Patent GB-262957-A (GB)
IPC: G11B17/28
Abstract: 262,957. Smith, O. Dec. 24, 1925. Multiple-record machines. - A gramophone provided with a movable magazine and a device for transferring records from the magazine to the turntable and returning them is controlled electrically from a keyboard which may be located in any desired position. In Figs. 1 and 2, the records are stored between partition frames 35 strung on rods 34 on a carriage 11 which can be traversed on rails 13 by a clutch-driven screw 48 and worm gear from a reversible motor 50 to position any record over a lifting gripper frame 15. This frame is lifted by pinion 17 caused to roll along a fixed rack 18 by a pivoted lever 20 rocked by a crank 22 on a shaft 25 driven from a motor 28. At the beginning of the upward movement of the frame 15, cam slots 45 therein rock pivoted levers 41 to insert wedges 40 between the magazine partitions enclosing the selected record, forcing them apart against springs 39, 47, and spring-controlled gripper jaws pivoted at the upper end of the frame 15 now engage and lift the record out of the magazine. As the frame 15 completes its upward movement, a spring-controlled hook engages the pivoted grippers to swing them over so as to deposit the record on the turntable of the gramophone 14 and release it for playing, and after playing the grippers and frame return the record to the magazine. The movements are controlled by a keyboard and circuits shown in Fig. 15 whereby on depressing certain of the keys A - - E and Q - - Z the magazine can be set in motion and arrested in the desired position by the contacting of pins 69 on a bar carried by the magazine with stationary blades 67, 68 connected in the respective circuits. When a pin 69 thus completes a circuit of which the control key has been depressed, a solenoid 66 is excited and rocks a wedge-ended lever 65 into position to withdraw the driving pin of the clutch drive of the screw 48, and another solenoid 98 acts through levers 97, 96 to allow a spring switch 92 to complete the circuit to the gripper-operating motor 28 to drive the shaft 25 for transferring a record to the turntable. This shaft carries three cams for operating levers one of which acts through a rod 102 to raise and lower the tone arm, another acts through a rod 104 and bell crank 105 to return the sound box to starting position after playing, and a third acts through a rod and spring-controlled levers to complete, alternately, circuits to the lifting frame motor and the phonograph motor through a switch 110, Fig. 15. Provision is made to ensure the turntable speeding up before the tonearm is lowered. The circuit of the phonograph motor is broken automatically by the switch 92 when the stylus reaches the end of the record by a projection on the tone arm acting to release a latch holding closed a switch in the circuit, and the time of action of the tone arm projection can be automatically adjusted according to the length of the record groove by providing a series of pins 132 on the magazine of different lengths corresponding to the length of the. playing groove of the currespouding records in the magazine, which pins act through lever 131 to adjust the setting of the latch. The movement of the switch 92 to break the circuit of the phonograph motor completes the circuit of the gripper motor to lower the gripper and return the record, and as the gripper reaches the bottom of its stroke, one of the cams on the shaft 25 reverses the switch 92 cutting out the gripper motor and closing the circuit to the magazine motor, which latter circuit however is not completed because a pin 87 carried by the shaft 25 momentarily closes a circuit through a switch 86 to excite a solenoid 85 which acts through a lever and rod 84, Fig. 24, to release any depressed push button 76. At each end of its travel the magazine operates a throw-over switch 54 to reverse the driving motor 50 for the magazine. The magazine is so divided up for sectional connections that two sets of push buttons are utilized, one set controlling groups and the other the individual spaces in a group, thus necessitating the depression of two buttons for each selection, a cross pin 79, Fig. 25, of a button stem 76 entering between blades in the circuit to complete it. Each button when depressed is held against its return spring 80 by a pivoted pawl 82 until released by the solenoid 85. To prevent depression of more than one button in a set at the same time, the bevelled bottom ends of the buttons enter a channel containing balls 88 held in contact by a spring 90 and providing space for only one button to be depressed between them. A button 91 controls the supply of current to the whole apparatus. In a modified machine, the magazine partitions do not extend across the magazine, thereby leaving more space for the gripper and rendering the lateral spreading device unnecessary, and the gripper is raised and lowered by a worm wheel driven from a motor and acting as a nut for a long screw extending below guided grippers, which screw may be jointed and its lower end deflected laterally as the grippers are lowered so as to reduce the height of the machine. In a further modification, the magazine is constituted by a, rotatable turret and the grippers are raised and lowered by a lazy-tongs device. The keyboard may be supported on a movable pedestal stand which may be rotated to wind up on the stand pillar the flexible lead to the machine.