Improvements in the Self-feeding Mechanism of the Metal Pots of Linotype Machines.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd May, 1898
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Feb., 1899-Accepted, 20th May, 1899
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Self-feeding Mechanism of the Metal Pots of
Linotype Machines.
We, WILLIAM HENRY LOCK, Manager and Secretary of The Linotype Company,
Limited, of No. 188, Fleet Street, in the City of London, JOHN PLACE, and
WARWICK JAMES LEWIS, both of The Linotype Works, Broadheath, in the County
of Chester, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
The present invention relates to improvements in the self feeding mechanism of
the metal pots of linotype machines, and the object of it is to provide for the quantity
of metal in the metal pot being kept normal, by new metal being automatically
fed into it at regular intervals.
It has already been proposed to keep the quantity in the pot normal, by feeding
used linotypes from the printing press, into it at the same rate as new linotypes
are being cast. The method proposed is objectionable because used linotypes are
fed in, and the apparatus proposed is imperfect in that it does not include
an adjustability for change in the size of the linotypes being cast.
According to the present invention, the new metal is cast into blocks of any
regular and suitable shape. Those blocks are uniform in weight, the quantity
of metal in each being that necessary to produce a linotype of the largest size
which the machine to which the invention is to be applied, is capable of casting.
The blocks are stored in columns in a magazine over the metal pot cover and
drop by gravity through a port, one by one, each time that communication is
established between the magazine and the pot. This communication is established
by opening a valve, or by rotating the magazine, or by both. The invention does
not limit us in that respect.
The adjustability described above is the principal feature of the said invention,
and it consists in a device which is operated by each complete motion of the metal
pot, that device being thereby made to establish the communication above
mentioned, so long as the machine is casting linotypes of its largest size; but if
its mould is changed to cast linotypes of a smaller size, the device is adjusted to
be operative only once in as many such motions as the ratio of the said largest
Hinotype to the smaller one. Thus, so long as the machine is casting linotypes of
the largest size, each of the said motions of the pot, establishes the communica-
tion and a block is fed thereinto. If the mould is altered to cast linotypes one
sixth the size, then the device is adjusted to establish the said communication at
each sixth complete motion of the discharging device.
One or more series of ratchet teeth, straight or circular, is arranged in con-
nection with the valve or discharging device above mentioned or on the under
side of the magazine. There is combined with those teeth, a catch adjustable
in an arm fast to the machine front. The catch is set to engage with the particu-
lar tooth or series of teeth that will give the motion necessary to establish the
desired communication, or that will establish only the proper proportion of com-

page_text: munication at each motion of the pot, such proportion to be repeated at each
motion and to be completed by the motion corresponding with the above described
ratio between the two sizes of linotype.
The finger is fastened to a head which has a slot in it, this head fitting in a
small cylinder fast to the machine front. A cushioning spring is introduced
into the device to enable it to give if a block should stick on its way out of the
magazine and so threaten to jam the parts.
1000
Improvements in the Self-feeding Mechanism of the Metal Pots of
Linotype Machines.
We, WILLIAM HENRY LOCK, Manager and Secretary of The Linotype Company,
Limited, of No. 188, Fleet Street, in the City of London, JOHN PLACE, and
WARWICK JAMES LEWIS, both of The Linotype Works, Broadheath, in the County
of Chester, Engineers, 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:—
The present invention relates to improvements in the self feeding mechanism
of the metal pots of linotype machines, and the object of it is to provide for the
quantity of metal in the metal pot being kept normal by new metal automatically
fed into it at regular intervals according to the amounts ejected during those
intervals into the mould.
In the earliest linotype machines it was left to the operator to keep enough
metal in the pot, by dropping a lump in from time to time. The specification
of Letters Patent 22475 of 1891 describes an apparatus for keeping the quantity
of metal in the pot substantially normal, by feeding used linotypes from the
printing press, into it at the same rate as new linotypes are being cast. The used
linotypes are inferior to new metal and the apparatus described is imperfect
in that it does not include an adjustability for change in the size of the linotypes
being cast.
According to the present invention, only new metal is fed into the metal pot,
and that is prepared in the form of blocks each of which contains as much metal
as one linotype of the largest size of which the machine is capable of making.
These blocks are uniform in size and shape and are stored in a magazine standing
over the metal pot cover, through which they drop into the metal pot each time
that communication with the latter is established. When linotypes of the largest
size are being cast, communication is established at each cast, the device which
establishes the communication being adjustable for smaller linotypes so as to
omit a number of the blocks equivalent to the difference between the said smaller
linotypes and the largest ones.
Referring to the accompanying figures which are to be taken as part of this
specification and read therewith,
Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section, of the invention as applied to the
melting pot of the Mergenthaler linotype machine;
Figure 2 is a plan, partly in section corresponding therewith; and
Figure 3 is a front elevation of the detent and its spring.
V is the metal pot and 12 the mouth piece of it, through which the molten
metal passes into the mould which, stands in front of it and at a short distance from

page_text: it, the pot V being always moved up the mould to make metal-tight contact there-
with previous to each cast. A suitable pump then fills the mould with metal,
after which the metal pot V is moved back into its former position. Neither the
mould nor the pump are included in the figures above described because they do
not form any part of the present invention. They are described in the Specifica-
tion of Letters Patent 22475 of 1891.
The top of the metal pot V is for the purpose of the present invention, closed
in with the exception of an opening V2 which is to serve as a port for the metal
blocks to drop easily through the said top into the pot. It is flat and strong.
to serve as a platform for the principal part of the invention to rest on. "V10 is
a ring fast upon the said platform and having an opening or port V12 in it
registering with the port V12. These two ports are so positioned that the
chambers 107 described further on can register with them. V10 is a cup-shaped
piece standing on the same platform some distance within the ring V103 and con-
centric with it, and having a two-step Hange V106 around its top and which carries
the magazine 95 in which is stored the supply of metal blocks V. This
magazine consists of a series of vertical and equal chambers V108 of a proper
size to receive the said blocks, formed by the combination of vertical bars V
having grooves V129 for corners of the blocks V6 to engage in as shewn in Figure 2
and to slide down in, and forwardly bent top ends V held by any suitable means.
such as screws to a circular plate V100, and like bottom ends held in the
same way to the top step of the flange Vs. The projection of the bars Vis pro-
vides for the chambers V108 overhanging the said top step. The bottom step is
notched as shown in Figure 2 for the inner corners of the blocks V to pass through.
The magazine V5 and cup V are held steady and without motion with reference
to the pot by a vertical rod which is passed centrally downward through
the plate V100 and the bottom of the cup V105 and made fast by its screw threaded
bottom end V58 in the top of the metal pot V, the bottom end of the said rod and
the bottom of the cup is being both equally shouldered to facilitate such hold-
ing, as shewn in Figure 1.
Vis a flat ring supported upon the bottom step of the flange V103 and fitting
up to the top one, so as to turn upon and about them respectively. The top
surface of this ring fits up to the bottom of the magazine V to close its
chambers V108 and extends beyond its circumference to present its periphery
within reach of the mechanism described further on for turning it. Vio is a port
in the ring 99. It is of the same shape and size in plan as a block Vs and
registers with each chamber V108 in turn as the said ring is turned.
There is a second or intermediate magazine between the principal or storage.
magazine and the ring V103 In construction it closely resembles the
magazine V, consisting as it does of bars V102 of the same number and cross
section as the bars 108. These bars are fast to a ring V from which they radiate.
thereby forming as many chambers V107 between them as there are chambers Vios
in the magazine V. The bars V102 turn upon the ring V103 and the ring V2.
turns about the cup V105. The chambers V107 are, like the chambers 108, so
positioned as to register in turn with the port V10 in the ring 99 100 are
notches in the periphery of the ring They are uniform in size, equidistant.
and correspond in number with the chambers Vios V110 is a spring detent stand-
ing up from the top of the metal pot V and adapted to engage in the notches V109
so as to hold the ring V stationary whenever it presents one of them to it, the
said notches being so situated in the periphery of the ring V9 that one is not
presented to the detent V unless the port V101 registers with a chamber V108
V is a cam fast to and projecting radially from the periphery of the intermediate.
magazine, far enough to disengage the detent V110 from its notch. each time it.
comes up with it. V is a spring finger fast to the ring V and projecting
into the path of a shoulder Vis likewise fast to the periphery of the intermediate.
magazine and projecting radially therefrom. There are, or may be, a cam Vi
a finger and a shoulder-VIB on the opposite side of the intermediate

page_text: magazine and the ring V99, respectively, as shown by the dotted lines in Figure 2:
but one set is enough. V is a pawl adapted to engage the ratchet wheel V10,
which latter is fast on the ring V132. The pawl V114 is carried by an arm V
This pawl pivots upon a screw threaded shank fitted with a wing nut Vi16, and
the arm is slotted to facilitate the adjustment of the position of the pawl along it.
V is a spring fast to the pawl V and bearing against the side of the slot in
the arm so as to allow the pawl to yield before the teeth of the ratchet V104
when the pot V is moved forward, and to force it up to the said ratchet again
preparatory to the said pot being moved backward. V123 is a pin depending from
the pawl V into the said slot to prevent the resistance of the ratchet V turning
the pawl V about its pivot out of action. V17 is a bracket fast to the machine
frame. It carries the arm V115 by means of a tube V8 screwed by its open end
into the said bracket, and a spring V119 compressed between the opposite and
closed end of that tube and a nut 120 fast on the end of a prolongation V121 of
the arm V. The ring V103 is cut away on its under side to make room for the
arm and its carrying tube V11 V1 is the hole in the top of the metal pot V,
and V is a gap in the ring V103, through which the blocks V drop from the
intermediate magazine into the pot V.
The invention acts as follows. The ten chambers V108 are each charged with
metal blocks V96. The pawl Vis is shewn as set in such a position on the slotted
arm, that its working stroke is equal to the chord of an are which comprises
five teeth on the ratchet wheel V104, that being one tenth of its periphery, or the
arcual distance between the centres of the two adjoining chambers Voor Vis
The figures shew the pot V in its forward position, the pawl V14 held by the
spring in engagement, with the ratchet wheel Vos, and the ring 99 one tenth
of a rotation in advance of its true position to make its action of discharging a
metal block V into the intermediate magazine clearer. The backward move-
ment of the pot V turns the ratchet wheel V10 through the tenth of a rotation.
The cams Vi travel with the ratchet wheel V104, and the one next to the detent Vuo
disengages it from the plate V9 and the respective shoulder V likewise travelling
with the said ratchet wheel, engages the respective finger 2 and carries the
ring with that wheel, thereby making the port 10 in the ring register
with one of the chambers V108 in the magazine V5, whereupon a block V drops
through that port V10 into the chamber V10 in the magazine underneath. The
next backward movement of the pot V brings the chamber V107 last mentioned over
the gap V2 and the port V124, whereupon the block V in the chamber drops into
the metal pot V, each subsequent movement of the pot V effecting the drop of
a metal block V96 from a chamber V108 into a chamber V107 and also the drop of
one from a chamber V107 through the gap V12 and port V into the pot V.
Each time that the shoulder V13 pushes the finger V2 through one tenth of
a rotation, it leaves it at a corresponding distance in advance of the acting
cam Consequently, a special device is necessary to prevent the detent Vio
dropping back again into the notch V109 from which the said detent has just dis-
engaged it. This is shewn in Figure 3. It consists of a spring V126 fast to the
pot and bearing upon the edge of the detent V10 so as to push it in the opposite
direction to that in which the ring V is to be moved. As soon as the detent 0
is disengaged from its notch V109, the spring V126 pushes it on to the periphery
of the ring 99 where it stops until the shoulder V113 comes up to the finger Vi
and moves the plate V9 through another tenth of a rotation. V127 is a stop like-
wise fast on the pot V, to prevent the spring V126 moving the detent V10 too far.
Any point in the arm Vis always reciprocates through the same distance, but as
the pawl 14 is adjustable along it, it is obvious that if it is set with its nose
opposite to the centre of the ratchet wheel V104, the face of one tooth of that wheel
being aligned with the said nose and the axis of the wheel V10, the backward
motion of the pot V will turn that wheel through an are represented by only one
of its teeth, and that consequently it will be only each fifth motion of the pot V.
that will deliver a metal block 139 into it. The farther the pawl V114 is set to the.

page_text: left hand end of the arm V5, the longer will it remain in engagement with the
ratchet wheel 104 and the longer will be the arc through which each backward
motion of the pot V will turn that wheel.
The arm Vis is shewn as long enough for the pawl V14 being adjusted upon it
to turn the wheel V10 through an arc comprising ten teeth. The delivery of
metal blocks V96 would then be two instead of one for each backward motion of
the metal pot V. The stop V123 may be adjustable to permit of the pawl. V104
being turned farther by its spring V122, or a substitute pawl may be used. When
the rate of delivery is to be duplicated, there will be required a second cam V
shoulder V, and finger V12, situated on the opposite side of the mechanism to
those described above, as indicated by the dotted lines on the left side of Figure 2.
Thus the invention includes a capacity for delivering metal to the metal pot of
a machine making linotypes the mass of which is a multiple of the mass of the
metal blocks V9 contained in its magazine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The hereinbefore described combination of stationary principal magazine:
single ported ring: intermediate magazine; ratchet wheel fast thereto; adjustable
pawl adapted to rotate the wheel through a certain are propertioned to the rate
of delivery of the metal blocks; mechanism for alternately locking and releasing
the said ring and mechanism for making the pawl rotate the wheel intermittently
and regularly.
2. The hereinbefore described combination with the reciprocating metal pot
of a linotype machine, of a fixed principal magazine having vertical chambers
adanted to contain metal blocks proportioned to the size of the 'notypes to be
cast: a ring having a single port and adapted to be rotated with a step by step
motion under the said magazine so as to make its port register with all the said
chambers in succession: a concentric intermediate magazine having the same
number of chambers as the said principal magazine; a concentric ratchet wheel
fast thereto; a detent adapted to hold the said ring stationary with its port
registering with a chamber of the first mentioned magazine until it is emptied:
a cam on the intermediate magazine capable of disengaging the detent from the
said ring a shoulder fast on the said intermediate magazine adapted to move the
said ring through an are equal to the distance between the centres of two adjoining
chambers: a fixed arm a pawl held in contact with the said ratchet wheel and
adjustable along the said arm to turn the said wheel through an are larger
saller according to the rate at which it is required that the metal blocks shall
e delivered into the said metal pot.
Dat this 22nd day of Tohur 1800
CHAS. S. WOODROFFE, Fel.Ch. Inst.P.A.,
Agent for the Applicants.