Patent GB-404666-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in magazine talking machines
IPC: G11B17/16
Filed: 1932-07-15
Abstract: 404,666. Magazine gramophones. ELECTRIC & MUSICAL INDUSTRIES, Ltd., Blyth Road, Hayes, Middlesex, and BARNES, N., Kenton, Amersham Hill Drive, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. July 15, 1932, No. 20082. [Class 40 (ii).] Stopping mechanism for a magazine gramophone is adapted to be maintained inoperative by contact of a component thereof with the periphery of a record in the magazine, and to be preliminarily set, when the last record is removed from the magazine, for subsequent operation to stop the machine after playing of the last record has been completed. The invention is shown as applied to a machine of the kind described in Specification 359,106, in which a pile of records is held above the turntable by diametrically opposed pairs of movable supports. Each pair comprises a main supporting plate 41 pivoted on levers 42, (of which only one is shown in Fig. 3), which levers are mounted for rocking movement on pivot pins 43, 44, and a secondary supporting plate 45 pivoted on a channel-section lever 46. On one of the pins 44 is also pivoted a lever 60, which, when one or more records are resting on the supports 41, engages the periphery thereof, and is pressed into the dotted-line position shown in Fig. 3. The lever 60 bears against a flange 65 on a lever 66, to which lever it is connected by a spring 68. When the lever 60 is pressed back as described, it holds the lever 66 in the position shown in Fig. 5, in which its end 72 is clear of a pin 74 projecting up from a plate 35 which rotates with the reproducer arm 10. The end 72 of the lever 66 is formed with a " fence " 73 and a detent 71, Fig. 10, which function in the manner described subsequently. The plate 35 forms part of the mechanism for swinging the reproducer arm 10 during record-changing, the plate, (which is fixed to a downward extension of a rotatable pillar 12 on which the arm 10 is pivoted, Fig. 9) having a slot 36 within which projects a pin 31 carried by a lever 25. The pin is located between an edge of the slot and a spring-actuated finger 37, and serves, by engagement with these parts, to swing the arm 10 first outwardly and then inwardly to the position for commencement of playing a record, when the lever 25 is oscillated by a cam on a shaft 9, Fig. 3. A lever 21 actuated by another cam on the shaft 9 effects the raising of the arm 10, prior to swinging, by coacting with a bell-crank lever 16, Fig. 9. The operation of the machine is as follows. When the playing of a record is completed, (other records being piled on the supports 41), the stylus enters a run-out groove on the record and this movement causes a clutch to be actuated in known manner, so as to couple the camshaft 9 to the turntable spindle. A single revolution of this shaft occurs, during which the cams thereon effect the raising and outward swinging of the reproducer arm, a record is released from the pile by reciprocation of the supports 41, 45 as described in Specification 359,106 and falls on to the turntable, and the reproducer is finally moved inwards and lowered on to the starting point of the fresh record. If the record fed to the turntable is the last one of the series, as soon as it has fallen the lever 60 moves forward against a stop 62 attached to one of the levers 46, as shown in full lines in Fig. 3. By this means, the lever 66 is shifted so that the fence 73 is brought into the path of a reduced end portion 76 of the pin 74. During the subsequent inward movement of the reproducer, the pin 74 slides across the outside of the fence 73 and then beyond it, whereupon the end 72 of the lever 66 moves further forward. Eventually, after the playing of the record, when the reproducer arm is again swung outwardly, the end 76 of the pin 74 passes between the fence 73 and the detent 71, so that when the final inward swing of the reproducer occurs the end of the pin 74 is engaged by the detent and further inward movement of the plate 35 and the reproducer arm is prevented. The finger 37 yields, however, to allow movement of the lever 25 to continue. When the reproducer arm has been arrested by the detent 71, as described, its position is such that when the arm is subsequently lowered by the action of the lever 21, it depresses a pillar 77, Fig. 3, which tilts a counterweighted lever 78 carrying a mercury switch in the motor circuit. This movement of the switch breaks the circuit and stops the machine. Alternatively, movement of the pillar 77 may be utilized to apply a brake. A manually adjustable plate 81, having a stop pin 82, Fig. 5, may be provided to retain the levers 60, 66 in the inoperative position when there are no records in the magazine. By this means, a record on the turntable may be played repeatedly. The Provisional Specification describes a modified construction in which the stopping of the machine is not effected by the lowering of the reproducer arm, but the motor switch is controlled by a pair of interengaging bell-crank levers, one of which is actuated by an horizontal lever corresponding to the lever 60 in the construction illustrated. Means are also provided for ensuring that after the last record has been played and the reproducer has been lifted, it is prevented from falling again until it has been swung outwards to the full extent.