US858637A - Telephone attachment. - Google Patents

Description

No. 858,637. 'PATENTED JULY 2, 1907. w. H. s Tms'oN. v TELEPHONE ATTACHMENT.

APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 13, 1905.

WILLIAM HENERY STINSON, OF DE FUNIAK SPRINGS, FLORIDA.

TELEPHONE ATTAGHIVIENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 2, 1907.

Application filed March 13,1905- Serial No. 249,800-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM HENERY STINSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at De Funiak Springs,

in the county of Walton and State of Florida, have invented a new and useful Telephone Attachment; and I 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. I

My invention relates to a novel attachment for telephone instruments, and has for its object to provide means whereby a call received on the telephone, during the temporary absence of the owner or user of the-same,

- may be readily and automatically indicated upon the instrument.

A further object of my invention is to provide a device of this character, which shall be simple and inexpensive in its construction, reliable and efficient in its action, and capable of ready attachment to all telephon instruments.

With these and other objects in view, my invention consists essentially of a tube or receiver open at each end, and adapted to be suitably connected to the face or other part of the telephone instruments; said tube or receiver having one or more balls or spheres located therein, a receiving vessel located at the open lower end of said tube to receive said balls or spheres when they are ejected from said tube, and means for automatically ejecting a ball from the tube into said receiving vessel when a call is received over the telephone.

My invention further consists in the construction and novel arrangement of parts hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the drawings, and particularly pointed out in the claims. I

In the drawings forming part of this specification, and

in which like numerals of reference designate corresponding parts, Figure 1 is a front elevation of my invention, as applied to the front part of a telephone instrument, and Fig. 2 a side elevation thereof. Fig. 3 is a view showing the vertical tube and other cooperating elements disassembled.

Referring now more particularly to Fig. 1, the front of the telephone instrument is indicated by the numeral 1, and the bells by numeral 2. A vertical tube or receiver 3, is attached to the upper right hand corner of the instrument by means of the small clips or brackets 4; said tube having a funnel shaped mouth 5, at its upper end,

and its lower open end 6, curved slightly outward, as

shown. This vertical tube or receiver 3, is adapted to receive one or more balls or spheres 7, which are introduced therein through the funnel shaped mouth thereof. A small cup or receiving vessel 8, is removably adjusted upon a hook 9, projecting from the front of the telephone box directly below the open lower end 6, of said tube 3.

Numeral 10 represents a small copper wire or. rod, the one end of which is bent into the form of a hook 11, to engage with the stem 12, of the bell clapper, while the opposite end is flattened out to form a slide 13, adapted to engage with an open slot b in the side of the tube 3, and to project therein to hold the ball or sphere 7 in position in said tube when the parts are in their normal position, but when the bell stem is actuated by a call over the telephone, the slide 13, is thereby withdrawn from the slot a suflicient distance to permit the ball 7 to drop, and pass out of the lower end of the tube 3, into the receiving cup or vessel 8. This wire or rod 10 is secured to the front of the telephone box, back of the right hand bell, by the small clip or bracket 14, or by other suitable means, in such manner as to not touch the bell, as also to permit of the easy movement of the said wire or rod, back and forth, when the device is operated.

In the operation of my invention, one or more balls or spheres 7, are introduced into the tube or receiver 3, through the funnel shaped mouth 5, the lowermost ball resting in position upon the slide 1.3, of the wire or rod 10. When a call is received over the telephone, the stem 12 of the bell clapper is actuated, to and fro, and operates to pull back the wire or rod 10, and withdraw its slide 13, from out of engagement with the slot in the side of the tube or receiver 3, a sufficient distance to permit one or more of the balls 7, resting thereon, to drop down and pass out of the lower end of the said tube into the receiving cup or vessel 8. When a call is made over the telephone during the temporary absence of the owner or user of the same, balls are dropped into the receiving cup or vessel, as above described, and upon the return of said owner or user of the telephone, the balls are readily seen in the receiving cup, thus indicating that a call has been made during such absence. The person responding to such call, first replaces the balls so received back into the tube or receiver 3, then calls up the central office and inquires who had made the call or calls indicated by the dropped balls, and being placed in communication with the telephone number having made the previous call, or calls, can then receive the intended message, or messages, or indicate, by the same means on the telephone communicated with, that a call, or calls, has been made.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a device of the character described. the combination of a telephone instrument having a casing and telephone hell, of an attachment comprising an open-ended tube hav ing a funnehshaped mouth, the lower end of said tube being slightly curved upon the circumferential edge thereof, 1 ceptacle for receiving said bulls when ejected from the said tube being positioned parallel to the telephone casing, tube positioned below the lower end thereof and secured to clips for fastening said tube to the said casing, a plurality the telephone casing.

of balls contained in said tube, said tube having a slot in In testimony whereof I have hereto ailixed my signature.

5 the circumference thereof, a rod having a flattened portion in the presence 01 two witnesses.

extending" through said slot and actuated by the telephone 1 H e bell for retaining or releasing the balls; the means for ac- WILLIAM HENRI SHNbON' tuating said rod comprises the shank of the bell clapper, Witnesses:

the said rod having an eye at its outer end through which W. A. LAIRD, 10 said shank extends, a bracket guide for the rod, and a re- .1. Q. KENNEDY.

Images