Patent GB-289786-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in photographic copying apparatus
IPC: G03B27/465
Filed: 1928-04-30
Abstract: 289,786. McCarthy, G. L. April 30, 1927, [Convention date]. Addition to 273,234. Copying. -In apparatus according to the parent Specification for continuously copying and recording documents such as bank cheques, (1) the endless bands which holds the cheques &c. against the face of the conveyer band are tautened automatically, and are so mounted that their idle portions do not obstruct the photographic field; (2) provision is made for cancelling the cheques automatically; (3) when the film in the camera is nearly exhausted, the operator is warned by a device which either furnishes a visible or audible signal, or arrests the operation of the apparatus; (4) the driving trains of the conveyer and camera shutter are simplified; (5) a counter indicates the number of cheques fed through the apparatus; and (6) modified means for operating the apparatus from a listing and computing machine is employed. In the form shown, the cheques &c. 19, Fig. 1, are fed by hand, from a pile on a platform 42, into a throat 16, whence they are fed in succession between a roller 21 and an adjustable spring- pressed roller 20 on to an endless conveyer belt 24 mounted on rollers 21, 25 and supported in rear of the front bight by a panel 40. The cheques are held against the belt by wires 28 which may be three in number; the two outer wires pass over the roller 20 and over guide pulleys 30, 32, 33 so placed that the parts of the wires which are not actually engaged in supporting the cheques lie outside the focal range 23 of the camera 22; and the middle wire passes over the roller 20 and a pulley 30 only, the image of its idle portion 155 coinciding in the copy with that of its active portion. Weighted bell-cranks 157 carry rollers 161 pressing on the wires to maintain them taut. Before the cheques pass out of the machine into a container 46, they encounter an adjustable roller 163 which prints the word " cancelled " on them, the types 164 being inked by a roller 165. The camera 22 has a side door 135 to give access to the film spools 93, 110, Fig. 5, and the chamber housing the slide apparatus has a door opposite the door 135. The feed and take-up sprockets 97, 106, driven by a common gear 100, supply a slack loop of film to the focal plane 102, and the film is fed intermittently past this panel by cam-actuated claw mechanism 103, 104 driven from the gear 100. A spring-urged bell-crank lever 130 bears on the coil of film on the supply spool 93 and closes a contact 132 in a circuit including an audible or visible signal device 134 when the film spool is almost exhausted. In front of the Lens 74 is an apertured rotary disc shutter 71 in an apertured casing 72. On either side of the focal range 23 of the camera are lamps 92 fitted with reflectors 91 for illuminating the cheques on the belt 24. The various parts of the apparatus are driven by a motor 50, which is connected by belt gearing 53, 56 to a pulley 57 carrying a pinion 60 meshing with a gear 61 loose on a shaft 36. Actuation of a hand-lever 43 temporarily throws in clutch mechanism of the kind described in the parent Specification to connect the gear 61 to the shaft 36, and drive the shaft 26 of the conveyer belt roller 21 through mutilated gearing 64, Fig. 4, which rotates the shaft 26 during only the first half revolution of the shaft 36; the belt thereby is advanced sufficiently to feed one cheque, and remains stationary during the second half-revolution of the shaft 36. A finger 69, Fig. 4, on the shaft 36 actuates a counter 67 of any well-known type. After two cheques have been fed into the focal range 23, and while the belt 24 is temporarily at rest, the shutter disc 71 makes an exposure; this disc is driven from the shaft 36 by chain 78 and bevel gearing 84 so that it rotates once for each two revolutions of the shaft 36. The gear 100 of the film feeding-mechanism is driven by bevel gearing from the shaft 81 of the shutter driving-mechanism, and the exposure is made on the return stroke of the film feeding claw 103 when the film in the focal plane 102 is stationary. The camera, together with the associated shutter driving and film feeding mechanism actuated by the chain 78, is displaceable axially for focusing, any resultant slack in the chain 78 being taken up by an adjustable roller 89. The roller 163 which cancels the cheques is driven from the shaft 26 through bevel gearing 171, shaft 172 and bevel gearing 173. The motor 50 and lamps 92 may be connected across the supply mains 136, 136<a>, Fig. 8, and be controlled by a switch 137 mounted in the table 42. The bell-crank device for indicating when the film on the supply spool 93 is nearly exhausted may, instead of actuating the signal 134, operate a cut-out switch 181 in series with the motor 50 to disconnect the drive. A listing and computing machine 141 of known kind may be mounted adjacent to the copying apparatus, and its operation may control the copying. The operation of the printing and computing handle 144 of this machine, after the amount of the cheque has been set up on the keys 142, and the cheque has been placed in the throat 16, may be caused to closes a switch 147 in circuit with an electromagnet 151, Figs. 1 and 8, which through linkage 152, 154 actuates the clutch lever 43 controlling the cheque-feeding mechanism of the copying apparatus. The hand drive 144 of the listing machine may be replaced in known manner by a motor drive 176 controlled by a switch 178. The copying apparatus is enclosed in a casing supported on wheels 179.