Patent GB-674071-A (GB)
Abstract: 674,071. Workmen's time-recorders. BRITISH VACUUM CLEANER & ENGINEERING CO., Ltd., and WRIGHT, R. D. H. May 4, 1949, No. 11955/49. Class 106 (iv). A time-recorder has means, for setting and operating a programme, comprising one or more constant speed discs carrying trips for unlatching levers following time-driven cams so that the cams may impart pivotal movements to the levers for operating the programme. Two 24-hour discs 2 driven by minute impulses are provided with ninety-six teeth 2A and holes 5 for locating and fixing trips 6 of four types A, B, C and D in front of or behind each disc to dispose them in four paths for co-operation with one of four lugs 45 on latch release levers 34 to 37 pivoted on a shaft 33 with latch levers 29 to 32 linked thereto by nuts and bolts and near ends which are urged apart by compression-springs 38, while the levers 34 to 37 are urged into the paths of the trips by tension-springs 43. The cam teeth 9 of four 30-minute discs 8 driven by minute impulses co-operate for one minute in five with lugs 14A on bell-crank levers 11 to 14 pivoted at 10 and urged toward the discs 8 by springs 15 but restrained by latch recesses (29C-32C) engaging lugs (11B-14B) and during that minute the levers 11 to 14 move slightly anticlockwise just to clear the latch levers 29-32 each of which will relatch when the lugs (11A-14A) fall off the high parts of teeth 9 in the fifth minute unless a trip 6 has previously lifted its release lever (34-37) and compressed the spring 38 to cause it, the latch, to fly back anti-clockwise and leave the corresponding bell-crank lever 11-14 free to swing clockwise to the base of the next tooth and in so doing perform one of the operations on the programme. Each trip 6 takes fifteen minutes to pass a lug 45 and according to its shape and the way round it is fixed it will cause a programme operation at the end of the 1st, 2nd or 3rd five minutes, at the end of the 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd or 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Horizontal shift mechanism is actuated by the lever 11 through a pawl 16 with a pawl 19 to prevent reversal. Vertical shift mechanism is similarly actuated by the lever 12. The programme mechanism is mounted outside one side-plate 1 of the recorder and both side-plates 1 have, extending outwardly, a ribbon spool spindle 69, the ribbon 71 passing from one spool 70, over the end of a shaft 51, upon which is pivoted a frame 53, round a ribbon guide roller 60 mounted on a pin in the frame 53, through a slot in a ribbon reverse lever 62 pivotally mounted in the frame 53, across to the other plate 1 and by a similar slot and guide roller to a further spool. Ribbon colour-change mechanism is actuated by the lever 14 when the latch 32 is released by a trip 6 by means of a pawl 49 with recesses 49A, 49B. The recess 49B engages a pin 56 on the frame 53 which pivots about a pin 52 and so lifts the ribbon to bring a new colour into position. Meanwhile, a pin 57 in the frame 53 follows a face of a pawl 64 pivoted at 65 and urged anti-clockwise by a spring 66 until the pin 57 engages a recess 67 in the pawl 64 which will thus hold the frame in raised position while the pawl 49 subsequently falls and the recess 49A engages a pin 68 in the pawl 64. When the lever 14 is again actuated upon release by a trip 6, the pawl 49 pivots the pawl 64 to disengage the recess 67 from the pin 57 so that the frame 53 falls and shifts the ribbon to its former position. If it is desired to shift the ribbon other than at the end of a five-minute cycle the latch release lever 37 is adjustably lengthened so as to co-operate 1, 2 or 3 minutes earlier or later with the trips 6 by forming it in two parts held together by bolts in slots and adjusted by a screw, the threaded portion extending through one part eccentric to that through the other part. If this bias setting is not required one lever 13 or 14 may be used to operate a signalling device or other mechanism.