US350616A - buckingham - Google Patents

Description

3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

C. L. BUGKING-HAM. I

PRINTING TELEGRAPH.

No. 350,616. Patented Octifi, 1886.

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- (No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. L. BUOKINGHAM.

PRINTING TELEGRAPH.

Patented Oct. 12, 1886.

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PRINTING TELEGRAPH. No. 350,616. Patented Opt. 12, 1886.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIC CHARLES L. BUOKINGHAM, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

PRINTING-TELEGRAPH.

SPBGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 350,616,6lated October 12, 1886.

A Application filed March 6, 1836. Serial No. 194,209. (No model.)

in Printing-Telegraph Transmitters, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is applicable to that class of printing-telegraphs in which the stepby-step rotation of the type-wheels is controlled or effected by short electrical impulses, and in which the type-wheel is arrested during the operation of printing. In transmitters for this class of printing-telegraphs, a rotating pulsator is usually employed, which serves to direct short electrical impulses over the main line during its rotation, while for the purpose of prolonging an impulse the pulsator is arrested.

Vherea single pulsator is employed in 0011- nection with many telegraph-circuits, the retating apparatus is heavy, and, owing to its great momentum, is subject to constant injury and wear in the course of its operation, from the fact that it must be suddenly arrested many times a minute. Not only is there liability to derangement in this form of apparatus, owing to impact upon the arresting devices, where the apparatus is heavy, as is usually the case, but the inertia of the rotating parts is sulficient to greatly limit the speed of transmission.

The object of my invention is to avoid arresting the rotating pulsator during the operation of printing characters upon the receiving-instrument.

I will now explain my invention by reference to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 represents an arrangement of apparatus in which the pulsator is connected directly to the main line, Fig. 2 illustrates the pulsator as applied in a local circuit which controls a relay and main-line pole-changer. Fig.3 illustrates the rotating pulsator with an additional device for rendering the first impulse transmitted, after the printing of a character, at least equal in length or duration to that of the normal impulse.

Referringparticularly to Fig. 1 for convenience of illustration, H and H represent the coils of a polarized electro-Jnagnet of a printing-instrument, controlling the step-by-step rotation of a type-wheel,U, through the agency of pallet It and ratchet-wheel T.

J is a sluggish electromagnet, which is also included in line L, for operating the press lever P through armature V by the prolongation of one of the short impulses employed for controlling the rotation of the type-wheel.

The rotating pulsator-wheel is formed of two sections, M N, which are insulated from each other. Upon one of said sections conductingspaces are arranged directly opposite the insulating spaces of the other, and vice versa.

B is a brush or spring connected with line L,whose broad end rests upon both sections of the rotating pulsator, and a b are springs or brushes respectively connected wit-h said sections M N. Spring a is connected to 'the p0sitive pole of-battery A, while spring I) is connected with the negative pole of battery B, and the opposite poles of said batteries are connected together and to earth at E.

c is the shaft of the rotating pulsatorwheel, upon one end of which is a pinion, d, gearing with any suitable motor-train.

O is a circular series of conducting strips, commonly known as a sunflower.

D is a sunflowerarm carrying a contactspring at its free end, which, during the rota tion of said arm, sweeps over the sunflowerstrips.

E is an escapement-wheel, whose stepbystep rotation is controlled by an escapementpallet, F, and armature I, while the latter is operated by the usual form of polarized electromagnet, H H, whose coils form a part of the main line L.

0 is a contact-spring, which rests upon the periphery of the rotating shaft S, and is thereby electrically connected with arm D. The post upon which spring 0 is supported'is connected by wire 1), which includes the coils of electro magnet G, and is thence connected to point 3 of the main line L.

G is a neutral electro-magnet having an armature, H, which is provided witha strong retracting-spring.

4 is a back electrical contact, to which line L is joined, and 5 is an insulated front stop.

There are as many insulated conducting-v strips in the sunflower C as there are fingerkeys upon the key -board of the transmitter ICO and characters upon a type-wheel, 7t Z on n represent four such keys, having contacts cf g h, which latter are joined in sets to the mainline batteries. The contacts of alternate keys, as e g, are connected together at point 1, and thence by wire 1 to the posi tive pole of battery A, while the other alternate set of key-c0ntacts, as f ll, are connected together at point 2, and thence by wire 3 to the negative pole of battery 13. Likewise one set of finger-keys, as k m, is connected to alternate sunflowerstrips, while the other set, as Z n, is connected to the second alternate series of the sunflowerstrips. The necessity for this arrangement is obvious from the fact that while a positive lineimpulse always flows over the main line when the sunflower -arm comes in contact with the strip to which key It is connected, a negative impulse is 011 line when the arm comes in contact with a strip on either side of the one to which key It is connected, and it is by this means that an impulse of either polarity may be prolonged to print, as occasion requires. It will. now be seen that during the rotation of shaft cshort reversed electrical impulses are transmitted over the main line L through the coils of polarized electroanagnet of the sunflower device, and also through the coils of the typewheel and the printing elcctro-magnct of each receivinginstrument. By depressing key It upon its contact 6 a circuit would be completed from battery A to the main line L, if the arm D were in contact with the sunflowerst rip to which I; is joined, through the coils of electro-magnet G. It, therefore, it were desired to print the letter K, thekey 7.: would be depressed, and later on the rapidly-rotating arm 1) would come in contact with the sunflowerstrip to which it is connected, and thereupon electro-magnetG would attract thearmatu re H. from its back contactstop, 4., thus breaking the main line L, and disconnecting the rotating pulsator from circuit. Bythis meansthcpositivepole of battery A, which was before joined to the main line through the rotating pulsator, would now be permanently connected to the main line at point 3 through wire 2', key k, arm D, spring 0, wire 12, and electromagnct G. Thus the impulse which was begun from battery A through the rotating pulsator and armature H would be completed and prolonged for any desired period as soon as arm D had come in contact with the proper sunflowerstrip, and as long thereafter as the key]; 1e mai ned depressed upon its contact 0. The prolonged impulse thus transmitted arrests the escapcinent-wheel E of the sunflower device, as well as the escapement-whcel T of the receiving-instrument. Upon releasing the key 7r from its contact 0, the circuit through electro-magnet G is broken, and the armaturelever H is returned to its back. contact, 4, rejoining the pulsator with the main line, and short electrical impulses are again transmitted from the pulsator over the main line and through the magnets H H of the sunflower device, as well as through those of the receivinginstruments. The arm D of the sunflower device must be rotated in unison with the type wheels of the receivirig-instruments, and, like the latter, must be provided with a unison ap' paratus. Ifalternate sunflower-strips are con nected to one battery, and the other set of alternate strips is connected to the other battery through the transmitting-keys, as shown, it is obvious that unison need not be maintained between the rotating pulsator-wheel and the typc-whcels of the receiving-instruments, as is necessary where the pulsator is stopped at the printing of each character, but that any number of impulses may be transmitted from the pulsator over the main line when the pulsator may' be disconnected from line and continue to rotate while the type wheels of the receiving-instruments are held stationary.

It will be observed that with the device shown in Fig. 1, after the printing of a charac ter the pulsator-wheel might be reconnect-ed with the main line, while the end of brush ll was near the middle or end of a conductingsection of the pulsator. If the circnitthrough armature H were completed under these conditions, the first impulse transmitted after the printing of a character would be of less than normal duration. In printinginstruments of this character, however, it is necessary that the electrical impulses transmitted from the pulsator shall be of substantially equal duration, for the reason that it the armatures of the escapement-magnets of the different recei ving-instruments 011 the line were differently adjusted, as is unavoidably the case, the short impulse might be sufficient to operate the escapement of some instruments and not of oth' ers. Thus the instruments on a-circuit would be thrown out of unison.

In order that the first impulse transmitted after the printing of a character may not be less than of normal duration, Lemploy a device (shown in Fig. 3) in which the spring .3 is mounted upon an arm, r, having an ar1nature, w, a retractingspring, y, and a pawl, f, under the free end. of which rotate the teeth of the ratchetwheel a. The arm 0- is loosely mou-nted upon shaft 0 of the rotating pulsator,

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while the ratchet'wheel a is rigidly affixed to i said shaft and rotates therewith. The ratchetteeth of wheel a are spaced to correspond with the insulating and conducting spaces of the pulsator-whcel, and in such manner that if the arm a were drawn backward by the retracting-spring 1, after the end of spring B had once come in contact with a conducting pon tion of one section of the pulsator-wheel, as H, said spring could not be thrown so far forward as to pass beyond the comlucting-space of sec tion N and pass to the succeeding conductingspace of section M. It will be seen from Fig. 3 that upon depressing key 7.,altcr the arrival of brush D to the corrcspoluling sunflowerstrip, armature m will'be attracted by electromagnet W,whose coils form a part of the same circuit as those of electro-magnet G, bringing armature-lever r in contact with front stop, 2. Upon releasing key is spring 3 would retract armature-lever r, carrying the contact-spring B forward in direction of rotation of the rotating pulsator. The spring y is of such tension as to move the free end of conducting-spring B more rapidly than the periphery of the pulsatorwheel rotates, and were it not for the ratchetwheel a, after the point of spring B had come in contact with a conducting portion of the pulsator, it might be thrown forward in advance of said conduct-ing portion of one section of the pulsator into contact with the conducting port-ion of the other section. By means of the ratchet-wheel a and pawl 1, however rapidly the end of spring B may be moved over the periphery of the pulsator-wheel, it cannot be moved beyond the forward end of the conducting portion with which it first comes in contact. By this means the firstimpulse transmitted to line after the printing of a character will, in any event, be equal in duration to that of .the normal impulse, and may be somewhat longer.

In Fig. 2 I have shown an arrangernent in which the pulsator and the electro-magnet controlling the sunflower are placed in a local circuit, which also includes polarized electro-, magnets Z Z, for operating the main-line polechanger P O, which at each movement reverses the battery M B upon the main line L. This arrangement is obviously a mere modification of that shown in Figsrl and 3.

I do not wish to limit my invention to telegraph systems in which the rotation of the type-wheel is controlled by current-reversals, nor in which the rotation of the type-wheels is effected by clock work and a releasing-escapement, nor in which the type-wheel mag-' nets and the printing-magnets are included in a single circuit, as it is equally applicable to systems in which the rotation of the typewheels is effected by electrical impulses of one polarity, and in which the rotation of the typewheel is effected by an impelling eleetro-mag net, and in which a main line, including the mitter for sending a continuous current over the main line independent of the constantlyrotating pulsator, for the purpose of holding the type-wheels at rest for any desired period during the continued rotation of said pulsator.

2. In a printing-telegraph system, the combination of a constantly-rotating pulsator, a circuit including said pulsator, the type-wheel and printing electro-magnets, and a battery or batteries, a normally-open branch around the pulsator for joining the battery or batteries with the circuit, a sunflower arrangement whose arm may be arrested, and'transmittingkeys, the whole being so arranged that a continuous current may be transmitted to line and the type-wheels arrested during any dethe type-wheel of the receiving-instrument, a

series of branches connecting the sunflowerstrips with the transmitting-keys, a conductor or conductors joining the anvils of the transmitting-keys with the battery or batteries connected to the constantly-rotating pulsator, and an electromagnetic switch for breaking the pulsator-circuit when a circuit from said battery or batteries is completed through a trans mitting-key and a. sunflower-connection, substantially as described.

- 5. In a transmitter for a printingtelegraph system, a branch circuit which is normally open at the transmitting-keys and at the sun flower device, and which is closed upon depressing a transmitting-key when the sunflower-arm is in contact with a corresponding strip, an electro-magnet in said normally-open branch circuit, a constantly-rotating pulsator, a switch controlled by the electromagnet in said normally-open branch circuit for breaking and closing the pulsator-circuit, an electro-magnet for controlling the rotation of the sunflower arm, and an electro-magnet or electro-magnets for controlling the operation of the receivirig-instruments, substantially as described.

6. In .a printing-telegraph system, a constantly-rotating pulsator, a transmitting-battery, a branch circuit or circuits and transmitting keys, and a'sunflower' device or its equivalent for constantly connecting the transmitting-battery in circuit upon the depression of transmitting-k eys.

7. In a printing-telegraph transmitter, a constantly-rotating pulsator, a movable contact-spring, B, and means, substantially as described, whereby said spring may move in the direction of rotation of the pulsator upon directing impulses from said pulsator over the main line, as and for the purpose described. CHARLES L. BUGKINGHAM. \Vitnesses:

WM. ARNOUX, J AMES H. STELLGEs.

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