US429330A - And axel - Google Patents

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- 2 Sheets- She et 1, WILKINS & AQH. REED. ELEOTRIG CALL AND VOTING APPARATUS; V 7

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v T. M. WILKINS & A. H. REED. BLECTRIG CALL AND. VOTING APPARATUS- No'.429 .330. w "Pa ent dJune s. 1890.

I LI I? umwto'i q'vwueooeo I I j UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

TURNEY M. WILKINS, OF MILLER, SOUTH DAKOTA, AND AXEL. H. REED, OF GLENCOE, MINNESOTA.

ELECTRIC CALL AND VOTING APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 429,330, dated June 3, 1890. Application filed January 16, 1890. Serial No. 337,111. (No model.)

ITO all whom it may concern: Figure I is a plan view of the House of Rep- Be it known that we, TURNEY M. WILKINs resentatives of the United States Capitol, and AXEL. II. REED, citizens of the United showing, also,in plan two of our annunciators, States, residing, respectively, at Miller, in the which would probably be located in service 55 county of Hand, and State of South Dakota, in a vertical position. Fig. II is a plan view,

and Glencoe, in the county of McLeod and and Fig. III is a vertical transverse section, of. State of Minnesota, have invented certain new the button-box on the line 00 of Fig. II. Fig. and useful Improvements in Electric Call and IV is a plan, partly in section, on the line y Voting Systems; and we do hereby declare the of Fig. V; and Fig. V is a vertical section of 60 following to be a full, clear, and exact descripa portion of the floor, the footof a desk-leg, and tion of the invention, such as will enable othadjacent parts on the line .2 of Fig. IV. I Fig. ers skilled in the art to which it appertains VI is a face view representing both faces of to make and use the same. our annunciator board, and Fig. VII is an This invention relates to electric call and end view of three annunciator-cards. 65 voting systems; and its object is, in general, No. 10 represents a desk to be occupied by first, to provide means whereby the members one member, located, as usual, upon the floor of legislative assemblies and other similar of the asselnblydiall. bodies may individually and silently call a 11 is a button for calling a page or other page or other attendant for any purpose reattendant; 12, a button for voting yes, and 70 2o quired; second, to provide means whereby 13 a button for voting no.

each member of an assembly may silently an- 14: is a box surrounding the buttons to prenounce to the speaker, to the clerk, and to the vent their being accidentally pressed down, whole house his vote on any question put by and 15 a hinged lid therefor provided with a the speaker; and to attain these ends in a lock 16, whereby the whole may be securely 75 2 5 practicable and satisfactory manner the obclosed at pleasure. This box is secured to the ject more in detail is,third, to provide means desk by screws 30, which are locked inside,

whereby any page or other attendant located so that it cannot be taken off maliciously. in the attendants room may see at a glance 17 represents wires passing from the butboth the location in the assembly-room and tons down the leg of the desk to commu- 8o the name of the member making a call, so nicate with other wires 18, which may pass that a new attendant may reply quickly and along the floor 26 in grooves or under the correctly; fourth, to provide means for removfloor and up through it again to'communicate ing and replacing the desks of an assemblywith the annunciators 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23. room without damage to the electric commu- The ends of the wires 18 are below the sur- 8 5 5 nicators and yet without any special effort face of the floor, so as not to interfere with being made to disconnect and reconnect. such its use for other purposes in the absence of communicators; fifth, to provide security the desks and so as not to be damaged by against misuseof any members call-buttons such use. The wires 17 are each provided in his absence; sixth, to provide means wherewith a spring end 24-, adapted to project 90 40 by the whole surface of an annunciator-board enough below the leg 25 to reach the said ends may be utilized for exposing to view both of the wires 18, and their springs are of sufiisides at once of name-cards, and of concealcient force to crowd away dust and insure ing both sides at once of all the cards, and electrical contact, the spring ends 2%, Figs. I of exposing any one or more cards at a time and V, being located so as to register with the 5 5 independently of the rest; and to this end ends of wires 18 when the deskis properly 10- our invention consists in the construction cated on the floor, which is insured by means and combination of parts forming an electric of dowels 27, projecting from the desk-legs to call and voting systennhereinafter described, register with and engage holes in the floor. and particularly pointed out in the claims, These dowels also prevent the weight of the 10c reference being had to the accompanying desk resting on the projecting springs 2% when drawings, in whichthe dowels are out of their holes.

19 represents an annuneiator, which is preferably located against the wall behind the speaker and above his head. This wall being the front of the eorrespondents gallery, the annuneiator is inclined forward for the double purpose of squaring its front to the line of vision of the assembly below and its back to the line of vision of the reporters above it.

28 represents the individual cards of the annuneiator, each centrally pivoted at its ends and adapted to be turned one-quarter of a revolution on said pivots, whereby its front and rear faces will be exposed when it is in a vertical plane, or at the general slant of the communicator, and whereby its faces will be turned from view when in a horizontal plane, the card being a mere sheet of iron or other material and presenting only its edge to view when in a normal or resting position and provided with a weighted lever 28 to hold it in that position. The lever 28 is an armature, and 32 represents magnets connected with the wires 18, and when a member presses a button it closes a circuit with the wire 18 and vitalizes the said magnet, causing it to attract the armature 2S and to hold the weight elevated and the annunciatoncard exposed to view until the magnets 32 are cut out of elec tric connection, when the weights will fall and restore the cards to a concealed position. On each face of a card the name of a member is printed in letters large enough to be read from any part of the assembly-room. A separate card is devoted to each members name, and these will be alphabetically arranged, as usual, at the opening of each Congress.

The annunciators are arranged in pairs, one pair 19 facing the front, another pair 520 to the right, and another pair 21 facing to the left, so that they may be readily seen by all the members at their desks. ()ne annuneiator of each pair has marked in very large letters above it Yes and the other No, and every members name is on a similarlyloeated card in each annuneiator. The card of the yes annuneiator is connected by the wires 18 and 17 with the Yes button of that membcrs desk and the card of the no annuneiator with the No button. Vhen a vote is called for by the Speaker, the votes of the whole assemby might be exhibited within one second to every member of the House. Each members device being a duplicate of every others and yet entirely independent thereof, all may vote at once without confusion, or each may vote when he pleases.

22 represents a smaller annu nciator, located in front of the clerk and having all the connections before described for his especial eonvenicnce in keeping the record and an nouncing the result of each vote.

The annuneiator 23 may be located in an anteroom or other suitable portion of the house to be occupied by the waiting pages and attendants, as it is no longer necessary that they should be in sight of the members, and their noise and confusion on the floor will thereby be avoided. This annuneiator is provided with cards similar to those before described; but the cards are preferably located 011 a plan corresponding to the plan of the desks 011 the floor of the house, the integrity of each aisle being maintained on the annunciator, as in the house, to serve as an instant guide to the location of any member making a call. The card bearingeach members name 011 this annuneiator is connected by an electric wire 18 17 with the button marked Page 011 that members desk, so that the name of the caller and his location are both known at a single glance as well by the green hand as by the experienced ones, and all the confusion of hand -clapping, shouting, and hunting for the caller will be avoided. This annuneiator must be provided with a con cealing-lever for each card independently of the others, so that when a page starts to answer a call he or the chief page in charge may turn down that callcard. Some of the advantages of this system are as follows: 13y it, first, a page or attendant may be instantly and silently called; second, the page may see at a glance both the name and location of the caller; third, the votes of the whole assembly may be instantaneously cast and the detailed result of every vote exposed in full view of the assembly and its officers, or each member may vote when he pleases; fourth, time is saved in doing the business of the assembly.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we believe to be new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following:

1. The combination, in electric voting-machines, of two annunciators, one marked No and the other marked Yes, each having a series of cards marked with the names of members or the numbers of their desks, buttons marked Yes and No upon each desk, an electric wire for each annuneiator, extending to the foot of the desk-leg, an electric wire extending from each button upon the desk down the said leg and having a projecting spring end, the leg being provided with a dowel to engage a hole in the floor, and the yes and no wires of the annunciators located in the floor in the same relation to the said dowelholes that the springs of the yes and no wires of the buttons are to the dowel, substantially as shown and described, whereby the two or more wires of each line will be properly united by the act of placing the desk properly on the floor.

2. The combination of the described yes and no annunciators, the yes and no buttons, electric wires connecting them respectively, and passing down a desk-leg having a projectin dowel and separable at the foot of the leg, and that portion of each wire upon the leg having a spring end adapted to engage its mate and extending for that purpose below the leg, the said extension being less than the lengths of the dowel, whereby it is protected from injury, substantially as card on the anuunciator, substantially as shown and described. shown and described, whereby the page may The combination of a series of desks 10- see at a glance thelocation of the calling-incin- I 5 cated in a fixed plan upon a floor and leaving bers desk in the house by the location of the aislesbetweenthem,electric call-buttons upon card on the annunciator.

each desk, an annunciator suitably located In testiinonywhereof We'afiiX our signatures and having turn-cards located upon it on the in presence of two Witnesses.v

fixed plan relative to each other correspond- TURNEY M. WILKINS. ing with the location of the said desks and AXEL. H. REED. to having spaces between them corresponding \Vitnesses:

with the said aisles, and electric communica- E. M. DAWSON, tion between each. desk and its corresponding V. X. STEVENS.

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