Patent GB-191229870-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for the Conversion of Motion according to one Law into Motion according to another Law.
Inventor: MOUTON WILLEM ANNE
Filed: 1912-12-28
Granted: 1913-12-29
Abstract: 29,870. Mouton, W. A., Barr, A., and Stroud, W. Dec. 28. Modifying scale of readings. - Two rotary members are connected by intermittent gearing so as to produce a continuously varying non- cyclic relative movement, one of the members for this purpose having a cylindrical, conical, or flat surface provided with teeth spaced unequally apart along a helix or spiral upon the surface and adapted to engage intermittently with a toothed pinion comprising or connected to the other member. Secondary locking gearing or other means may be provided to prevent unconstrained movements of the pinion. The invention is specially applicable to such cases as the connexion of two scale members working past fixed pointer members or vice versa, one scale being of one type and the other scale of another type, so that the readings on the two scales may correspond at all times during the actuation of the mechanism. The reciprocal scale of a range-finder may thus be converted into a uniform scale having equal steps for equal increments of range. Similar means may be provided to convert such uniform scale into a scale suitable for the setting of a gun-sight for various ranges, or a compound device may be arranged to convert directly the motion of the operating-mechanism of a range-finder into the motion required in the setting of a gunsight. The device may be utilized in connexion with electric or other transmitting-means such as are described, for example in Specification 4422/06, for the communication of ranges, gunsight angles, &c., to a distant receiving station. In the form shown in Fig. 3, a drum 4, adapted to be driven by a handle 5 and bevel gearing 7, is provided with a large number of teeth or pins, some only of which are shown, arranged on a continuous helix on the surface thereof and adapted to drive more or less intermittently a toothed pinion 2 having a guiding-flange 9 and feathered on a shaft 8 connected to the second member. The teeth on the drum 4 being unequally spaced in accordance with predetermined requirements, the movement of the pinion relatively to that of the drum may vary, as the motion proceeds, in a non-recurrent manner, and may be of an entirely different type. A modification permitting more extended movements and a greater range of variation is shown in Fig. 6, wherein the drum, or two drums connected by gearing, are provided with two separate helical series of teeth meshing respectively with two feathered pinions 2, 12 on separate shafts 8, 18. In this form, the scale or other members are connected to the shafts 8, 18 respectively instead of to the drum and shaft as in Fig. 3. In a compact arrangement of this kind for effecting wide changes the teeth over rather more than the first half of one drum and the second half of the second drum are arranged a normal distance apart and in regular mesh with the teeth of the respective pinions, the teeth over the second half of the first drum and over the first half of the second drum are then arranged at suitable intervals. In order to lock the driven pinion or pinions against uncontrolled movements, a secondary drum 24, Fig. 9, may be connected to each driving-drum such as 14. The secondary drum is provided with a helical ridge formed with gaps in exact correspondence with the teeth upon the drum 14, and is arranged to gear with a secondary pinion connected to the pinion 12 driven by the drum 14, so that, when the pinion 12 is not in mesh with teeth upon the drum 14, rotation of the secondary pinion is prevented by the ridge upon the secondary drum. Rotation is however permitted by the gaps in the ridge when the teeth on the drum 14 are in effectual engagement with the pinion 12. The normal resistance to the motion of the pinion may suffice to dispense with special locking-means. Two or more devices may be used in series. Instead of being arranged upon a drum, the teeth may be arranged in a helix or spiral upon the surface of a cone or the face of a disk.