Patent GB-1391513-A (GB)
Title: Justifying apparatus
IPC: B41B27/36
Filed: 1972-06-19
Abstract: 1391513 Strip-perforating machines; justifying type AUTOMIX KEYBOARDS Inc 19 June 1972 [12 July 1971] 28639/72 Heading B6W Apparatus for perforating a strip for controlling a type-composing, machine is associated with means for providing a display giving a continuous indication of the line remainder and a signal indicating when the line is justifiable. A keyboard 10 Fig. 1, produces code signals on leads 12 to a perforator 14 and on leads 20 to a memory 22. The production of a character or space code is detected by a threshold detector 44 which produces a strobe pulse on leads 40, 42 to a counter 28, 30, which thereupon instaneously receives the signal, representing character width or minimum space width, from the memory. The detector 44 at the end of the strobe pulse enables a clock signal generator 36, which counts down the counter 28, 30 to zero, so that the clock provides pulses equal in number to the width units set in the counter. The line length is pre-set by switches 58, Fig. 1A. On pressing a pushbutton 78, a strobe pulse on lead 82 causes direct entry of the information from the swiches 58 into a decade register 60, 62, 64, 66, and through decoder circuits 66, 70, 72, 74 to display means 18, which show the pre-set line length in the form of four digits each made up of selected ones of seven horizontal and vertical light-emitter segments. The pulses from the generator 36 substract, by means of counter 86, the width recorded in the counter 28, 30 from the total in the accumulator or decade register so that the display means 18 provides a progressively decreasing visible indication of the line length remaining. A comparator 98, Fig. 2A, receives the count from the accumulator, and also receives the count from a register 106, 108, 110, which indicates the accumulated number of units of allowable space expansion, being the product of the maximum allowable expansion for a single space pre-set by switches 122 and the number of spaces coded. A space signal from the keyboard produces on lead 128 a strobe signal which causes the value set on the switches to be set into a counter 124, 126, and the signal also starts a multivibrator 136, Fig. 2, which counts the counter 124, 126 down to zero and the register 106, 108, 110 upwardly. When the register count received by the comparator equals or exceeds the line remainder, and inductor 16 indicates that the line is justifiable. A line-end signals cancels the indication in the indicator 16 and re-enters the pre-set line length from the switches 58 into the accumulator. A line-length signal supplies a linelength flag on lead 146, which sets a latch 148 to operate a counter 150 to energize the generator 36 to step the counter 86 and accumulator 60-66, which is thus actuated by either the pushbutton 78 or the line-length signal, and also to step upwards a counter 188, 190, 192 which produces signals through NAND gates 198, 200 to the perforator, which thus records the line length before starting on a line. The accumulator is then reset by the switch 78 for normal line-composing operation. If it is desired to delete a character, which is done by punching a hole in every column of the strip, a reverse feed signal for the strip is applied on lead 206 and a character delete signal on lead 230 to a latch 232, which sets a delete latch 238, whereupon a counter 208, 210, which normally counts up to character width value before being reset by a signal from the perforator on lead 220, now counts down, while the accumulator counts up and the line remainder indicator in the display 18 is increased. When the counter 208, 210 reaches zero, the latch 238 is reset for normal opening. For deletion of a word, a word delete signal on lead 268 sets a latch 270, and a counter 252, 254, 256 parallel to the counter 208, 210 counts downwardly, but is only reset on receipt of a space signal on lead 258. To prevent over-run, when the accumulator counts down to zero, a signal on a lead 286 locks the keyboard and the perforator.