Patent GB-458113-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to the keyboards of key-operated typographical machines
IPC: B41B27/04
Filed: 1935-06-13
Abstract: 458,113. Keyboards for type-barmaking machines &c. LINOTYPE & MACHINERY, Ltd., 9, Kingsway, London.- (Assignees of Nolte, P. ; 35, Invalidenstrasse, Berlin) June 13, 1935, Nos. 17111 and 17112. Convention dates, June 14, 1934 and May 21, 1935. [Classes 100 (iii) and 100 (iv)] In keyboards for matrix - composing machines, typewriters, and like typographical machines, of the kind provided with multiplefaced keybuttons pivotally adjustable to bring a desired face into operative position, each keybutton is provided with a device for locking it in the operative position which is rendered active and inactive by axial displacement of the keybutton on its pivot. The keybutton 4, Fig. 2, which is of square or other suitable shapes, is provided on each face with a differently formed character, and is pivotally mounted on the key-lever 1 by means of a screw 8, The end 6 of the key-lever is formed with a square or other suitably shaped projection 7 which is pressed into engagement with a corresponding opening in the keybutton by a spring 9, thus locating and locking the button with the desired face uppermost Alternatively, projecting pins and blocks of various shapes on the key-levers engaging in corresponding shaped recesses on the buttons or suitable ratchet wheels may constitute the locating and locking means. For changing the faces displayed by the keybuttons, pins 5 are provided, one corresponding to each button face, and adapted to be engaged by spring-pressed pawls 12, Fig. 4, carried by a sliding bar 10. All the keys of a row may be changed simultaneously by moving the bar 10 to the left, as shown, when cam surfaces 11a carried by the bar first move the keybuttons outwards against the springs 9, and therefore out of locking engagement with the ends of the key-levers, whereupon the pawls 12 engage the appropriate pins 5 and rotate the buttons through a suitable angle to expose an adjacent face of the keybutton. In a modification, the keybuttons are provided with gears and a shaft is provided for each row of buttons, carrying a cam and a mutilated gear, so that upon rotation of the shaft the cam first moves the keybutton outwardly, and then the mutilated gear engages the gear on the button and rotates it through the desired angle. Two cams may be provided on the shaft so that the keybuttons are changed on both forward and backward rotation of the shaft, or the shaft may be slidable to one side or the other of the keybuttons to ensure that these can be rotated in both directions. In both modifications, all the rows may be changed simultaneously by coupling together the actuating means and operating them by means of a crank &c: When applied to a typographical composing-machine in which a change of type-face is effected by shifting the matrixmagazines, this change may simultaneously effect a change in the faces of the keybuttons, for example by connecting the crank changing the magazines with the shafts for rotating the keybuttons, as described in the second modification, all these shafts being then geared together.