation with the part 35 of latch 29 and the latch thereby released for opening movement and removal of the platen element 28, as indicated in Fig. 11.

The outer or front surface of the platen element 28 is curved in an arc conforming to the curvature of the platen roller replaced. Such surface, moreover, is overlaid by a relatively soft rubber or rubberlike material 37. The requirements of the work may at some times be such that the impact surface of the platen, as represented by the material 37, be relatively soft and at other times require that such surface be relatively hard. To make such a change it is necessary merely to remove one platen element 28 and replace it with another, in the manner that has been described.

A manifold record strip 38 reaches cooperative relation with the platen assembly from the rear thereof, as indicated in Figs. 4, and 6, passing beneath the assembly over friction rolls 39 and 41 secured respectively to shafts 42 and 43 journaled in the side frames 14 and 1.5 near the bottom edge thereof and below the horizontal plane of the platen bar 25. From the friction rolls 39 and 41, the strip 38 extends over the front of the platen element 23 where it may be struck by type bars 44, the platen element and bar 25 rigidly sustaining the impact of the printing action. Beyond the platen element 28, the strip 38 is guided in substantially a vertical path by guides 45 dependent from a cross bar 46 extending between uprights 47 and 48 on the side frames 14 and 15. The strip is again directed rearwardly over the curved upper ends of the guide arms 45 out of the machine or toward a place of storage.

A shaft 49 is rotatably mounted in the side frames 14 and and at one end projects through the frame 14. The projecting end thereof, as seen in Fig. 1, mounts a gear 51 meshing with a similar gear 52 on the shaft 10. Also on the shaft 49, between the frames 14 and 15, is another gear 53 (Fig. 6) meshing with a gear 54 on the previously mentioned shaft 42 carrying the friction feed roll 39. Through an idler gear 55'the gear 54 drives another gear 56 made fast to the shaft 43 on which is the friction feed roll 41. The feed rolls 39 and 41 are, through the described construction and arrangement of parts, caused to rotate or to advance in accompaniment with motion of the shaft 16. Cooperable with the feed rolls 39 and 4-1 are friction rolls 57 and 58 carried by a paper pan 59 mounted in underlying relation to the platen assembly as a part of the conventional machine structure. The strip 33 is guided between the paper pan 59 and the feed rolls 39 and 41, and, as is well known in the typewriting art, the pan 59 is adjustable to alternate positions illustrated respectively herein in Figs. 4 and 6. In the Fig. 4 position, rotation of the friction feed rolls 39 and 41 is with out effect on the strip 38. cooperatively engaged with the rolls 57 and 58 of the paper pan 59 in the manner shown in Fig. 6, however, rotation of the friction feed rolls is effective to advance the strip 38 upwardly over the platen.

Also mounted; on the shaft 49 between the side frames 14 and 15 is a gear 61 (Fig. 5) meshing with another gear 62 fast on a shaft 63alsoextending between the side frames 14 and 15. In the case of the shaft 63, however, the ends of such shaft have rollers 64 thereon resting on a track 65 on the upper edge of each side frame 14 and 15. At its one end, the track 65 terminates in a recess 66 and at its other end in a hooked recess 67, in the latter of which the shaft 63 is yieldingly held by a spring detent 67. The arrangement is such,-it will be understood, that the shaft 63 is bodily shiftable in a to and fro direction between extremes as represented by the recesses 66 and 67.

On the shaft 63 is a pair of pin feeding devices for positive engagement with and advancement of the strip. Such devices, indicated respectively at 68 and 69, are identical in construction so that a description of one will suffice for both. Thus, each device is mounted between and may be said to include a pair of arms 71 and 72 which at their one ends are pivotally mounted on the shaft 49'and at their other ends have the shaft 63 passed therethrough. Between the arms 71 and 72 are spaced apart discs 73 and 74, the former being concentric to the shaft 63 and having a hub 75 extending through the arm 71 and carrying an adjustable screw stud 76. The tip end of the screw stud 76 is formed as a key 77 and is received in a longitudinal slot or keyway 78 in the shaft 63.

Rotation of the shaft 63, through the meshing gears 61 and 62, thus is partaken of by the disc 73. Also, the pin wheel assembly, it will be understood, may be released for longitudinal adjustment along the shaft 63 by loosening the screw stud 76, the pin wheel assembly being secured in its newly adjusted position by turning the screw stud down into frictional contact with the shaft 63.

The disc 74 is in eccentric relation to the shaft 63 and to its companion disc 73, and has the shape of a ring through which the shaft 63 passes and which is rotatably mounted on an eccentric boss formation on a plate 79 on the arm 72. Interposed between the discs 73 and 74 is a series of feeding pins 81 comprising links or base portions 32, and, substantially normal thereto, pin portions 83. Each base portion 82 is connected at its one end to the disc 73 and at its other end to the disc 74, the connections in both instances being pivotal ones. The disc 74 is rotated by the disc 73 through the pins 81 and it will be understood that in the course of such rotation the several pins 81 will maintain the positions illustrated, with the pin portions 83 substantially parallel to one another. As indicated in Figs. 4 and 5, the motion of the pin portions 83 of the feeding pins as they approach and enter perforations in the strip 38 is in substantially a straight line, as is the retracting motion relatively to the strip. As a result, strip perforations more nearly conforming in diameter to the specific diameter of the pin portions of the feeding pins are possible resulting in closer and more accurate registration of manifold forms.

The shaft 63 mounting the pin feed devices 68 and 69 is, as before described, shiftable in to and fro directions to place the rollers 64 thereon alternately in 66 and 67. In the former position the pin feed devices occupy a forward position as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 wherein the feeding pins are effective to engage the strip. This position of the parts is considered the operating or feeding position, with respect to the pin feed devices. Positioned as shown in Fig.6, the pin feed devices are out of position to engage the strip and so occupy what may be termed non-operating position.

In the non-operating position of the pin feed devices, the paper pan 59 usually will be adjusted for frictional feeding of the strip. Similarly when the paper pan 5) is adjusted to an inefiective position, the pin feed devices usually will be set in operating position for positive pin fed advancement of the strip.

The side arms 71 and 72 of each pin feeding device, are interconnected by tie members 84 which make of the elements 71, 72, 73, 74 and 79, as Well as the feeding pins 81, a unitary assembly.

, Guide or feed fingers 85 may be mounted on the respective pin feeding devices to hold the marginally perforated strip in engagement with the feeding pins during the pin feeding operation.

The platen assembly further includes means for supporting and advancing carbon strip or ribbon material in transverse interleaved relation to the record strip material 38 for the making of multiple copies of the impression delivered by the type bar 44. Thus, manifold carbon ribbon material 86 is led from a spool suitably mounted in or near the typewriting machine to and around roller means 87 mounted on a bracket 88 secured to side frame member 15. From the roller means 87, the carbon ribbon material 86 extends transversely across the front of the platen assembly in adjacent parallel relation to the platen element 28 and, at the opposite end of the platen assembly, enters a case 89 mounted on bracket 91 secured to side frame member 14. Within the case 89 are intermeshing gear- like feeding members 92 and 93. As indicated in Fig. 2, the carbon ribbon material passes between the intermeshing members 92 and 93 and extends through an opening 94 in the case 89. In response to rotation of the members 92 and 93 the carbon ribbon material is advanced across the front of the platen assembly, into the case 89 and out of the opening 94 to another spool or place of disposal.

The feed member 92 is secured to a shaft 95 journaled in top and bottom walls of the case 89. The feed member 93 is similarly secured to a shaft 96, the opposite ends of which are received in opposed slots 97 in the top and bottom walls of the case 89. At its upper end, the shaft 96 has a plate 98 secured thereto formed with a detent portion for engagement in spaced apart recesses 99 in case 89. A frame comprising arms 100 and 101 on another shaft 102 supports the shaft 96 and feed member 93 thereon in an upright position. Adjustment of the plate 98, to its different detented positions, it will be understood, serves to engage and disengage the feeding member 93 from its companion member 92. Thus, in a retracted position, a path is open between the feed members for installation of the carbon ribbon. In the advanced position of the feed member the carbon ribbon is clamped between the members 92 and 93 and so is advanced or fed out of the opening 94 in response to and in accompaniment with rotation of the feed members. The member 92 operates as the driving element of the carbon ribbon feed mechanism, there being secured to the underside thereof a ratchet 103. An actuating lever 104 has one end pivotally connected to the shaft 95 and its other end pivotally connected to the aforementioned link 19. A pawl 105 is mounted on the lever 104 between its ends and engages the teeth of ratchet 103. Upon each reciprocation of the link 19, therefore, the lever 104 is rocked and the gear-like feed member 92 turned one increment of movement under the urging of pawl 105. A corresponding advance of the carbon ribbon material 86 across the face of the platen accordingly occurs upon each operation of the line space mechanism or whatever other machine instrumentality may be used for reciprocation of the link 19. A pawl 106 is mounted on the bottom wall of case 89 and is engageable with the ratchet 103 to prevent back lash or return motion of the ratchet and associated parts.

Returning to a consideration of the platen bar 25, the opposite ends of such bar are rigidly connected to the outer ends of respective arms 107, 'the inner ends of which are formed with rectangular recesses 108 through which passes the shaft and previously considered sleeve 20 thereon. In the upper edge of each slot 108 is a recess 109 receiving a finger 111 formed integrally with or otherwise secured to the sleeve 20. It will be apparent that a rocking motion of the sleeve 20 in a counterclockwise direction, as from the position of Fig. 8 to the position of Fig. 9, will result in a bodily shifting or retracting motion of the arms 107 and platen means carried thereby. Similarly, a return rocking motion of the sleeve 20 in a clockwise direction, as from the position of Fig. 9 to the position of Fig. 8, serves to return or advance the arms 107 and platen means from retracted position. The sleeve 20, as has heretofore been seen, is connected to the arm 18 and rocks in accompaniment with reciprocation of the link 19. Machine operated reciprocation of the link 19 accordingly results in and is accompanied by an oscillatory movement of the sleeve 20 and hence a bodily shifting movement of the platen bar 25 and element 28 carried thereby.

Each arm 107 has a laterally projecting pin 112 received in a horizontally extending slot 113 in respec tive side frames 14 and 15. The slots 113 lie in a horizontal line running through the shaft 10 and the medial horizontal point of intersection of the record strip material 38 and the carbon ribbon strip material 86, such line further passing through the medial horizontal plane of the type on type member 44 positioned as illustrated in the drawing with such type member at the limit of its upward stroke as defined by a machine abutment 114. The platen bar 25 and element 28 are retracted and advanced in the described line, which may be termed the writing line of the machine. In the normal or advanced position of the platen a pressure may be considered to be exerted thereby on the strip material holding the record strips and the carbon strips in intimately contacting relation. In the retracted position of the platen such pressure is released, freeing the strips for more facile advance by their respective feeding devices. Movement of the platen will, of course, occur in a timed relation to advancement of the strips.

As shown in Fig. 12, in lieu of substituting one platen element 28 for another to obtain a platen surface of different hardness there may be applied thereto coverings of different hardness on upper and lower surfaces of the curved front face of the platent element. Thus, as seen in Fig. 12, a platen element 115 constructed and used in the same manner as the element 28, has on the front face thereof separate upper and lower strips 116 and.117 of a rubber or rubberlike covering of respectively different hardness. As seen in Fig. 13, the element 115 is installed in a platen bar 118 in the same manner as the element 28 in position to sustain impacts from a type bar 119. The platen bar 118 is carried between arms 121 on a sleeve 122 mounted on a shaft 123 and oscillated in the same manner as the corresponding arms 107 of the first considered embodiment of the invention. this instance is spring urged to a laterally projecting posi tion and is retractable by a knob 125. Each of the side frames 14 and 15 has a medial horizontal slot 126 corresponding to the slot 113 and on opposite sides thereof has upwardly and downwardly diverging slots 127 and 128. Should there be installed in the platen bar 118 a pl-aten element 28 of conventional construction the pins 124 would be located in the middle slot 126 and the operation of the device would be as above described. Should the platen element 115 be installed in the bar 118, however, the pins 124 would be adjusted to engage in one or the other of the slots 127 or 128. In the advanced position of the platen means, therefore, either the upper covering 116 or the lower covering 117 would be presented in cooperative relation with the type member 119. To change from one position to another, of course, the pins 124 are retracted out of one slot 126- 128 and the arms 121 are rocked to bring a selected other slot into cooperative relation with such pins. The described arrangement, it will be understood, makes it possible to substitute one platen hardness for another, as may be desirable in changing from one number of multiple copies to another, without actually substituting one platen or one platen element for another.

From the above description it will be apparent that there is thus provided a device of the character described The arms 121 have'each a plunger 124 which in possessing the particular features of advantage before enumerated as desirable, but which obviously issusceptible of modification in its form, proportions, detail construction and arrangement of parts without departing from the principle involved or sacrificing any of its advantages.

While in order to comply withthe statute the invention has been described in language more or less specific as to structural features, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific features shown, but that the means and construction herein disclosed comprise but one of several modes of putting the invention into effect, and the invention is therefore claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the legitimate and valid scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In a typewriting or like machine having a carriage and a line space mechanism operable upon each reciprocation of the carriage; the combination of a platen reciprocable support means on said carriage for said platen, means for advancing manifold record strip material over said platen an increment of movement upon each operation of said line space mechanism, means for advancing carbon ribbon material in interleaved transverse relation to said record strip material an increment of movement upon each operationof. said line space mechanism, and means for reciprocating said support means and said platen therewith in a medial horizontal plane common to said ribbon material, said platen and said support means upon each operation of the line space mechanism.

2. In a typewriting or like machine, a relatively stationary support, means for reciprocably mounting a platen bar assembly in said support, rotary pin feeding devices carried by said support in overhead relation to said platen bar assembly, said devices operating to pull manifold record strip material over said platen bar assembly in a substantially straight line, carbon strip material in transverse interleaved relation to said record strip material, said means for reciprocably mounting said platen bar assembly lying in the medial horizontal plane of the Writing line of the machine, and means for intermittently reciprocating said bar assembly relatively to said support for more facile advance of said carbon strip material.

3. A platen assembly for substitution as a unit in a typewriting or like machine, including relatively stationary side frames, a platen extending between said side frames and having parallel plate elements at the extremities thereof, strip feeding devices supported between said frames in substanially overhead relation to said platen and operable to advance a strip in substantially a planar path over said platen, and mounting means on said side frames engaging in said plate elements to provide bearing means therefor and a linear movement thereof and providing for relative retracting and advancing movements of said platen from and toward the said planar path of said strip.

4. A platen assembly, including relatively stationary side frames, spool means on said frames having carbon strip material wound thereon and extending in a substantially planar path between said frames, a platen bar extending between said side frames in parallel adjacent relation to said carbon strip material, strip feeding means supported between said side frames in substantially overhead relation to said platen bar and operable to advance record strip material in substantially a planar path past said platen bar and at substantially right angles to the path of said carbon strip material, said record strip material and said carbon strip material being interleaved, and mounting means for said platen bar in said frames, said mounting means having a medial horizontal plane in common with the type to be presented to said platen bar in use and providing for linear reciprocation of said platen bar in said plane for more facile feeding of the strip material.

5. A platen assembly according to claim 4, characterized in that said mounting further provides for tilting of said platen "bar selectively to present upper and lower portions thereof in a writing line defined by the medial line of intersection of saidrecord strip and carbon strip ma: terial.

6. In a typewriting machine or the like having a carriage and a line spacing mechanism operable on each reciprocation of the carriage; a support means on said carriage, a platen bar, support elements mounting saidplaten bar and mounted on said support means in relatively. containing relation thereto, said support elements being freely adjustable relative said support means in a reciprocable sense, and means mounted on said support means and responsive to the operation of the line spacing mechanism to reciprocate said support elements and said platen bar thereby.

7. In a typewriting or like machine having a carriage and a line space mechanism operable on each reciprocation of the carriage; the combination of a platen, support means for said platen, means shiftably mounting said v platen and said support means therefor for reciprocation on said carriage in a plane defined by the longitudinal central axes of said platen and said mounting means, and means for effecting the shifting of said platen on each operation of the line spacing mechanism.

8. In a typewriting or like machine having a carriage and a line space mechanism operable on each reciprocation of the carriage; a platen, a support means on said carriage, means mounted in free bearing relatively containing relation to said support means and mounting said platen in parallel relation tosaid support means, additional support elements guiding said free bearing means and lying in a common medial horizontal plane of said free bearing means and said platen, and means for reciprocating said support means and said platen in said common plane on operation of the line space mechanism.

9. In a typewriting or like machine having a carriage, and a line. spacing mechanism operable 0n reciprocation of the carriage; a support shaft mounted on said carriage, support means in free bearing containing relation tosaid shaft, a platen mounted to said support means in parallel relation to said shaft, and additional support means for said platen and said first mentioned support means lying in a common medial horizontal plane thereof, said first mentioned support means and said platen being freely reciprocable in said common plane through means effective on operation of said line spacing mechanism.

10. In a typewriting or like machine having a carriage and a line space mechanism operable upon each reciprocation of the carriage; a platen, plate means arranged in substantially parallel fashion and mounting said platen transversely thereof, said plate means having spaced aligned elongated apertures therethrough, support means for said plate'means mounted on said carriage and projecting through said aligned apertures to define a plane of reciprocation for said platen, and means for reciproeating said plate means and said platen thereby on operation of the line space mechanism.

11. In a typewriting or like machine having a carriage, and a line space mechanism operative on each reciprocation of the carriage; a shaft releasably mounted on said carriage, a sleeve on said shaft having cam means externally thereof, said sleeve being operatively connected to the line space mechanism, a pair of plate elements mounted to said shaft for displacement relative thereto in parallel planes perpendicular to said shaft, a platen connecting said plate elements, and guide means on said carriage in the medial horizontal plane of the writing line of the machine and connected with said plate elements, said cam means engaging in said plate elements for reciprocation thereof on operation of the line space mechanism, and said guide means providing for movement of the plate elements and said platen in reciprocating fashion in said plane.

12. In a typewriting or like machine, a carriage, means defining a writing line, a platen bar, and means mounting said platen bar in said carriage for relative reciprocation 9 in the plane of said writing line, said means mounting said platen bar aifording means for selective adjustment of said platen bar to dispose a selected portion thereof of a particular hardness in the plane of said writing line.

13. In a typewriting or the like machine, a support means, a platen bar, means mounting said platen bar to said support means in relatively containing reciprocable relation thereto, parallel side plates disposed at either end of said platen bar, selective guide means in said side plates, and means providing for selective connection of said mounting means in said guide means to dispose a selected portion of said platen bar for reciprocation in the writing line of the machine.

14. In a typewriting or like machine, a platen bar, said platen bar consisting of longitudinally arranged parallel strips of material of relatively varying hardness, side plates to either end of said platen bar, slots in said side plates in vertically displaced fashion, and means selectively connecting said platen bar in the respective slots and reciprocable therein, said selective connection establishing a particular strip of the platen bar in a writing line of the machine for reciprocation in a plane defined by said selective connecting means and said writing line.

15. In a typewriting or like machine having a stationary frame; a support shaft releasably mounted to said frame, a platen bar having longitudinal portions of varying hardness, parallel support arms mounting said platen bar in parallel relation to said support shaft for rotation and reciprocation relative thereto, side frames mounted to said stationary frame and provided with vertically displaced slots therein, and means selectively connecting said arms to said side frames and selectively engaged in the slots therein to dispose a particular portion of said platen bar for reciprocation in a plane defined by said shaft, said selective connecting means and the writing line of the machine.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 335,972 Slocum Feb. 9, 1886 1,890,563 Degener Dec. 13, 1932 1,917,100 Degener July 4, 1933 2,293,769 Sherman Aug. 25, 1942 2,506,701 Chisholm May 9, 1950

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