IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RULING PAPER AND THE LIKE
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cumming, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid
Lothian; North Britain, Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR RULING PAPER AND THE LIKE."
Sealed the 14th August 1877, and dated the 12th May 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cumming at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th May 1877.
JOHN CUMMING, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RULING PAPER AND THE LIKE.
دو
This Invention of improvements in apparatus for ruling paper and the like
relates more particularly to means for rendering the pens alternately operative and
inoperative, in accordance with the requirements of different cases.
In the improved apparatus the sheets of paper are carried under the pens on an
endless blanket or cloth, and by the aid of tapes, as in existing ruling apparatus,
being fed into the machine by hand or by automatic feeding apparatus, preferably
of the kind described in the Provisional Specification lodged with an application
for Letters Patent by the present applicant on the First day of March 1877
(No. 825). The pens are carried by a bar or frame arranged in the usual way so
as to lower or raise the pens by a rocking movement, but such pen bar is mounted
on its shaft or journals so that its weight is nearly balanced, and so that it can be
rocked with very little force.
The rocking of the pen bar is effected by one or more electro-magnets, which
may be arranged in various ways, but with the electro-magnet or electro-magnets
by preference always fixed to the framing, and the armature or armatures to the
pen bar.
F
The electro-magnet or electro-magnets may be arranged to act in one direction
only, either for lowering or for raising the pens, spring or weight action effecting
the reverse movements, or both the lowering and raising of the pens may be effected
by separate electro-magnets.
When the apparatus is arranged for the plain ruling of a number of lines com-
pletely across each sheet of paper, the action of the pens is controlled by the paper

page_text: sheets themselves making and breaking contact in the circuit through which an
electric battery acts on the magnet or magnets. The circuit is at one part led
through a metallic feeler which rests on the paper (with or without an antifriction
pulley), whilst any part of the paper is under the pens. Beneath the paper and
between it and the blanket there is a stationary plate of thin metal, so placed that
the feeler comes into contact with it when the after edge of the paper sheet passes
onwards from under the feeler, and this stationary plate is made part of the con-
tinuation of the electric circuit.
When the circuit is closed, in consequence of the feeler being in contact with
the stationary plate, the pen bar is turned up, there being then no paper under the
pens; but when the edge of the next sheet comes forward it passes between the
feeler and the plate, and being a non-conductor or bad conductor causes a break in
the circuit and the consequent release of the pen bar from the electro-magnet and
the lowering of the pens upon the paper. In this way it does not matter what may
be the precise distance between each sheet and the next, the inking of the blanket
is avoided.
•
When the ruling is to be limited to parts of each sheet of paper a wheel is,
according to one modification, provided at the side, and is controlled by a circuit
breaking and closing arrangement, like that herein-before described, for acting on
the pen bar in such a way that the wheel rests on and is turned by the paper when
a sheet passes under it. The pen bar is acted on by a separate electric circuit and
magnet which is controlled by the wheel, this wheel having on its rim or on its
face slips or surface pieces of conducting and non-conducting materials arranged to
suit the desired extents of the ruling, and operating through a feeler or feelers so as
to break or close the electric circuit acting on the pen bar. The pens may be on
two or more separate rocking bars, each with its controlling electro-magnet and
circuit.
When the after edge of each sheet passes from under the pens and from under
the primary feeler the wheel is lifted by the electro-magnet controlling it, and is
by a spring or weight turned back to its starting point ready for the next sheet.
In another modification a mask is employed to protect the parts of a sheet of
paper that are not to be ruled. This mask may be of thin sheet metal or other
suitable material, with parts cut out corresponding to the parts of the sheet to be
ruled. This mask is held by a frame which when in action travels with the
blanket and paper, and is moved back to its starting point between the sheets,
the commencement and termination of each action of it being controlled by electro-
magnets put into and out of action by the primary feeler, which in this case also
directly controls the action of the pen bar.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Cumming in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 8th November
1877.
JOHN CUMMING, of Edinburgh, in the County of Mid Lothian, North Britain,
Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RULING PAPER AND THE LIKE."
My said Invention of improvements in apparatus for ruling paper and the like
relates more particularly to means for rendering the pens alternately operative and
inoperative, in accordance with the requirements of different cases.
In my improved ruling apparatus the sheets of paper are carried under the pens
on an endless blanket or cloth, and by the aid of tapes or cords, as in existing
ruling apparatus, being fed into the machine by hand or by automatic feeding
apparatus, preferably of the kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent
obtained by me, and dated 1 March 1877 (No. 825). The pens are carried by a
bar or frame arranged in the usual way, so as to lower or raise the pens by a

page_text: rocking movement; but such pen bar is mounted on its shaft or journals so that
its weight is nearly balanced, and so that it can be rocked with very little force.
The rocking of the pen bar is effected by one or more electro-magnets, which may
be arranged in various ways, but with the electro-magnet or electro-magnets by
preference always fixed to the framing, and the armature or armatures to the
pen bar.
In some cases the action of the pens is controlled by the paper sheets themselves
making and breaking contact in the circuit or circuits through which an electric
battery acts on the magnet or magnets, the paper being a non-conductor or bad
conductor, and interposing between a metallic feeler and a metal plate which form
part of the circuit. The action is thus quite independent of the distance between
the successive sheets of paper, the pens being held up and prevented from soiling
the blanket when there is no paper passing under then.
When the ruling is to be limited to parts of each sheet of paper a wheel is,
according to one modification, provided at the side, and is formed or fitted with
conducting and non-conducting parts corresponding to the required limited rulings,
and raising and lowering the pens accordingly through making or breaking contact
in the circuit connected with the electro-magnet or electro-magnets which act on
the pen bar. The wheel is made to turn with each sheet of paper by an electro-
magnetic arrangement controlled by the paper itself, in a manner similar to that
in which the pen bar is controlled in the plain ruling arrangement.
In another modification a mask is employed to protect the parts of a sheet of
paper that are not to be ruled, and is a sheet of thin metal or other suitable
material with parts cut out corresponding to the parts to be ruled. This mask is
held by a frame, and is by electro-magnetic apparatus made to move with each
sheet, and is drawn back again by a spring or weight.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append two Sheets of explanatory Drawings,
to be herein-after referred to and representing different modifications of my
improved apparatus; in these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to
mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figures 1 and 2 on Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings are a plan and and a
vertical section of the modification of my improved apparatus, suitable for ruling
sheets of paper completely across.
Figures 3 and 4 are an enlarged plan and vertical section of certain parts not
well seen in Figures 1 and 2.
The ruling apparatus is represented as having combined with it automatic
feeding apparatus of the kind described in my earlier Specification herein-before
referred to.
The pens 31 may be of any suitable kind at present in use, and they may be
supplied with ink or colored liquid in the usual way (the ink vessels not being
shown in the Drawings). The paper whilst being ruled passes along under the
pens 31 upon an endless blanket 32, which is distended upon two rollers 26, 33, the
latter having the bearings of its journals adjusted by screws to admit of tightening
the blanket, whilst the top horizontal part of the blanket is supported by a board
34. The paper passes between two sets of endless tapes or cords 24, 25, which
receiving it at the feeding part of the apparatus lead it under the pens, and then
deliver it beyond the roller 33, and between two rollers 35, 36, round which the
tapes 24, 25, there diverging from each other severally pass. The tapes 24, 25, are
not shown in Figure 1, in order to avoid a confusion of lines. The pen bar 37 is
held by screw centre pins 38, fixed in brackets 39, which are screwed to upward
extensions 40 of the framing, the brackets being carefully adjusted in position by
screws 41 before the screws securing them are tightened up. At one end of the
pen bar 37 there is fixed a quadruple armature 42, and above it are fixed to a
stationary bracket 43 two pairs of electro-magnets 44, 45. A strip 46 of thin metal
is placed across the bracket 32, so that the paper may pass over it, and at either end
this metal strip 46 is connected to one of the circuit wires.

page_text: Another circuit wire is connected to a transverse horizontal rod 47, carried by
non-conducting supports, and having on it a feeler 48, which when no paper is
passing rests on the metal strip 46, and completing the circuit makes the raising
magnets 44 tilt the pen bar 37, so as to lift the pens 31 out of action. When a
sheet of paper is passing it interposes between the feeler 48 and metal strip 46, and
by breaking the circuit causes the raising magnets 44 to release the pen bar 37, and
this bar being slightly overbalanced turns the pens 31 down, and puts in contact a
metal point 49, which completing a separate circuit causes the other or pressing
magnets 45 to act on the pen bar so as to hold the pens firmly down on the paper.
Then as the after edge of the sheet passes from under the pens the circuit acting on
the raising magnets 44, which act more powerfully than the other magnets 45, is
closed, and the pens are raised up.
Figure 9 on Sheet 2 of the accompanying Drawings is a vertical section of a
modification of my improved ruling apparatus adapted for ruling limited parts of a
sheet of paper when the parts to be left unruled extend to the entire widths operated
on by the pens. The apparatus is fitted with a feeler (48) and metal strip (46),
although not shown in Figure 9, for making contact and breaking it accordingly as
the paper is absent or present, but the circuit thereby controlled does not act on the
pen bar 37, but through a pair of electro-magnets 50 on a spring arm 51, which
carries a wheel 52 having conducting and non-conducting slips fixed in its circum-
ference, as seen in Figure 10, which is a partial end elevation. When on the forward
edge of a sheet of paper breaking contact at the pens 31 the magnets 50 are put in
action they make the arm 51 depress the wheel 52 into contact with the paper or
the blanket 32, and also into contact with a metal feeler 53, and the wheel 52 being
turned by the frictional action, it, through the feeler 53, causes a circuit to be
completed or broken, and the pens 31 to be raised or lowered by the consequent
action of the magnets 44, 45. The wheel 52 in turning with the blanket coils up a
light volute spring, which on the magnet 50 releasing the wheel causes it to turn
to its starting point.
Figures 11 and 12 are a plan and a vertical section of the modification of my
improved ruling apparatus in which a mask is used, which mask may have portions
of any shape cut out, and the ruling be thereby limited to those portions. The
mask is a sheet, 54, of thin metal or other suitable material held by or stretched on
a light frame 55, which is fitted to move easily forwards and backwards on rollers
running on guides formed on the side frames 6. Two electro-magnets 56, placed by
preference one at each side of the machine, are used for both depressing or raising
the pens 31, and causing the mask 54 to move along. When paper is passing the
pens 31 are depressed in consequence of the magnets 56 acting on levers 57, 58, 59,
having one an arm, 58, connected to the pen bar 37, and each another arin, 59,
holding at each side a wheel 60, and these wheels 60 then depress the mask 54
so that it is carried along with the sheet of paper. When the sheet of paper has
passed the pens the mask 54 is moved back again by a volute spring 61, or it might
be a weight and cord. The magnets, 56, are made to act positively when the sheet
of paper interposes to break contact, in consequence of the circuit so broken by the
paper being a separate one acting on a small magnet, which then letting go its
armature causes that armature to bring about the completion of the circuit acting on
the magnets 56, and vice versa.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and
original and claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The combination in machines for ruling sheets of paper and the like of electro-
magnets for raising or lowering the pens with electric circuits arranged to be broken
by the interposition of the paper or like sheets, thereby using the non-conducting
or bad conducting roperty of the sheets, substantially as herein-before described.
2. The conacion of the wheel (52) having conducting and non-conducting slips

page_text: for controlling the action of the electro-magnets on the pen bar with the electric
circuit arranged to be broken by the interposition of the paper or like sheets, sub-
stantially as and for the purposes herein-before described with reference to Figures 9
and 10 of the accompanying Drawings.
3. The combination of the mask (54) with the electric circuit arranged to be
broken by the interposition of the paper or like sheets, and connected with electro-
magnets which control the movement of the mask, substantially as and for the
purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Cumming, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
JOHN CUMMING. (L.S.)