US974334A - Type-writer-ribbon operating and feeding mechanism. - Google Patents

Description

I J. ALEXANDER. v TYPE WRITER RIBBON OPERATING'AND FEEDING MECHANISM.

' 7 APPLICATION FILED IBBJH, 1909. 974,334, Patented Nov. 1, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

-mm Illllllllllll "[11111] fi 91V iTmcooe/o (J mic vvfoz J. ALEXANDER. TYPE WRITER RIBBON OPERATING AND FEEDING MECHANISM.

APPLIOATIONTILED PEB.18,1909.

Patented Nov. 1,1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

.ttllrlvllal mill-III I I I III I I 1F- I l J. ALEXANDER.

TYPE WRITER RIBBON OPERATING AND FEEDING MECHANISM. APPLICATION FILED EEB.18,1909.

974,334. Patented Nov. 1, 1910.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE ALEXANDER, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, .ASSIGNOR F ONE-HALF TO WTLLIAM ALEXANDER ALBERT SGI-INAUIEFER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

.TYPE-WRITER-RIZBBON OPERATING AND FEEDING MECHANISM.

974,334. V I Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Nov, 1, 1910,

Application filed February 18, 1909. Serial No. 478,572.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, JEssE ALEXANDER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, county of Kings, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Type-Writer-Ribbon Operating and Feeding Mechanism, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in typewriting machines, and is particularly concerned with improvements in the ribbon operating mechanism.

vThe invention is illustrated as applied to a so-called visible writingmachine in which the ribbon is supported upon spools at opposite sides of the machine frame and is caused to travel across the printing point intermittently.

The object of the invention is to provide improved means for such intermittent travel of the ribbon which shall be operated at each printing stroke, to provide means to prevent the overthrow of the ribbon and to provide means for shifting the position of the ribbon to correspond with the shifted position of the platen for upper and lower case writing With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, a preferred embodiment'of which is illustrated in the accom-',

panying drawings, in which,

Figure 1' is a plan View of the machine illustrating my improvements, parts being removed for clear illustration, Fig. 2 s a vertical sectional view on the line 22 Fig: 1, looking toward the front. Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view from front to rear on the line 3-3 Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a central sectional view on the line 1-4 from front to rear of parts shown in Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 55 Fig. 1. Fig. 6 is a detail sectional view of the arts shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a detached etail view of parts of the ribbon operating mechanism. p

The embodiment of my invention herein selected for illustration comprises the machine frame 1 consisting of the usual side plates, upon which is supported a front plate 2 and the type bar segment 3. Upon the front plate 2 and bar segment 3 are arranged the ribbon spool supporting plates 4 which are so mounted as to be readilyremoved to give access to the ribbon actuating -ing tooth which may be readily mechanism. The su porting lates 4 carry dles 6 of t e ribbon spools are journaled.

Inasmuch as the spool mechanism on either side of the machine is the same, a description of one will suflice for both.

The ribbon shaft 6 is provided at its lower end with a spool actuating ratchet wheel 7 and upon the upper end of the shaft the spool 8 may be removably keyedin any desired manner. Referringto Fig. 6, means are provided for retaining the spool shaft wlthln its bearing consisting of a cross pin 9 which rests rotatably upon a shoulder 10 at the upper end of the bearin 6. This pin, furthermore, may serve ast e means for keying the spool-upon the shaft as indicated in Fig. 6. In order to displacement of the spoo arm 11, which is fixed upon a post 12"rotatably mounted by means of a spindle 13 in a bearing 14 also carried b the su porting late 4. The stop arm 11 1s norma ly hel y means of a coil sprin 15 on the spindle 13 over the spool shaft 6 thereby locking the s 001 thereon when the same is in posltion. lso mounted upon the post 12 and spindle 13 is a brake arm 16, which, as shown inFig 'G,

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is adaptedwhen in normal position to tionally engage the spool shaft 6, the shoulder 10 of the spool shaft bearing 5 being cut away at 17 to permit such bearing. By this construction too freerotation of the ribbon spool andoverthrow thereof is efiectually prevented. To actuate the slidably. mounted upon a pin 19 upon the machine frame and is forced outward by a spring.l9' toward the ratchet wheel 7, the

upper end of which pawl extends across the ratchet wheel 7 and is provided with a resilient ratchet engagin blade or tootlr20, best shown in Fig. 7 gaid blade is secured at its lower end to the awl by the rivets 21 and its upper end is said pawl y means of a metal strip or ring 22, so constructed as to permit free resilient play .of'the blade 20' for effectual en a ement with the ratchet 7. The ob'ect t is construction is to provide a rate et enga and firmiy seated within the'teeth of the ratchet wheel but is sufliciently resilient to ride easily over the ratchet teeth ,upon the return from its revent accidental the upper end 0 ribbon spool, a pawl 18 is old loosely against actuating stroke. In order to further prevent the overthrow of the ribbon spool, I

provide a springarm 23 Fig. 1 suitably cured to a post 24 depending from the plate 4, theouter end of which spring arm is provided with a tooth 25 arranged to engage the teeth of the ratchet wheel 7 and prevent reverse movement thereof. I

' To actuate the ratchet pawls 18, the same are pivoted at their rear ends to depending; rock arms 26 secured to a rock shaft 27 mounted within one of the supporting bars or tracks 28 of the. platen carriage, sald bar being provided with openings 29 at its lower side to permit 'of said rocking movement of the rock arms 26. To actuate the rock shaft 27, the same is. provided with a depending lever 30, Figs. 4- and 7, slotted at 31 to receive a pin 32 carried by lug 33 depending from the frame 34 which supports the universal bar 35, Fig. 2. In this instance the universal bar is positioned just through the universal bar support 34, the

universal bar is yieldingly held in contact with the rear of the type bar segment 3. Each type bar as shown in Fig. 3 is provided with a shoulder 41 which when the bar is in its printing position contacts with the universal bar 35 and serves to move the same to the rear, thereby through the con- ,nections between the universal bar sup port and rock shaft 27, above described, actuating the spool actuating pawls 18 at I each printing stroke.

In visible writing machinesfto which my lnvention as herein shown is applied, it is necessary that the ribbon shall stand nor mally' just below'the printing point and shall be positioned over the printing point just before the type reaches the platen and then again returned to its normal position. To this end the ribbon support and guide 42 at the center of the machine is pivoted at its lower endto a lever 43, which, in turn, is

pivoted at 44 within a depending portion 45 of the platen shift frame 46, which is fixed to a transverse rock shaft 47. Upon the rear of said frame 46 is mounted a roller-carrying arm 48 bearing, the roller 49, which is adapted to en age a suitable and usual support of the p aten' carriage. The rear end of the'lever 43 is connected by means of a short link 50 to a post 51-carried by the universal bar support 34. By this construction when the, universal bar sup moved to the rear by a type bar the ink 43 ort is is rocked upon its pivot 44 by the connections described, thereby raising the ribbon support 42 to position the ribbon over the printing point.

In order to provide for the reversal of the travel of the ribbon at will, a slide bar 52, Fig. 2, is'mounted upon screws 53 carried by the type bar segment 3. This bar carries at either end forwardly extending pins 54, which, as shown in Fig. 1, have their forward ends lying adjacent to the inner sides. of the ribbon actuating pawls 18, whereby when said slide bar 52 is moved from one side to the other, one of said pins 54 will disengage the corresponding actuating pawl 18 from its ratchet and the other'pin 54 will be so moved as'to permit engagement of the other spool actuating pawl with its ratchet 7. Simultaneously with thedisen-' gagement of the pawl 18 from its ratchet 7, the corresponding spring arm 23 is also disengaged therefrom, said arm being provided with an extension 55, Fig. 1, which lies in the path of the ratchet pawl 18, as shown in Fig. 3. For manual operation of the slide bar 52, the same is provided with a depending finger 56, Fig 2, which may be readily reached by the operator. I

I, In machines employing upper and lower case type, in which the platen is shifted for such upper and lower case printing, it is necessary that the normal position of the ribbon adjacent the printing point he corre 'spondingly shifted in order that the same may be brought to operative position during the printing stroke. "To this end, therefore, the lever 43, Fig. 3, which actuates the T111). bon support 42 is pivoted upon a depending portion 45 of the platen shift frame 46, as above described, so that when said shift frame is rocked to shift the platen, the lever 43 through its pivot 44 will be moved for tion of the ribbon support to position the ribbon over the printing point will then take place, as above described. v

While the means for shifting the platen forms no part of the present invention, the same is herein illustrated for complete disclosure and consists as shown in addition to the parts above referred to of the rock arms 57 attached to rock shaft 47, which'armsare arranged to be actuated by upward extensions 58 of the platenshaftlevers 59, the latter being pivoted at 60 upon the machine frame. r

While I have hereindescribed a particular embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood the same may be varied in details and relative arrangement of parts without I departing from the spirit or scope thereof.

What I claim is: p

1. In typewriter ribbon operating mechanism, a pair of ribbon spools, ratchet wheels ward and thus raise or shift the ribbon support 42, The subsequent intermittent actuaactuate said ribbon spools.

connected with said spools, actuating pawls for said wheels, each of said pawls carrying a resilient wheel-engaging blade secured at one end of its pawl and free from said pawl at its wheel-engaging portion and means to limit the movement of the free end of said blade with respect to its pawl.

2. In typewriter ribbon operating mechanism, a pair of ribbon spools, ratchet wheels for said spools, actuating pawls cooperating with said wheels, each of said pawls carrying a resilient wheel-engaging blade extending alongside of its supporting pawl; said blade being free froin'said pawl at its wheel-engaging portion and having limited movement relatively to said pawl at its.

free end, a universal bar, actuating connections between said bar and said pawls to 3. In typewriter 'rlbbon operating mechanism, a pair of ribbon spools, ratchet wheels for said spools, an actuatin pawl cooperating with each of said whee s, a spring-arm adjacent each of said wheels and adapted to engage the same, means for disengaging and engaging said pawls from and with said wheels at will, and means for causin said pawls simultaneously to disen age an permit' the engagement of sai sprin -arms with the corresponding wheels at wil 4. In typewriter ribbon operating mechanism, a pair of ribbon spools, a ratchet wheel for each of said s ools, an actuating pawl for each of said w eels, a spring-arm cooperating with each of said wheels respectively, an extension on each of said arms projecting transversely of the adjacent pawl, means for engaging and disen aging said pawls from said ratchet whee s, sald extensions on said spring-arms being so arranged that the en agement and disengagement of said paw s from said wheels will cause simultaneous engagement and disengagement of said spring-arms with said wheels, respectively.

In typewriter ribbon operating mechanism, a pair of ribbon spools, ratchet wheels for said spools, 'actuatmg pawls for said wheels, each of said awls carrying a resilient wheel-enga ing b ade, said blades being free from sai awls at their wheelengaging portions, an means to limit the movement of the free portions of said blades away from their respective pawls.

6. In typewriter ribbon operating mechanism, a pair of. ribbon spools, ratchet wheels for said spools, actuatmg pawls for said wheels, each of said awls carryin a flexible wheel-engaging bl iide, said bla es being free from said pawls at their wheelengagingportions, a band surrounding each of sald pawls and its resilient blade to limit the movement of said blade away from said pawl.

JESSE ALEXANDER. Witnesses:

CHAS. A. Pram), M. E. GARRETT.

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