Patent GB-660044-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to apparatus for recording movement
IPC: G07C5/06
Filed: 1949-01-28
Abstract: 660,044. Recording-apparatus. HILL, R. J. Jan. 19, 1950 [Jan. 28, 1949], No. 2418/49. Class 106 (iv). An in-motion recorder comprises a rotatable cylinder and parallel guide-rod on which is mounted a stylus bearing against the cylinder and bearing in turn against spaced stops on a timing rod parallel to the cylinder until released at a predetermined angular position of the timing-rod with clock-controlled mechanism for rotating the cylinder and timing-rod in synchronism. A series of waxed record sheets, each providing for a record for the seven days of the week laterally displaced from one another is formed as a continuous roll housed in a cylinder 13 which may be covered in rubber and is open at both ends, the sheet for one week at a time being drawn out of a slot 22, wrapped round the cylinder and held by spring-clips 23. An axially-bored bush carried by a web 16 at one end of the cylinder, and clock mechanism 14 a tight spring-fit at the other end, are mounted on a central spindle 17 formed at its ends with flats engaging vertical slots in a frame 12 and having a knurled wheel 18 for winding the clockwork when the cylinder is removed. A stylus 15 is mounted on a strip 38 of spring steel urging it against the cylinder 13 and extending across a slot 39 of a pendulum 40 pivotally mounted at 41 on a bracket 25 guided on rods 24 secured in end-pieces 26 horizontally pivoted and urged along the rods by a cord 29 passing over a pulley 30 to a spring-urged drum 28. Movement of the bracket 25 is restrained by a timing-pin 33 thereon engaging successively a series of seven semicircular stops 32, each offset at 180 degrees from its adjacent stop on a timing-rod 31 which is driven from the clockwork so as to rotate once in 48 hours so that the pin 33 moves from one stop to the next at the end of each 24 hours and the stylus records in a new column a thin straight line if the vehicle to which the apparatus is fixed is stationary with its engine off, a thicker line if the engine is on, and a thicker line still if the vehicle is moving. At the end of seven days the used sheet is removed, a new sheet drawn into position and the cylinder removed while the bracket 25 is tilted to bring the pin 33 out of the line of the stops and is moved back along the guide-rods to initial position. The cylinder is replaced after winding the clock and the cylinder and timing- rod set in correct angular relation with the aid of appropriate graduations on a timing-wheel 37 and the record sheet in co-operation with indicators. Recording may be by pen and ink and for other periods and numbers of periods. The timing-rod may comprise a cylindrical rod with a pair of parallel grooves in which the flanges 32 may be secured by friction and a pair of flanges may be stamped from a single piece of sheet metal in the shape of two semi-circles joined by a rectangle with a dumb-bell shaped slot cut from the centre and sheared through the radius of one semi-circle. The cylinder 13, rods 24, 31, may be arranged vertically, the stylus travelling down under gravity.