US3326577A

US3326577A - Memorandum devices

Info

Publication number: US3326577A
Application number: US502920A
Authority: US
Inventors: Greif Francis
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1965-05-10
Filing date: 1965-10-23
Publication date: 1967-06-20
Anticipated expiration: 1984-06-20
Also published as: GB1058503A

Description

June 20, 1967 i=. GREIF 3,326,577

MEMORANDUM DEVI CES Filed Oct. 23, 1965 Q 35 l/ 24 26 43 44 44 5'8 3 58 7 Z\5 i /43 2 16 2 I. 21

United States Patent 3,326,577 MEMORANDUM DEVICES Francis Greif, 199 Sussex Gardens, London W. 2, England Filed Oct. 23, 1965, Ser. No. 502,920 Claims priority, application Great Britain, May 10, 1965, 19,726/65 1 Claim. (Cl. 2S18) This invention relates to memorandum devices of the type which comprise a casing having on the interior two pairs of axially aligned bearings for detachably supporting a reel between each pair, the reels being parallel, spaced apart and connected by a lengthy strip of paper which is rolled around each reel in such manner that whilst the paper is being unwound from one reel it is simultaneously wound on to the other, the casing further housing a table over which the paper lying between the two reels passes, and having an upper thickness located closely adjacent the table and provided with a window of such location and dimensions that a portion of the outer surface of the paper situated above the table is accessible therethrough to be written upon.

Such a device is known in which the casing houses a small electric motor associated with an electric battery, with selective switch means and operating driving belt gearing for the controlled winding and unwinding of the paper from one reel to the other, as desired.

According to the present invention, two similar small electric motors are provided in the casing, the first in association with one reel of paper and the second with the other reel of paper, and the two motors are included in a circuit with selective switch means and one or more removable batteries, all so arranged that (a) only one motor can be switched into circuit at any time, leaving the other idle, and (b) this switched-in motor turns in such direction that it winds the paper on to its associated reel and pulls the paper from the other reel, whose motor is not running.

By the selective operation of the switch means, it will be appreciated that the paper may be wound from one reel to the other, at will, and thus enable either fresh paper to be brought into the window space, or else for the paper to be run bac to show notes or the like made on the paper upon a previous occasion.

In a preferred construction, the driving means associated with each other comprises a driving wheel with a periphery of resilient material, carried by a spring-pressed lever arm which is applied by the spring pressure to the projecting shaft of its associated electric motor, and the resilient periphery of which is also geared to the serrated periphery of a driving flange at the end of the associated reel.

- In order that the invention may be better understood, it will now be described with reference to the accompanying somewhat diagrammatic drawings which are given by way of example only and in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view, as it would appear laid on a desk for example, of one form of memorandum device made in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic perspective view of the device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and with the cover open.

FIG. 4 is a plan view, to a larger scale, of the body portion of the casing, with the cover open and certain parts removed, and

FIG. 5 is a side elevation, partly in section, of FIG. 4, but with the cover in position and the side wall removed to show the driving means,

The casing, which may be made of a suitable plastic material, comprises a body 6 and a cover 7 with a window 8, which cover is hinged to the body at 9. In plan, FIG. 1, this casing is of rectangular shape with the longer sides extending away from the user and with a gap 10 in the cover adjacent one edge of the window 8, for the projection of the manipulating part 11 of a switch. This manipulating part is a serrated segment of a circle so that finger-contact pressure in the direction towards the user will cause the paper to move towards the user, whilst with the same finger-contact pressure in the other direction, i.e., away from the user, the paper will be caused to move away from the user.

The front and back of the casing are shaped and curved to give a rounded streamlined effect, and the dimensions are such that the top of the casing slopes from the back slightly downwardly towards the front, that is to say, towards the user. The hinge 9 is at the back and there is a spring catch 12 at the front to hold the cover in the closed position.

Although the internal parts may be mounted directly in the base 13 of the body, preferably, and as shown in the drawings, they are carried by an inner framework or chassis which preferably is of a plastic material and which is fixed and registered in the base 13 of the casing by a suitable screw 14 (FIG. 5); other suitable fixing means may be used if desired.

This framework or chassis has a base 15 which has secured thereto radiating fixed contacts 16 suitably connected to the various components of the circuit (not shown in detail).

The outer ends of the contacts are free and pass upwardly to make connection with contacts (not shown) beneath a part-disc 17 of insulating material adapted to be moved through a small angle in either direction from a neutral position about a vertical pivot 18, by the manipulating part 11 of the switch. As shown in FIG. 3, the manipulating part 11 has an arm 19 of a two-armed lever, the other short arm 20 of which is located between

projections

21 and 22 on the rear edge of the part-disc 17. Spring means (not shown) normally maintain the parts in the neutral position (shown in the drawing) but when the manipulating part 11 is finger-pressed in one direction the part-disc 17 moves through a small angle in one direction, to switch one motor (to be hereafter described) into circuit. As long as the finger pressure is maintained, the motor continues to run. Upon release of the pressure, the switch parts return to the neutral position and the motor stops. If the finger pressure is in the other direction, the part-disc 17 moves through a small angle in a direction opposite to the previous movement. This switches the other motor (to be hereafter described) into circuit and, similarly, when the finger pressure is released the parts return to the neutral position.

The inner framework or chassis further has two longitudinal side Walls 24 which towards the ends have opentopped vertical slots 25 for accommodating and forming bearings for the ends 26 of the spindles of the paper reels 27 on which the paper 28 is wound to constitute rolls 29. One side wall 24 has

part cross partitions

30 and 31 to which small

electric motors

32 and 33, respectively, are fixed, so that the

shafts

34 and 35, respectively, come into the correct positions to etfect the drive as hereafter described. The electric motors are firmly held in strong clips 51 having integrated threaded studs 52 passing through the

partitions

30 or 31 and firmly clamped in position by nuts and washers 53. In suitable positions, this side wall 24 has

apertures

36 and 37 for the passage of the spindles of the driving wheels, to be hereafter described.

The driving means for each reel comprises a resilient wheel 38 mounted on a spindle 39 carried by the free end of a lever 40 fixedly pivoted to the side member 24 at 41.

The lever 40 is on the exterior of the side member 24, and the spindle 39 passes through an aperture (36 or 37) so that its wheel 38 is in resilient pressure meshing engagement with the shaft (34 or 35) of the associated electric motor. The wheel 38 is kept pressed into engagement with the motor shaft by an expanding V spring 42, and stop means 43 are provided to limit the expanding movement of the lever 41}.

Each end of a reel 27 for the paper 28 has fixed thereto a flange 44 with a serrated periphery, and the two driving wheels 38 are so located that when the parts are in position with the cover 7 closed, then the serrated periphery of one flange 44 of the reel 29 at the back of the device, and one flange 44 of the reel 29 at the front of the device, are pressed into meshing contact with the respective driving wheels 38, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. This is assured by providing the inner surfaces of the sides of the cover 7 with inwardly projecting ridges, one of which ridges 45 appears in FIG. 3, and it, and the similar-purpose ridge on the other side, are so shaped and positioned that they come over and contact the projecting spindle ends 26 of the reels and form the upper parts of the bearings therefor. However, they press down on the spindle ends 26 (which do not contact the lower ends of the slots 25) to ensure that the serrated peripheries of the particular flanges 44 are in driven contact with the driving wheels 38.

As a result, when the motor 32 is caused to turn it causes the reel 27 at the back of the device to have paper 28 wound thereon. Simultaneously, paper is pulled from the reel 29 at the front of the device, and this latter action causes the particular flange 44 of this reel to turn its resilient wheel 38, which in turn may rotate the shaft 35 of the motor 33. The motor 33 is not driven and consequently the pull of the paper from off the front reel 27 merely has a braking effect, which keeps the paper 28 passing the window 8 at the desired tension. The paper appearing at the window is supported by a table 46 detachably carried by the upper edges of the members 24 of the inner framework or the chassis.

The inner side wall 24 in a central position, as indicated in FIG. 3, has a pivotal support for the three-position switch and also has part cross partitions 47 which carry in a facing manner the combined clips and carriers 48 for two cylindrical batteries, not shown in position but one, 49, of which is indicated by dotted lines, FIG. 4. Above these batteries and supported by the side walls 24, is located the removable table 46 which forms a support for the paper Whilst it is being written upon.

The batteries may be flat in place of cylindrical, and

in some cases there may be only a single battery and in other cases more than two batteries may be included in simple series circuits controlled by the switch device 17 in a well known manner. In any case, the battery arrangement is in a pair of simple series circuits in a well known manner so that the required voltage and current are selectively supplied to either of the motors when it is in one of said simple series circuits.

A similar circuit arrangement is shown as old in US. Patent 1,615,153, issued to Alessio, Jan. 18, 1927.

At the front, on the interior, the body 6 of the casing has open-topped bearings 50 (FIGS. 3 and 4) to accommodate the projecting ends, such as 26, of the spindle of a spare reel of paper which is held in position when the cover is closed but which is free for removal when the cover is open.

The invention is not limited to the precise forms or details of construction herein described, as these may be varied to suit particular requirements.

What I claim is:

In a memorandum device, upper and lower casing parts, a chassis frame in the lower casing part having two pairs of axially aligned bearings with the axis of each pair parallel and at a desired spacing, two similar reels having spindles projecting from the ends thereof received in said aligned bearings with one reel mounted in each pair of bearings, a lengthy strip of paper Wound on and connecting the two reels in such a manner that when the paper is being unwound from one reel it will be simultaneously woundon the other, a table supported in the lower casing part over which the paper passes between the two rolls and in contact with said table, said upper part of the casing being located closely above the table and being provided with a window so located that the portion of the outer surface of the paper situated on the table is accessible therethrough to be written upon, a serrated flange at the end of each reel, two separate and suitably supported electric motors adapted to wind and unwind the paper on said reels, a lever pivoted to a fixed part of said chassis frame, a resilient wheel mounted on the free end of said lever in driving engagement with said serrated flange at each end of said chassis frame, yielding spring means for urging said resilient wheel into engagement with said serrated flange on the end of each reel and simultaneously into engagement with the armature shaft of each motor whereby each motor shaft will be connected to its associated reel through an intermediate resilient wheel with which both the motor shaft and driving member of the reel are in pressure engagement so that when one of the motors is caused to wind paper onto the reel to which its shaft is geared, the other motor will not be energized and the paper drawn ofl? the reel to which the last mentioned motor is geared is caused to rotate the members of the reduction gearing associated with the undriven reel, electric battery means in said casing supported by said frame, manually operable switch means for selectively energizing either of said motors-and adapted to electrically connect said battery means therewith, said chassis frame being removably aflixed to said lower casing part, and means on the upper casing part to engage the ends of said reel spindles and urge the serrated flange at one end of said reels into engagement with said resilient intermediate wheel.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,315,425 9/1919 Semon 40-31 1,450,446 4/1923 Nelson 2819 1,615,153 1/1927 Alessio 4031 X 2,696,753 12/1954 Segal et al 4031 X 2,916,303 12/1959 Greif 2818 LAWRENCE CHARLES, Primary Examiner.