IMPROVEMENTS APPARATUS FOR COMPOSING AND DISTRIBUTING TYPES
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Fraser, of Canonmills Lodge, in the County
of Edinburgh or Mid Lothian, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
APPARATUS FOR COMPOSING AND DISTRIBUTING TYPES."
IN
Sealed the 21st December 1877, and dated the 10th August 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Fraser at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th August 1877:
ALEXANDER FRASER, of Canonmills Lodge, in the County of Edinburgh or Mid
Lothian. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COMPOSING AND DISTRIBUTING
TYPES."
My Invention relates to apparatus for composing and distributing types of the
kind described in the Specifications of Patents granted to me on the 10th April
1872, No. 1060; the 20th November 1872, No. 3461; and the 15th May 1875, No.
1812, and the object of my present Invention is to render more simple and efficient
certain parts of such machines as I will now explain.
In the composing machine the types are laid in grooves in trays placed horizontally,
and each row of types is pressed forwards towards the front of its groove.
According to my present improvement I slot the bottoms of these grooves, and
pass through the slots small plates which serve as dogs to push the row of types
forward, and instead of employing springs for giving these dogs the necessary
pressure, I connect them by cords passing over pulleys to weights which are made
as blades pivotted at the one end. When the groove is fully charged with types
these blades, having a nearly horizontal attitude, exert their greatest force to advance
the row, but as the row gets exhausted of types the blades approach nearer to a
vertical attitude, exerting thus less force to advance the row of types as that row
presents less resistance. Under the grooved trays containing the rows of type I
arrange a light wire frame fitted to slide freely, so that when it is required to
remove a tray emptied of its types, by pulling back this frame I am enabled to
retract all the dogs and raise the lever weights simultaneously, and by turning down
the frame at the end of its back stroke I hold all the dogs back till a charged tray

page_text: is put into its place, whereupon I turn up the sliding frame and push it forward,
thus allowing all the dogs acting on pushing pieces to press upon the rows of types
in the several grooves of the tray.
In the distributing machine the sliding mouth-piece by which each type issues
from the form is set to various widths, according to the thickness of the type that
has to issue. This is effected as formerly by means of adjusting screws acting on
inclines upon a spring lever that works the slide of the mouth-piece, each screw
being set to suit one particular thickness of type. Besides, these separate adjusting
screws I, according to my present improvement, apply to the sliding mouth-piece
another adjusting screw which sets the width of opening so as to increase or diminish
it by any desired amount independently of or in addition to the separate adjustments
above mentioned. The types issuing from the mouth-piece descend channels and
are guided by switches into their appropriate grooves.
For working these switches I, according to my present improvements, cause the
finger keys to act on their levers through an escape lever or tumbler so arranged
that on the depression of a key the switches are moved as required, but owing to
the action of the escape lever they are not shifted back by the release of the key,
but only when another key is depressed. By this arrangement more time is given
for each type to descend, guided by the proper switches, and there is less risk of its
being guided into a wrong groove than when the switches are shifted back by the
release of the finger key. As some of the keys have to shift only one switch and
others have to shift two, three, or more switches, I so arrange the arms which effect
their shift that the arm which has to shift the greatest number acts with the greatest
leverage, and thus the work to be performed by each finger key is rendered more
equal.
Another improvement relates to the switches at the top of the face plate of the
machine. I dispense with the top single switch heretofore employed for directing
the type into the channels, and I employ in place of the ten switches at present
used twelve such switches of extended length so as to reach up to the inlet opening
for the type, and I so arrange the arms that actuate these switches that the arm
which has to shift the greatest number operates with the greatest leverage, thus
equalising the work to be performed by each finger key, as in the case of the lower
switches. Each type as it reaches the bottom of its descending channel is received
on a comb or piece which has a reciprocating motion effected by the movement of
the finger key so as to receive the type and to push it into its groove. I effect this
reciprocating motion by forming in the comb a curved slot in which plays the end
of a lever moved by the finger key, so that both the depression and also the release
of the finger key causes a complete to-and-fro reciprocation of the comb, and hence,
if the comb should miss acting sufficiently on the type in the one stroke, it acts
upon it in the other stroke.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Alexander Fraser in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th
February 1878.
ALEXANDER FRASER, of Canonmills Lodge, in the County of Edinburgh or Mid
Lothian. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COMPOSING AND DISTRIBUTING
TYPES."
My said Invention relates to type composing and distributing apparatus which
whilst in some respects resembling apparatus for the same purposes described in the
Specifications of Patents granted to me on the 10th April 1872, No. 1000; the 20th
November 1872, No. 3461; and the 15th May 1875, No. 1812, now comprises
several very important improvements whereby the construction is simplified, the
action of the parts is rendered more certain, and the working of the apparatus is
facilitated.
My present Invention having reference to particular parts or details of the
apparatus will be most easily explained by my at once describing the apparatus as
made with the improvements and with the aid of the accompanying explanatory
Drawings, of which there are four Sheets, two of them illustrating the composing
apparatus and the other two the distributing apparatus. In these Drawings the
same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are
repeated. I may also here remark that in the Drawings it has been considered
unnecessary to repeat various similar parts as fully as they are repeated in the
actual apparatus, whilst some parts which remain as in my former machines are not
shown in the present Drawings.
In the composing apparatus the types standing vertically are arranged in grooved
trays, which are placed horizontally upon the top of the framing.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings, is a vertical section as taken
parallel to the type grooves in the trays, of which trays there are four in the
particular example I am describing. Figure 2 is a transverse vertical section, one
half being as at the line A-A, in Figure 1, and looking forwards or towards the
left hand in Figure 1, and the other half being as at the line B-B in Figure 1, and
looking backwards. Figure 3, on Sheet 2, is a plan with one type tray shown, but
as moved back a little from its position. Types 1 are shown in Figure 1 as partly
occupying a tray groove, and in Figure 2 as occupying the grooves of one of the two
trays shown in that Figure. Each type tray, 2, consists of a horizontal plate formed
or fitted with vertical partition slips, the spaces between which constitute the
grooves for containing the types 1. When the apparatus is ready for use the types
Ĭ are moved towards the front ends of their grooves in the trays 2 by pushers 3,
which are metal pieces fitted to slide in the grooves, and bear against the hindmost
type of each row.
One of my present improvements relates to the details and arrangements for
acting on the type pushers 3. Fine slots are formed through the bottoms of the
type grooves, and small plates or dogs 4 project up through the slots and engage
with the pushers 3, the dogs 4 being drawn forwards by cords 5 which pass round
pulleys 6, arranged loosely on a horizontal spindle near the front of the upper part
of the machine. The cords 5 are connected to lever weights 7, which are in the
form of blades, all centered on.a horizontal spindle 8 at the back and upper part of
the machine. When a tray groove is fully charged with types, with its pusher 3
pressing against the rearmost type, the corresponding lever weight 7 is drawn up to
nearly a horizontal position, and it then exerts its greatest force on the row of types,
whilst as the types are gradually used and the row of them becomes shorter, and,
consequently, more easily moved, the weight 7 correspondingly assumes in descending
positions in which it acts gradually diminishing leverage and effective force.
The type trays
are fitted to and set in rebated or recessed seats formed for them in
the top frame pieces 9 of the machine, and just below the seat of each type tray 2
:

page_text: there is fitted to slide freely in grooves in the same frame pieces 9, a light wire
frame 10 having a notched cross bar 11 at its front end and fitted for engaging with
the dogs 4, so that when it is required to remove a tray that has been more or less
emptied of its types, by pulling back this frame 10 all the dogs 4 are drawn com-
pletely back by the notched bar 11, the lever weights 7 being thereby lifted, and
the frame 10 being then turned down into the position indicated by dotted lines at
12 in Figure 1; the dogs 4 are held back and the weights 7 up until the type tray
has been removed and a charged one put in its place. When the fresh tray has
been placed the frame 10 is turned up again and pushed forward, and the dogs 4
then engage with the pushers 3, and the parts are ready for operation without
further adjustment.
When the type trays 2 are in position on the composing machine the front ends
of their partition slips, which are slightly bevilled, butt forward against partitions
formed or fixed on a horizontal bar 13, the spaces between these partitions forming
short continuations of the type grooves. The type at the front end of each row
moves forward between the partitions on the bar 13; and bears against a depressor 14
which works vertically in guides in a bar 15. Each depressor 14 is made with a
slight shoulder, which catches on the top of the front type and carries it down;
when it is itself depressed, which action is effected by a wire or cord 16, attached to
the lower end of a lateral fin 17; or thin blade formed or fixed on the side of the
The several
depressor and projecting down at one side of each line of types.
wires 16 are at their lower ends attached to bell-crank levers 18, which are con-
'nected to the fingering keys as formerly. The depressors 14 carry the types down
through openings which allow one type to pass at a time in each case, and the
types then drop into the grooves of the grooved plate 19 which is constructed as
formerly with entering grooves at the top for all the types, such grooves uniting
and converging as they descend, and finally terminating in a single groove, from
which the types are successively transferred to a composing-stick in the order in
which they have been depressed.
The distributing apparatus is (like the composing apparatus), of the kind which
is made to operate through the manipulation of a set of finger keys by a worker
who reads the types which are being distributed, and which are put on the machine
in columns or single lines, being in either case by the same means as in my former
machines moved forward in a single line along a horizontal groove at the top of the
machine to a mouth, through which they fall one by one into the entering channel
of a distributing plane. The types pass down channels in the distributing plane
and are guided by movable switches to their several terminal grooves in the plane,
from which grooves they are transferred to the grooves of type trays of the kind
used in the composing apparatus.
Figure 4, on Sheet 3 of the Drawings, is an elevation of the inner side of the
distributing plane which, as formerly, is slightly inclined from the vertical, the
bottom of it being the further inwards, and which is closed on this grooved inner
side by glass shutters.
Figure 13, on Sheet 4 of the Drawings, is an elevation of the outer side of the
distributing plane, and Figure 12 is a plan of some of the details connected with
the mouth-piece at the entrance to the plane. Figure 14, also on Sheet 4, is a front
elevation of the finger-key frame and details, of which Figure 8, on Sheet 3, is a
side elevation; whilst Figures 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, on Sheet 3, are views of detached
parts, and are herein-after more particularly referred to.
The mouth or opening through which the types pass from the line groove 20 into
the entrance channel 21 of the distributing plane is made smaller or larger to suit
the size of each type and to prevent more than one of even the thinnest types from
passing at a time by a movable mouth-piece 84, which is attached to a rod 22
(Figure 12), that is pressed outwards by a spring 23 so as to tend to close or nearly
close the mouth. The position of the mouth-piece 84 is determined for each type
by a lever 24 (Figures 12, 13), which is centered at its lower end, and is formed
with a broad middle part having inclined surfaces along each side of it, which

page_text: inclined surfaces are acted on by horizontal rods 25. These rods 25 are formed
with parts which project over the lever 24, and which are fitted with finely adjust-
able screw pins to act on that lever, and when the rods are moved by means of the
finger keys, as herein-after explained, they shift the lever 24 through the action of
the screw pins on its inclined surfaces.
One of the present improvements consists in providing the lever 24 with an
adjusting screw pin 26 at its point, such screw pin bearing on the head of the sliding
rod 22 of the mouth-piece, and thus affording a means of adjusting the mouth-
piece to a considerable extent independently of the series of adjusting screw pins
through which the lever 24 is itself moved.
The distributing plane is provided with two sets of switches, namely, upper
or section switches, and lower or minor ones. I find it better, instead of having
a single switch above the section switches, to increase the number of the section
switches from ten to twelve, and to make the lateral recesses just within the
entrance channel 21 (Figure 4), so that all the section switches 27 can be
turned over completely to one side or the other of that channel, the switches 27
lying, when acted on only by the springs 28, bearing on their levers 29 (Figure 13),
half on each side of the entrance channel. All the switches are arranged as
formerly, being fixed on pins which form their centres of angular movement,
and passing through holes in the distributing plate, have levers 29 fixed on them at
the other or outer side of the plate, such levers being nearly in the same positions
as their respective switches. The levers 29 of the upper or section switches 27 are
acted on by projections on the inner sides of the horizontal rods 25, these rods being
themselves moved by bell cranks 30, there being interposed in the case of two of
the rods 25 in the modification shown in Figure 13, levers 31, and links 32, between
the rods and the bell cranks 30, in order to render the general arrangement more.
convenient. Helical wire springs 33 are provided for restoring the position of any
rod 25 after it has been acted on, some of such springs being behind the rods and
indicated by dotted lines. The bell cranks 30 have connected to them vertical wires
or rods 34, which pass down through holes in a guide plate 35, and are formed with
hooks or projecting pins to engage with eyes on the upper ends of vertical wires or
rods 36, which transmit the movements for the upper or section switch levers 29
from the mechanism carried by the finger-key frame shown in Figures 14 and 8.
The finger keys 37 are, as in my former machines, vertical rods which have
buttons on their upper ends, and are guided vertically in holes in upper and lower
horizontal frame plates 38, 39. They are made to act by depressing them, being
raised again by helical wire springs, and they are arranged in short transverse rows,
which in plan are at right angles to the front of the machine and to the distributing
plane. The several keys in any one such transverse row are allotted to a number
or section of the types, which are as nearly as possible of the same thickness, and
they deal with all the types which come down one of the section channels 40 of the
distributing plane, and are guided into such channels by the upper or section
switches 27.
As the mechanism and actions appertaining to the several sections are alike a
description of those of one section will apply to all. The keys 37 (excepting the
front one) of a section act on a set of cranked wires 41, having horizontal parts,
which are held and turn in grooves in a vertical frame plate 42, arms 43 on the
outer ends of the wires 41 being entered into holes in enlarged parts of the key
spindles. The back ends of the wires 41 are formed with cranked arms 44, which
act on the levers 45 of the lower or minor switches 46. The ends of the cranked
arms 44 are indicated in their normal positions by dotted circles in Figure 13, in
connection with the section of minor switch levers 45, nearest the left-hand side of
the machine.
On comparing Figures 13, 14, and 8, it will be seen that the cranked arm 44 of
the wires 41 are arranged so that those arms 44, which have to move the greater
number of switch levers 45, act at higher parts, or in other words at greater
distances from the centres of those levers, so as to have the greater leverage where

page_text: the greater resistance has to be overcome, and thus rendering the degrees of force
required for depressing the several finger keys more nearly the same in all cases.
The same arrangement is adapted in the case of the upper or section switch
levers 29, and is a considerable improvement on my former arrangements of such
parts. The finger key at the front end of each sectional row of keys 37 has no
cranked rod 41 to act on, because when the minor switches 46 are all in their
normal positions one channel is open, and is the one appertaining to that finger key,
no switch requiring to be moved for it (otherwise than by its own spring). The
front key of each section has however to act in other respects like the others.
In my former machines the minor switch levers 45, when acted on by a finger
key 37, were prevented from being moved by the springs 47 back to their normal
or closed positions, immediately on the finger key 37, being allowed to rise, and
were kept unmoved until another key of the same section was depressed, in order
that as much time as possible might be allowed for each type to descend, and that
there might be less risk of its being guided into a wrong terminal groove. I now
however effect the same or a similar purpose in a better manner and by more
satisfactorily working contrivances. What I term a section bar 48 lies horizontally
beside each sectional row of finger key spindles 37, and each spindle is fitted with
a pin or projection which depresses the bar 48 on any key of that section being.
depressed. The section bar 48 is at its front end made with an arm, which is
centered on a pin screwed into the front end of the plate 42, and its inner end is
passed through and supported by one arm of a bell-crank lever 49, centered on an
inner part of the plate 42, and shown in face view in Figure 7. Each section
bar 48 is passed through an eye at the lower end of one of the vertical wires or
rods 36, herein-before referred to, as transmitting the movements to the details by
which the upper or section switches 27 are moved. A wire 50 connects each section
bar 48 to a small lever 51, which has projecting from one side of it a bevilled pin
that in the normal position bears on the bevilled upper end of a small weighted
tumbler 52, centered on a lever 53. Each lever 53 forms one piece with an arm or
lever 54, which when the finger key frame is in position projects inwards beside the
upper ends of the levers 45 of each section or set of minor switches 46, and which is
centered on a horizontal rod 55 fixed to brackets at the inner side of the finger key
frame.
Two of the lever pieces 53, 54, are shown separately in plan in Figure 5, and
Figure 6 is a vertical section showing certain parts in a position different to that in
which they are shown in Figure 8. The lever pieces 53, 54, are held in their proper
.positions on the rod 55 by small pins screwed into the rod through holes in the
pieces, which holes are elongated to allow of and limit the movements of the pieces.
Whenever any of the finger keys 37 of a section is depressed, and its section bar 48
consequently lowered, the appropriate small lever 51 is pulled down, and through
the tumbler 52 depressing the lever 53, the tumbler being then kept in a proper
position by a pin on its side, catching in a notch in the lever 53. This action
raises the inner end of the lever 54 out of the way of any switch lever or levers 45
that is or are being moved over by the cranked arm 44, then being acted on by the
finger key; but the tumbler 52 escapes from the lever 51 when or before that lever
reaches its lowest position, and the lever 54 descends by its excess of weight, and
prevents the switch lever or levers 45, then moved over, from returning until the
lever 54 is again raised, which will not be until the next occasion of depressing a
finger key 37 of the same section. The tumbler 52 is weighted so as, on the
lever 51 returning to its normal position, to get under the projection on that
lever.
In Figure 6 the parts are shown with the lever 51 still down, but with the lever
piece 53, 54, returned to its normal position, the tumbler 52 having escaped from
the lever 51. The upper or section switches 27 are also kept from returning to
their normal positions after each action on them, and until the succeeding depression
of a finger key by mechanism like that described, as applied for the like purpose to
the minor switches. The parts of this mechanism near the levers 29 of the upper

page_text: switches 27 (and which are not shown in Figures 8 and 12) are shown in plan in
Figure 10, and in sectional side view in Figure 11, whilst the parts near the finger
key frame are shown partly in Figures 8 and 14. A wire 60, which is pulled down
whenever any finger key is depressed (in a manner herein-after explained) is
jointed to a small lever 61, like the lever 51 of Figures 5, 6, 8; and a bevilled pin on
this lever 61 acting on a tumbler 62 on a lever 63, turns a tubular piece having
the lever 63 formed on one side of it and two levers 64 on the other side, the latter
levers 64 acting as regards the levers 29 of the upper or section switches, just as the
levers 54 act on the minor switch levers 45 below.
The tubular piece formed with the levers 63, 64, is on a spindle 65 held in a
bracket 66, and light spring 67 is applied to steady the parts and prevent recoil.
The wire 60 of the parts just described is at its bottom jointed to a horizontal
rod 68, which is at right angles to the section bars 48, and has arms 69 formed at
its ends and centered on the second and eighth plates 42 (counting from the left-.
hand end in Figure 14) of the finger key framing.
Parallel with the rod 68 and lying all in the same line above the arms 69 of that
rod, there are three rods 70, each formed with arms 71 at its ends, and centered on
the frame plates 42, and these three rods are just beneath the inner ends of the
section bars. 48, one of them being under the first three section bars 48 (counting
from the left-hand end in Figure 14), the second rod 70 under the next three section
bars 48, and the third rod 70 under the remaining six section bars 48. With this
arrangement, whenever any finger key is depressed, one of the three rods 70 is
depressed, and any one of these three rods depresses the rod 68.
Spiral metal springs 86, 87, are provided for raising each rod 70 and the rod 68
after being depressed. Besides acting on the rod 68, the three rods 70 have separate
actions, being connected by wires 72, Figures 8, 14, to bell-crank levers 73,.
Figures 12, 13, above.
The upper arms 74, 75, of two of these bell-crank levers 73 are curved over and
act on pins on sliding bars 76, 77, the upper one 76 of which extends to the other
side, where it can also be acted on through a horizontal reversing lever 78 by the
upper arm 79 of the third bell-crank lever 73.
The sliding bars 76, 77, are fitted in a piece 80, fixed at the front end of the type
groove 20, and they carry thin metal plates 81 for pushing each type in succession
towards the left hand (Figures 12, 13,) off the forward end of the groove bottom, so
that it may drop down the mouth or opening at the side into the entrance channel 21,
of the distributing plane.
The lower bar 77 carries a plate 81 suitable for acting on the thinnest types,
whilst the upper bar 76 carries a plate 81 immediately behind the other one, and
formed with a shoulder to act on the other one, so that whenever the one behind is
moved across the type groove, the two go together, and serve for acting on the
thicker types.
Springs 82, 83, return the bars 76, 77, towards the right hand after
each action on them.
Each type on reaching the bottom of its terminal groove in the distribution plate
is received on a kind of comb or rake, the motion of which transfers it into its
proper groove in the type tray. There is one such comb or rake 56 for each section,
and of the form shown in plan in Figure 9. It slides backwards and forwards in
guides and is moved by means of an arm 85 of the bell crank 49, herein-before
referred to as carrying and moving with the inner end of the section bar, and which
projects down into a curved slot 57 formed in the comb or rake 56, and in an
adjustable plate screwed thereto, and in consequence of the form of the slot, it makes
the comb or rake perform two reciprocations each time a finger key is depressed
and released. This action is positive and not dependent on springs, and the comb
rests in its innermost position, so that when a type descends it remains supported
on it for a short time with its upper end still not quite clear of the glass covering
plate, so that it cannot get thrown out by rebounding.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise

page_text: 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 of parts herein-before described with reference to Sheets 1
and 2 of the accompanying Drawings, and forming essential portions of apparatus
for composing types.
2. The forming of the type trays with fine slots along the bottoms of the type
grooves for the purposes herein-before described.
3. The moving forward of the types in the tray grooves by pushers acted on by
dogs drawn forward by cords passing over pulleys to lever weights, substantially as
herein-before described.
4. The providing of wire frames and the making of the dogs separable from the
type pushers and capable of being drawn back by the wire frames, substantially as
and for the purposes herein-before described.
5. The combination of parts forming type-distributing apparatus, and herein-
before described with reference to Sheets 3 and 4 of the accompanying Drawings.
6. The fitting of the lever by which the mouth-piece is adjusted with an
adjusting screw interposed between the lever and part it acts on in addition to
the adjusting screws which regulate the action of the parts which move the lever,
as herein-before described.
7. The arranging of the upper or section switches in the improved manner,
herein-before described, and without any switch preceding or above them, as herein-
before described.
8. The arranging of the several crank arms which act on a section of minor
switch levers, so that those which have the more levers to move act on parts of the
switch levers which are more distant from their centres, substantially as and for the
purposes herein-before described.
9. The like arrangement in respect of the upper or section switch levers.
10. The improved mechanism, herein-before described, for keeping open the
switches as long as possible, and particularly the combination of the levers 51 and 53,
and tumbler 52; also the like combination 61, 63, 62, these numerals marking on
the accompanying Drawings the parts referred to.
11. The improved arrangement by which the depression and return of a finger
key imparts two reciprocating motions, which are positive in both directions to the
combs or rakes by which the types are transferred from the bottom of the dis-
tributing plane to the type trays, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Fraser, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
ATTV TADO SED