Patent GB-891953-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to systems and apparatus for facsimile printing
Filed: 1958-04-03
Abstract: 891,953. Facsimile printing apparatus. EASTMAN KODAK CO. April 3, 1958 [April 9, 1957], No. 10745/58. Class 40(3). In an apparatus for printing address labels in accordance with code information carried by punched cards which fall into two distinct groups requiring a corresponding distinction in the order in which the lines forming the address are printed each card of one group being identified by a mark preceding the code marks, code signal groups derived, via a sensing device, from the latter marks are stored in a plurality of memory units in either of two predetermined orders, one of which is established by the presence of an identifying mark on the punched cards the stored signals then being "read-out" from the memory units in a fixed order, and supplied via a suitable matrixing circuit to a known form of label printing mechanism. Figs. 1 and 2 show (at 10 and 11 respectively) the type of (standard) punched cards considered, the latter being identified by a mark 12, and Figs. 1a and 2a the printed labels required to be produced from cards 10 and 11 respectively. In each case information concerning an address feature which is common to all cards (e.g. the city-state line designated "Any where Conn") is not punched on the cards 10, 11 but is provided by a header card which is "read" before each of the former cards. Since the order in which the information is derived from the header cards and from cards 10, 11 scanned in columns from left to right is not the same as the order in which such information is printed and to provide for distributing the information carried by one of the sections of card 11 (e.g. section H) between the other lines of the address so as to preserve a four line printed label, the apparatus is normally conditioned to print labels in the form of label 13 but is arranged to change this condition and to print labels in the form of label 14 in response to a control signal produced by the presence of the identifying mark 12. As shown in Fig. 6, groups of electrical signals are generated in appropriate ones of photo-electric cells 20 by each column of perforations in the cards 10 or 11 as they are advanced over fixed perforations 16 illuminated by a light source 18 the groups of signals being supplied to a known form of converter circuit 21 which converts them into a binary-six code supplied over conductors 28 to coincidence gate circuits 27. Simultaneously with the scanning of each column a single pulse is generated by an arrangement comprising a photo-electric cell 25, light source 24 and slotted disc 22, rotated in step with the card advancing mechanism, this pulse being supplied, via amplifier 26, to the coincidence circuits 27 to allow the code pattern to be supplied to lines 29 and also to the first unit of a ring chain 40 the different units 41 of which are stepped along to provide a series of sequential output pulses. The code pattern on lines 29 is supplied to one end of the "read-in" windings of respective magnetic cores in ninety-six (there being a maximum of twentyfour characters in each of four lines on the printed labels) memory units 30, Fig. 5 (not shown), the other ends of the windings being connected to individual thyratron circuits 60 through which the circuits of the "read-in" windings are completed when the thyratrons are rendered conducting. This is effected by means of ring chain 40 the output pulses from which are supplied to separate control grids in the thyratrons in two different orders respectively, the first, determined by the wiring of the units 41 to a plug board 51, causing the code pattern on lines 29 to be stored in the memory units 30 in the order required by the printing label 13 and the second, determined by the wiring to a plug board 52 and the conditioning of the thyratrons to respond only to inputs from this board by the output of a "flip-flop" 65 triggered by a pulse produced in a photo-electric cell 46 by the passage of the mark 12 on cards 11, causing the code pattern to be stored in the order required by the printing of label 14. When the code pattern has been stored in the required order "read-out" is effected under the control of a ring chain 80 consisting of twenty-seven units 81 each one of twenty-four of which controls the read out from four of memory units 30 (so that the information for the four lines of the label is read simultaneously) and the remaining three of which provide the interval between the last character on one label and the first character on the succeeding label. The operation of ring chain 80 is initiated by a pulse derived in a photo-electric cell 88 from a single slot 85 which interrupts light from a source 86 the latter also serving to produce a series of pulses: in a photo-electric cell 87 via a slotted disc 82 containing one hundred and eighty-nineslots 83 (i.e. seven times the number of units in ring chain 80, since the printing of each character requires a width of five slots and two are utilized for spacing). The pulses from cell 87 are supplied to a series of seven "flip-flops" 90 the last one of which supplies a series of stepping pulses to the ring chain 80 and the output of the "middle" five of which are supplied to a matrix circuit 92. The signals "read-out" of the memory units 30 by the operation of ring chain 80 are supplied via lines 38 to known forms of decoding and synthesizing circuits 91 and then via the matrix 92 also of known form, to control the actuation of printer 93 in the manner described in Specifications 711,497 and 711,498, the means for advancing the paper and carbon tapes 94, 95 respectively and for synchronously feeding the cards 10. 11 being similar to the arrangement described in Specification 816,434. Specifications 792,861 and 874,473 also are referred to.