US499506A - And john m - Google Patents

Description

.No Model.) v

- w. W. & J. M. BISHOP.

TYPE SETTING MACHINE.

No. 499,506. 9 Patented June 13, 1893.

Wi'LLmm, Wih'slw John .JMIB '8k0 m: uomus PETERS co. Pno'rou'mm WASNINGYON n c UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WVILLIAM W. BISHOP, OF POW'ELLS STATION, TENNESSEE, AND JOHN M. BISHOP, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

TYPE-SETTING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 499,506, dated June I3, 1893. Application filed November 25. 1892. Serial N0.453,098. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, WILLIAM SW. BIsHoP, of Powells Station, in the county of Knox and State of Tennessee, and JOHN M. BISHOP, of Washington, District'of Columbia, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Settin g Machines; and We do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description,

of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to that class of devices by means of which printers type may be mechanically set in lines in the order in which they are to be used in printing, and its object is to provide means whereby such types as those described in a former application for a patent, Serial No. 437,850, by William W. Bishop, one of the present applicants, may be taken from suitable cases by the action of finger.keys at the will of the operator and thence be carried mechanically to their proper position in line in a suitable stick.

To this end our invention consists in the construction and combination of parts forming a type-setting machine hereinafterdescribed and claimed reference being had to the accompanying drawings,'in which- Figure I, is a transverse vertical section of a type-setting machine showing the main characteristics of our invention. Fig. II, is an upper side view of the machine lookingin the direction of the arrow 9 at an angle of fortyfive degrees beyond the section line 8. Fig. III, is a top view of a portion of our type case. Fig. IV, is a perspective view of a single type on a larger scale.

10 represents the frame of the machine.

11 is the type case.

12 is the stick upon which the type is to be set.

13 is the carrier byfwhich the type is carried from the case 11 to the stick 12, and 14 is the key board provided with keys 15 by means of which the operator indicates the letters and space types which are to be set in the order desired.

16 shows the form of the type adapted to be set by this machine. The characteristic di'flerence of this type from those in common use is that the body of the type is bifurcated to a point which is above its center of gravity, in order that it may maintain an upright position when placed straddle of a carrier rail.

The type case comprises a series of partitions 17 each made fast at one end to the side 18 of the case and left free or open at the other end, 'and upon the edges of these partitions the types are mounted; all the As upon one partition, the HS upon another partition, and so on throughout the various sorts, including the spaces, punctuation points, &c., which comprise a font of type; one case being adapted to carry a font or more than one font of similar type. The partitions in this case correspond to the letter boxes in the common type case.

The case may be provided with aremovable side or wall at. the edge 19, but that is unnecessary because the cases are usually stored away upon shelves at. such a slant as to hold the type in their'places without the aid of such a wall; IVhen it is desired to set types with this machine, a case 11, containing the kind of type required, is to be placed in the machine frame in the position shown in Fig. I, with its delivery edge 19 downward at the upper edge of the carrier 13.

The carrier consists of a series of slanting troughs formed by means of partitions 20, the center one of which is located above and directly in line of the stick 12, and the troughs gradually grow shorter each way from the center one, as shown in Fig. II, their lower ends being bounded by slanting fences 21. The partitions 17 of the type case may extend beyond the bottom thereof down into the troughs 22 so far as to leave only space enough between the partitions and the bottoms of the troughs to permit the type which are mounted upon their respective partitions to pass one at a time down the trough beneath the edge of the partition. The case thus 10- cated on a steep slant say about forty-five de- 5 grees, leaves all the type contained therein at liberty to slide down their respective partitions, and the lowest type on each partition may rest directly upon the bottom of the trough or upon a spring 30.

23 is a pawl hung upon an elbow-lever 24 with its free end adapted to push asingle type endwise down the inclined trough. The elbow-lever is pivoted at 25 and is actuated by a finger key 15 which, bearing directly down upon the free end of the lever 24, causes the elbow end with the pawl attached thereto to move in the direction of the line of the trough.

27 is a spring adapted to return the pawl, lever, and key to their normal positions of rest. Such a pawl, lever, and key may be provided to every trough and there is a trough for every type partition 17. The partitions 25 of the stick 12 correspond in cross-section to the form of the various partitions 17, and to the space between the legs of the type. This stick can be held in the machine in any suitable manner, but We prefer to make each partition 35 of the stick a little narrower in height than the length of each type leg and to hold the partitions rigidly by one end of each in a side rail 28 of the stick, the said partitions and side rail being removable from the bottom 12 of the stick.

. The operation is as follows: A case of type being placed upon the machine the operator proceeds to strike keys indicating the letters, spaces and punctuation points in the order in which they are to be set. When a key is struck its pawl 23 pushes a type into its trough from beneath the line of types resting upon the partition 17 containing that letter, and the type thus liberated slides freely down the trough until it straddles a partition 35 of the stick 12 when it slides down thereon to its proper place. It the type which is to be set is at either side of the center of the carrier 13 it runs down its trough to the end thereof and is'then directed by the adjacent fence 21 to the stick partition at the center. Each type slides to its place with almost the speed of a freely falling body, and it is impossible for the operator to strike the key so rapidly as to get the types mixed if he strikes the keys in their proper order, one after another, to set the types required.

The main characteristics of this machine have been described, but the details of construction may vary somewhat as experience shall dictate in reducing the machine to practice. For example: There are many styles of key-boards in use upon typewriting machines which might be substituted for the key-board described if in place of their type hammers a suitable device corresponding to our pawl 23 be substituted. The length of stick is arranged to correspond to the length of each line of type in the width of a column, and each time the stick is filled it may be removed from the machine and the line of type thereon be placed in column upon the imposing stone or other suitable receptacle. The free end of each partition 17 may be slanted at 29 a distance equal to the thickness of the individual types held upon that partition and a spring 30 may press up against the partition to hold back the weight of the type. Then when the pawl 23 is pressed forward it pushes one type beneath this slanted end t-herebycrowding the spring 30 backward andwhen the type is pushed beyond the spring it slides down to place as described, the pawl and-key being returned to position by the spring 27, leaving the spring 30 to rise up as a sentinel to'hold in check the types remaining on that partition.

The stick might be provided, like the type case shown, with a series of partitions 35 to be moved bodily so as to bring another partition in front of the carrier when one is filled, each partition holding a line of type. Such a stick when filled with type may be placed edgewise against the edge of the imposing stone with their tops on a level. The side '28 with the partitions 35 attached being then pushed upon the stone will carry all the type thus set, upon the stone, and finally the side rail being pulled away will draw out all the partitions, which are made narrower than the length of the type legs, to be left free for that purpose, thus leaving the type standing upon the stone. The fences 21 converge toward a central point over the stick like the sides of a hopper and have a similar action thereto in guiding to the stick at the center types falling upon the fences from any trough.

We have thus far discribed the keyboard as having a key for each letter, but in order to lessen the number of keys we fit the keyboard 14, to slide in ways 26 on the frame a distance equal to the space between the case partitions 17, and we provide a spring 31 acting to hold the keyboard normally opposite the lower-case-letter partitions, and a finger lever 32 whereby the whole keyboardmay be moved one space against the spring thus bringing each lettered key opposite the partitionsfor cap letters. As there are comparatively few caps the operator may with his left hand, hold the lever 32 and the keyboard to the right, (as the drawings appear) when a capital letter is to be set.

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 a type-setting machine, of a frame supporting a series of car- .rier troughs set at an inclination of about forty-five degrees; a removable type case comprising a series of partitions adapted to serve as rails for bifurcated type to slide upon and located above and at a right angle with the plane of the carrier troughs, each partition having an open end over a trough; a type stick provided with one or more rails adapted for types to be mounted upon and to slide upon, removably located in the frame below and at right angles with the plane of the said troughs, and means for liberating the types one at a time from the carrier to the troughs, substantially as described.

2. The combination in a type-setting machine of a series of partitions each adapted to be mounted by a bifurcated type and to serve as a rail for the type to slide upon, the said partitions being secured at one edge to a bo ttom and at one end to a wall, the said bottom wall and partitions forming atype case Which is open at one end permitting the type to slide freely off from the end of the rail and closed at the other end, substantially as described.

3. The combination in a type setting machine, of a series of carrier troughs located in a slanting plane; a type case located above the troughs at a right angle therewith and provided with partitions, each partition being adapted to serve as a rail for bifurcated type to slide upon, and these partitions extending down into the troughs nearly to the bottom thereof, substantially as described.

4. The combination in a type setting machine, of a series of carrier troughs located in a slanting plane; and a type case comprising a series of partitions each adapted to serve as a rail for bifurcated type to slide upon, and located with its delivery end in the center transversely of a trough and near to the bottom thereof; the upper corner of the delivery end being slanted off, substantially as describe 5. The combination in a type setting machine, of aseries of carrier troughs located in a slanting plane; apair of fences at the lower ends of the troughs located obliquely and converging to a delivery; a stick located below the troughs and comprising a series of partitions adapted to serve as rails for bifurcated type to slide upon, the said stick being adapted to be located with a partition at the center of the said fence delivery substantially as described whereby the fences will deliver type upon the partitions and not'between them.

6. The combination in a type setting machine of a series of partitions adapted to serve as rails for bifurcated type to slide upon and made narrower than the length ofthe type legs and secured at one end of each to a side, and a removable bottom for the said partitions and side forming therewith a type stick, substantially as described.

7. The combination in a type setting machine of a series of partitions joined at one end of each to a side, and a'removable bottom therefor forming a type stick, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM'VV. BISHOP. JOHN M. BISHOP.

Witnesses as to the signature of William W. Bishop:

GEORGE W. MABRY, CLARENCE BEAMAN. WVitnesses as to the signature of John M. Bishop:

W. X. STEVENS, M. O. HILLYARD.

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