Patent GB-191311527-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to Automatic Talking Machines.
Inventor: ACKERMANN FRANZ
Filed: 1913-05-17
Granted: 1914-05-18
Abstract: 11,527. Ackermann, F. May 17. Multiple machines; turntables; driving and stopping. - In a talking - machine of the type having a number of cradles or brackets each adapted to hold a disk record and capable of simultaneous and individual movement so as to allow any selected record to be performed, the cradles are mounted upon pivoted arms, and are capable of being swung on their pivots to and from the turntable. The whole of the cradles are movable simultaneously upon a vertical guide by means of a setting- lever, which allows the required record to be selected. The machine may be controlled by a coin-action, which allows an external handle to be operated to wind up the motor, to bring the s e l e c t e d record into position, to raise the table, and to release the motor for starting the machine. Means are also provided to block the coin-slot and prevent the movement of the selecting- lever while the machine is in operation. The cradles 2, Fig. 1, slide together upon a bar 3 on operating a sliding setting-lever 8, which engages numbered recesses in the case, until the desired record is brought into position to be swung across on to the table. The machine is started by the movement of a control-shaft 21 through 180‹, as determined by the insertion of a coin or otherwise. This movement causes an arm 24 to throw over a slide 25, until it is held by the engagement of the parts 32, 34, a pin 27 on the slide engaging a forked lever 28 to rotate a spindle 29 bearing a segment 33 which gears with the pinion 16 on the carrier of the selected record, so as to swing it into position above the table. The arm 24 next depresses a plate 42, which is caught by the nose 51 of an upstanding twisted lever 52. The plate 42 forms the end of a lever 43, and when it is depressed its other extremity 45, Fig. 2, raises the turntable 46 to lift the record off its cradle, and to cause the stylus to engage. The table is driven from a sleeve 48 by a pin-and-slot connexion 49, 50. The movement of the lever 43 also removes a stop 105 from the path of a projection 104 on the governor 103, and allows the motor to start. At the end of the reproduction, the tone-arm strikes a bent wire 57, which moves to release the catch 51, the slide 25 simultaneously returning to its initial position, and all the parts being restored, except that the arm 24 on the shaft 21 now takes the position previously occupied by the arm 24'. To ensure a good contact of the tone-arm with the part 57, the records may have a leading-out groove formed therein. The tone-arm, when released by the falling of the record-table, is restored by a spring 67 to the correct position for starting as determined by an adjustable rubber-covered stop 70. The operation of the machine may be determined by a handle coupled to the shaft 21, or by a coinaction as follows. The coin passes down a shoot 125, Fig. 6, to a cup 73 which turns it through a right-angle, and allows it to drop into a slot 74 in the annular flange 75 of a chain-wheel 76 until it rests upon a pin 77. The chain-wheel is rotated from a second chain-wheel 80 on the winding-shaft by an external handle 85 having a slot 81 cut away at one side to prevent reverse winding when engaging the pin 83. The chainwheel 75 is coupled to the control-shaft 21 by the coin for half a revolution by a rocking- plate 88 bearing two pins 89, 90, one only of which projects into the path of the coin, and is then withdrawn when a curved switch 95 pushes the other pin into position for the next operation. The coin thereupon falls out, and leaves the handle free to rotate to wind up the spring through a wheel 101, overwinding being prevented by the spring 98 which forms a friction-grip slipping on the winding-spindle 99. To prevent movement of the selecting-lever while the machine is in operation, a cord 107 attached to the slide 25 is caused to rock a locking-plate 108, one of a series of holes in which engages a pin 111 on the selecting-lever. The plate 103 is normally raised by a spring 114. When the selecting-lever is not in position in one of the recesses, that is, when its outer end is depressed, the end 120<1> of a plate 120 is allowed to rise under the weight of a rod 118, the other end of which operates a bent piece 115, 117, Fig. 6, so as to obstruct the coin shoot. Other forms of coupling between the winding-shaft and the control-shaft may be employed when the machine is not arranged to be operated by the insertion of a coin, or separate handles for these parts may be fitted.