Patent GB-669532-A (GB)
Title: Justification device for photographic type-composing machines
IPC: B41B27/32
Filed: 1946-08-13
Abstract: 669,532. Photographic type - composing. HIGONNET, R. A. E., and MOYROUD, L. M. Aug. 13, 1946 [June 2, 1945], No. 23991/46. [A Specification was laid open to inspection under Sect. 91 of the Acts, Aug. 13, 1946.] Class 98 (i). A method of justifying lines of characters composed by a photographic type composing machine of the kind described in Specification 669,531, comprises composing a line with interwords each corresponding to an integral number of elementary width units and storing the composed line in a register; determining the line deficit by counting, in terms of elementary width units, the length of the line and comparing the length with the desired length of the line in a primary counter; counting the number of interwords in the line in an interword counter, and dividing by, selector means operable electrically, by the primary and interword counters, the line deficit by the number of interwords in the line to obtain a quotient q and a remainder r, and expanding the line, during the photographing thereof, to the desired length by adding (q+ 1) elementary width units to the first or last r interwords in the line and q elementary width units to the other interwords. A justifier for use with a photographic type-composing machine of the kind described in Specification 669,531 includes a primary counter for counting the length of a line to be justified in elementary width units and an interword counter for counting the number of interwords in the line ; and selector means operable electrically by the primary and interword counters so to control the relative movement between the light-sensitized surface and the projected images of the characters during photography of the line of characters as to relatively advance the light-sensitized surface during the formation of the first or last r interwords by a distance corresponding to (i+q+1) elementary width units, and, during the formation of the other (n - r) interwords, by a distance corresponding to (i+q) elementary width units, where q is the quotient of the division of the line deficit D (in elementary width units) by n, the number of interwords in the line counted by the interword counter, r the remainder of the division, and i is a preselected number of elementary width units. As shown, during composition of a line, a ratchet-toothed wheel in unit 169, Fig. 5, is rotated each time a character is recorded by an amount proportional to the width of the character, and each time an interword space is recorded by an amount proportional to a minimum interword space of i units. The length of the line is thus accumulated on unit 169, which is normally clutched by a clutch 168 to a counter 160, a pointer of which is moved round a scale representing the total length of the line. A second pointer is set to the minimum length of line which can be readily justified. When the line being typed attains this length, electric contacts, one on each pointer, are closed, a warning device such as a bell is operated, clutch 168 is released, and a normally disengaged clutch 170 is engaged, so that for the remainder of the line unit 169 drives a unit 171. The number of interword spaces in a line is counted by a device 175, Fig. 6, having a pointer 174 which is moved from one terminal to the next each time the space bar of the keyboard is depressed. The terminals are connected to a series of circular conducting rails 176 carried by a cylindrical sheet of insulating material. An arm 179 moves between this cylinder and an inner cylinder, being mounted on a shaft 172 coaxial with the cylinders, and carries a set of conducting pins 178 spring urged to contact at one end, the rails 176, and at the other, the outer surface of the inner cylinder. The latter surface, which carries conducting plates insulated from each other, is shown, in development in Fig. 3, wherein the scale y represents the number of interword spaces n, and the scale x represents the length D, measured in the chosen length units, by which the line typed D is shorter than the justified length. If-=q+r, n then the line is to be justified by increasing all interword spaces by the quotient q units, and further increasing the first or last r spaces (r being the remainder) by one unit. As the line is typed, pointer 174 is moved step by step until it contacts the nth terminal which is connected to the nth rail. The rails are represented by the lines parallel to Ox in Fig. 3. The shaft 171 is driven by the unit 169 as described above, after the line has reached the minimum length for justification. The rotation of the arm 179 is therefore proportional to the length of the line in excess of the minimum. The arm, as represented by b1, b2, in Fig. 3, is moved towards Oy. The distance between Oy and the final position of b1, b2, represents the length D, since the initial distance of b1, b2 from Oy represents the difference between the minimum and maximum lengths of justified lines. A positive potential source is now connected through a switch 177, brush 174, the nth terminal on 175 the nth rail of the outer cylinder, and the nth pin on the arm 179 to a point on the surface of the inner cylinder represented by the co-ordinates n, D in Fig. 3. The lines Oα, O#, Oy, O# in Fig. 3 represent points for which n=D, 2D, 3D, 4D respectively. The first conducting plate covers a narrow zone i adjacent Oy. For points on Oy, D=O, i.e. the line is of the required length when the interword spaces have the minimum value i. This plate is connected to an electromagnet Eo on the carriage advance mechanism to move the carriage a distance i whenever the code indication of a space occurs, on the register. The next zone, t+1, extends just beyond the line Oα, the next just beyond the line O#, and so on to zone t+4. The zones i+5 ... i+8 surround points for which n= 5D, 6D... 8D. Each zone is connected to one of the electromagnets E1, E2 ... which cause the carriage to move distances i+1, i+2 ... at each interword space. As each space is recorded, the pointer of 175 is moved back one terminal, and the arm 179 is moved back by a distance representing the length of the space, in excess of the minimum space i. The parts thus return to their original positions when the line, has been recorded. All the parts of the justifier are duplicated in a machine, so. that one line may be photographed while the next line is being composed.