US862638A - Carriage-shifting mechanism for type-writers. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED AUG. 6, 1907.

W. E. INGRAM. CARRIAGE SHIFTING MECHANISM FOR TYPE WRITERS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 28.1906.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

snvenyo'v la GH'uhNHur PATENTBD AUG. 6, 1907.

v W. E. INGRAM. CARRIAGE SHIPTING MEGHANISM FOR TYPE WRITERS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 28. 1906.

2 SBIEETS-SHEET 2.

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. v- Be it known that Lwnsmiv E. INGRAM, a citizen oi the United bltates, residing in E' lonopah, in the county of Nye and State .oLNevada have invented new and useiul,Iinprove nentsin Gal Iiage-Shil'ting Mechanism for Type-Writers, oi,whichthe following is a specification.

f; 3, Thisinvention relatesto irnprovements made in the means by whichgthe carriage of a type-writer is shifted withrelati on to thewriting mechanism, tochange the writingfrornlower ease to capital letters, or vice versa.

The invention is applicable to type-writing machines of the Remington type, in which the shifting movement its normally operative position, after each change-from wa lower-case letter to write a capital, by or from the act of depressing the letter key that is struck and, after the impression of the capital letter has been made; thereby relieving the operator from the necessity of twice operating 'the carriage-shifting key in every change made .lrorn a lower-case to a capital letter, and contributing mate ially' to greaterrapidity and accuracy in the work.

To this end, chiefly, the said invention comprises a carriage-shiitingkey of novel construction, and means actuating the key by or from the writing mechanism, whereby the carriage is reset to write lower-case letters bythe actof striking a letter-key and-as soon as the capital'letter is impressed on the paper.

, "The invention embraces also certain novcl parts and cornbination'of parts, producing an.i'1nproved carriage- Y shifting means or device having several advantages over the carriage-shiftingkey or mechanism generally provided in single key-board typewriters; all as hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims at the 1 end hereof.

The following description explains at length the naturd-oi 'tl1e'invention,'and the manner in which 1 proceed to produce, applyand carry out the said improverncnts, reference being had to the accompanying drawings iorrninga part ofthis specification.

The said drawings represent the application of the invention to a singlekey-board machine of the Romingtontype. 5 i Y :"Figuie lis a longit udinal sectional-view of a carriageshi fting device embodying my invention; showing the 1 frame of the machine, the carriage, and one letter-key of the'key-board and its lever. Fig. 2 is a sectionalview of the shifting-key and the parts and connections I FNITE S WESLEY'EL-1N;QRAM,-'OF Tommi, NEVADA.

% I I i f Specification of LiettersPatentp Application Septeiiiherhlhltlfi. Serial N o- 336,654

PAT NT ca ries.

- CARRIAGE=SHIETING iiiEoHA vrsM Fort TYPE-WRiT-ERS.

' associated with it. This figure is a longitudinal section on the line 2-2, Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a vertical transverse" "Patentecl'Aug'. 6,1907. I

section through the key-board and lrainool' the machine,

just in front oithe carriage-shitting key; the section being taken also on the line 3-3 Fig. 1. Fig. is a side-elevation, on an enlarged scale, of a shifting-key and associated parts showing the position occupied by i the key when it is in the act of ascending or returning" lower-case to capitals, as often as the forward end of thc lever is depressed I p The conmaction between the lover a and the carriage It is made by a bcl l-crank (l inovablo on its fulcrum-point o and connected with the lover a through the medium of a linkf. The throw of the arm (1 is'liiuitcd by the stop which is formed by the back ol' the. slot y in thrlrame througlrwhich the arm of the lever plays, and the movement of the carriage under the throw of the lever (lis arrested and properly adjustcd wiih rclation to the typebar by a stop on the 'lranuiorjmcd by an adjustable screw h, against which the roar cross-bar of the carriagecomes in contact.

' The lover a is actuated and controlled by a locking linger-piece of novel construction, having tw keys or lingers-pads 23, and a releasing means or device, also of novel character so constructed and arranged that the stroke of any key in.thekey-board which may be selected and-struck to Write the requiredcapital h-ttcr or upper case character, will o n-ratc to icicnsc or throw oil the previously set shift-koy, and Ihi-robyrcsct or restore the carriage to position for writingtho following lower-case letter orchzn'actor as soon ,as tho cupia 2 tal letter or upper-case character is wrlttcn and bolero another letter-key in the key-board is struck by ithe operator.

The construction'and arrangement of the parts where-j pendicularly down on opposite sidcs of a stationary plate 8 and properly spaced apart to pass clear of the sides of that piece as the plate in moves up and down with the lever. Two linger-k ys or pads 2--3 on the behind the pivot 5, tilt the piece in on its center 5 in one direction or the other, according as the kov 9 m- Hm 1 ()5 top of the plate m, situated one in front of and thc otllcr -key 3 is used by the operator to depress the lever a. A

depressed, by engaging one or the other of two recesses or offsets l3-14 at the bottom of the slot. These parts the tilting-piece m and the slotted plate 8thus lock and hold down the lever a when it is depressed by the key 2 on the finger-piece m, but instead of having to be released or thrown off by a separate movement of the hand after the capital or upper-case character is written and before the key to write the following lowercase letter is struck, as heretofore, the lever a in this ,mechanism is released and the carriage re-set by the movement of that one of the type-bar actuating levers in the writing mechanism which may be struck to imprint the capital letter or upper-case character.

The operation of releasing the. shifting-lever a and restoring the carriage w to position is thus made automatic to the extent of being effected directly by or from the movements of the keys that actuate the typebars, and not by a separate. or special key, or by an additional or separate motion to be made by the hand of the operator. v

Figs. 1 and 3 illustrate the means employed in the present construction to release the shifting-lever by or from the movement of the letter-writing keys; it should be understood, however, the same may be varied, or changed to produce the same result without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The parts therein shown are formed and combined to operate as follows :-On one side of the slotted plate 8 and inclose relation to the recesses 1314 at the bottom of the slot 9,-is a latch-piece composed of two hook-shaped members ]8-2() turned inwards so as to face in the same plane, having a limited movement on pivots 21. An arm 22 extending upwards from the hook-shaped piece and forming a rigid member thereof ,is connected .by a rod 23 with an arm 25 on the end of a cranked rod 24 situated beneath the type-bar actuating levers H. The

'part 24 termed the cranked-rod has a bend or offset 26 at each end, for which bearings 27 are provided in fixed brackets 28 on the frame that supports the rod under and in close Working relation to the key-actuated levers H, and the arm 25 on the outer end of the cranked-rod is connected with the upright arm 22 of the latch-piece by the rod 23.' The result of this arrangement is to produce a limited rocking movement of the latch-piece on its pivots Whenever a letter-key in the key-board is struck by the operator, whereby the point of the hook 18 is thrown against the cross-pin 10 as the latch-piece is rocked on its piv0ts'21, with the effect to arrest the cross-pin and hold it from traveling upward in the slot after it is pushed out of the recess 13. In that position the latch-piece will hold the shift-lever a down until the impression of the capital letter is made. But on the rise of the letter-key after the impression, the latchpiece returns to its original position, which movement is produced by a spring 19 placed behind the arm 22 and acting to throw it forward as soon as the finger is removed irom the letter-key. The cross-pin 10 being fitted loosely in the slot 9 will enter the rear recess 13 when key 2 is pressed, or the front recess 14 by using at the bottom of the slot between the recesses to giiide the cross-pin 10 into one or the other of the recesses according to the direction in which-the piece on is tilted when it is being pressed downf As thus constructed the sh ifting-lever a will be held down by the lockingmechanism when a capital letter is to be written. and will be released'and the-carriage w restored to position for writing lower-case letters after the capital, without calling for any attention on the part of the operator to the shitting-key; in which operation the locking is effooted simply by the act of pressing the key2. 0n the other hand, when it is desired to write all capitals, the locking-piece m is depressed by using the rear key 3, which by tilting the piece m in the opposite direction causes'the cross-pin'lO to ride against the front edge of the slot 9 and enter the locking recess 14, in which the cross-piece will be caught and held until it is released by the operator pressing the front key 2. In this function of locking the shifting-lever (1, therefore, the tilting-piece m is released directly by the operator touching the shifting-key 2, and not from the operation of the letter-keys. But as a much greater proportion of matter is written in'lower-case letters and characters than in capitals, the automatic feature of my carriage-shifting mechanism is of advantage in contributing to greater speed and accuracy on the part of the operator.

Provision ismade for throwing the automatic releasing-mechanism temporarily out of action, Whenever it may be desirable or more convenient for any-reason to rel ease the shifting-key by hand after writing a capital. For that purpose a stop-lever 30, pivoted at 31 on the bracket Sand provided with a handle 32. is located in suchposition back of the recess 13 that-when the handle is set forward the stop 30 will prevent the cross-pin 10 from entering the recess 13 when the key 2 is pressed, andthe shifting-key must then be held down by the operator until after the capital is written.

At some point between the rocking-piece mand the lever d is interposed a yielding or elastic connection, that allows the shifting-levers to move after the arm ofthe lever d is arrested by the stop g when the key (2 or 3) is pressed. Such yielding connection is made, in one Way, by making a joint in the lever a at a point 35 behind the key, and limiting the movement of the jointed portion 33 by placing two stops 34-36, one situ ated under and the other above the main'lever a, with a fiat spring 37 so arranged as to keep the jointed front portion normally in line with the main-lever a while .-allowing it to yield under the pressure of the finger on the key, and thus permit the additional extent of movement required to set the cross-pin into the recess at the bottom of the slot 9 after the downward movement of the lever a has been arrested by the arm d striking the stop g.

The link f is provided with a screw-threaded portion 40 at its lower end to be engaged by a nut 41 for connecting the said link with the shifting lever a.

It will be noted that in my construction, the locking mechanism for the shifting lever is located entirely outside of and away from the operating mechanism of the typewriter, and at the front end of the machine di rectly below the outer end of the shift lever. This arrangement is advantageous, for the reason that it is not only simple in construction, but'may be easily reached Cir for repairs or replacements without dismantling the typewriter mechanism or in any way affecting the adjustment or its parts.

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

1. In a typewriter shift mechanism, the combination" \virh the typewriter mechanism and the character keys thereof. of a lever for shitting the carriage of the typewriter mechanism from lower to upper ase, a locking piece connected to the said lever, a pair of keys carried bv the locking piece, means for locking the shift lever in the upper case position by the depression of one of the keys, means for releasing: the locking means by the depression of a character key. and means for pernmnently locking the shift lever in theupper case position by the depression of the other key. I

2. In a shirt mechanism for a typewriter, the combination with the typewriter mechanism and set of character keys. of a shift lever and connections for throwing the typewriter mechanism into upper case position, a locking piece pivoted to the outer and of the lever, a linger key carried by the lockingpiece located to one side i s pivot, means for holding, the locking piece by the depression of said fine-er key, and means for releasing the same by the depre sion of :1 character ke v 4 2;. In a shift mechanism for a typewriter, the comhinzr tion with the typewriter mechanism and set of character keysfof a shift lever and connections for throwing the typewriter mechanism into upper case position. a locking piece pivoted to the outer end of the lever, a finger key carried by the locking piece located to one side its pivot, means for holding the locking'piece by the depression of said linger key, means for releasing the same by the de prcssion of a character key, and means for permanently throwing out of operation the said holding means, whereby the shift lever returns to normal position without being locked after he depression of the said key.

a tiltingpiece thereon, a ci'oss-pin carried by said tiltingpiece, a fixed plate having locking recesses with which the crosspin is adapted to engage in the downward movement of the tilting-piece and thereby hold down the shiftinglever. and means actuated from the movement of any selected one of the letter or character keys following the depression of the slnitingdever operating to release the til epiece from the locking-recess and allowing the shiltinglevcr to return as soon as the pressure is removed from said kev U. In ombination. in a type-writing machine, a cnrriageshifting key, a tiltingpiece therein provided with two fino'er-kcys situated one in front of and the other behind its tilting-point, a pin on snid tilting-piece, a fixed plate havine locking-recesses with which. said pin is adapted to engage for holding down the shifting-My a rocking latchpiece having hooked-shapcd members arranged to engage the said pin and by their movement to set it out of the lwckingiecess with which it may be engaged, and means peratively connecting said bookedshaped latch-piece with the letter and character keys of the keyboard for actuating said latclbpiece from the movementof any selected one of the keys. to throw oil the lock and thereby return the shifting-lever to its normal position after the letter or character has been written.

7. In a type-writingmachine, in combination a carriageshit'ting lover. a tilting locking-piece thereon provided with linger-keys for depressing the lever and tilting said piece on its pivot, 21 fixed plate having a locking-i'ecess with which said riltin piece is adapted to engage and thereby hold down the shifting-lever, a rocking latch-piece having hookshaped members. means operatively connecting said latchpiece with the letter and character keys of the key-board for partially disengaging the said tilting-piece from the ixed plate in the downward movement of the selected and operated letter or character key without adecting the position of the carriage, and afterwards entirely disengaging said tilting piece and releasing the shifting-key as soon as pressure is taken off the key by which the letter or characier has'been written.

In testimony whereof I have signedmy, name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witncs es.

\VESLEY F. INGRAM.

Witnesses II. Cnockrrr'r, B. Ct snniui.

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