Patent GB-877259-A (GB)
Title: Improvements relating to type-composition
IPC: B41B27/00
Filed: 1957-10-07
Abstract: 877,259. Photographic type-composing apparatus. HIGONNET, R. A. E., and MOYROUD, L.M. Oct. 7, 1957 (Oct. 24, 1956], No. 31323/57. Class 98(1). [Also in Group XVI] Type-composing apparatus comprises an individual entry unit for each of a plurality of elemental components of typographical characters, code means associated with the entry units and adapted to represent a distinct binary code for each said elemental component upon the operation of the corresponding entry unit, and a register adapted to accumulate serially the codes corresponding with successively selected elemental components of a chosen character and represented by the code means in response to sequential operation of the entry units corresponding with the respective selected elemental components. A support 12, Fig. 1, bears in rows and columns (e.g. 100 rows and 100 columns) Chinese characters. The support may be a glass plate bearing the characters in the form of transparencies. In order that the required character may be brought into operative position in alignment with a light source 18 and lens turret 24 for photographing on to a film 30, the support 12 is carried on bars 50 slidably supported in a housing 52 slidably supported on fixed bars 56. The optical projection system is described in Specification 691, 763. The bars 50 are rigid with an L-shaped seeker 62. The seeker is normally in a lower right-hand position so that its arms are respectively below and to the right of a locator assembly 64 comprising end plates supporting a plurality of locator rods 66 arranged in columns and rows corresponding to the characters and spring urged towards a plate 70. The rods each pass through a vertical slot in each of seventy cards 74, there being one slot for each column of rods. The slots are wide enough to allow the cards to occupy either of two positions. The rods have pins projecting to one side or the other in such a code arrangement that for any given setting of the series of cards one rod only will be released and projected. The seeker is then moved up and to the left until it is stopped by the projected rod, when the corresponding character will be in operative position. After retraction of the seeker, a key K is closed to energize a magnet 72 to move the plate 70 and push back the projected rod. Each card is operated by a magnet of the series H1 - H70, and the card positions represent a binary code, the leftward position (magnet H energized) being "1" and the rightward position (not energized) "O". The keyboard 44 comprises twenty-one keys and four special instruction keys (A, 1, 2, 3) 46 and six combination keys 48, Fig. 5. The arrangement is such that a character is selected by pressing the keys representing the symbols which make up the character, in the order in which the symbols are used when writing. The keys 48 are for frequently occurring combinations of symbols. Electric circuits comprising relays included in the keyboard apparatus, in a symbol clock (Fig. 3, not shown), end in an ensemble (i.e. complete character) clock (Fig. 4, not shown), are arranged to function as described below. Each symbol is assigned a binary code of from two to seventeen digits, the code for a combination being that of its constituents in succession. Every code ends in "1", and no code is the initial sequence of a longer code. The shorter codes are assigned to the more frequently used symbols. A series of seventeen relays corresponding to the possible digits of the code are energized selectively when a key is depressed, whereupon the corresponding cards 74 are moved, the first card representing the first digit. On depressing a further key, the same relays are coupled to the next lot of cards, the first digit now corresponding to the card next to the last one to be actuated by the previous key. Seventy is the greatest number of digits in the total code for any character. The requisite bar 66 is released as soon as the code has extended far enough to distinguish it from all other bars, which may be before all the keys for the character have been actuated. The key (A) is utilized in cases where the symbol sequence of one character is the first part of the sequence of another. In such a case the sequence is not coded until (A) is depressed. The keys (1), (2), (3) are utilized in cases where more than one character is formed from the same combination of symbols. In another form, Figs. 7 and 8, the cards 148 are moved by pins 114 of which there are seventeen on a carriage 112 mounted on rods 110. The carriage is urged to the right in Fig. 7 and held by a stop 128. The pins are actuated by seventeen (eight shown) bars 122, each actuated by a magnet 124 (or equivalent mechanical member), the magnets 124 being equivalent to the seventeen relays referred to above. When any card, such as 146 is actuated, its end strikes a lever 150 to release the associated one 154 of a series of slides 130 for co-operation with the stop 128. When any slide is released, a lug 158 thereon engages the lever which releases the next slide downwards in Fig. 8. When a series of cards are actuated, therefore, all the slides up to the card most to the right in Fig. 7 are released, and the carriage 112 moves so as to associate its pins with the seventeen cards following. The slides are returned by a reset bar 168.