Patent GB-725554-A (GB)
Title: An improved device for use in timing an event
Inventor: STOKES HERBERT HAROLD
IPC: G07C1/26
Filed: 1953-01-02
Abstract: 725,554. Time recorders. ROTHERHAM & SONS, Ltd. Sept. 25, 195.3 [Jan. 2, 1953.], No. 115/53. Class 106 (4). A time recorder of the type including at least one chronometrically-rotated disc-like chart to be punctured aequentially at a different distance from its centre by a needle each time a manual control is operated for transferring to a magazine each one of a series of identical tokens which are separately inserted to symbolize different stages of the event and to establish a driving connection between the control and the needle operating mechanism, comprises a lever rockable on a shaft parallel to a radius of the chart to act upon the needle for puncturing the chart each time the control is operated to deliver a token to the magazine, and the needle, its support and the lever are slid as an assembly along the shaft, by means actuated by the return movement of the control, whereby to assume the position for puncturing the chart when the next inserted token is delivered to the magazine. The invention is shown applied to a recorder for timing pigeon races wherein two circular charts 23, 24, Fig. 1, are secured respectively to hour and minute arbors which pass freely through a plate 22 of a frame housed in a casing 20 closed by a cover 21 which is locked at the beginning of a race by an official, who also inserts the first of the'tokens 25, in the form of hollow cylinders, the subsequent ones containing identifying rings taken from the birds completing the course. A token is inserted through an opening 26, Fig. 6, in the casing and frame part 35 between movable jaws 27 and is then transferred to a magazine by operating an outwardly-extending handle 28 which works in a slot 29 in the frame part 35 and also in an arcuate slot 30 of a pivoted plate 31 which prevents tampering. The handle 28 is secured to a feed slide 34, Fig. 4, having a pin 40 which rocks, against a biasing spring 110, an arm 41 which is pivoted at 42 to the frame part 35 and has a tooth 43 in the path of a three-armed star wheel 44 journalled at 45 from a member 46 itself pivoted at 47 on a bridge member 36 fast on the frame part 35. The jaws 27 are formed on a pair of arms 37, 38 each formed from a pair of parallel plates, Fig. 9, pivoted to the bridge member 36 at 39, 47 and each having at its opposite end a pin 101 interconnected by a spring 100. Initially the arms 37, 38 are in positions shown in Fig. 4, but they are separated by the insertion of a token in the opening 26 and after the token has been transferred to the magazine they spring inwardly again to retain the token. Initial movement of the handle 28 will cause the token to act on cam surfaces 108 to separate arms 37, 38 and withdraw the pins 101 from notches 102 in the slide 34 which is now free to slide between guides 103 with a push-rod 105 at the rear of an opening 106, Fig. 10, pushing the token toward the magazine, at the leading end 107 of the opening the slide is bowed inwardly to prevent a token re-entering the opening 106 after it has been delivered to the magazine. In passing down the magazine the token deflects a spring-biased arm 104, Fig. 4, which returns to an obstructing position to prevent the token from returning to the top of the magazine. As the slide 34 moves to deliver a token to the magazine, the tooth 43 turns the star wheel 44 to rock the member 46, against a biasing spring 48, for rooking, against another biasing spring 111, a lever 51 supporting the needle 50 for causing the needle to puncture the chart, Fig. 1. The lever 51 is pivoted on a shaft 52 and is engaged between the arms of a fork 53 at one end of an L-shaped bracket 54, which is slidable on a parallel shaft 55. The other end of the bracket 54 supports tubular guide 56 for the needle 50. The slide 34 has a cam tooth 70, Fig. 4, which, during the return of the slide to its starting position, engages one of the pins 71 of a pin wheel 72 to rotate it one step, the wheel being located after each step by a spring biased member 73. One arm 81 of a two-armed lever bears on a snail cam 80 fast on the pin wheel 72 while the other arm 82, Fig. 1, is bifurcated and urges the bracket 54, against a coil spring arranged about the shaft 55 so that each time the slide 34 is returned to its initial position the snail cam is indexed and displaces the bracket 54, with the needle 50 and lever 51, one step along the parallel shafts 52, 55 until say seven tokens have been inserted whereupon the snail cam 80 allows the bracket 54 to return to. initial position. A further device for preventing tampering. is a hooked latch member 114 journalled on the pivot 39 for the arm 38 and biased by a spring 115 so that its tail 116 abuts a pin 117 on the arm 38. As the slide 34 is moved to deliver a token to the magazine its pin 40 deflects the latch 114 through engagement with a cam surface 119 after which the latch 114 springs back into the return path of the pin 40 where it remains so long as the arms 37, 38 are separated thus preventing reverse movement of the slide 34 to index the snail cam 80 or operate the member 46 for puncturing the charts before the token has been delivered to the magazine. Further pairs of notches 120, 121 in the slide 34, Fig. 10, prevent dishonest actuation of the mechanisms by slight reverse and forward movements of the slide 34. The plain side of the pin wheel 72 may have numbers visible through a window 90, Fig. 6, to indicate the number of tokens inserted.