Patent GB-191308286-A (GB)
Title: An Improved Machine for Supplying and Affixing Postage Stamps to Letters or other similar Postal Packages, and for Cancelling said Stamps.
Inventor: HEDGES ALBERT ERNEST
Filed: 1913-04-08
Granted: 1914-04-02
Abstract: 8286. Hedges, A. E. April 8. Stamp-applying. - Comprises a coin-freed machine for affixing stamps to letters, cancelling the stamps, and delivering the stamped letters into a receptacle ready for sorting. A letter is placed in a holder 28, Fig. 7, and an arm 24 pivoted at x and adapted to fall into a vertical position when released from a catch 34<1> upon a rod 33<a>, which is normally held down against the action of a spring 37 by a plate 39 pivoted at 40 and a catch-pawl 43. This is effected by a coin-actuated lever 24<1> rocking the lever 49 of the pawl 43. A bar 57 pivoted to a slide 55 reciprocating on rods 56 restores the parts to the normal position. A catch 30 prevents the arm 24 from falling unless a letter is placed in the holder 28. The hand-turned driving- shaft 9, Fig. 4, is normally locked by a pivoted finger 15. When the arm 24 has been allowed to fall by the insertion of a coin and by placing a letter in the holder 28, pins y on the end of the arm engage a cam 26 on an arm 21 and rock this on its pivot 22 so that its end 20 leaves the bent end of an arm 16 and allows this to rock under the action of a weight 16<1>. A pin 18 on the arm 16 then depresses the finger 15 to release the shaft 9. When the arm 24 has fallen, the letter is transferred into a fixed holder 126 and then into a second holder 107, Fig. 7, slidable laterally on a guide 83. Each of the holders comprises a pair of pivoted jaws adapted to hold the letter in a vertical position, and while in the second holder the letter is damped and stamped. It is damped by a pad 136, Fig. 20, carried by a plunger 138 reciprocated by a pin 142 on a disk 99 on the driving-shaft 9 and by a spring 139<a>. Stamps are severed either from a strip or from a sheet. In the first case the strip is fed from a roll Z by bent pins 155 on a disk 156 which pierce the strip; the disk is rotated by a pawl 160 carried by a pivoted arm 161 rocked by connexion with the damping-plunger 138. The shaft 158 of the feeding-disk is braked by a .disk 165, Fig. 4, engaging with a block 166 which is pressed upon it by a spring. The stamps are severed and affixed by a plunger 143<a>, Fig. 20, which coacts with a die-plate 157 and is reciprocated by a pin carried by a disk 98 on the shaft 9 and by a spring 146. When stamps are to be severed from a sheet, this is made into an endless band and the blank paper at one edge is fixed by pins 237, Fig. 23, to a band 236 mounted on sleeves carried by a plate 239 so as to be slidable along vertical rollers 231, 232, one of which is rotated by a ratchet-wheel 232<a> and a pawl carried by an arm 161. Another pawl on this rotates a wheel 241. At each actuation, the pawl that turns the wheel 232<a> rides upon a shield 244, and when one strip of the sheet has been used, the shorter of two studs 242, 243 upon the wheel 241 moves the shield 244 so that the pawl gives the wheel 232<a> a double impulse to carry the blank edging of the stamp sheet past the cutter. The blank edging in each strip is removed by a die integral with and at the side of the affixing-die, but slightly set back therefrom. To bring another strip of the sheet into operation, the plate 239 and the band 236 are allowed to fall by an escapement-pawl 245 which engages with racks 246 and is rocked by links 248, 249, and a lever 249<a> rocked by the longer of the studs 242, 243. The stamped letter is transferred into a gripper 132, 133, Fig. 21, above a pair of rollers 178, 178<a>, the latter being carried by pivoted arms adapted to be rocked to bring the rollers together and feed the latter downwards into a receptacle in the base of the machine. The roller 178<a> is turned by bevel-wheels 197, 196, a pinion 193, and a reciprocating rack 191. A type-holding roller 199, Figs. 14 and 15, is secured by a bayonetfastening to one end of the feed-roller 178<a>, and segmental type 199b are inserted in a groove in the roller and are clamped between a rubber block 199<c> and a plate 204 by a screw 205.