Improvements in and relating to Electric Date and Time Stamps.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 2'st Oct., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 21st July, 1890-Accepted, 6th Sept., 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Electric Date and Time Stamps.
I, CHARLES ADAMS-RANDALL, of 15 Montpelier Square, Brompton, in the County
of Middlesex, Electrical Engineer and Inventor do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:--
My invention relates to electric date and time stamps of the kind or class described
in the Specifications of the following former Letters Patent, viz.-No. 15,717
dated 16th November 1887, No. 7308 dated 17th May 1888, and No. 1057 dated
21st January 1889.
My present invention has for its main object the combination of number-printing
apparatus with electric date and time printing apparatus of the kind or class described
in the said former Specifications.
According to one method I attain the desired object as follows, that is to say
I arrange upon a suitable arbor or shaft, a series of type-wheels for printing the date
and time, some of which are electrically moved, and upon the same shaft or axis
I arrange one or more wheels for printing numbers. 1 prefer to use a series of these
numbering wheels so arranged that when the units wheel is turned a complete
revolution, the tens wheel will be turned one tenth of a revolution, and so on. The
said numbering wheels are either so arranged that they may be turned by hand and
will be held in any desired position, or they are arranged to be automatically changed
by the act of printing, so that the impression of any desired number may be repeated,
or consecutive numbers may be printed.
The apparatus is, moreover, so arranged that impressions may be obtained of date
and time only, or of date and time and a desired or fixed number, or of date and time
and consecutive numbers, or of a fixed number without date and time, or of con-
secutive numbers without printing from the date and time wheels.
I find it advantageous to provide, in combination with the date and time and
number printing wheels, a single printing or controlling lever or arm, and suitable
removable or adjustable shields or pads, by means of which any desired impressions
may be obtained.
The apparatus is, in some instances, constructed with a suitable base or support for
the parts of the mechanism, a swinging or movable frame carrying the type-wheels,
an electro-magnet and operative parts, and a handle, arm or knob for depressing the
tpye-wheels down to and upon the paper or other material to be printed upon, in such
manner that impressions giving date, time and numbers are readily, quickly and
clearly taken upon the same. In other instances, the apparatus is constructed as a
hand-stamp.
1011
1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Electric Date and Time Stamps.
1, CHARLES ADAMS-RANDALL, of 15 Montpelier Square, Brompton, in the County of
Middlesex, Electrical Engineer and Inventor, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
My invention relates to electric date and time stamps of the kind or class described
in the Specifications of the following former Letters Patent, viz. :-No. 15717,

page_text: dated 10th November 1001, No. 1500 dated 17th May Lood, and No. 107 dated
21st January 1889.
My present invention has for its main object the combination of number-printing
apparatus with electric date and time printing apparatus of the kind or class described
in the said former Specifications.
My said invention mereover comprises the mounting of the type-wheels, the
electro-magnet, and the operating mechanism upon a swinging frame provided with a
handle for depressing it for the purpose of printing.
My said invention also comprises other improvements hereinafter set forth.
In the accompanying drawings, I have shown how my said invention may be
conveniently and advantageously carried into practice.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of an electric combined time and numbering stamp
constructed according to my present invention.
Figure 2 is a plan partly in horizontal section showing the time and number
printing type wheels, and devices, hereinafter described, connected therewith.
Figure 3 is a section on the line x, x Figure 1 looking towards the left.
Figure 4 is a section on the line y, 3, Figure 1, looking towards the right.
Figure 5 is a side elevation of a device for actuating the units wheel, and
Figure 6 is a plan of a portion of the base of the apparatus, with the upper parts
removed showing the sliding pads and covers hereinafter described.
Like letters indicate corresponding parts throughout the drawings.
A is a base plate; B, B, are vertical brackets which are firmly secured thereto and
to which is pivoted at C¹ a swinging frame C. In this frame are arranged the type
or printing wheels, the electro magnet and the operating mechanism. D is an arbor
or shaft carried by the forward end of the frame C; on this shaft are mounted the
number printing wheels and the time printing wheels. E is the electro magnet which
is suitably secured in the rear of the frame C and is connected to a controlling clock
for regulating the movements of the time printing wheels as described in the said
former Specifications. F is a spring attached at one end to the bracket B and at the
other end to the frame C, at any convenient point behind the axis or pivot C', for the
purpose of depressing the rear end of the frame and maintaining the type wheels,
when not printing, in the elevated position shown. G is a handle for depressing the
forward or type wheel end of the frame (for printing.
It is obvious that impressions can be taken by depressing the handle G and thus
pressing the type wheels upon the paper or other material to be printed on, which is
placed for the purpose on the base A and is supported by any suitable pad placed
immediately beneath the type wheels.
The mode of actuating, and governing the movement of, the time printing wheels
by means of the electro magnet and its controlling clock is substantially similar to
that described in the said former Specifications.
H, H are the number printing wheels which are mounted on the arbor D and are
connected in any well known manner, so that the motion of the units wheel is
transmitted to the other wheels of the series. The units wheel is actuated automatically
by the following mechanism, that is to say, a ratchet wheel I having ten teeth is formed
on or attached to the units wheel, and a pawlj is pivoted at j' to the base A in such a
manner that it is adapted to engage with the said ratchet wheel I and rotate the same
through a distance equal to the pitch of the ratchet teeth each time the frame C and
the type wheels rise after being depressed for the purpose of printing. The said pawl is
maintained in contact with the ratchet wheel by a spring and eccentric cam the
latter being centered at and provided with a handle by which it can be so adjusted
as to hear upon the spring or can be moved away from the said spring. When it
is desired to print the same number repeatedly or when for any other reasons the
number printing wheels are not required to change, the cam is turned back into its
inoperative position, and the spring being thereby released, disengages itself from
the ratchet wheel, and the latter then remains unchanged however many impressions
may be taken. I may, moreover, change the wheels by hand to any desired number.
H¹, H² are the tine printing wheels. K is an inking ribbon such as that used in

page_text: the machines described in the said former Specifications, and L is a pad or similar
I prefer to provide
device for supporting the paper or other article to be printed on.
two supporting pads, one underneath the numbering wheels and the other underneath
the time wheels. The said pads are mounted to slide in grooves L' formed in the
base A and they are provided in their lower faces with recesses in which locking
pins I are inserted for holding the pads in position. The said pins L' are carried by
spring arms 3 provided with push pieces L projecting up through apertures in the
base A, so that by depressing the push pieces the pins L' are withdrawn from the
recesses in the pads and the latter may then be slid sideways in the grooves L' from
underneath the corresponding printing wheels. There being no support for the article
printed on immediately under the type-wheels when the corresponding pad is removed
as described, no impression will be obtained from that set of type wheels, and thus I
provide in a simple manner for obtaining impressions both from the time and
numbering wheels, or from the time wheels alone, or from the numbering wheels
alone, the position of the numbering wheels in any case being unchanged or changed
as desired after each impression.
In another modification of my invention, instead of moving the pads L, I provide
a sliding cover M for each pad so arranged on the base A that the said cover may be
pushed inwards underneath the corresponding type wheels to prevent impressions
being taken from the said wheels when desired.
The inking ribbon K is carried by rollers K' K2, and on the roller K* I mount a
ratchet wheel Ks which engages with a spring pawl or catch K, carried by a stationary
finger K projecting from one of the brackets B, at each descent of the type wheels
and is thereby partially rotated to gradually wind up the ribbon and thus change the
surface thereof which bears upon the type wheels. A suitable head K is provided on
the roller K by which the ribbon is wound back again on this roller after being all
run off by the said ratchet feed arrangement.
I prefer to lock the hour wheel during the greater portion of each hour and to
automatically unlock the same just prior to the time for making the change. For this
purpose I form within the minute wheel by recessing the same at the side a circular
boss a having a small cam like projection a', Figure 4, at one part of its cir-
cumference and I attach to the frame C a spring plate b having two projecting
pins 61, 6; the pin 6' is bent at the end and passes into the said recess in the minute
wheel and rests on the said boss a, while the pin 62 passes into one of a series of
recesses formed in the periphery of the hour wheel and serves to lock the said wheel
to prevent rotation thereof. The cam-like projection a¹ of the boss a passes underneath
the pin once during each revolution of the minute wheel and in so doing raises the
said pin and presses back the spring plate 6 thereby withdrawing the locking pin 62
from the recess in the hour wheel to allow of the said hour wheel being changed by
appropriate mechanism. The arrangements for changing the hour wheel are the same
as described in the aforementioned prior patents. Immediately the cam a' clears the
pin 6, the spring plate b falls inwards again and presses the pin 63 into another recess
in the hour wheel (there being one such recess for each hour) and thereby again locks
the wheel until the minute wheel has made another revolution and the cam a¹ again
comes in contact with the pin b¹.
For preventing the type wheels being rotated too far at each change I prefer to
provide an adjustable screw stop pin c Figure 3 for each type wheel mounted in a
bracket c attached to the frame C in such a position as to arrest the corresponding
actuating pawl d of the said type wheel. The stop pin c is formed with a pointed end
to engage with the bevelled or sloping end of the pawl d so as to act not merely as a
dead stop but also to force the pawl inwards against the ratchet wheel.
Although I have only shown the combination of numbering wheels with an electric
stamp having time wheels only, that is to say, having minute and hour type wheels it
is obvious that I may have in the combined machine meridian, day, month, and year
wheels as in the machines described in the Specifications of the aforesaid prior
patents.
Moreover I have described and shown my invention as applied to a machine

page_text: wherein the type or printing wheels, and the electro inagnet and operative parts are
carried by a swinging or movable frame mounted on a suitable base plate, and
wherein a handle is provided for depressing the type-wheels down to and upon the
paper or other material to be printed upon for the purpose of obtaining the required
impressions, but it is obvious that I may apply my invention to a hand-stamp or to a
stamp wherein the type-wheels are arranged in a box or case beneath a movable
impression lever as described in the Specifications of the said former Letters Patent.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of iny said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I wish it understood that
I claim :-
First. An electric time stamp or date and time stamp such as I have hereinabove
referred to, wherein suitable numbering apparatus is combined with the time-printing
apparatus for the purposes above specified.
Second. A combined electric time and numbering stamp or date, time and numbering
stamp provided with means for automatically operating the units type wheel of the
numbering apparatus substantially as described for the purpose specified.
Third. An electric time stamp or date and time stamp having a pivoted or swinging
frame in which are mounted the electro-magnet, the type-wheels, and the actuating
mechanism (with or without the numbering apparatus) substantially as, and for the
purpose, specified.
Fourth. The combination with the type-wheels and the movable frame carrying the
same, of the movable pads or covers, substantially as, and for the purpose above
specified.
Fifth. The improved apparatus constructed substantially as described with reference
to the accompanying drawings and operating as and for the purposes above specified.
Dated this 21st day of July 1890.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.