Exhibiting Written Messages and Analogous Communications.
Year: 1886

page_text: Exhibiting Written Messages and Analogous Communications.
Í, THOMAS JAMES HEWSON, of 77, High Road, Lee, in the County of Kent,
Accountant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
The object of this Invention is to afford a ready and convenient means of com-
munication between persons who frequent the same place but who do not happen
to meet there simultaneously; and which will be of considerablé utility on such
occasions when postal, telegraphic, telephonic or other existing facilities of
communication cannot be readily or advantageously made use of; the improved
means acting as a stationary auto-messenger intended principally for the reception
and exhibition for any required period (say, for the remaining duration of the day)
of messages written upon a protected part, though it may be used for advertising
and other analogous purposes.
This object I attain by providing in railway stations, public institutions and
other places of public resort, a stationary apparatus comprising a roll or strip of
paper or other material upon which the messages are written and by which they
are subsequently exhibited in a protected position, and which apparatus is so
adapted as to be protected from use until a preliminary operation, say, the deposit
into its interior at a given part of a given coin, has been effected for the use of the
apparatus, which then automatically presents in a conveniently accessible position
a slip or portion of the roll or strip of paper upon which the desired communication
can be written, or otherwise marked or placed, and which apparatus is also so adapted
as that the act of covering the message lastly written by the part which protects
the apparatus from further use until the said preliminary operation has been again
effected (and which it is necessary to do before the apparatus can be again made
use of for its intended purpose) causes such message to be removed to a protected
and exhibitive position, where, if required, it may be maintained for a varied or
set time, and simultaneously causes a fresh portion of paper to be brought into
position for use as aforesaid.
This principle of operation may be carried out by various arrangements of
appropriate means, and the improved communicating apparatus may also be made
of various forms, but the modification illustrated on the accompanying drawings
possesses several advantages as regards simplicity and inexpensiveness of con-
struction and freedom of access to the interior for supplying new material as
required.

page_text: On the accompanying drawings; Figure, 1, represents a transverse sectional
elevation of the apparatus with its parts in their normal position preventing access
to the portion of paper upon which the next message is to be written.
Figure, 2, represents a like view with the parts of the apparatus in the position
they assume when such portion of paper is exposed and can be written upon.
Figure, 3, represents in sectional plan view a duplicate construction of such
apparatus, the right hand half being a section through a,b, Figure, 1, and the
left hand half a section through c,-d, Figure, 2.
The apparatus is constructed with a containing case, 1, enclosing the operating
parts, and preventing fraudulent access thereto. The case may be made of any
desired material and of any desired formation, though it is preferably made with
a vertical or approximately vertical glazed front, 2, and with a desk like part, 3,
affording facility for writing the desired messages.
In the modification represented, the desk part, 3, is made with an opening; 4,
through which access can be obtained to a given space of the paper, 5, when such
opening is uncovered by a flap, shutter, disc or plate, 6, or by any equivalent part
of a revolving, sliding, lifting or hinged construction, and which in its normal
position covers such space, as illustrated in Figure, 1, and prevents access thereto,
and is retained in such position until its controlling mechanism is appropriately
operated.
In the modification represented, the flap, 6, is adapted with a centre pin, 7, one
end of which is provided with an extending arm, 8, which is connected by a
bar, 9, with a counterbalanced lever, 10, centred at, 11, to the side of the case, 1,
or to any convenient fixing; and when the flap, 6, is in the said position represented
in Figure, 1, it is retained in such position by means of a counterbalanced lever, 12,
which is centred at, 13, in any convenient bearings, 14, and has limited movements
between pins, 15, and is provided with an extending arm or part, 16, the upper
end of the lever then engaging in a notch, 37, in the under or end part of the
bar, 9, or extension, 8, and preventing the flap from being opened until the con-
trolling lever, 12, is operated so as to release it from engaging with the said bar, 9,
or extension, 8, the parts being so adjusted as that this releasing movement is
effected by dropping a coin of appropriate size and weight through the slit, 17, in
the desk part, 3, onto the said extending arm or part, 16, upon which the flap, 6, is
released from such control; or the flap may be released by the use of other
analogously operating mechanism; and it is then immediately and automatically
operated by the said counterbalanced lever, 10, aided by the weight of a connected
bar, 18, and in its final movement by a spring, 19, in such a manner, as to cause
the flap to turn on its centre of movement and to assume the position indicated in
Figure, 2-the bar, 18, is also connected to a pawl-carrier, 20, having its centre
of movement at, 21, and carrying an attached spring pawl, 22. In the said
operation of the parts lastly described, the bar, 18, in falling, causes the pawl, 22,
to take up a new position in relation to the teeth of a ratchet wheel, 23, which, its
forward movement operates, and which is held from following the rearward
movement of the pawl, 22, by an upper weighted or spring pawl, 24, centred at, 25,
the pawl carrier, 20, ratchet wheel, 23, and pawl, 24, being carried by a convenient
fixing, 26, which is adapted to the side of the case, and having independent move-
ments therein.
The ratchet wheel, 23, is formed with a squared centre recess, 38, in which the
correspondingly formed end of the spindle, 27, of a take up roller or drum, 28, is
placed, so as to be operated by the movements of the wheel, 23, in the direction of
the arrow, 39, the other end of the spindle turning freely in an opposite bearing, 40,
which is of such a formation, as illustrated, and is so applied to the opposite side of
the case, as that upon its being opened in the manner indicated in Figure, 1, by
raising the lever, 29, the roller or drum, 28, together with the used up strip or
roll of paper upon it, can be removed, leaving all the other parts in situ.
The paper to be written upon is preferably coiled around a like roller or
drum, 30, carried by a suitable frame, 31, which is or may be wholly removable

page_text: from the apparatus to allow of a fresh roll of paper being supplied when required.
The front end of the frame, 31, carries a roller, 32, partly around which the paper
passes from the drum, 30, and from which it passes to a flat table part, 33, which
is carried by the frame, 31, and is so disposed as to occupy a position immediately
under the said opening, 4, so that when this opening is uncovered by the flap, as
aforesaid, the exposed portion of paper may be written upon; the strip of paper
passes thence behind a small roller, 34, carried by the case and placed under or
conveniently adjacent to the lower edge of the glazed front, 2, behind which it
runs up parallel therewith, over a top roller, 35, to the taking up roller, 28; or the
let off roller may be so adapted in relation to the said opening, 4, as that the table
part, 33, may be dispensed with and the message be written directly upon the roll.
36, represents a catch centred to a part of the frame, 31, and which, in the
position of the parts represented in Figure, 2, is caused by the connecting bar, 9,
to engage with a ratchet ring, 46, in the adjacent side of the let off roller, 30, and
prevent any further movement of the paper until the writer after having written
his message raises the flap, 6, to cover the message and remove it to a visible and
protected position, and as he closes the flap down, the latter causes the bar, 9, to
release the catch, 36, from the ratchet ring 46, and by the connection, 10, also
causes the rod, 18, to operate the taking up drum, 28, in the direction of the
arrow, 39, and to draw up the paper a distance a little exceeding the space written
upon, so as to leave a sufficient space between contiguous messages; and as the
flap, 6, is closed down onto the opening, 4, its extension, 8, or the adjacent end of
the bar, 9, is caught by the lever, 12, and is retained in such position until the
parts are again operated in the manner aforesaid.
41, represents a detector, adapted to the lever, 12, which closes the slit, 17,
immediately the coin reaches the arm, 16, and which prevents the lever from being
operated until the slit is closed by such detector or by equivalent means, so that
fraudulent actuation thereof is prevented; or other convenient means may be
employed for such purpose.
42, represents a receptacle for the coins dropped through the slit, 17, and, 43, a
front door under the safeguard of a lock and key; the operating mechanism can
all be got at by opening the back door, 44, which is also under the safeguard of a
lock and key.
The apparatus may also be so adapted as that the slit, 17, may be automatically
closed and the apparatus be rendered inoperative, after, say, the length of a
complete column of paper has been filled up with messages, so that such messages
as may be written thereon may remain exposed for any required period of time,
say, the remaining portion of the day. This may be advantageously effected by
making a spiral groove with an abrupt radial inner termination in the one end of
the roller, 32, and adapting a removable spring stop thereto, having a facility of
sliding in the framing, 31, radially of the roll, the length of the said groove being
determined by that of the column of paper, so that all movement of the paper is
prevented when the stop reaches the radial end of the spiral groove, into which it
slips, and in so doing draws a shutter under the slit, 17, and such spring stop
can be lifted out and removed to the commencement of the spiral groove, thus
removing the shutter from the slit, when it is desired to recommence the use of
the slip of paper.
The apparatus may be duplicated or made of any desired extent.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is :-
1. The herein before described improved method of receiving and exhibiting
messages and other communications by the use of apparatus constructed adapted
and operating substantially in the manner hereinbefore described.
2. In communicating apparatus of the nature hereinbefore referred to;—the
application and use in combination, of a roll or strip of paper or material adapted

page_text: for receiving and exhibiting messages written upon it, with a flap, shutter, disc or
plate adapted for preventing access to the paper for writing such messages until
the controlling mechanism of the shutter has been appropriately operated, and
with means for automatically operating the shutter when thus released in such a
manner as to render a portion of the said roll or strip accessible for use for the
receipt of any message; the shutter and such means of automatically operating it
being so adapted and combined as to be operative in the closing movement of the
flap or shutter in removing the portion of paper written upon to a protected and
exhibitive position, and in bringing a fresh portion of paper into position for use
when the apparatus is next operated, substantially as hereinbefore described.
3. In communicating apparatus of the nature hereinbefore referred to;-the
combination of an intermittently actuated take up roller, with such flap or shutter,
by means which, in the opening movement of the shutter, carry the operating
parts of the take up roller to operative position, and in the closing movement of
the shutter operate the take up roller in such a manner as to remove the portion
of paper written upon to a protected and exhibitive position, and to bring a fresh
portion of paper into position for use at the next operation of the apparatus,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
4. In communicating apparatus of the nature hereinbefore referred to;-the
combination of the shutter with means controlling its opening movement dependent
for their operation upon being appropriately actuated in the manner aforesaid, and
with means for automatically removing it from its closed to its opened position
when released from such controlling mechanism substantially as herein before
described, and the application of such or equivalent means for the purpose of
preventing fraudulent access to such apparatus.
5. In communicating apparatus of the nature hereinbefore referred to ;-con-
trolling the opening movement of the paper controlling shutter by means dependent
for their actuation upon being appropriately operated in the manner hereinbefore
described.
6. In communicating apparatus of the nature herein before referred to;-the
application of a removable frame carrying a let off roll or supply of paper under
automatical control, and a forward table-like part across which the paper is drawn,
and which is adapted to the position of the opening controlled by the said shutter
in the outer or containing case, substantially as hereinbefore described.
7. In communicating apparatus of the nature herein before referred to;-the
application of a let off roll or supply of paper under automatic control in such
relation to the opening controlled by the said shutter as that the message may be
written directly upon the roll when uncovered by the shutter substantially as
hereinbefore described.
Dated this 01st day of Contambar 1886