Patent GB-199028-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to the formation and production of record sheets wherein numerical and other data are represented by perforations
Filed: 1923-06-07
Abstract: 199,028. Peirce, J. R. June 7, 1922, [Convention date]. Type-lever machines.-Apparatus for making a perforated record sheet comprises at least six sheet-perforating devices and preferably also printing-devices, actuated by keys corresponding to the number of records to be made whereby perforations representing both the letters of the alphabet and the digits may be made in fields having the theoretical minimum number of hole spaces. To represent the alphabet, numeral digits, and punctuations six possible holes are provided, the most frequently used data being represented by all selections of these taken one at a time, the next frequent by all selections of the holes taken two at a time and the remaining data by some of the combinations or selections of the holes taken three at a time. Character keys 21, Fig. 3, on levers 25 pivoted on a shaft 26, carry pins 37 engaging notched levers 35, 33 connected by links 31 to type-levers 28. Depression of a key against the action of a spring 27 actuates the type-levers and depresses a bail 40 operating, through ratchet mechanism, the feeding of an ink ribbon 39. Six punches 51, Fig. 3, arranged in a vertical row, are each actuated by a corresponding one of six bell-crank levers 53 separately connected, through linkage 58, 59, 61, 62 to bails 71 - - 76, carried on rock-shafts 63. The keylevers 25 carry underside projections 80 which select and actuate the bails and cause the perforation of the card. The shafts 63 on which the bails 71 - - 76 turn are carried in an auxiliary frame 64 which can be slid by a finger-lever to move the bails out of reach of the projections 80 and allow printing only to take place. Paper-carriages and supports; letter-spacing mechanism; carriage-releasing arrangements; line-spacing mechanism.-The cards are held in a carrier which can be moved vertically in guides on a carriage, traversed across the machine. The carriage 100, Fig. 3, slides transversely on rollers 102 in guide rails 104 attached to the main frame. A guide frame for the rollers carries a wheel 107, Fig. 8, meshing with a rack 108 fixed to the main frame and a rack 106 attached to the carriage. The movement of the carriage, which is urged to the left by a ribbon spring 111 is double the movement of the guide frame. A rack 112, mounted on the carriage, meshes with a gear 113 on a shaft journaled in the main frame, carrying an escapement wheel 114, Fig. 12. The latter is controlled from the bail 40 by two pawls 115, 116, the former of which is spring urged, mounted in a frame 119 swinging on a shaft 118. On depression of a key the bail 40 is actuated and through links and a bail 129 turns the frame to free the pawl. The other pawl is freed on release of the key, and the carriage moves through the space between adjacent columns. The pawls may be held out of action by a pin 171 actuated from a finger lever mounted upon the carriage. The card carrier 175, sliding in vertical guides on the card carriage, carries racks 190, Fig. 9, meshing with gears 191 on a shaft 192. A ratchet wheel 198, Fig. 10, with irregularly spaced teeth, is mounted on the shaft 192 and engages a spring- pressed pawl 197 mounted upon the frame. A knob 195, upon the shaft 192, on being turned elevates the carrier according to the vertical distance between the horizontal fields oil the card. The carrier 175 is allowed to drop by releasing the pawl 197 by a notched cap 201 turned by a knob 200. The carriage 100 may be shifted to the right, Fig. 8, and the carrier 175 elevated at the completion of the perforation of one field by a finger-lever 222, Fig. 8, attached to a shaft 220 journaled in a bracket 221 on the carriage. The shaft 220 is connected by links 219, 218 to a lever 217 on a sleeve 211 turning loosely on the shaft. On the sleeve is an arm 210 carrying an auxiliary pawl 213 co-operating with the wheel 198. When the lever 222 is pressed to the right, Fig. 8, to shift the carriage the pawl 213 turns the wheel 198 until a stop 215 on the arm contacts with a fixed stop 216. The bail 129 extends across the six bell-cranks 59; the bail and the card-carrier are thus prevented from moving until the punches are fully withdrawn from the cards. Specifications 199,029 and 209,387, [Class 31 (ii), Punching and perforating machines &c.], are referred to.