Patent GB-190411936-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Weighing Apparatus.
Inventor: JAMES ULYSSES S
Filed: 1904-05-25
Granted: 1904-11-03
Abstract: 11,936. James, U. S. May 25. Automatic-feed weighers; indicating and registering mechanism; printing-devices; testing.-Relates to apparatus in which the loads are fed, printed records are taken of each load, and the loads are discharged, the processes following one another automatically in succession a certain number of times, say twenty, after which they are interrupted for the balance to be tested automatically, a printed record of the test being made. The weighings then proceed as before. The apparatus is described as arranged for weighing grain. It is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 in sectional front elevation and sectional side elevation respectively. The grain is fed from a hopper 26 to a hopper-shaped bucket 2 carried by a usual beam arrangement 3 within a casing 4 having a discharge hopper 5. The bucket has a swinging counterbalanced closer 6 which is connected by a rod 9 to a disc 8, to which is also connected one end of a rod 10 forming with the short rod 11 a toggle arrangement. When the toggle-joint is forcibly raised by a yoke 108 at the end of the rod 107, the disc rotates, and the load is then discharged. Standards 12 mounted on the platform support a shelf 13, upon which is placed a casing 14 enclosing certain mechanism and provided with a glass door. The load is transferred from the levers 3 by a link 21 to the centre of a lever 18, connected at one end to a short arm 16 projecting from a yoke-shaped lever 15 pivoted at the rear of its cross-bar to the standards. The other end of the lever 18 is connected by a link 22 to the actual weighing-beam 23, placed within the casing 14. The lever 15 has a longer arm 19, carrying a weight 20 sufficient to underbalance slightly the predetermined load, and its end works in a loop 25 carried from a rocking shaft 111. The lower end of the loop supports the weighted end of the arm 19 when the apparatus is at rest, while the upper end engages the weighted arm just before the load is complete in the bucket, and therefore puts this arm out of action. The hopper 26 is provided with a main valve 27 which shuts before the charge is complete, and a secondary or " drip " stream" valve 28 which closes when the full charge has been delivered. Both valves are carried from a rocking shaft 31, Fig. 16, the supports of the valve 27 being free, but those of 28 fixed thereto. The main valve closes by its own weight assisted by that of the weight 32. Its opening and closing are controlled by an adjustable arm 33 pivoted on the arm 19, and engaging a cam 36 on the valve to open the latter when the bucket rises, and releasing it to allow the valve to close when the bucket has fallen nearly to its predetermined limit. The drip-stream valve closes later by its own weight, when the lever 15 is sufficiently depressed, by the arm or latch 38 mounted on the lever'being withdrawn from an arm 37 mounted on the shaft 31. The valve 28 is opened again by means of a link 44 passing over a pin 46 on the lever 15 and connected to an arm 43 mounted on the shaft 31. As the lever 15 falls, the shaft 31 is therefore rotated, the arm 37 is raised, and as soon as it arrives above the latch 38, the latter is snapped beneath it by a spring 40. The actual weighing-beam 23 has a main weight 47 and a sliding weight 49. Equi.distant from the fulcrum of the lever 23 are plungers 50 dipping in bells 51 containing a suitable liquid and connected together by an open tube 52 having a gauge 53. A suitable liquid is a mixture of common petroleum and refrigerator plant oil. Each plunger has a perforation 54 to allow the device to act as a dash-pot. As the arm 37, Fig. 16, falls, that is as the drip valve closes, it operates, by means of a swinging arm 63 and fixed arm 60, a rocking shaft 58 having an arm 59 which is forced against a stop 65 by a spring 66. The arm 59 actuates, by means of the link 67, a catch 68, to release the end of an arm 69 carried on a shaft 83. The arm 69 throws into action the recording-means, which consist of a printing or stamping device. A shaft 56 is continuously rotated by power, and, by means of an eccentric 76 and an arm 75, it continuously oscillates two co-operating rockers 72, 73 mounted loose on the shafts 70, 74. Each of the rockers carries a pawl 77, 141 respectively, which normally move in cut-out portions of two ratchets 71, 132 mounted fast upon the shafts 70, 74 while the rocker 72 has another pawl 78 normally held away from engagement with the ratchet 71 by a guard 79, which is removed when the arm 69 is released, as above stated, by the connections 82, 81. The wheel 71 is then turned for a complete revolution, one or both of the pawls 77, 78 being in engagement. The arm 69 and the guard 79 are returned to their original positions by means of a cam on the shaft 70 engaging an arm connected to the shaft 83. The printing or recording device consists of a main printing-block 87, which is only moved when testing, and an auxiliary one 88, marked from a central " zero " with indications showing how much each separate weighing is above or below the standard, and is carried by a bowed spring 89 at the end of the balance beam 23. A ribbon or tape 91 is supported on the top of the casing 14, and its end is passed between the feeding- roll 93 and the pressure roll 92, the latter being mounted eccentrically and provided with a weight 94. The motion of the shaft 70 causes a plate 95 to slide backwards and forwards. The plate is provided with a pressure member 96 to force the tape against the printing-blocks, a sharp edge fitting into teeth on the edge of the printing- block 88 ensuring a clearly-stamped record. The main printing-member is supported by a bar 101 connected to a lever 102, the other end of which carries a plate which can be raised to act as a support for the weight 47. The cam on the shaft 70 also operates a bell-crank lever 104, and the shaft 103 of the latter has a projecting arm which is connected to the rod 107 of the toggle-breaking arrangement 108 previously referred to. The projecting arm carries a roller 109, Figs. 2 and 12, and, when the arm rises, this roller operates an arm 110 so as to rotate partially the rock-shaft 111. The latter supports an arm 115, having at its lower extremity a shoulder 116 which then engages a projection 117 from the bar 19, whereby this bar is prevented from falling when the bucket begins to discharge. It is afterwards held until the bucket has entirely discharged by a projection 119 on the arm 19 engaging with the flattened end of a shaft 120 of the wheel 8. When the wheel 8 turns to shut the closer 6, the projection 119 is released, and the arm 19 can rise. The step-bystep motion to the tape 91 is given from the bell crank lever 104 by means of a lever and a pawl operating a ratchet 121 loose on the shaft 74 of a spur-wheel gearing with another spur-wheel on the shaft of the feed-roller 93. To test automatically the machine after any predetermined number of weighings, for example twenty, the following devices are used :-After the ratchet 121 on the shaft 74 has made twenty movements, a projection 130 thereon engages a projection 131 on the ratchet 132 fast on the same shaft, and provided with a flange 128 having a cut-out portion 129, and with two opposite toothless portions. The shaft 111<1> carries an arm 133 which normally bears against the uncut portion of the flange 128, but, when the opening is brought opposite to it, that is after twenty weighings, it snaps therein under the action of a spring. A rocker 135, Fig. 2, is actuated, each time the closer 6 is opened, by a pin 136 on the wheel 8, the forward arm of the rocker being thereby raised. Fixed on the shaft 111<1>, which is not joined to the shaft 111, is an arm 137 carrying a finger 138, which engages with a notch in the end of the rocker 135. When the arm 133 engages the recess 129, the shaft 111<1> turns so that the arm 137 and finger 138 are moved outwards, and the projecting end of the latter is raised by engagement with the projecting end of the rocker 135. This raising throws a guard 143 into the path of the pawl 141, as it raises an arm fixed on a rock-shaft 146 having an arm 145 connected by a link 144 to a rocker mounted on the shaft 74 and carrying the guard. A lug 110' on the arm 110 is engaged by a lug 137' on the arm 137, as the latter is moved, whereby the shaft 111 is also rocked, and the shoulder 116 brought under the pin 117 to hold the arm 19 during the test. When the closer 6 is shut, the rocker 135 is released, and therefore the finger 138, the guard 143 being then withdrawn by a spring and allowing the pawl 141 to operate the ratchet 132 a half-rotation. During this time, a segmentai end of the shaft 74, Fig. 12, engages with the segmental end of the lever 102, whereby the other end of the latter rises to raise the weight 47. The bucket being empty and the primary beam 15 being looked, the balance is now tested, the plungers 50 acting to compensate for or equalize any variation in poise. The lever 102 also draws down the bar 101 so as to lower the main printing-block, whereby the mark " Bal " thereon is brought opposite the pressure member 96, which is then operated as above to mark that abbreviation, and also to mark the amount, if any, of the inaccuracy of the balance. The lever 102 is returned to its position by a spring 154. Radial projections 155, 156 on the ratchets 71, 132 respectively engage with one another, the projection 156, during the rotation of the ratchet 132, driving the projection 155 sufficiently to cause the pawl 77 to pass over a cut-out portion and again engage the ratchet. After the recording of the test, the projection 155 engages the projection 156 to cause the pawl 141 to pass over a cut-away portion of the ratchet 132, and thus to enable the complete rotation of the latter to be effected. The tape is moved one step after the record of a test has been made, and a second step before a succeeding load is