US3059414A - boyles - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 23, 1962 v R. L. BOYLES 3,059,414

MINIATURE ALARM CLOCK Filed June 1, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Mme/72W" E06 er! L. Bey/es Oct 23, 1962 R. L. BOYLES 3,059,414

MINIATURE ALARM CLOCK Filed June 1, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 fm e/rfar 190.66% A. Boy/e6 d/fay United States Patent 3,059,414. MINIATURE ALARM CLOCK Robert L. Boyles, Wayland, Mass, assignor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Filed June 1, 1960, Ser. No. 33,322 -Claims. (Cl. 58-38) This invention relates to miniature alarm clocks, and more particularly to a clock alarm and alarm control means for miniature clocks.

In the design ofiminiature alarm clocks, it'isdesirable to utilize component parts that are sufiiciently large to obviate the necessity of" extremely precise and, therefore, expensive machining operations, audit is also desirable to have the component parts of such clocks built sturdily enough to endure quite severe mechanical shocks. These design parameters are imposed upon the manufacturers of miniature alarm clocks because the commercial demand for this variety of? clocks-is very sensitive to an extremely competitive pricing system that serves to establish economic limits within whichthe clock must be manufactured if it is to be commercially successful. A rugged designfor the component parts of the clock is necessitated by the fact that such clocks are frequently subjected to very extreme vibration due to the fact that people often take their miniature alarm clocks with them on extended trips.

In attempting to satisfy additional design parameters that require an arrangement of a great number of structurally sturdy and, therefore, relatively bulky component parts within a very. compact space, clock designers have developed unique arrangements of the component parts to conserve as much space as possible without structurally weakening any. of the component parts. In developing such compact clock arrangement, designers have been particularly. troubled by the fact that they are required to allot a very substantial portion of the over-all clock housing area to the clock alarm. 'llie requirement of a relatively large-area for the clock alarm stems from the fact that the alarm embodies a mechanical vibrating element that requires a relatively large amount of space in which to oscillate, in addition to requiring a substantial area due to its physicalsize. The relative physical size of most prior art alarm vibrators for miniature clocks is very substantial when compared with the remaining component parts of such clocks, because the alarm vibrator must be mechanically large enough to develop a suitably audible alarm to rouse a person from a sound sleep In-addition to the relatively large physical size of prior artalarm vibrators, such as those utilized in miniature electric alarm clocks, the amount of space occupied by such alarm vibrators has, heretofore, been quite great because such alarm vibrators are usually mounted to vibrate in a plane parallel to a plane in which some relatively flat frame members are normally disposed to support the clock gear train in operative relation. Such alarm vibrator are also usually disposed in inductive relation to a field winding of an electric motor that drives the clock train and, therefore, it has been common practice to position such vibrators and field windings in sideby-side relationship between a relatively flat pair of frame members, with the vibrators disposed to vibrate in a plane parallel to the frame members.

Such an arrangement of the prior art alarm vibrators, in addition to occupying a substantial proportion of the available space within the clock housing, has presented clock designers with the problem of developing an inexpensive and yet-effective means for totally silencing the alarm while affording a plurality of alarm controlling means, such as a-manually operable alarm shut-0d, and

3,059,414 Patented Oct. 23, 1962 an alarm shut-off responsive to the passage of a predetermined interval of time. In particular, since such alarm vibrators are subjected to an inductive force over the1r entire length due to their close proximity with the energized field winding of the clock motor, the entire alarm vibrator tends to oscillate; therefore, when a plurality of shut-off leversor pins engage different points of the alarm vibrator, there is a-tendency to establish a vibrating or humming around between one or more ofthe shut-off means and the vibrator. Of course, such a humming sound is very undesirable since the clocks in ordinary use are-positioned relatively close to a person attempting to sleep; therefore, designers have long'sought an alarm silencing means that would afford multiple alarm shut-0d functions while providing an absolutely silent alarm in the shut-off position.

The present invention; provides a very suitable solution to the foregoing'problems by providing an alarm vibratorthat-possesses' desirable acoustic properties while occupying a minimum amount of space within an alarm clock housing, and by providing a unique alarm silencing means that obviates the possibility of any spurioushumming or vibrating noises between the alarm. shut-off means and the alarm vibrator, while affording .a plurality of alarm shut-olf-functions.

Accordingly, it is a specific object of the invention to provide an improved alarm for miniature alarm clocks that has desirable alarm sounding and silencing characteristics and occupies a minimum amount of space within the housing of such clocks.

Another object of the invention is to provide a miniature alarm clock having an improved alarm vibrator arrangement thereby to afford an inexpensive and compact alarm clock.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a miniature alarm clock having alarm silencing means that effectively silences an alarm vibrator while obviating any vibration'or humming sound between the alarm vibrator and the alarm silencing means.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a miniature alarm clock having an alarmsilencing means that affords a; plurality ofialarm'shut-off' functions while obviating any tendency of the alarm vibrator to develop a humming or vibrating noise between any of the alarm shut-01f means and the alarm vibrator.

Briefly stated, in accordance with one preferred embodiment of the invention, a miniature alarm clock is provided with a substantially fiat base plate that serves to support a portion of the clock train in operative relation, andthathas, an integral. elongated arm or tongue portion formed therein, thereby to afford .a resilient alarm vibrator member. The alarm. vibrator portion of the base plate is disposed ininductive relation with a field winding of the clock motor and is oscillated thereby into engagement with an appropriately positioned alarm signal means. A plurality ofalarm shut-off functions are provided, while obviating any tendency of the alarm vibrator to hum when one or more of the shut-01f means are moved to their alarm silencing positions, by arranging each of the alarm shut off means to operate through a single alarm silencing lever that engages the alarm vibrator at a single point near a central portion thereof adjacent to one of its ends. The alarm silencing means thus effectively silences the .alarm without imparting a twisting or turning torque thereto and absolutely prevents any humming or vibrating sound between the alarm vibrator'and any. of the alarm silencing means.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the description that follows when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective front view with parts broken away to show a miniature alarm clock constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective, fragmentary, rear view of the clock of FIG. 1 with parts broken away to show the alarm vibrator and alarm silencing means constructed in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the alarm vibrator and alarm silencing means as shown in FIG. 2, with the alarm vibrator shown in its on position;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the alarm vibrator and alarm silencing means shown in FIG. 2, with the alarm silencing means shown in its alarm silencing or off position, and

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, perspective, fragmentary View of the alarm silencing means shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4.

With reference to the drawings, particularly FIG. 1, it will be seen that there is illustrated an alarm clock comprising a self-starting synchronous electric motor having a field winding 1 wound on a stator 2 that actuates a self-starting synchronous rotor which is rotatably mounted within a housing member 3, which is fastened in a suitable manner to the field stator 2. The rotor is coupled through a reduction gear arrangement, also disposed within the housing member 3, to a rotatable gear 4. The gear 4 is connected in a conventional manner to the gear train of the clock, and the operation of this gear train will not be explained in detail, since it does not form an essential part of the subject invention. In addition to the self-starting synchronous motor and the clock gear train, the basic components of the illustrated clock are a relatively flat frame member 5 that supports a portion of the gear train in operative relation, a base plate 6 that also supports a portion of the gear train in operative relation, a second substantially fiat frame member 7 that partially supports a plurality of relatively movable time indicating shafts, and a clock face with its associated time indicating hands, indicated generally by the numeral -8.

The basic component parts of the clock, just enumerated, do not generally form an important aspect of the invention; however, the base plate 6 embodies an integral alarm vibrator arm or tongue 9 that constitutes an important feature of the instant invention. It will be noted that the alarm clock arrangement illustrated in FIG. 1

comprises a plurality of substantially flat parallel plates and frame members 5, 6 and 7 that are readily adaptable to a very compact axial spacing arrangement. In this connection the spacing between plates 5, 6 and 7, as shown in FIG. 1, is exaggerated in length in order to more clearly illustrate the invention. In order to provide a compact alarm for the clock without unduly expanding such a desirably compact arrangement, the integral alarm vibrator tongue 9 is formed on the base plate 6 by stamping a strip of the base plate 6 therefrom or otherwise suitably machining the base plate 6 to form the tongue 9 thereon, as is most clearly shown by FIG. 2 of the drawing. The alarm vibrator tongue 9 is disposed to cooperate with an alarm signal or sounding means 10 comprising a steel nut or any other suitable element that will impart an acoustically desirable tone to the vibrator tongue 9 when the tongue is oscillated thereagainst. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the base plate 6 is formed from magnetic material, such as rolled steel, which has sufiicient inherent resilience so that when the base plate 6 and its integral vibrator tongue 9 are disposed in inductive relation with the field winding 1 of the self-starting synchronous motor, the relatively free end 11 of vibrator tongue 9 will be oscillated by induced magnetism to pivot with respect to the relatively fixed end 12 thereof and cooperate with the alarm signal means 10 to produce a relatively loud vibrating or humming sound when the oscillatory movement of the free end 11 of tongue 9 is not restrained. It should be apparent that the acoustic characteristics of the alarm may be varied by shaping the vibrator tongue 9 or the alarm signal means 10 in a suitable manner; therefore, since such minor changes are deemed to be well within the purview of those skilled in the art, they will not be elaborated on further.

By forming the alarm vibrator tongue 9 integrally with the base plate 6, it is possible to dispose the substantially flat frame members 5 and 7 in a very compact parallel arrangement adjacent the respective sides of the base plate 6, since it is only necessary to allow the relatively free end 11 of the vibrator tongue 9 sufficient freedom of movement to oscillate against the alarm signal means 1th to produce the desired alarm sound. In practice, it has been found that the portions of the clock gear train that are disposed on the respective sides of the base plate 6 between the frame members 5 and 7 require more axial spacing than the relatively free end 11 of alarm vibrator tongue 9 requires for operation thereof. In fact, in the preferred embodiment of the invention, the relatively free end 11 of vibrator tongue 9 may never move more than one-eighth of an inch in a plane perpendicular to the substantially flat base plate 6 at any time during its operation. It can thus be seen that a very compact alarm means has been provided that is readily adaptable for use in miniature alarm clocks.

Of course, any suitable alarm silencing means could be utilized to selectively silence the unique alarm vibrator and the alarm signal means just described; however, in accordance with the present invention a novel alarm silenc ing means is provided to afford a plurality of alarm shutoff functions while positively obviating any humming or vibrating sound between the various shut-olf means and the alarm vibrator tongue 9. Referring particularly to FIGS. 2 through 5, it will be seen that the disclosed alarm silencing means comprises a substantially flat lever 13 having a first end 14 and a second end 15, and suitable fulcnim means 16 provided intermediate the ends 14 and 15 of the lever for pivotal movement thereof about the supporting frame member.

In order to silence the alarm, the lever 13 is pivoted on the fulcrum 16 so that the lever end 14 engages the relatively free end 11 of the alarm vibrator tongue 9 and moves it out of engagement with the alarm signal means 10. Of course, it is necessary that the lever 13 move the relatively free end 11 of vibrator tongue 9 sufficiently far from the signal means 10 so that the inherent resilience of the vibrator tongue 9 prevents the relatively free end 11 thereof from vibrating relative to the end 14 of lever 13. By way of example, it has been found that when the base plate 6 is formed from rolled steel plate approximately one-thirty-second of an inch in thickness, and when the vibrator tongue 9 is approximately two inches in length and three-eighths of an inch in width at its widest portion, the relatively free end 11 of the vibrator tongue 9 need be moved less than one-eighth of one inch away from the alarm signal means .10 to prevent any humming vibration between the vibrator tongue 9 and the lever 13 when a conventional size field winding 1 is utilized.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a plurality of alarm silencing or shut-off functions are afforded by the alarm silencing lever 13 while obviating the tendency of the alarm vibrator tongue 9 to produce a vibrating or humming sound when moved to its shut-off position. These desirable end results are achieved by providing a manually operable cam 17 that is slidably mounted on frame member 5 in any suitable manner, such as by forming integral prongs 18 on the cam 17 and arranging these prongs to engage the rear surface of the frame member 5. A handle 19 is provided so that an operator can manually move the cam 17 toward or away from the pivotal lever 13 thereby to cause the cam 17 to move the lever 13 to its alarm silencing position. In order to retain the slidable cam 17 in either its alarm silencing or its alarm sounding position, a detent may be provided by stamping raised sections Ztl into the frame member 5 so want that the extending prongs 18 are sprung against the inherent resilience thereof to ride over the raised sections 20 to either an alarm silencing or an alarm sounding position. The manually operable cam 17 is guided toward the pivotal lever 13 by an extended integral portion of the cam 17 that joins the prongs 18 to the main portion of. cam 17, and which slides in agroove in frame member 5 between the raised sections 20 thereof. The upper portion o f. cam 17 is guided in an offset portion 38 (best seenin FIG. 1) of plate 5.

The: cam 17 effectively silences the alarm when the handle 19 is moved toward the lever 13 thereby to force the cam 17 into engagement with the end 15 of lever 13 causing the lever 13 to pivot about the fulcrum 16 and, thuspm ove the lever end 14 against the relatively free end 11. ofthe vibrator tongqie 9to move the vibrator tongue 9 away from the alarm signal means 10, as shown in FIG. 4. The handle 19 and cam 17 are shown in their alarm on position in FIG. 4 in order to more clearly show the manner in which the lever 13 may be moved to the alarm off position by auxiliary alarm silencing means to bedescribed below. When the cam 17 is moved away from the lever 13 by raising the handle 19 to the position shown in FIG. 3, the inherent resilience of the vibrator tongue 9 acts to return the pivotally mounted lever 13 to its alarm sounding position.

A second alarm silencing function is provided by auxiliaryv means such as the rotatable cam that is designated generally, by numeral 21; The rotatable cam 21 comprises an annulus 22 having gear teeth 23 disposed around the outer. peripheral surface thereof and disposed to engage the clock gear train (FIG. 1) at any suitable point thereof that will cause the annulus 22 to be rotated through exactly 360 during a twelve hour interval. The annulus 22 is also provided with a centrally disposed aperture therethrough which has a slightly larger area in cross-section than the cross-sectional area of a rotatably mounted shaft 24 that supports the cam 21 in operative relation with the clock gear train. The cam 21 is both rotatable about the shaft 24 and axially slidable thereon, for reasons that will be apparent as the operation of the apparatus affording the second alarm silencing function is explained.

In addition to the annulus 22, the cam 21 comprises a first raised axially extending portion 25, and a second raised, axially extending portion 26, respectively, disposed shaft24 thereby to silence the alarm, the extended raised.

axial portion 25 is formed as a second annulus having a shaped groove portion 27 therein, which cooperates with a pin 28 that is rigidly supported on the rotatable shaft 24. and extends radially therefrom. The pin 28 engages the surface of the axially extending raised portion 25 and thus restricts the axial movement of the cam 21 in one direction, whereas the axial movement of the cam 21 in the. opposite direction is restricted by the frame member 5 through which the raised axially extending portion 26 is inserted. Thus, as the pin 28 is moved into the groovef27, it is apparent that the cam 21 .will move axially on shaft 24 toward pin 28 in response to the resilient force of the alarm vibrator tongue end ll acting upon the pivotal lever 13 causing it to engage the raised portion 26.

In. order to manually set the time at which the groove portion 27 of the raised annulus 25 will be moved under the pin 28 due to the rotation of the cam 21 by the clock train, thereby to sound the alarm by allowing the inherent resilience of alarm vibrator tongue 9 to pivot lever 13 and force. cam.21 axially toward pin 28, the shaft 24 is rotatably journalled in any suitable manner on frame members. 5. and 6, respectively, and is drivingly coupled through gears 29 and 30, respectively, to a manually rotatable shaft 31. The gears 29 and 30 are rigidly fastened to their respective supporting shafts 24 and 31 so, that when the shaft 31 is manually rotated it drives gear 30' and gear 29 and thus causes'the pin 28 to be rotated with respect to the raised annular portion 25 of cam 21. Since cam 21 is driven by the clock train to rotate through 360 during a 12-hour period it is possible to thus preset the time at which the groove portion 27 of raised annular portion 25 will be moved into engage mentwith the pin 28. Of course, the manually rotatable shaft 31will be coupled by conventional means, such as the gears 35'and 36 shown in FIG. 1, to an indicating hand, such as hand 32 (FIG. 1), so that the correct angular positioning of pin 28 may be readily determined to enable accurate setting of the alarm. Friction spring 37 attached to gear 35 serves to maintain the angular setting of'the manually settable parts.

The operation of the time responsive rotatable, cam 21 that controls the second alarm silencing function will be readily understood by those skilled in the art from the foregoing description; however, to clarify the details of this operation a more detailed description of cam 21 and itsassociated alarm control means follows. It should be understood at the outset that the rotatable cam 21 is driven ir'ra counterclockwise direction, as seen in FIG. 5. Since it is desirable to have the alarm signal initiatedat a precise time, the groove portion 27 of the raised annulus 25 is provided with a sharply cut-off surface 33 on its leading edge that may be generally parallel to the axis of shaft 24. With this configuration, as the cam 21 rotates under the pin 28 the resilient biasing force of the vibrator tongue 9 will abruptly force the lever 13 to pivot about its fulcrum 16v and move cam 21 axially toward pin 28 whereupon the pin 28 slides down the surface 33 on cam 21, thus freeing the alarm vibrator tongue 9 to oscillate against the alarm signal means 10. Furthermore, groove 27 has a predetermined width that determines the time intervalthat the, alarm will sound before the trailing edge of the groove portion 27 is moved into engagement with the pin 28. The trailing edge of the groove portion 27 is provided with a sloped surface 34 that serves to move. the cam 21 axially away from the pin 28 as the clock train continues to rotate the cam thereby forcing the axially extending portion 26 thereof into engagement with the end 15 of lever 13 to move the lever 13 to its alarm silencing position, as shown in FIG. 4, so that the alarm is automatically silenced after the time interval determined by the width of the groove portion 27. Of course, during normal operation of the alarm the manually operable cam 17 must be moved to its uppermost position, as shown in FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, when the time responsive rotatable cam 21 is placed in control of the alarm, so that the cam 17 does not prevent the free end 15of lever. 13from moving toward the axially extending portion 26 of cam 21, in the manner described above Moreover, during normal operation of the alarm the user will be roused from sleep when the time responsive rotatable cam 21 is moved to initiate the alarm signal and will then depress the manually operable handle 19. to move the cam 17 under the end 15 of the lever 13 and, thus, manually silence the alarm before the sloped surface 34 of groove portion 17 engages the pin 28 to movethe cam 21 axially toward the end 15 of lever 13. Thus, it can be seen that the manually operable cam 17 can preempt control of the alarm silencing lever 13 from the time responsive rotatable cam 21 at any time during the operation thereof.

From the foregoing description it will be noted that the end 14 of lever 13 is the only alarm silencing means that engages the vibrator tongue 9; therefore, there is no tendency for this'vi'brator tongue 9 to burn or vibrate with-respect to the single point contact of the lever arm 13., as would be the case if two separate alarm silencing contacts were utilized and such contacts did not exactly mate with the vibrator tongue 9. A further important advantage of the unique alarm silencing means of the invention is that the free end 14 of lever 13 engages the free end 11 of vibrator tongue 9 at a point close to the center of the magnetic flux acting on the end 11 of the tongue 9. This minimises any unbalanced forces which may tend to set up a humming in the vibrator when lever 13 is in the shut-off position. In addition to the unique relation between the end 14- of lever 13 and the relatively free end 11 of vibrator tongue 9, the end 15 of lever 13 is carefully arranged to engage the manually operable cam 17 in such a manner that the lever 13 is moved entirely out of contact with the axially extending raised portion 26 of rotatable cam 21 when the cam 17 is moved to its alarm silencing position. (Note the relative heights of the raised portion 26 and the cam 17 with respect to plate member 5, as shown in FIG. 4.) This particular arrangement of the operating components serves to prevent the biasing force of the resilient vibrator tongue 9 from being transmitted through lever 13 to the rotatable cam 21 during normal operation of the alarm clock and, thus, provides the desirable end result of unloading the clock train during operation so that the elficiency of the clock is improved. Also, such an arrangement of the manually operable cam 17 prevents any clicking noise from being imparted to the rotatable cam 21 by the pin 28 engaging the edges of groove portion 27, as would occur if the resilience of vibrator tongue 9 were transmitted to the cam 21 through lever 13 thus forcing the cam 21 against the pin 28.

While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention in its broader aspects. It is, therefore, intended in the following appended claims to encompass all such modifications as fall within the true scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. in combination with an alarm clock including a gear train driven by an electric synchronous motor having a field coil, a frame member for supporting said gear train in operative relation, a relatively fiat base plate formed from resilient material for further supporting a portion of said gear train in operative relation, an alarm vibrator comprising an integral magnetizable tongue on said base plate, said vibrator tongue being disposed in inductive relation with said field coil whereby the free end of said tongue is actuated to oscillate in a plane substantially vertical to said base plate when said field coil is energized, an alarm signal means disposed to cooperate with the relatively free end of said tongue to produce an alarm signal when said tongue is oscillated, said vibrator being biased towards said signal means by the inherent resilience of the base plate member, a relatively fiat elongated lever having first and second ends, fulcrum means engaging said lever intermediate said first and second ends thereof and pivotally supporting said lever on said frame member, the first end of said lever being disposed to move into engagement with a centrally located point on the relatively free end of said vibrator tongue and move said tongue away from said signal means thereby to silence said alarm Without imparting a twisting torque to said tongue, a rotatable cam drivingly coupled to said gear train, a manually rotatable shaft for supporting said cam, manually operable means for rotating said shaft, means for rotatably supporting said shaft to position said cam in operative relation with said gear train, said cam comprising an annulus having gear teeth around the outer peripheral edge thereof, means defining an axial aperture through the central portion of said annulus for receiving said supporting shaft therethrough, a first integral raised portion extending axially from one side of said annulus, and a second integral raised portion extending axially from the other side of said annulus, the gear teeth of said cam being supported in driving engagement with the gear train,

the aperture through said annulus having substantially the same cross-sectional area as said rotatable shaft but being sufiiciently large to allow the annulus to freely slide axially on said shaft, a pin fixed to said shaft and extending radially therefrom, said pin being disposed to engage the first raised portion extending axially from one side of the annulus thereby to limit the axial movement of said annulus, the second raised portion extending axially from the other side of said annulus being disposed to move axially into engagement with the second end of said lever and move said lever to its alarm silencing position, said first raised portion extending axially from one side of the annulus comprising a cam surface disposed to engage said pin and formed to effect axial movement of the annulus as the annulus is rotated relative to said pin by the clock train, the relative time at which the annulus is moved axially due to the inter-action between said pin and said cam surface being determinable by manually rotating the supporting shaft and said pin relative to said cam surface, whereby said rotatable cam is moved axially to an alarm silencing position at a predetermined time thereby moving said second raised portion extending axially therefrom into engagement with the second end of said lever to move said lever to its alarm silencing position.

2. An alarm cloclr comprising: a gear train, a supporting structure including a generally flat base plate and a generally flat rear plate, said gear train being rotatably supported by said plates, a slot formed in said base plate to provide a fiat flexible tongue portion located generally in the same plane as said base plate, a clock motor field structure fixed to said rear plate, a field nut extending forwardly from said field structure toward said base plate, said field nut having an end face arranged generally parallel to said base plate and tongue portion and terminating in close proximity to the tongue portion of said base plate so that said tongue portion may vibrate against the end face of said field nut when the field structure is energized, and lever means for moving said tongue portion away from said field nut to thereby prevent said tongue portion from vibrating against the field nut in order to silence the alarm.

3. An alarm clock comprising: "a gear train, a supporting structure including a generally flat base plate and a generally fiat rear plate, said gear train being rotatably supported by said plates, a slot formed in said base plate to provide a flexible tongue vibrator portion located generally in the same plane as said base plate, a clock motor field structure fixed to said rear plate, a field nut extending from said field structure toward said base plate, said field nut having an end face arranged generally parallel to said base plate and tongue portion and terminating in close proximity to the tongue portion of said base plate, a vibrator shut-off lever pivoted to said rear plate arranged for movement into engagement with said tongue portion to silence the alarm, and a manually reciprocable flat lever slidable on the rear surface of said rear plate for moving said vibrator shut-olf lever into engagement with said tongue portion to silence the alarm.

4. An alarm clock comprising: a gear train, a supporting structure including a base plate and a rear plate, said gear train being rotatably supported by said plates, a slot formed in said base plate to provide a fiat flexible tongue portion located generally in the same plane as said base plate, a clock motor field structure fixed to said rear plate, a field nut extending forwardly from said field structure toward said base plate, said field nut having an end face arranged generally parallel to said base plate and tongue portion and terminating in close proximity to the tongue portion of said base plate so that said tongue portion may vibrate against the end face of said field nut when the field structure is energized, a vibrator shut-off lever pivoted to said rear plate, said lever having first and second ends, the first end of said lever being disposed for movement into engagement with said tongue portion thereby to prevent oscillation of the tongue to silence the alarm, a rotatable cam movable by said gear train and disposed to engage the second end of said lever to selectively move said lever between an alarm sounding and an alarm silencing position at preset times.

5. An alarm clock comprising: a gear train, a supporting structure including a base plate and a rear plate, said gear train being rotatably supported by said plates, 2. slot formed in said base plate to provide a flat flexible tongue portion, a clock motor field structure fixed to said rear plate, a field nut extending forwardly from said field structure toward said base plate and termianting in close proximity to the tongue portion of said base plate so that said tongue portion may vibrate against the end of said field nut when the field structure is energized, a vibrator shut-off lever pivoted to said rear plate, said vibrator shut-off lever having first and second ends, the first end of said lever extending forwardly from said rear plate toward said base plate and being disposed for movement into engagement with said tongue portion to prevent oscillation of the tongue portion to silence the alarm, the second end of said vibrator shut oif lever extending rearwardly behind said rear plate, a hole formed in said rear plate in the vicinity of the second end of said vibrator shut off lever, cam means operated by said gear train axially slidable in said hole for moving the second end of said lever between an alarm sounding and an alarm silencing position at preset times.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,122,057 Gains June 28, 1938 2,528,247 Sawyer et al. Oct. 31, 1950 2,620,872 Wyman Dec. 9, 1952 2,768,332 Protzmann et al. Oct. 23, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 777,771 France Dec. 5, 1934

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