US3807165A

US3807165A - Clock having a timer

Info

Publication number: US3807165A
Application number: US00270870A
Authority: US
Inventors: T Kawada
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1971-07-14
Filing date: 1972-07-11
Publication date: 1974-04-30
Anticipated expiration: 1991-04-30
Also published as: JPS526111B1

Abstract

A clock having a timer wherein the operations of an electric circuit controlling switch and an alarm are controlled by a timer mechanism comprising a time set drum and an hour wheel which is moved toward the drum by a distance at a preset time on said drum and is further moved toward the drum by a further distance at the expiration of a predetermined time interval of, for example, ten minutes due to two stage engagements between cam members on the set drum and the hour wheel. Said two stage movements cause two stage revolutions of a retaining lever, while said revolutions of the lever cause two stage rotations of a rotating shaft from a first position, where the shaft keeps the switch in opened state and the alarm in silent state, to a second position, where the shaft allows the switch to close and retains the alarm in silent state, and then to a third position, where the shaft allows the switch to close and the alarm to sound whereby the alarm begins to sound at the expiration of said time interval after the closing of the switch.

Description

United States Patent 1' Kawada Apr. 30, 1974 CLOCK HAVING A TIMER [76] Inventor: Toshio Kawada, 6-4 Miyashita cho,

Sakaide, Japan [22] Filed: July 11, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 270,870

Primary Examiner-Richard B. Wilkinson Assistant Examiner-Edith Simmons Jackmon [57] ABSTRACT A clock having a timer wherein the operations of an electric circuit controlling switch and an alarm are controlled by a timer mechanism comprising a time set drum and an hour wheel which is moved toward the drum by a distance at a preset time on said drum and is further moved toward the drum by a further distance at the expiration of a predetermined time interval of, for example, ten minutes due to two stage engagements between cam members on the set drum and the hour wheel. Said two stage movements cause two stage revolutions of a retaining lever, while said revolutions of, the lever cause two;stage rotations of a rotating shaft from a first position, where the shaft keeps the switchiin opened state and the alarm in silent state,.tova second position, where the shaft allows the switch to close and retains the alarm in silent state, and'then to a third position, where the shaft allows the switch to close and the alarm to sound whereby the alarm beginsxto sound at the expiration of said time interval after theclosing of the switch.

- 7Clains, 6 Drawing Figures CLOCK HAVING A TIMER This invention relates to a clock having a timer, and more particularly to a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus wherein an electric circuit controlling switch becomes closed at a preset time and then, after a short period of time, an alarm begins to sound.

It iswell known to the art that, in a clock having a timer, an alarm is combined with an electric circuit controlling switch which makes, for example, a radio to sound or to shut off. In general, such a clock is so designed that it may be selected by a manual presetting whether only the switch is operated to close at a preset time on the clock or both of the switch and the alarm are operated at a same time to close or to sound at said preset time. Because such a clock is generally used for the purpose of waking or rousing a user from sleep, the switch is usually used for actuating a radio, a television set or the like automatically in order to let user become aware of a time for waking-up. Therefore, when the clock is set so that both of the switch and the alarm are operated at the same time at the preset time, then the user listens to the sound of the radio and the alarm at a time, that is very uncomfortable for the user, although he certainly becomes aware of the time for waking-up. In contrast to the above, if a clock having a timer is so designed that a radio" or the like begins to sound'first at a preset time on the clock and then, at the expiration of short time interval of, for example, ten minutes, an alarm begins to sound, user may listen to the sound of the radio or the like first and then, when he does not become aware of said sound, he may listen to the sound of the alarm which notifies him of the required time with certainly..Thus, in the latter case, user feels comfortable when he wakes up and also' he is assured of a certain waking.

Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus wherein an electric circuit controlling switch becomes closed at a preset time first and then, after a short period of time, an alarm begins to sound.

An another object of the present invention is to provide a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus which operates the above stated twostage actuation of the switch and the alarm in a reliable manner. v

A still another object of the present invention is to provide a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus in which user may set the clock in such manners whether only the switch is operated to close at a preset time on the clock or the closing operation of the switch is followed by the sounding of the alarm.

A further object of the present invention is to'provide a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus in which the switch may be closed and opened independently of the alarm.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus in which the alarm may be silenced for a predetermined time of interval after the alarm has once sounded.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a clock having a combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus in which, by a manual setting, the

switch becomes opened automatically after the expiration of preset interval of time after the switch has once closed.

The present invention and its attendant advantages will become more readily apparent as the specification is considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

v FIG. 1 is a sectional plane view, partially cut away, of an embodiment of the clock according to the present invention;

' FIG. 2 is a side view of the clock shown in FIG. 1 showing the left side;

FIG. 3 is an another side view, partially cut away, of theclock shown in FIG. 1 showing the right side;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of details of the clock shown in FIG. 1;

\ FIG. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of a part of hour wheel and time set drum employed in the clock shown in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of details similar to FIG. 4 but showing an another embodiment of the alarm clock according to the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings, ,there is shown a preferred embodiment of the clock according to the present invention in FIGS. 1 through 5. As shown in FIG. 1, the clock is formed into a digital clock .having an hour indicating endless belt 21, a ten orde rs minute indicating endless belt 22 and a one ordersminute indicating belt 23 which belts carry indica thereon and are travelled intermittently in properly timed relations therebetween by respective sprocket wheels '(not shown) engaging the perforations at one side of the belts.

In the clock, there is provided an hour wheel 24 the shaft 25 of which is rotably and slidably supported by the clock frame 26. As is usuahsaid hour wheel 24 is provided with teeth on its periphery and is maintained in continuous engagement with ,a gear 27 which is meshed with a drivinggear 28 rotated by the clock gear train (not shown), so that the wheel 24 is driven to rotate on a 12-hour cycle. In an another case, the hour wheel may be driven to rotate on a 24 -hour cycle. Further, in the clock, there is provided in face-to-face relation to the wheel 24 an alarm set drum 28 carrying indica on its periphery the hollow shaft 29 of which drum rotably receives the shaft 25 of the hour wheel 24. As is usual, said alarm set drum 28 can be rotated manually so as to set a desired time interval or alarm,

"first with the rotation of the wheel 24, and a slope 31b on which each projection 30 slides at the forward slope 30a when each projection 30 is putting out of each groove 31 with the rotation of the wheel 24, as clearly shown in FIG. 5.

, As shown in FIG. 4, a retaining lever 32 is pivotally mounted in the clock by a pin 33 and is biased or forced into the direction of arrow A by a spring 34 whichis fixed to the frame 26 at one end thereof. Said lever 32 is maintained in engagement or contact with the outer face of the hour wheel 24 at one end 32a thereof so that the wheel is moved to slide toward the drum 28 by the biasing force of spring 34 when the cam projections 30 come into engagement with the cam grooves 31 with the rotation of the wheel 24 into the clockwise direction shown with arrow B in FIGS. 4 and 5. The lever 32 is provided at the other end thereof with first and

second retaining steps

35 and 36, which will be fully detailed later.

In the clock, there is provided an electric circuit controlling switch 37 which has a pair of

arms

38 and 39 of a resilient and conductive material which-are supported by an insulating base member 40 and carry contacts 38a and 39a thereon, as clearly shown in FIG. 3. Further, there is provided in the clock an alarm or buzzer 41 comprising an electromagnet 42 and a vibrating arm 43. The operations of said switch 37 and alarm 41 are controlled by a hollow shaft 44 which is rotably mounted on the frame 26. That is, said shaft 44 has a controlling cam 45 which is fixedly mounted on the shaft so that the cam is moved with the rotation of the shaft so as to control the operations of the switch and alarm,as will be detailed later. Theoperation of the switch 37 is also controlled by a further controlling cam 46 fixedly mounted on a shaft 47 at one end thereof which shaft is also rotably mounted on the frame 26 and rotably receives the hollow shaft 44, as will also be detailed later.

The machine has a handling shaft 48 which is rotably mounted on the frame 26 and is operated to rotate manually. Said shaft 48 has four positions, namely'a first or ON position, a second or OFF position, a third or AUTO" position and a fourth'or AUTO ALARM position, and is kept in each position by a temporary retaining means 49 provided at one end. The retention by the retention means may be released by forcedly rotating the shaft 48 manually.On the shaft 48 is fixedly mounted a gear 50 which meshes with a gear 51 fixedly secured to a short hollow shaft 52 at one end of said shaft, while to the other end of the hollow shaft 52 is secured a stopper or stopping lever 53 at the bottom end thereof. Thus, the stopper 53 is moved to revolve round the shaft 52 by rotating manually the handling shaft 48and has four positions corresponding tothe ON", OFF", AUTO" and AUTO ALARM positions of the handling shaft.

A manually handling or operable hollow shaft 54, which is rotatably received by the handling shaft 48, is

rotatably mounted on the frame 26. On said shaft 54 are fixedly mounted a sector gear or segment 55 and a gear 56. The segment 55 may be brought into engagement with a gear 57, which is driven to rotate by the aforementioned driving gear 28, by rotating the shaft 54 manually and the gear 56 is meshed with a gear 58 that is secured to the end of the aforementioned shaft 47 the end portion of which shaft rotatably receives the hollow shaft 52. Thus, when the segment 55 is brought into engagement with the gear 57 by rotating the hollow shaft 54 manually, the shaft 47 is rotated by the gear 57 through the segment 55, shaft 54, gear 56 and gear 58 so far as the segment 55 is kept in engagement with the gear, so that the aforementioned cam 46 is moved to rotate in one direction. The operation of the cam 46 will further be detailed later.

As shown in FIG. 4, to the aforementioned hollow shaft 44 are secured a stopper or stopping lever 59 and a locking lever 60 at the bottom ends respectively, and

said two levers 59 and 60 and also the hollow shaft 44 are biased or forced to revolve or rotate into the direction of arrow C by a spring 61 which is fixed to the lever 60 and the frame 26 at the ends thereof. The stopping lever 59 is retained at the top portion thereof by the first retaining step 35 or second retaining step 36 of the aforementioned retaining lever 32 or is released from the retention of said lever 32 in dependence to the position of the retaining lever 32 which is revolved by the sliding movement of the hour wheel 24 as stated before. The locking lever 60' is provided at the top thereof with a locking arm 62 which has a hook 62d for locking the revolution of the stopping lever 59 and a projection 62b engaging to the top portion of the aforementioned stopper S3.

Turning again to a consideration of switching operation, the aforementioned controlling cam 45 has a projection 63 which engages a surface of one arm 39 of the switch 37, as shown inFIGS. 3 and 4. When the hollow shaft 44 is rotated from a position shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 into the direction of arrow C or C so as to place the projection 63 in a position where the projection 63 disengages the arm 39 such as a position shown by imagined line in FIG. 3, the arm 39 of a. resilient material, which hasa tendancy to move into the direction of arrow B shown in FIG. 3 by its resiliency, moves toward the other arm 38 into a position shown by imagined line in FIG. 3 so that the contact 39a on the arm 39 comes into contact with the other contact 38a on the arm 38 whereby the switch 37 is closed. Further, the aforementioned-cam 46 has a portion 46a of larger diameter. Saidcam 46 is maintained in continuous engagement or contact with a surface of thearm 38 at the periphery thereof. In' a case when the cam 46 is in contactwith the arm 38 by a portion of smaller diameter, the arm 38 is in a position shown in FIG. 3 and the contact 38a on said arm 38 is apart from the other contact 39a so far as the other arm 39 is retained orlocked by the projection 63 of the other cam 45. When the aforementioned hollow shaft 54 is rotated manually so as to engage the segment 55 to the gear 57, the cam 46 is rotated together with the shaft 47 into the direction of arrow C of FIG. 3 so that the portion 46a of larger diameter of the cam 46 is brought into contact with the arm 38 which has a tendancy to move into the direction of arrow E due to its resiliency, whereby the cam. 46 moves the arm 38 into the direction of arrow E shown in -FIG.'3 to place the arm 38 in a position shown by imagined line in FIG. 3 resulting in the contact between the contact 38a and 39a or switch-closing. Then, as the shaft 47 is rotated by the hollow shaft 54 due to the rotation of the segment 55 by the gear 57, the cam 46 isrotated gradually into the direction of arrow C shown in FIG. 3and at last, when the segment 55 is disengaged from the gear 57, the portion 46a of the cam 46 leaves the arm 38 resulting in the movement of the arm 38 into the direction of arrow E whereby the switch 37 is opened again. In the clock shown, the segment 55 is formed so that it is'maintained in engagement with the gear 57 for an hour when the hollow shaft 54 is ma'nually rotated into a fully rotated position. So, by adjusting or controlling the manual rotational degree of the hollow shaft 54, Pevson may set the machine so that the switch 37 is closed for a desired period of time within an hour.

The controlling cam 45 has an another projection 64 which retains or locks the operation of thevibrating detailed later.

The

terminals

37a and 37b of the switch 37 are connected, for example, to a radio through a power source (both-not shown in the drawings). In such a case, the machine operates follows:

When the handling shaft 48 is placed in the OFF position as shown in FIG. 4, the stopper 53 is placed in a position shown in FIG. 4 and locks the movements of the stopping lever 59 and locking lever 60 into the direction of arrow C through the arm 62, so that the hollow shaft 44 is never rotated by the force of the spring 61 into said direction of arrow C even when the retention of the stopping lever 59 by the retaining lever 32 is released. Thus, in the OFF position, the hollow shaft 44 is kept or retained in a first position where the controlling cam 45 opens the switch 37 by the projection 63 and locks the vibration of the arm 43 by the projection 64, whereby the radio and alarm 41 never sound.

In the AUTO position of the handling shaft'48 that is attained by a manual rotation of said shaft into the direction of arrow D shown in FIG. 4, the stopper 53 is placed in a position where said stopper is somewhat revolved from the position shown in FIG. 4 into the direction of arrow C. In this case, however, the locking lever 60 remains in the original OFF position shown in FIG. 4because the rotation of the hollow shaft 44 is retained or locked by the stopping lever 59 which is now locked by the first retaining step 35 of the retaining lever 32, Thus, said manual rotation itself never causes the rotation of the hollow shaft 44 and said shaft remains in the original first position where the shaft 44 retains or locks the operations of the switch 37 and alrm 41. ln this AUTO position, only the switch 37 becomes closed to sound the radio at a preset time on the time set drum 28 as follows: at said preset time, the cam projections 30 on the hour wheel 24 arrives at the cam grooves 31 provided to the time set drum 28 with the rotation of the wheel 24 whereby said wheel 24 is somewhat moved toward the drum 28 as shown by arrow F in FIG. 5 by the force of the spring 34 through the lever 32 with the putting-in of the cam projections 30 into the cam grooves 31. In this case, the top of each projection 30 is brought first into contact with the stepped portion 31a of each cam groove 31, and the retaining lever 32 is somewhat revolved round the pin 33 by an angle or shown in FIG. 1 whereby the stopping lever 59 is released from-the first retaining step 35 of the retaining lever 32 and is revolved toward the direction of arrow C by the force of the spring 61 into such a position where the lever 59 engages to the second retaining step 36 of the retaining lever 32. With this revolution of the stopping lever 59, the locking lever 60 is revolved towardthe same direction of arrow C into its AUTO" position shown in FIG. 4 where the stopper 53 locks the movement of said lever 60 into the direction of arrow C. The hollow shaft 44 is rotated with the stopping lever 59 in the direction of arrow C to a second position in which the projection 63 of the cam 45 is disengaged from the arm 39 of the switch 37, whereby the switch 37 becomes closed to turn on the radio. The other projection 64 of the controlling cam 45 is so formed that said projection holds the locking of the vibrating arm 43 in this second position of the shaft 44, whereby the alarm 41 is still silent. With a further rotation of the hour wheel 24, the cam projections 30 leave the stepped portions 31a of the cam grooves 31 to fall into the deepest groove portions of said grooves, whereby the hour wheel 24 is further moved toward the time set drum 28 along the arrow F resulting in a further revolution of the retaining lever 32 round the pin 33 by an angle B shown in FIG. 1. This further revolution of the lever 32 releases the retention of the stopping lever 59 by the second step 36 of the former lever 32. In this case, however, the hollow shaft 44 is not rotated because the locking lever 60 is locked in the AUTO position by the stopper 53 and remains in said second postion where the switch 37 is closed and the arm 43 is prevented from vibrating by the projection 64 of the controlling cam 45. Thus, only the radio is sounded.

In the AUTO ALARM position of the handling shaft 48 that is attained by a further manual rotation of said shaft into the direction of arrow D, the stopper 53 is placed in a position where the lever 53 is further revolved from the position shown in FIG. 4 into the direction of arrow C. In this case, too, the locking lever 60 remains in the original position shown in FIG. 4 and the manual rotation of the handling lever 48 itself does not cause rotation of the hollow shaft 44. In this ,AUTO ALARM" position, theswitch 37 is closed to sound the radio at a preset time on the time set drum 28 and then, after the expiration of predetermined time interval, for example ten minutes, the'alarm 41 is begun to sound as follows: That is, when the cam projections 30 on the hour wheel 24 is put into the stepped portions 31a of the cam grooves 31, the hollow shaft 44 is rotated from the first position to the second position into the direction of arrow C to close the switch 37 resulting in sounding the radio, as detailed before in relation to the operation at the AUTO position; Then, when the cam projections 30 are put into the deepest portions and the hour wheel 24 is further moved toward arrow F, the retaining lever 32 is further revolved by said angle B to release the retention or locking of the stopping lever 59, as stated before in relation to the operation at the AUTO position. In this case, the stopping lever 59 is further'revolved by the force of the spring 61 because the stopper 53 is now apart from the projection 62b of the arm 62 of the lever 60, so that the hollow shaft 44 is further rotated into a third position where the stopper 53 prevents a furthermore rotation of the shaft 44 by locking the locking lever 60 which now arrives at AUTO ALARM position show-n in FIG. 4. In this third position of the hollow shaft, the controlling cam 45 is placed in a position rotated further into the direction of arrow C and the projection 64 of said cam is now disengaged from the hook 43a of the vibrating arm 43 resulting in the sounding of the alarm 41. The time interval between the beginning of the sounding of the radio andthe alarm 41 is determined by the distance 1 between the beginning and the end of the stepped portion 31a of the cam groove 31, as easily understood now. So, when said distance I is made such that it requires ten minutes for the travel of the cam projection 30 on the hour wheel 24, the alarm 41 begins to sound after the radio has begun to sound.

Turning now to a consideration of the ON" position of the handling shaft 48 that is attained by rotating manually the shaft 48 into the direction of arrow D shown in FIG. 4, the stopper 53 is brought from the position shown in FIG. 4 into a position where said stopper 53 is somewhat revolved into the direction of arrow C shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the stopper 53 moves the locking lever 60 against the force of the spring 61 by pushing the arm 62 of said lever into ON position of the lever 60 shown in FIG. 4. This, in turn, moves the hollow shaft 44 to rotate toward the arrow C into a fourth position where the projection 63 of the controlling cam 45 is disenaged from the arm 39 of the switch 37 resulting in the closing of said switch to sound the radio. The other projection 64 of the controlling cam 45 is formed so that it looks the vibrating arm 43 in this fourth position of-the hollow shaft 44, too. In this case, of course, the revolution of the retaining lever 32 does not cause rotation of the shaft 44.

In addition, if a person wishes to listen to the radio for a desired period of time within an hour, for example befoe falling asleep, he may rotate the hollow handling shaft 54 by a rotation angle according to said desired period and he can listen to the radio for said period without any worry about turning off the radio because the switch 37 becomes opened automatically at the expiration of said period of time, as detailed before. Such an adjustment of the shaft 54 may be made in AUTO" or AUTO ALARM" position, so that person can listen to the radio for such desired period of time before he falls asleep and then he can listen to the radio only or to the radio and succeeding alarming sound the next morning.

Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown another embodiment of the clock according to the present invention, wherein similar parts to the ones shown in FIG. 4 are designated by reference numerals larger by one hundred than numerals for the ones shown in FIG. 4. In this preferred embodiment, an hour wheel 124 having a pair of similarly formed cam projections 130 and a time set drum 128 having a pair of similarly formed cam grooves 131 are similarly provided. The hour wheel, which is rotatably and slidably mounted on a shaft 125, is driven to rotate in the direction of arrow B on 12 hour cycle by a driving gear 128 through

gear trains

201, 202, 203, 127' and 127.

A retaining lever 132 is pivotally mounted in the clock by a pin 133 and is biased or forced into the direction of arrow A by a plate spring 134. The lever 132 is kept in contact with the outer face of the wheel 124 at one end 132a and is revolved round the pin 133 into said'direction of arrowA each time when the hour wheel'124 is given two-stage sliding movement toward the drum 128, as is also the case in the retaining lever 32 shown in FIG. 4. To the lever 132 is secured a retaining plate member 204 which is provided with a first and second retaining steps 135 and 136.

Similarly to the clock shown in FIGS. 1 through 5, there is provided a rotatably mounted hollow shaft 144 which fixedly mounts a controlling cam 145 at one end and a stopping lever 159 at the other end. The hollow shaft is forced to rotate into the direction of arrow C by a spring 161 which is secured to the stopping lever 159 at one end and to the-machine frame (not shown) at the other end. I

The hollow shaft 144 is rotatably received by a shaft 147 which is rotatably mounted on the machine frame. Said shaft 147 fixedly mounts a controlling cam 146 at one end and asector gear or segment 155 which may be brought by rotating the shaft 147 manually into engagement with a gear 157 driven by the driving gear 128'. The shaft 147 is forced by a spring 170 into a position shown in FIG. 6 where the segment 155 is in disengagement-with the gear 157 and a stopper 205 on the segment 155 prevents a further displacement of the shaft 147 by the biasing force of the spring 170.

The shaft 147 mounts a short hollow handling shaft 148 which is rotably mounted on the machine frame. Said handling shaft 148 is fixedly provided with a temporarily retaining means 149 and a stopper 153 which engages the stopping lever 159 at one end. As is the case in the handling shaft 48 shown in FIG. 4, the shaft 148 has four positions, that is, a first or ON position, a second or OFF position, a third or AUTO position and a fourth or AUTO ALARM" position where the shaft is temporarily retained by the means 149.-

There is provided in the clock an electric circuit controlling switch 137 which is actuated by an actuating device 206. Said actuating device 206 is pivotally mounted on the machine frame by a pin 207 and is forced toward a direction of opening the switch 137 by a spring 208. Further, there is provided in the' clock an alarm 141 having a vibrating arm 143 which is retained by said controlling cam at a projection 143a provided to the arm 143.

According to a'preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided in the clock a temporary shut-off mechanism which allows a user to silence the alarm 141 for a predetermined interval of time after said alarm 141 has once sounded. Said mechanism has a vertically reciprocable member or lever-209 which is movably mounted on the machine frame and is provided with a rack teeth 210 at the lower portion thereof. The lever 209 has a locking arm 211 which engages to the projection 143a of the vibrating arm 143 so as to lock the arm 143 not to allow the vibration of said arm. The shaft 212 of the gear 201 further mounts a gear 213 which meshes with a gear 214 on a rotably mounted shaft 215. Against one face of the gear 214 is pressed by a spring 216 a gear 217 which may be meshed with the rack teeth 210 on the plate member 209. The reciprocable lever 209 is forced upwardly by a spring 218. When the lever 209 is pushed downwardly or depressed, as shown by arrow P, by a users finger so as to engage or mesh the rack teeth 210 with the gear 217, the arm 211 is revolved round a mounting pin 219 so that the free end of the arm locks the vibrating arm 143 at the projection 143a. The reciprocable lever 209 is moved gradually into the upward direction of arrow P with the rotation of the gear 217 which is rotated by the driving gear 128' through

gear train

201, 213 and 214. When the rack teeth 210 have been brought into disengagement with the gear 217 due to the upward movement of the lever 209, said reciprocable lever 209 is returned to its original position by the force of the spring 218 so that the arm 211 is revolved in the reverse direction and releases the locking of the vibrating arm 143. So, when the reciprocable lever 209 is operated .so as to bring the rack teeth 210 into engagement with the gear 217-after the controlling cam 145 has released the vibrating arm 143 so as to sound the alarm 141, said alarm 141 becomes silenced again for an interval of time, for example ten minutesl Said interval of time is predetermined by the interval of the rack teeth 210 on the lever 209. Thus, user may repeat the alarm 141 after a short interval of time when he wishes to sleep or drowse for a short interval of time after the alarm 141 has once been sounded.

In the OFF position of the handling shaft 148 shown in FIG. 6,'the stopper 153 locks or retains the revolution of the stopping lever 159 into the direction of arrow C,'so that the hollow shaft 144 remains in a first position shown even when the retaining lever 132 releases the stopping lever159 due to the sliding move ment of the hour wheel 124 toward the time set drum 128. In this first position of the hollow shaft 144, the controlling cam 145 keeps the switch 137 in opened state through the actuating device 206 and also locks the vibration of the vibrating arm 143 by a top cam surface 164 so as to keep the alarm 141 silent as shown by imagined line in FIG. 6.

In the AUTO position of the handling shaft 148, the stopper 153 is placed in a position where the stopper is somewhat revolved into the direction of arrow C. So, the first revolution of the retaining lever 132 round the pin 133 due to the first-stage sliding movement of the hour wheel 124 toward the drum 128 causes a firststage revolution of the stopping lever 159 from a position, where the lever -9 engages to the first retaining step 135 of the retaining lever 132, to a position where the lever 159 engages to the second retaining step 136 of the retaining lever, whereby the hollow shaft 144 is rotated into the direction of arrow C from said first position to a second position. In this second position of the hollow shaft, the cam 145 pushes the actuating device 206 into the direction of arrow Q by the bottom cam surface 163 of said cam so that the actuating de vice 206 closes the switch 137. In this second position, however, thealarm 141 is still kept silent because the cam surface 164 is so formed that said surface 164 still retains or locks the projection 143a of the vibrating arm 143. The second-stage revolution of the retaining lever 132 due to the second-stage sliding movement of the hour wheel 124 toward the durm 128 does not cause'the rotation of the hollow shaft 144 into the direction of arrow C because the stopping lever 159 on said shaft 144 is retained or locked by the stopper 153 which is now placed in its AUTO position.

In the AUTO ALARM position of the handling shaft 148, the first rotation of the hollow shaft 144 from the first position to the second position is followed after a short period of time by a second rotation of the ho]- low shaft 144 from the second position to a third position into the direction of arrow C, because the stopper 153 is placed in its AUTO ALARM position so that the stopping lever 159 is not retained or locked by said stopper 153 when the stopping lever 159 is retained by the second retaining step 136 of the retaining lever 132. In the third position of the hollow shaft 144, the cam surface 163 of the cam 145 also keeps the actuating device 206 in switch-on position and the cam surface 164 of said cam 145 now leaves the projection 143a of the vibrating arm 143 so that the alarm 141 becomes sounded at the point of time when the hollow shaft 144 becomes placed in the third position. In this third position of the hollow shaft 144, user may silence the alarm 141 for a predetermined interval of time, after said alarm 141 has once sounded, by pushing down the reciprocable lever 209, as stated before.

In the ON position ofthe hollow handling shaft 144, the stopper 153 is placed in its ON" position where the stopper 153 is somewhat revolved from the position shown in FIG. 6 into the direction of arrow C. With said revolution of the stopper 153, the hollow shaft 144,is rotated into the direction of arrow C from said first position into a fourth position where the shaft 144 pushes the actuatingdevice 206 by a third cam surface 220 so as to close the switch 137. In this fourth position of the shaft 144, the cam surface 164 of the cam still engages to the projection 143a of the vibrating arm 143 so that the alarm 141 is kept silent in this fourth position of the shaft 144.

When the user wishes in AUTO or AUTO ALARM position to close the switch 137 for a desired period of time for the purpose of, for example, listening to a radio, he may rotate the shaft 147 by a rotation angle-according to said desired period and he can close the switch 137 without any worry about manually opening the switch. That is, by said manual rotation of the shaft 147, the cam 146 is brought into a position where the cam surface 146a of said cam 146 pushes the actuating device 206 so as to close the switch 137 and also the segment 155 is brought into engagement with the gear-157. With the rotation of the gear 157 which is driven by the drivinggear 128, the segment 155 is rotated into the reverse direction and at last is disengaged from the gear 157, resulting in the rotation of the cam 146 and the disengagement of the cam surface 146a of said cam with the actuating device 206. In this manner, the switch 137 becomes closed by a manual handling of the shaft 147 and then, after a set interval of time, becomes opened automatically. Thus, a person may listen, for example, to a radio for such desired period of time before he falls asleep and then he can listen to the radio only or to the radio and succeeding alarming sound the next morning, as is also the case in the clock shown in FIGS. l-5.

As detailed above, the clock according to the present invention attains, by skillfully combined switch and alarm actuating apparatus the aforestated primary object of the present invention that an electric circuit controlling switch becomes closed at a preset time first and then, after a short period or interval of time, an alarm begins to sound. So, a person willwake up very comfortably by the sound of a radio or the like at a preset time on the clock and then, only when he is not aware .of such sound of a radio or the like,he will listen to the sound of the alarm that notifies him of predetermined time for waking with certainly. This two-stage operation of the switch and the succeeding alarm is attained, according to the present invention,'in a very reliable manner by the combination of two-stage engagement between cam projections and cam grooves of the time set drum and the hour wheel and the two retaining steps of the retaining lever, that is the most characteristic feature of the clock according to the present invention.

Having now described the invention and having exemplified the manner in which it can be carried into practise, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that innumerable variations, applications, modifications and extensions of the basic principles involved may be made without departing from the-spirit of the present invention. The invention is, therefore, 'to be limited only by the .scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A clock having a timer comprising an hour indicator rotating at a rate to indicate the hour of the day, an electric circuit controlling switch, an alarm, a rotatably mounted shaft, first and second controlling members on the shaft, the shaft having a first position in which the first controlling member keeps said switch in an opened state and the second controlling member keeps said alarm in a silenced state, a second position in which the first controlling'member frees said switch to close and the second controlling member keeps said alarm in a silenced state, and a thirdposition in which the first controlling member frees said switch to close and the second controlling member frees said alarm to sound, means for forcing said shaft to rotate from said first position to said third position through said second position, a stopping lever fixedly secured to said shaft, a pivotally mounted retaininglever having a first retaining step engageable by said stopping lever when said shaft is in said first position and a second retaining step engageable by said stopping lever when said shaft is in said second position, an alarm set drum, a rotatably and slidably mounted hour wheel which is in face-to-face relation to said drum and is driven to rotate at said rate, said wheel having at least one cam projection and said drum being provided with at least one cam groove, each cam groove having a stepped portion, and biasing means for forcing said wheel to slide toward said drum, said retaining lever being related to said hour wheel so as to be revolved with the sliding movement of the wheel from a position in which said retaining lever retains said stopping lever by said first'step to another position inwhich said retaining lever retains the stopping lever by said second step when the wheel is moved toward the drum due to the engagement of the cam projection with the stepped portion of the cam groove and then from the latter position to a further position in which said retaining lever frees the stopping lever when the-wheel is further moved toward the drum due to the full projection of the cam projection into the cam groove.

2. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein said retaining lever is maintained in engagement with a face of said hour wheel at one end thereof by said-biasing means.

3. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein both of said controlling members are provided by a common cam fixedly mounted on said shaft.

4. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is provided a stopper which is displaced by a manually operable shaft so that said stopper may be placed into so as not to rotate said shaft from said second position into said third position.

5. The clock as claimed in claim 4, wherein said stopper may be placed by said manually operable shaft in a first position in which the stopper locks said stopping lever so as not to rotate said shaft from said first position into said second position, a second position in which the stopper locks said stopping lever so as not to rotate said shaft from said second position into said third position, a third position in which the stopper locks said stopping lever so as not to rotate further said shaft from said third position, and a fourth position in which the stopper positions said shaft by revolving said stopping lever into a fourth position so that the shaft frees said switch to close and keeps said alarm in silenced position by said second controlling member.

6. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein there are provided a movably mounted reciprocable lever having rack teeth, a gear which is driven to rotate by a driving gear rotated by the clock gear train and with which said rack teeth may be brought into engagement by manually displacing saidreciprocable lever, and a retaining means which retains said alarm not to sound when said rack teeth are brought into engagement with said gear, whereby the alarm may be retained not to sound until the rack teeth are disengaged from the rotation of said gear after the alarm has once sounded.

7. The alarm clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is provided a further handling shaft, a segment fixedly mounted on said further handling shaft, a gear which is driven to rotate by a driving gear rotated by the clock gear train and with which said segment may be brought into engagement by rotating said further handling shaft manually, and a cam member which is displaced by said further handling shaft so as to close said switch when said segment is brought into engegement with said gear, whereby the switch may be closed for a desired period of time and then be opened automatically with the rotation of said gear.

Claims

1. A clock having a timer comprising an hour indicator rotating at a rate to indicate the hour of the day, an electric circuit controlling switch, an alarm, a rotatably mounted shaft, first and second controlling members on the shaft, the shaft having a first position in which the first controlling member keeps said switch in an opened state and the second controlling member keeps said alarm in a silenced state, a second position in which the first controlling member frees said switch to close and the second controlling member keeps said alarm in a silenced state, and a third position in which the first controlling member frees said switch to close and the second controlling member frees said alarm to sound, means for forcing said shaft to rotate from said first position to said third position through said second position, a stopping lever fixedly secured to said shaft, a pivotally mounted retaining lever having a first retaining step engageable by said stopping lever when said shaft is in said first position and a second retaining step engageable by said stopping lever when said shaft is in said second position, an alarm set drum, a rotatably and slidably mounted hour wheel which is in face-to-face relation to said drum and is driven to rotate at said rate, said wheel having at least one cam projection and said drum being provided with at least one cam groove, each cam groove having a stepped portion, and biasing means for forcing said wheel to slide toward said drum, said retaining lever being related to said hour wheel so as to be revolved with the sliding movement of the wheel from a position in which said retaining lever retains said stopping lever by said first step to another position in which said retaining lever retains the stopping lever by said second step when the wheel is moved toward the drum due to the engagement of the cam projection with the stepped portion of the cam groove and then from the latter position to a further position in which said retaining lever frees the stopping lever when the wheel is further moved toward the drum due to the full projection of the cam projection into the cam groove.

2. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein said retaining lever is maintained in engagement with a face of said hour wheel at one end thereof by said biasing means.

4. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is provided a stopper which is displaced by a manually operable shaft so that said stopper may be placed into a position in which the stopper locks said stopping lever so as not to rotate said shaft from said second position into said third position.

6. The clock as claimed in claim 1, wherein there are provided a movably mounted reciprocable lever having rack teeth, a gear which is driven to rotate by a driving gear rotated by the clock gear train and with which said rack teeth may be brought into engagement by manually displacing said reciprocable lever, and a retaining means which retains said alarm not to sound when said rack teeth are brought into engagement with said gear, whereby the alarm may be retained not to sound until the rack teeth are disengaged from the rotation of said gear after the alarm has once sounded.