Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Feb., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 9th Nov, 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 21st Dec., 188
1, JOHANN SEYBERTH of No. 12 Mariahilfer Strasse, Vienna, Austria, Engineer
do hereby declare the nature of my invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to a pneumatic apparatus for automatically answering a
series of questions.
I have called this apparatus
"teacher" for the reason that the same can be
employed to great advantage as a pleasant means of instruction, or the same can
he denominated a "question and answer game."
The questions in the apparatus are systematically arranged in one group and
the replies in another group. The antoniatic device is very simple and consists of
the following parts:
A small india rubber ball provided with a tube or mouth piece is placed on a
small tube and the india rubber ball compressed.
The air current so produced passes from two small vertical and horizontal tubes
into an india rubber or other flexible tube connected to a small tube in which the
question tube at the end of the elastic tube is inserted. The current of air passes
through this elastic tube into a tube leading to a bell so that a small plunger is
forced up against the bell and the same caused to sound.
The tube to which the elastic tube and the tube leading to the bell are attached
forms a kind of fixed point whilst the other end of the said elastic tube can be
shifted from question to question.
The questions and answers are printed on a sheet of paper which is so perforated
that it can be placed over the entire system of questions and answers tubes, and
it is preferred to arrange the questions on the one side and the answers on the
other side of a suitable desk. The questions and answers are interchangeable
according to the size and class of the desk.
The question points are connected beneath the plate of the desk with the answer
points preferably by means of thin india rubbber tubes and thus gives the system
f interwoven tubes.

page_text: An elastic tube is placed with the end in one of the question tubes and serves
in this manner for all questions and the elastic tube connects all these questions
through the fixed point with the bell.
These pneumatic apparatus are very simple and cheap and are not liable to get
out of repair.
If a larger number of questions and answers sheets are employed in the form
of charts or natural historical pictures etc., the same will form an amusing and
instructive game for children and grown up persons.
Instead of employing a bell a vibrator or reed or other suitable signal device
can be used.
"

page_text: I JOHANN SEYBERTH of No. 13, Mariahilfer strasse, Vienna, Austria Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of my said invention and in what manner the saino
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The subject of the present invention is a pneumatic apparatus for automatically
answering a series of questions arranged in any desired sequence.
I call this apparatus a Teacher because it can be advantageously employed as
agreeable means for instruction; but the apparatus could be also called a catechisin
or a game of questions and answers.
In one part of the apparatus a group of tubes is arranged corresponding to
questions which are to be automatically answered by means of another group of
tubes arranged in another part of the apparatus.
The accompanying drawings show the mode of carrying out the present
invention.
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section, Fig. 2 a plan view Fig. 3 a cross section and
Fig. 4 a section of a detail of the apparatus.
The apparatus consists of a group of tubes and a second group of tubes a
both groups being arranged in a desk p. Each single tube of the one group
is connected separately by means of a separate tube m with a single tube a of
the other group, so that, when a current of air is injected into one of the tubes f,
it cannot pass through any of the tubes a except that one with which the particular
tube is connected. It is therefore evident that if for instance as shown in
Figs. 1 and 2 the tube 2 is put into pneumatic communication with a pneumatic
ringing device Kg by means of a flexible tubes and if then a current of air is
injected into the tube a³, for instance by means of the rubber ball b, the bell g
will be caused to ring. On the other hand if the rubber ball should be caused
to inject a current of air into any other one of the tubes a the bell g will not
ring because the current of air will pass out through one of the open tubes not
attached to the flexible tube and therefore not in communication with the
pneumatic bell 9.
The group of tubes are arranged to serve for questions and the group of
tubes a for answers.
The questions and answers are preferably printed on sheets of paper provided
with perforations corresponding with the projecting ends of the tubes and a, so
that on placing such a perforated sheet on the desk p there will be a group of
questions on the side where the tubes fare and a group of answers on the side
where the tubes a are. By way of example Fig. 2 shows the question-Where is
Cairo" appearing where the tube is situated, whilst the answer-In Egypt-
appears where the tube a³ is. It is evident that on attaching the flexible tube s
to the tube and then putting the compressible ball & with its mouthpiece E on

page_text: one of the tubes a the pneumatic bell 7 will not ring unless the ball 6 has been
placed on the tube a communicating with the 2, and compressed so as to force a
current of air through the tubes. The situation of the different questions and
answers on the different perforated shoots must of course always correspond with
the cominunication between the respectivo tubes of the groups and a. Thus
the questions Where is Cairo-or-Divide 132 by 12-must he arranged to
appear at the spot where the tube 2 is situated if the answers-In Egypt-
or 11 are arranged to appear at the spot where the tube a³ is situated.
dotted lines in Fig. 2 show how for instance the tubes 2 a 5 a, f15 a¹³,
f19, a, 21 a", f28 a, f31 a, 736 are connected together by tubes m
arranged beneath the board of the desk. These tubes m are perfectly flexible
tubes and cross each other in all kinds of directions.
The
The flexible tubes is provided at its movable end with a tuber fitting into
any of the tubes so as to be able to conveniently connect any one of the tubes f
with the pneumatic bell g whilst the other end of the tube is attached to a:
tube d fixed in the desk p and communicating by means of the tube e with the
pneumatic ringing device. This device consists as shown in Fig. 4 of a piston k
sliding in a tube so that it can be impelled upwards by a current of air coming
through the tubes 8, d, e, and then strikes against the edge of the bell g, after-
wards sliding down again by its own weight.
It is evident that without departing from the substance of this invention the
current of air coming through the tube s may be caused to put a whistle, a
sounding reed or other sounding device into action instead of a bell.
On the perforated exchangeable sheets the questions and answers may be arranged
in the form of maps or illustrations from natural history or any other suitable
form so as to form an article of amusement or instruction for young or old.
Having now more particularly described the nature of my said invention what
I claim is
1. For an automatic teacher, or catechisin or game of questions and answers.
The pneumatic intercommunication of the tubes corresponding to the questions and
answers, so that a flexible tube connected with one of the questioning tubes will
only then set a sounding deviso into action when a current of air is created in
the corresponding answering tube, substantially as described.
2. In combination with the arrangement described in the first claim the employ-
ment of a hollow flexible bail for creating the requisite current of air, substantially
as described.
3. The arrangement of the described mechanism on a desk substantially as and
for the purpose described.