Patent GB-554935-A (GB)
Title: System and apparatus for facsimile telegraphy
IPC: H04N1/08
Filed: 1942-01-23
Abstract: 554,935. Feeding sheets to machines. CREED & CO., Ltd. Jan. 23, 1942, No. 973. Convention date, April 18, 1941. [Class 100 (i) [Also in Group XL] A facsimile receiving machine (see Group XL) comprises in combination a recording cylinder, means for holding a sheet on the cylinder, means for delivering a succession of sheets, a stop for locating a delivered sheet in feeding position with one edge adjacent the cylinder, means for pushing said edge against the cylinder into engagement with the holding means thereon whereby rotation of the cylinder causes said sheet to be wrapped round the cylinder, and means responsive to the removal of a sheet from feeding position for operating the delivery means to locate another sheet in feeding position. The sheets 32, Fig. 9, on which messages are to be recorded are arranged on a belt and wound up into a reel 31 on a spindle 34. The sheets are preferably overlapped as shown, and have a corner notch 121 for permitting the engagement of a stripper as described below. The ends of the shaft 34 of the reel 31 are mounted in inclined slots 35, Fig. 3, in brackets at the back of a front panel 24. The reel 31 rests against a roller 37, and the belt 33 unwound from the reel passes over an idler top roller 41, Fig. 6, and under an idler bottom roller 43 to a take-up reel 46 driven by a motor 51, which also drives a ventilating fan 54. An endless belt 57 extends between the top idler roller 41 and a bottom idler roller 55 behind the roller43. The space between the belts 33, 57 from the roller 41 to the rollers 43, 55 forms a downwardly flaring shoot The sheets are guided off the reel 31 by a guide plate 38 and guide straps 39 and taken over the roller 41 between the two belts 33, 57 and dropped one at a time down the shoot between these belts. The dropped sheet comes to rest between fingers 62, 63 on ledges 61 at the end of the fingers 62. When the sheet is to be wound on the recording drum 65 a solenoid 84 is energized (usually by a phasing pulse) causing its core 82 to be moved inwards against the tension of a spring 85. A grooved roller 81 on the inner end of the core 82 then presses the bottom edge of the sheet from the ledges 61 to the recording drum 65, teeth 71 on this roller bite into the sheet, and the sheet is wrapped round the drum by the rotation of the drum. The sheet is guided over the drum 65 at one end by a plate 132, Fig. 5, and a strip 133, and the sheet is pressed against the drum at the other end by a spring-urged roller 86. The corner notch 121 in the sheet is situated at this end within reach of a stripping finger 122 on the armature 123 of an electromagnet 124, which is energized when the sheet is to be stripped off the recording drum. When a sheet has been fed from the ledges 61 to the drum 65, the motor 51 is automatically set in operation to drop the next sheet on the fingers in readiness for the next operation. This automatic control is performed by a photo-electric device, Fig. 8, comprising a lamp 93 and a cell 91 in a casing 92, and a reflector 94 adapted to be covered by a sheet 32 in feeding position so that no light is then reflected on to the cell 91. When the sheet is removed and wrapped round the drum 65, light from the lamp 93 is reflected by reflector 94 on to the cell 91, and this causes the circuit of the motor 51 to be switched on to drive the belt feed mechanism until a fresh sheet has been dropped in feeding position. To indicate to the attendant of the machine that the supply reel is nearing exhaustion, one of the sheets near the end is given a distinct mark or colour. Alternatively, the condition of the reel may be indicated on a scale by a pointer connected to a spring-urged feeler bearing on the reel. This feeler device may also close a switch to give an alarm. The whole of the belt feed mechanism is carried by the front panel 24 which is mounted on vertical hinges and can be swung open to give access to the parts behind it. When the panel is swung open, it releases a plunger which allows a main switch to open to cut off the main power supply to the machine. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 describes also a receiver in which the sheets are inserted by hand in a shoot down which the sheet drops on to finger stops from which it is pushed on to the drum by a phasing magnet. This subjectmatter does not appear in the Specification as accepted.