Patent GB-180039-A (GB)
Abstract: 180,039. Ferrell, G. W. Feb. 16, 1921. Tickets, issuing; ticket punches.-A machine for issuing separate flat transfer tickets, dating them, and perforating them by independently set and simultaneously operated punches to indicate the time, place of issue, direction, &c. comprises a main box-like casing 12 divided by partitions into a ticket-holding receptacle 19, Fig. 5, a chamber 15 for the punching and ejecting mechanisms, a compartment in the base for the ticketfeeding mechanism, and side compartments for spring motors driving the feeding and ejecting mechanisms. The pack of tickets in the compartment 19 is pressed down by a plate 18 and an adjustable bow spring 20, the plate 18 having a finger 24 at the rear adapted to engage a lever 26, Fig. 8, to release a spring motor 29 to drive an alarm bell 30 when the pack is nearing depletion. The feeding-mechanism comprises a rack-bar 38 slidably mounted in a fixed guide-bar 32 below the ticket compartment and gearing with a pinion 33, Fig. 5, on a shaft 34 carrying another pinion 40, Fig. 4, adapted to be put in gear with and to be driven by a spring motor 42. Normally a spring 39 holds the pinions out of gear and maintains a locking-lug 43 in engagement with the teeth of the motor wheel, but on the rotation of a shaft 45 by an external knob 46 a disc 49 engages a lever 51 to release the locking-lug 43 and raise the pinions into gear. The rack-bar is then advanced against the resistance of a spring 44, the bottom ticket of the pack being engaged and fed forward by spring-mounted frictional gripping-members 61 carried by the rack bar. These gripping-members ride over the upper edges of pivoted members 63, and are deflected by a plate 62 at the end of their stroke. On the return stroke they ride beneath the lower edges of the members 63 in a depressed condition. The punches or perforating pins 86, 89, Fig. 7, and 87, Fig. 5, are mounted on arms projecting radially to different extents from concentric shafts 71, 74<a>, 77, which are separately rotatable to alter the angular positions of the pin arms, but are depressible simultaneously in the punching action. The two inner ones are set from milled heads 76, 79, and the outer one is set by a worm shaft 92 and worm wheel 90 from a knob 93 at the side. The three shafts carry pointers 95, 96, 97, Fig. 1, indicating on a dial 74 in a recessed part of the top of the casing, to facilitate correct setting of the pins. A removable dating stamp 83 is carried by a central shaft, the casing of the machine having a side opening 98, Fig. 4, giving access to the stamp and punches. A spring 100, Fig. 7, bears on a fixed plate 70 and against a collar 99 on the shafts, normally maintaining the pins raised. On the rotation of a shaft 107 by an external knob 108, a pawl 105 is disengaged from a hammer 101, which is then forced by a spring 103 against the collar 99 to depress all the shafts together and effect the punching. A reverse rotation of the shaft 107 causes an arm 118 thereon to engage a lever 114 and thereby unlock a pinion 111 from a fixed detent 116 and allow the ejecting roller 113 to be rotated by a spring motor 109. A supplementary punch 120 at the top of the casing may be actuated by a spring hammer 124 released by rotating a ratchet wheel 130 on the shaft 45. The rotation of the shaft 45 for this purpose is in an opposite direction to that required for releasing the ticket-feeding means.