Patent GB-190307939-A (GB)
Title: Gramaphone, or the like, with Means for Automatically Changing the Plates.
Inventor: BREE THERESE
Filed: 1903-04-06
Granted: 1903-06-11
Abstract: 7939. Bree, T. April 6. Gramophones &c.-A gramophone or like instrument is fitted with an adjustable rack or holder, from and to which the tune plates are moved automatically by a clockwork mechanism freed by dropping in a coin. The coin is dropped through a shoot 15, Fig. 1, into a hopper 16 on a lever 17, which removes a hook 19 from a crank 48 on the winding axle 37 of the clockwork. The clock spring is then wound up by a handle on the axle 37, and the pin of the crank 48, moving in slides 47 on the carriage 45, carries the sides of a frame 41 pivoted at the rear of the machine, thus removing the tune plates 4 singly from the rack or holder 3, and depositing them on the table 4<a>. The recording- pin 30 of the phonograph 29 on the arm 28 is then dropped upon the tune plate, which is rotated by the clockwork until the tune is rendered. At the end of the record, the pin 30 enters a groove, which turns sharply towards the centre of the disc, and carries over the arm 28 and a jointed lever 34, releasing a locking-device, and coupling the spindle 37 to the device for moving back the carriage 45, so as to replace the plate 4. The plate holder 3 is counterbalanced by a weight on the other end of the suspending-cord 7, and is guided by a rod 6. It is lifted by a locking-rod 8, which is engaged with the notches in the side plate 9. Indications respecting the pieces of music are placed at the notches. To prevent the holder from being moved during the reproduction of a piece of music, the rod 8 is locked by a perforated spring plate 11, hinged on the inner side of the plate 9, engaging with a projection 14 on the rod 8. While the tune plate is being withdrawn from the holder 3, the frame 41 is upheld by the segmental cam 44 on the spindle 37, and the plate is deposited on the table 4<a> as the spring 20 is wound up. When the crank 48 has turned over to its extreme position, it comes below a catch 53 on a spring 56, while the lever 49. pivoted to the crank 48, strikes the stop 54, and therefore frees the wheel 51 on the spindle 37, so that the spring 20 may be wound up further. Each revolution of the spindle 37 causes the tooth 75, Fig. 6, upon it to rotate a wheel 73 on a pin 66 until the spring is wound up, when the stop 74 prevents any further movement in that direction. The stop 74 now moves the nose 71 and raises the lever 67, so that the nose 68, Fig. 1, releases a pin on the side of the pawl 60, and the plate 69 releases an arm on the regulator 27 of the clockwork. The pawl 60. Fig. 7, having now dropped into the toothed disc 58, the disc 59 is carried round, and the pin 61 upon it slides under an oblique cam-shaped part of the jointed lever 34 until a wing or projection on the lever engages with the vertical pin on the pawl 60, which is then lifted out of the teeth of the disc 59, freeing the disc 58. The cam-shaped part of the lever 34, Fig. 1, sliding on the pin 61, has now lowered the pin 30 to the record plate, which is rotated by the clockwork. The first backward rotation of the spindle 37 during the reproduction of the music causes a backward extension of the tooth 75, Fig. 6, to strike the disc supporting the nose 71 and the lever 67, which is lowered until its end is at the same level as the pin on the side of the pawl 60, Fig. 7. At the end of the tune, the sudden movement of the lever 34 causes the wing or projection on it to release the pawl 60, which couples together the parts 58, 59 until the pawl 60 bears against the nose of the lever 67. The pin 61 then bears against and raises the lever 34, which lifts the pin 30 from the record, and is moved back to the starting point. While the part 59 is making half a revolution, the side rib 62 comes behind the extension piece of the releasing-device 57, which presses back the locking-device 56. The lever 49 now engages with the wheel 51, and the crank 48 and cam 49 are coupled to the spindle 37, and the carriage 45 removes the record to the holder 3. At the end of the backward movement of the crank 48, it strikes the catch 19, which actuates the device for opening the flap of the hopper 16, so that the coin in it drops, the counterweighted lever 17 tilts back again, and the hook 19 holds the crank 48. In a modification, the carriage 45, Fig. 17, is moved by racks. 77, 78, the rack 78 being connected to the spindle 37 by a spring lever 49, and disconnected when the lever strikes the atop 54.