Patent GB-385932-A (GB)
Title: An apparatus for bringing any number of piled-up gramophone records automatically onto the turntable of the gramophone and again laying them away therefrom after they have been played
IPC: G11B17/16
Filed: 1931-03-28
Abstract: 385,932. Magazine gramophones. WALLIMANN, I., ZUMSTEG, H., and STUTZ, A., Lucerne, Switzerland. March 28, 1931, No. 9443. Convention date, March 28, 1930. Void [Published under Sect. 91 of the Acts]. [Class 40 (ii).] An automatic magazine gramophone is equipped with two pairs of record grippers, one pair of grippers being moved to transport the unplayed records singly from a pile to the turntable, and the other to turn each record over for playing of the reverse side and thereafter to remove it to the top of a pile of played records. Each pile of records 20, 21, Fig. 1, is supported on a plate 13, the unplayed records comprising the left-hand pile. A hollow shaft 27 drives through bevel wheels 28 two threaded spindles 7 on which run nuts 8 connected to arms 11 which carry the plates 13. A shaft 26 rotates within the shaft 27 and gears with threaded spindles 6 which are engaged by nuts 14 connected by arms 15 to horseshoe shaped carriers 17. A worm wheel 32 on the shaft 27 is driven by a shaft 34, Fig. 3, which serves also as a mounting for a hollow shaft 37 having a friction disc 39 disposed opposite, and spring-pressed from, a second friction disc 35 which is movable along a keyway. The shaft 37 is driven by a chain wheel 38 and a chain 48 from a shaft 82, Fig. 2, upon which is mounted a disc 79. Pivoted to a rod 44 is a lever 42 provided with an armature 43 opposite an electromagnet 45, Fig. 3, and the lower end of the lever 42 engages a boss groove of the friction disc 35. To each of a pair of shafts 52, Fig. 2, are secured levers 55 which carry record grippers 61 and rollers 58 which extend into slots 59 in the shafts 52. The shafts 52 are provided with sprocket wheels 69, 75 respectively, the sprocket 69 being mounted so that it can be uncoupled from its boss 68. The sprockets 69, 75 are connected by a chain 76 and the disc 79 has a pin .78 which is connected to the chain 76 by means of a rod 77. In operation, assuming that the record 20 on the turntable 23 has been played, the driving motor of the shaft 82 is switched on to rotate the disc 79, which causes the sprockets 69, 75 to rotate and the shafts 52 with the levers 55 are rotated through 180‹. This causes the played record to be deposited on the right-hand pile while the next record is placed on the turntable. At the same time the unplayed pile of records on the left is raised while the right-hand pile is lowered through a distance equal to the thickness of a record, due to rotation of the shafts 37, 34 through the chain 48 to cause rotation of the spindles 7. When the next uppermost record in the unplayed pile is raised sufficiently, it lifts an arm 87 to break the circuit of the coupling magnet 45 at the contacts 89, 90 so that the shafts 34, 37 are de-coupled. During transport of the played record from the turntable, a lever 94, Fig. 2, is displaced forwardly. After playing of the next record, the sprocket 69 is freed from its boss 68 so that when the circuit of the driving motor of the shaft 82 is again closed only the right-hand pair of levers 55 is rotated to raise the played record, which comes into contact with a stop 95 on the lever 94 and is thus reversed, so that it is returned to the turntable with the obverse side facing upwardly. When this side has been played, the sprocket 69 is again coupled to its boss 68 so that when the driving motor of the shaft 82 is again started the played record is transferred to the magazine and a fresh record placed upon the turntable. The records 20 are smaller than the records 21 so that the height of the topmost record of the unplayed pile varies according to the thickness of that record. In order to ensure that the topmost record shall be gripped securely, a form of construction of the grippers is described whereby they are maintained under spring pressure and are freely oscillatable in the horizontal plane.