US3270851A - Typewriter - Google Patents

Description

p 6, 1966 A. c. GOLDSMITH ETAL 3, 5

TYPEWRITER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 8, 1963 ARTHUR C. GOLDSMITH BY and ANTHONY IV. PAO/VE pt 5, 1965 A. c. GOLDSMITH ETAL 3,270,851

TYPEWRITER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 8, 1963 INVENTORS ARTHUR C; GOLDSMITH and ANTHONY N. PAO/VE WMQPM ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,270,851 TYPEWRITER Arthur C. Goldsmith, La Fayette, and Anthony N. Paone, Syracuse, N .Y., assignors to SCM Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Aug. 8, 1963, Ser. No. 300,823 2 Claims. (Cl. 197-84) This invention relates to carriage spacing mechanisms for typewriters and like machines and, more particularly, to novel mechanisms for spacing the carriages of such machines a fraction of a normal letter space. (Such mechanisms will hereinafter be referred to collectively as half space mechanisms for the sake of convenience. It is to be understood, however, that the novel spacing mechanisms of the present invention are not limited to this particular fractional spacing.)

The novel half space mechanisms of the present invention may be advantageously employed to facilitate the correction of typing errors and to justify (i.e., produce even) right-hand margins. Occasionally, a typist -will err by omitting a letter from a word. In the absence of a half or other fractional space mechanism, this generally necessitates the retyping of the page as, even if a portion or all of the word is erased, there will not be room to insert the missing letter and retype the word.

If, however, typewriters are provided with the novel half space mechanisms of the present invention, such errors present no problem. By using these mechanisms, the misspelled word can be erased and correctly retyped wtih a half space between the corrected word and the preceding and following words instead of the normal full space. The correction will be barely noticeable and will eliminate retyping the page. This may be of particular importance in cutting stencils and the like since stencils and similar materials :are relatively expensive.

Similar corrections can be made when the typist errs by inserting an extra letter in a word. In this case the novel half space mechanisms of the present invention may be employed to increase the space between the letters of the retyped word or the spaces between the corrected and adjacent words, minimizing the obviousness of the correction and making it unnecessary to retype the page.

Other errors of this type can also be corrected by erasing appropriate letters or words and retyping them in respaced relationship by use of the novel half space mechanisms of the present invention.

The typed page produced by the conventional typewriter has a ragged right-hand margin because words cannot be arbitrarily broken at the margin and because typed characters occupy an invariable space and a typed line therefore cannot be expanded or compressed to produce an even margin as can the lines of print in various printing processes. However, by employing the novel half space mechanisms of the present invention, the spaces between words can be decreased and the spaces between words and the letters of words expanded as necessary to produce an even or justi-fied right-hand margin.

The broad concept of a half space mechanism is, in itself, not new. Half space mechanisms were proposed as early as 1914 as shown by United States Patent No. 1,100,669 issued to C. B. Corcoran June 16, 1914, for Type Writing Machine. More recently, United States Patent No. 2,645,324 issued July 14, 1953, to F. J. Kavanaugh for Adjustable Escapement Mechanism for Typewriters disclosed another form of half spaced mechanisms.

A serious disadvantage of the Corcoran half space mechanism is that the typist must exert a heavy force on the half space key as, in Corcorans mechanism, the

carriage is half spaced by moving it in the back space direction against the bias of the conventional spring motor employed in both manual and electric typweriters to move the carriage in the letter space direction. In typewriters equipped with our novel half space mechanisms, in contrast, only a light pressure need be exerted on the half space key since the spring motor moves the carriage, and the half space mechanism performs only an arresting function which does not require the exertion of force by the typist.

The most serious drawback of the Kavanaugh half space mechanism is that it can only be used with a carriage provided with a half drop escapement. A half drop escapement permits the carriage to move one half of a space before the letter prints (or when the space bar is depressed) and the remaining half space after the letter prints or the space bar is released.

Such escapements have been widely used, but, to a substantial extent, have been superseded by full drop escapements in which the carriage moves the full letter space distance before the letter is printed. The Kavanaugh type half space mechanism is not usable with a full drop escapement and, consequently, cannot be incorporated in many present daytypewriters. In contrast, the novel half space mechanisms of the present invention may be employed with both half and full drop escapements and with escapements having other fractional drops.

Another disadvantage of both the Corcoran and Kavanaugh half space mechanisms is that they are incorporated to a substantial extent in the carriage escapement and, therefore, could not be use-d with an existing escapement without extensive modification of the escapement or the half space mechanisms or both. The novel half space mechanisms of the present invention, in contrast, are compatible with existing escapements. For example, they may be used with the full drop escapements disclosed in United States Patent No. 2,649, 17-9 issued to l. P. Barkdoll August 18, 1953, for Carriage Feeding Escapement Mechanism with, at most, only a minor modification in the shape of the dog rocker of Barkdolls escapement.

The novel half space mechanisms of the present invention should be carefully distinguished from the proportional movement type escapements employed in variable spacing typewriters. This class of typewriter has type bars on which the narrow and wide letters are different widths and employs a type key acutated escapement which permits the carriage to move in the letter space direction a distance proportional to the width of the letter to be printed when a type key is struck. These typewriters therefore resemble the present invention insofar as they provide for different increments of carriage movement in the letter space direction. Typical devices of this type are shown in United States Patent No. 2,202,- 565 issued May 28, 1940, to R. S. Reid for Typewriter and in United States Patent No. 2,385,035 issued September 18, 1945, to J. F. Smathers for Typewriting Machine.

These devices are structurally different from the present invention and, except for the single point of similarity noted above, function in an entirely different manner. These devices are essentially full drop escapements with the addition of mechanism for varying the drop depending upon the width of the character to be printed. In contrast to the present invention, there is no provision for advancing the carriage a predetermined fraction of the normal increment by a mechanism operating independently of the type and space bar actions. Indeed, it would probably be impossible to satisfactorily combine half spacing and variable spacing in a single machine since there would be no single letter space increment on which the half space could be based, and a diflerent half space would therefore have to be provided for each of the variable spacings, resulting in an extremely complex machine.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that one object of the present invention resides in the provision of novel improved half space mechanisms.

Among the additional objects of this invention are the following:

(1) The provision of novel half space mechanisms which may be used with both fractional drop and full drop escapements;

(2) The provision of novel half space mechanisms which are compatible with existing escapements and may readily be incorporated in existing typewriters and like machines; (3) The provision of novel half space mechanisms which do not require the typist .to exert a heavy carriage moving force on the half space key as was required in some earlier half space mechanisms;

(4) The provision of novel typewriter mechanisms for producing justified margins which are much simpler than those conventionally employed in typewriting and like machines for this purpose; and

(5) The provision of novel half space mechanisms which are extremely simple and rugged and are, therefore, reliable and inexpensive to manufacture and maintain.

Additional objects and further novel features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the appended claims and as the ensuing detailed description and discussion proceeds in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a partial perspective view of a typewriter equipped with the novel half space mechanism provided by the present invention together with its actuating mechanism, a portion of the typewriter carriage and carriage bed, the carriage escapement, and enough of the typewriter side and back frames to orient the half space mechanism;

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of the half space mechanism shown in FIGURE 1, and is drawn to a larger scale than the latter figure.

As was mentioned above, the novel half space mechanism of the present invention may be employed in conjunction with typewriters equipped with full drop carriage escapements; and, in the ensuing detailed description, our invention will be explained in conjunction with such an escapement. It will be apparent from this description, however, that our novel half space mechanism may equally well be employed with half drop and other proportional drop carriage escapements; and it is to be understood, therefore, that the present invention has utility with fractional drop as well as full drop escapements.

Turning now to FIGURE 1, the novel half space mechanism of the present invention may be employed with the conventional typewriter having a side frame 12, a back frame 14 and a transversely extending, horizontally oriented, frame supported carriage bed 16 on which the typewriter carriage 17 is supported as by ball bearings for rectilinear movement transversely of the typewriter. In the conventional typewriter, the typewriter carriage is constantly urged toward the left, as viewed in FIGURE 1,

by a spring motor (not shown) connected to the carriage by a flexible tape. Normally, a restraining force is exerted on the carriage by an escapement which may be of the half drop or other proportional drop type or of the full drop type identified in FIGURE 1 by reference character 18. When a type key or the space bar is operated, the escapement temporarily releases its restraining influence on the carriage, permitting the latter to move to the left one letter space. Substantially the same result is produced by actuating the half space mechanism 10 of the present invention, except that the carriage is only permitted to move one half of the normal letter space distance.

Referring now to both FIGURES 1 and 2, the illus- 4 trated exemplary full drop escapement 18 is of the type disclosed in United States Patent No. 2,649,179 issued to J. P. Barkdoll August 18, 1953, for Carriage Feeding Escapement Mechanism, and a detailed description of the escapement is therefore not deemed necessary to an understanding of the present invention. In general, however, escapement mechanism 18 includes a pinion meshed with a toothed rack (not shown) on the typewriter carriage. The carriage rack engaging pinion is fixed to the upper end of a vertically extending shaft 20 which has a starwheel 22 fastened to its lower end. Therefore, movement of the typewriter carriage will effect rotation of starwheel 22 and vice versa.

Starwheel 22 is normally prevented from rotating by a holding dog 24 pivotably mounted on the underside of a dog rocker 26 by a screw 28. Holding dog 24 is normally engaged by one of the teeth 30 on starwheel 22 which, through its connection to the typewriter carriage, is urged in a counterclockwise direction by the spring motor. The starwheel tooth 30, therefore, pivots holding dog 24 in a clockwise direction about screw 28 until the holding dog abuts a strip of silencing material 32 fixed to a depending leg 34 of a U-shaped stop 36 also fixed to dog rocker 26 by the screw 28. Depending stop leg 34 limits the movement of holding dog 24 which, in turn, limits the rotation of starwheel 22 and, consequently, the letter space movement of the typewriter carriage.

Holding dog 24 is biased in a clockwise direction by a spring 38 hooked at one end into an aperture 40 formed in a rearwardly extending arm 42 of holding dog 24.' The other end of spring 38 is hooked into an aperture 44 formed in the rearwardly extending arm 46 of a stepping dog 48. Stepping dog 48 is pivotally mounted on the upper side of dog rocker 26 by a screw 50.

Dog rocker 26 is a formed, sheet metal member extending transversely of the typewriter and is pivotally mounted on axially aligned pivot pins 52 and 54. As is best shown in FIGURE 1, pin 52 is fixed to a downwardly and rearwardly inclined extension 56 of a bracket 58 rigidly assembled to the underside of carriage bed 16 with screws 60 and 62. Pivot pin 54 is fixed to a depending arm 64 formed on the right-hand end of bracket 58.

Dog rocker 26 is normally biased in a clockwise direction to position holding dog 24 in the same plane as starwheel 22 by a spring 66 (see FIGURE 2) hooked at one end into an aperture 68 formed in a horizontally and transversely extending finger 70 of the dog rocker. The opposite end of spring 66 (not shown) may be attached to any convenient portion of the typewriter frame.

Operation of the typewriter space bar or of a type key causes an arm 72 to move toward the rear of the typewriter, engage dog rocker finger 70, and rotate the dog rocker in a counterclockwise direction about pivot pins 52 and 54. As dog rocker 26 rotates, holding dog 24 is driven off the starwheel tooth 30a with which it is engaged and a downwardly inclined extension 74 of stepping dog 48 is lowered into the path of the succeeding starwheel tooth 30b. As holding dog 24 moves out of engagement with starwheel tooth 30a, it frees starwheel 22 for rotation. As a result, the typewriters spring motor pulls typewriter carriage 17 in the letter space direction; i.e., to the left as shown in FIGURES l and 2, rotating starwheel 22 in a counterclockwise direction.

As the starwheel rotates and the succeeding starwheel tooth 30b advances, the tooth engages extension 74' of stepping dog 43 and rotates the stepping dog in a clockwise direction about screw 50 until a depending pin 76 adjacent the free end of the stepping dog engages the edge of a step portion 78 on the free end of holding dog 24. At this point holding dog 24 prevents further pivotal movement of stepping dog 48 and starwheel 22 and, consequently, stops the typewriter carriage.

The distance through which starwheel 22 rotates is so adjusted that, when a type key or the space bar is operated, the typewriter carriage will be allowed to move one letter space in the letter space direction. typical of a full drop escapement.

When the type key or space bar is released, arm 72 returns toward the front of the machine to its normal inoperative position, and spring 66 rotates dog rocker 26 in a clockwise direction about pivot pins 52 and 54 until a transversely extending, integral finger 80 formed adjacent the left-hand end of the dog rocker engages the lower edge 82 of the bracket 58 on which pivot pins 52 and 54 are mounted. As dog rocker 26 pivots, stepping dog extension 74 slides off the tooth 30b with which it is engaged and holding dog 24 is moved upwardly into the path of tooth 30b, disengaging stepping dog 48 and engaging holding dog 24, preferably with a minimum amount of starwheel movement.

As stepping dog 48 is disengaged from starwheel tooth 3017, spring 38 pivots the dog in a counterclockwise direction about screw 50 to its inoperative position in which an integral stepping dog extension 84 engages a depending leg 86 of the U-shaped stop 36. This completes the movement of escapement 18 to its inoperative position.

It is the function of the novel half space mechanism of the present invention to operate the escapement mechanism when the half space key is depressed to permit carriage movement in the letter space direction through an increment equal to one half the normal letter space distance. Referring now to FIGURE 1, half space mechanism 10 includes a half space key 88 mounted on the forward end of a keystem 90 pivotally fixed to the outside of typewriter side frame 12 by a screw 92. Depression of half space key 88 pivots keystem 90 in a counterclockwise direction about screw 92 until a stop 94 formed on the upper end of an integral keystem extension 96 engages the upper edge of typewriter side frame 12.

counterclockwise movement of keystem 90 moves a depending keystem arm 98 toward the rear of the typewriter. Arm 98 extends, at its lower end, through an aperture 100 in one arm 101 of a bell crank 102. Bell crank 102 is pivotally fixed on the lower end of a post 104 by a E-ring retainer (not shown) fitted into a groove in the post on the lower side of the bell crank. Post 104 is mounted on the lower side of frame member 106 which extends transversely across the typewriter and is attached to side frame 12 by screws 108. Frame member 106 is similarly fixed to the typewriter frame at the This operation is right-hand side of the typewriter.

A wire link 110 is hooked through an aperture 112 in the opposite arm 113 to bell crank 102. The opposite, rear end of link 110 extends through an aperture 114 in a transversely extending arm 11-6 of half space mechanism actuator 118. Therefore, as depending keystem arm 98 moves toward the rear of the typewriter, 'bell crank 102 is rotated in a clockwise direction about post 104. This pulls link 110 toward the front of the typewriter and pivots half space mechanism actuator 118 counterclockwise about a screw 120 pivotally fixing the half space mechanism actuator to bracket 58.

As half space mechanism actuator 118 rotates, an upwardly and rearwardly inclined camming extension 122 of the actuator engages and depresses the horizontally extending finger 80 on dog rocker 26, pivoting the dog rocker in a counterclockwise direction about pivot pins 52 and 54 and releasing holding dog 24 in the manner described above in conjunction with the operation of full drop escapement 18.

As actuator 118 rotates, it also positions a half space dog 124 in the path of the teeth 30 on starwheel 22. Half space dog 124 is adjustably fixed to actuator 118 by screws 126 which extend through an elongated slot 128 in the actuator into threaded engagement with the dog.

As discussed above in conjunction with the operation of escapement 18 counterclockwise movement of dog rocker 26 and the movement of holding dog 24 out of engagement with the teeth 30 of starwheel 22 frees the carriage, which moves in a letter space direction, rotating starwheel 22 counterclockwise. As starwheel 22 rotates, one of its teeth 30, in this case, tooth 30c, will engage the laterally extending projection or step portion 129 at the free end of half space dog 124. This stops starwheel 22 and, consequently, prevents further movement of the type writer carriage in the letter space direction.

Screws 126 and elongated slot 128 permit half space dog 124 to be adjusted to limit the movement of the typewriter carriage to exactly one-half of its normal letter space movement. Therefore, by maintaining the half space key 88 depressed, the typewriter carriage will be so positioned that a letter may be printed in a position offset one-half space from the space in which it would normally be printed.

When half space key 88 is released, a spring 130, hooked in an aperture 132 in the laterally projecting finger 134 of bracket 58 and in an aperture 136 in half space mechanism actuator 118, rotates the actuator in a clockwise direction about screw 120. This causes step portion 129 of half space dog 124 to slide off starwheel tooth 30c and free starwheel 22 for movement in a counterclockwise direction under the influence of the typewriters spring motor.

Simultaneously, actuator camming extension 122 moves forwardly, permitting spring 66 to rotate dog rocker 26 in a clockwise direction about pivot pins 52 and 54 to its inoperative position. This, as explained above, moves holding dog 24 upwardly into the path of the teeth 30 on starwheel 22. The typewriter carriage is therefore stopped in its normal letter spacing position when the succeeding tooth 30 on starwheel 22 engages holding dog 24.

The timing of the starwheels release by half space dog 124 and the simultaneous pivotal movement of dog rocker 26 to its inoperative position (which is so timed that the first succeeding starwheel tooth 30 will engage holding dog 24) is determined by the angle of actuator camming extension 122. This angle is preferably so adjusted that dog rocker 26 will be returned very nearly to its inoperative position by spring 66 before half space dog 124 moves out of engagement with the tooth 30c of starwheel 22.

Referring next to FIGURE 1, as actuator 118 rotates clockwise when half space key 88 is released, it pulls link toward the rear of the machine, rotating bell crank 102 in a counterclockwise direction about post 104. This moves keystem arm 98 toward the front of the machine, rotating keystem 90 in a clockwise direction about screw 92 and moving half space key 88 upwardly to its inoperative position. In this position the horizontal leg 138 of keystem 90 abuts the under edge of a transverse extension 140 of a stop 142 rigidly assembled to the lefthand typewriter side frame 12 by a screw 144.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit of essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to :be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. In combination in a typewriter or like machine: a carriage; a starwheel movable concomitantly with said carriage; an escapement operable to free the carriage for incremental movement in the letter space direction including a pivotally mounted dog rocker, a holding dog mounted on said rocker normally engaged by a tooth of and restraining the starwheel against movement; type key operated means for pivoting said dog rocker to disengage the holding dog from the starwheel tooth and free the starwheel for rotation; and independent key operated means operable to pivot said dog rocker and disengage the holding dog and simultaneously position in the path of the starwheel restraining means effective to limit the movement of the carriage to a predetermined fraction of its normal letter space increment, comprising a pivotally mounted actuator including dog rocker pivoting cam means, a starwheel tooth engagea'ble dog fixed to said actuator, spring means biasing said actuator in a direction elfective to hold said dog out of engagement with the teeth of the starwheel, and a key operated motion transmitting linkage effective to pivot the actuator against the bias of said spring and move said dog into the path of said starwheel.

2. The combination as defined in claim 1, wherein the dog is adjustable along said actuator.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS Hamilton 197-84.3

Brooks 197-84 Quimby 197-84 Hillard 197-84 X Hillard 197-82 Mann 197-84 Huston et al. 197-84.1 Murray 197-91 X Reid 197-84.3

Smith 197-84.1

Smith 19784.1

Smathers 197-84.3

Kavanaugh 197-84 ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner. ERNEST T. WRIGHT, Assistant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. IN COMBINATION IN A TYPEWRITER OF LIKE MACHINE: A CARRIAGE; A STARWHEEL MOVABLE CONCOMITANTLY WITH SAID CARRIAGE; AN ESCAPEMENT OPERABLE TO FREE THE CARRIAGE FOR INCREMENTAL MOVEMENT IN THE LETTER SPACE DIRECTION INCLUDING A PIVOTALLY MOUNTED DOG ROCKER, A HOLDING DOG MOUNTED ON SAID ROCKER NORMALLY ENGAGED BY A TOOTH OF AND RESTRAINING THE STARWHEEL AGAINST MOVEMENT; TYPE KEY OPERATED MEANS FOR PIVOTING SAID DOG ROCKER TO DISENGAGE THE HOLDING DOG FROM THE STARWHEEL TOOTH AND FREE THE STARWHEEL FOR ROTATION; AND INDEPENDENT KEY OPERATED MEANS OPERABLE TO PIVOT SAID DOG ROCKER AND DISENGAGE THE HOLDING DOG AND SIMULTANEOUSLY POSITION IN THE PATH OF THE STARWHEEL RESTRAINING MEANS EFFECTIVE TO LIMIT THE MOVEMENT OF THE CARRIAGE TO A PREDETERMINED FRACTION OF ITS NORMAL LETTER SPACE INCREMENT, COMPRISING A PIVOTALLY

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