Patent GB-317895-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to magazine gramophones
Filed: 1928-05-25
Abstract: 317,895. Waterworth, E. N. May 25, 1928. Magazine gramophones. - Relates to gramophones, such as are described in Specifications 281,003, 300,813, and 300,814, in which a post is located above the centre of the turntable, on which post a number of records are threaded and are automatically released in succession to slide down on to the turntable. According to the invention, a spindle is arranged to move vertically through the turntable, so as to approach the end of the post when a record is to be released, and thus guide the record in its descent, the spindle being lowered after the record has been played, so as to allow the record to be removed laterally from the turntable. In the machine shown, a pile of records 3, all of which are of the same diameter (e.g. either teninch or twelve-inch), is supported as described in Specification 281,003 by means of a platform 8 and a stepped post 4 on which they are threaded, the records being released one by one so as to fall down on to the turntable (not shown) when a partial rotation of the platform 8 is effected. The spindle 15 on which the turntable is mounted is hollow, and within it is a movable spindle 17, normally held up by a spring in the position shown. A pivoted arm 23 bears against a flange 21 secured to the spindle 17. Mechanism is provided, similar to that described in Specifications 300,813 and 300,814, whereby, when the playing of a record has been completed, a wheel 39 is caused to make one revolution, and thereby actuates levers 41, 80 which effect the raising of the tone-arm, its return to a position beyond the edge of the played record, and its subsequent inward and downward movement to place the needle on the starting-point of the next record to be played. Before the latter movement occurs, the spindle 17 is lowered, the played record is automatically removed from the turntable, and a fresh record is discharged from the pile on to the turntable. All these operations are brought about by cams secured to a sleeve carrying a wheel 56 which gears with the wheel 39. One of these cams, 71, actuates a bell-crank lever 73 which causes the arm 23 to depress the spindle 17. A second cam, 53, moves an arm 61, which, by rocking a plate 62 in a vertical plane, raises a rod 64 which engages the record on the under side and tilts it, the continued rotation of the turntable causing the record to be flung off into a receptacle. The third cam 67 rocks a lever 69 which carries a pin engaging in a notched plate on the spindle of the platform 8, and by this. means the lowest record in the pile is displaced so that it can fall down the post 4 and the spindle 17 on to the turntable. The final movement by which the sound-box needle is urged into the first groove of the fresh record is effected by means described in Specification 317,703. A brake 92 is automatically applied to the turntable when the last record of the pile has been played. This brake comes into operation when a cam plate 88 is shifted by a lever 84 towards the end of a revolution of the wheel 39. Its operation is prevented, however, each time a fresh record falls on to the turntable, since the weight of the record depresses the rod 64, which, through the plate 62 and the lever 61, moves the lever 84 so as to move a pin 86 thereon out of operative engagement with the plate 88. A modification is described in which a long spindle 17 is employed, the lower end of the spindle resting on a lever movable in a vertical plane, by which the spindle is raised when required. The upper end of the spindle is provided with a flange to receive a record when it is released from the stepped post, which in this case is surrounded by a spring bearing on a disc which passes against the top record of the pile.