Patent GB-281003-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to talking machines
Filed: 1926-08-23
Abstract: 281,003. Waterworth, E. N. Aug. 23, 1926. Magazine gramophones; returning sound-box to starting-point; stopping.-Relates to machines for playing automatically in succession a number of records. According to the invention, the records are supported peripherally on a single inclined and rotatable platform, and centrally on a stepped post, and are released successively on to the turntable. The automatic brake mechanism described in Specification 269,043 is used in the present machine, but is so modified as to bring into operation means for raising the sound-box when a record has been played, and for returning it to the starting-position, where it is lowered on to the next record to be played. The brake is applied to the turntable and the motor switch opened (where an electric driving motor is used) as soon as the playing of the last record is completed. Means are provided for setting the machine to play a group of records of given size (say 10in records), or a group of records of another diameter (say 12in. records). Provision is also made for enabling any selected record to be repeated as often as a lever is moved by hand, or for setting the machine so that a single movement of a lever causes any particular record to be played over and over again. Figs. 4 and 5 show the means whereby a group of records is supported in the machine. A bent post 83 is so mounted on the turntable spindle 13 that the latter can turn within a socket in the bottom end of the post. The upper end of the post is clamped to a rod 89, the outer end of which has a sleeve, connection to an inclined spindle' 91, mounted in a support 92. This spindle carries a platform 87 having two opposed edges at different distances from the spindle 91. One or other of these edges supports the pile of records at its periphery, the post 83 passing through the central boie in the records. Two projections with inclined faces are formed on the post, the upper one 85 positioning the records so that the lowest record rests on the step 84, as shown in Fig. 5. Each supporting edge of the platform 87 has a cam plate 88 slightly less in thickness than the thickness of a record, so that when a partial rotation of the spindle 91 and plate 87 occurs, the cam adjacent to the records pushes the lowest one over the step 84, whereupon it falls on to the turntable, the remainder being supported by the step. The spindle 91 has fixed to it a rod 94 with downwardly-turned ends, one of which is always in engagement with a slot 95 in a plate 96 on a pivoted lever 97. As shown in Fig. 4, the larger arm of the plate 87 is towards the record post 83, the device being then adapted for use with ten-inch records; for twelve-inch records, the spindle 91 is raised in its bearings and turned so that the opposite end of the rod 94 is in the slot 95, the shorter arm of the plate 87 then being towards the records. When a record has been played, a lever 52, Fig. 1, pivoted at 53, is reciprocated by mechanism subsequently described, and by means of a connecting rod 98 causes a single oscillation of a lever 100, which has a T-head on which a pawl 101 is pivoted. The pawl hooks over the end of the lever 97, and, as the rod 98 moves from left to right, Fig. 1, turns the lever 97, and with it the spindle 91, thereby causing a fresh record to fall into position on the turntable. The T-head pushes back the lever 97 on the return movement of the lever 1.00. To enable a record to be played twice, a centrally-pivoted arm 104 is rocked by means of a cord 105 until a branch arm 103 thereon, by with a projection 106 on the pawl 101, moves the hooked end of the pawl clear of the lever 97. The arm 103 is temporarily held by a catch 109, which is tripped by a part 107 of the pawl at the end of the forward stroke, allowing the return of the parts to normal position. An alternative device for causing repetition consists of a lever 114<a> having a bent end 115 which engages the arm 104 when the lever 114a is moved to the position denoted by 2 on an indicator As long as the lever remains so placed, the arm 104 is retained in the position in which it holds the pawl 101 clear of the lever 97, so that successive repetitions of the playing of a selected record occurs. The raising and return.- ing of the. tone-arm to the. starting-position, which must be done before a new record is released on to the, turntable, is effected by the following means :-A pivoted plate 17, adapted to be turned about the turntable spindle. 13 by mechanism described in Specification 269,043, carries, in addition to the " pallet wheel " 15, a pinion 56 which is fixed on the spindle of the wheel 15. When the plate 17 is rocked, at the end of the playing of a record, the pinion 56 gears with a. wheel 49, mounted on the baseplate. This wheel is connected by a crank pin and rod 51 to the lever 52, and a single oscillation of this lever is thus effected by one revolution of the wheel 49. Means are provided for allowing the pinion 56 to move out of mesh with the wheel 49 as soon as one revolution of the wheel has been made. The lever 52 carries near its outer end a cam plate 58, which engages a grooved stud 59, mounted on a frame 60 that is pivotally supported on a spindle 61. When the plate 58 moves outwardly, by acting on the stud 59 it raises the frame 60, which, through a curved part 64 engaged by a bar 65 extending from the tone-arm, lifts the tone-arm so that the stylus leaves the record. A curved plate 66, pivoted on the end of the lever 52, engages a pin 7 carried by the tone-arm, and pushes the latter outwardly afters it has been raised. At the same time, the end 72 of a bell-crank lever 71 follows the end of the lever 52 until a part 71a of the bell-crank abuts against an adjustable stop 77. This can be arranged, by means of a setting- lever 80, in either of two positions, according to the size of the records used. The. part 71<a> carries two stop-pins 73, 74, which are engagable by a cam-shaped lug (not shown), moving with the tone-arm. This lug brushes past the stop-pins during the outward movement of the tone arm, but abuts against one or other of them, according to the setting of the part 77, soon after the inward movement of the tone-arm commences. The correct starting position of the needle on the record is thus determined. The inward movement of the tone-arm is effected by a spring- controlled pawl 68 on the plate 66, engaging the pin 7 when the lever 52 makes the return stroke. After the tone-arm has been stopped by one of the pins 73, 74, the pawl 68 slips past the pin 7, and the tone-arm is then lowered by the cam 58 leaving the stud 59. The stylus is moved from the blank margin of the record into the soundgroove by the light pull of a weight on a chain 82 attached to a bracket on the tone-arm. The machine is stopped after the playing of the last record by means similar to that described in the prior Specification referred to above. The quadrant 36, moved by a pawl 34 after each record has been played, is, however, modified by providing in ib a number of teeth corresponding to the number of records to be played, and the same number of notches for the brake lever 42.