US1459200A - Hohap - Google Patents

Description

June 19, 1923;

H. A. FOOTHORAP SPACING MECHANISM Filed June 23 1919 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 3111mm I'm farryfll'oZ/wrap alto: we x June 19,1923. 1.459.200

H. A. FOOTHORAP SPACING MECHANISM Filed June 23 1919 S'Sheets-Sheet 2 June 19, 1923. 1,459,200

H. A. FOOTHORAP SPACING MECHANISM Filed June 23 1919 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 mn Az a'awm aftozucq Patented June 19, 1923.

UNITED STATES HARRY ARTHUR FOOTHORAP, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO EL- LIOTT-FISHER COMPANY, OF HARRISBURG. PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE,

SPACING ,MECHANISM.

Application filed June 23,

To all whom it mwy concern:

' Be it known that HARRY ARTHUR Foo'r- Home, citizen of the United States, residing at -Harrisburg, in the county of Dauphin and State, of Pennsylvania, has invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spacing Mechanism, of which the following is a. specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

This invention relates to typewriting machines and more particularly to a means for eflecting a variation in the spacing of the characters printed, without varying the uniform letter spacing movement of the carriage.

Viewed in another aspect, the invention relates to combined typewriting and adding machines of that class in which numbers printed by the typewriter are accumulated or added in a register, having uniformly spaced denominational members to which anactuator is successively presented by uni form letter spacing movement of the carriage, corresponding to the uniform spacing of the denominational members of the register. Viewed in this aspect, the invention embodies the idea of automatically effecting a variation in the spacing of the characters printed, while maintaining uniform letter spacing movement of the carriage and the consequent proper stepping of the actuating mechanism to successive uniformly spaced denominational members of the register.

In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1, is a vertical sectional elevation of so much of an Elliott-Fisher billing machine as is necessary to understand the application of my invention thereto.

3? Fig. 2, is a front elevation of the same 40 machine with parts omitted and others broken away for clearer illustration of the essential construction.

Fig. 3, is an elevation of the upper end of the type bar, showing the type head and the arrangement of the type thereon.

Fig. 4, is a plan view of the fragmentary machine, and

Fig. 5, is a diagrammatic view contrasting the two spacings of quantity and money values and showing the cam which controls the character of spacing of the printed record.

Before proceeding with a detailed description of the mechanism, an understand- 1919. Serial No. 306,102.

ing thereof may be facilitated by a brief explanation of the general idea involved The Elliott-Fisher billing machine 0t commerce is a flat platen typewriter, in

ated from the keys as they are depressed to print th numbers. As successive digits of a number are printed on the work sheet, the carriage advances uniformly to present the printing point of the machine at successive uniformly spaced positions. The digits printed will thus be uniformly spaced and as the spacing of the number wheels corresponds to the spacing of the digits, said number wheels will be successively operated to accumulate, in the proper denominational positions, the values of the digits as the number is recorded.

Sim-e these machines are designed to compute values of various kinds. notably. quantit and money values. the are equipped with a variety of adding. devices, or registers, which is that part of the mechanism operated by the actuator and includiuga series of number wheels.

A quantity register has a series of number wheels uniformly spaced throughout the length of the series, because quantity values are expressed by digits which are usually uniformly spaced. Money registers. however, have two co-axial series of number wheels, the spacing of each series being uniform, but a space being allowed for the decimal point between the two series. Obviously, the purpose of this arrangement is to accommodate the decimal space which must be provided between dollars and cents in the printed number, as fully explained in Patent No.922559 toLaganke and Smith.

The money registers are equipped with decimal trips which effect automatic spacing of .theearriage over the .decinialspace, so that fwhen ithe decimal ositioniis reached the spacing movement 0 the carriage and of the actuator are exaggerated or doubled. T-h'is is obvio'u's'lya variation in the spacing movement-ofthe machine.

The invention with which we are now concerned has for its object, to permit/the use of a quantity re ister, having a continuous series of uni ormly spaced 'number \rl eels, fo r the computation ofinoney values printed, in the iisual uzay, with afdecimal space between dollars and cents. ;;T;he,.co nflict between the uniform spacing require-,

ments of the uantity register and the .non-

uniform 'spacing requirement of a money value record, I of spacing the carriage uniformly tor one purpose and of simultaneously spacing said carriage non-uniformly for other purhas furnished the underlying problem; of the present invention. Qne solution of,

that problem embodies provision for scour in non-uniform spacir gof the characters printed, without necessitating any disturb- ,arice of the uniforiuspaeing movement of? the carriage, which is necessary ,to present the actuator to successive uniformly spaced number .wheels .as the -;digits are printed with the decimal space, ,or, in ,wha t., .may be said to be, non-umformlyispaoed relation. The desired end ,is obtained by the simple expedient of placing the upper case number types in off-set position, one space to the rightof thenormal printing point of the machine, and in prov ding an automatic case shift, which, when the actua tor reaches the ,number wheel representing tens of cents, will automatically provide'for the print-lu of ,upper case characters to the right of a decimal space which the QE- setting of the characters provides whenthe keys are depressed to print tens and units of cents in off-set position.

This will be seen to constitute automatic changing or shifting of the printing point of the machine independently of and without. wiry-in; the uniform letter spacing movement of the carriage.

With the foregoing general idea of the .problem and its solution, we may now proand the obviousimpossibility key, its type bar 6, and the intermediate conneqtions are --clearly,sho wn lip the drawingsa i ht the upper wag-ii eadlr type bar ismounted a shiftable type head 7, having upper and lower case types 8 and 9, and a trigger 10 which extends beyond the end'of the "bar. Normally, the -operation or the keys will swing the type bars-"toward the platen and cause the uppermost or lower case type to ymint. When it is desired to print'upper case characters, the depression of a shift key ll rocksa trip sha't 12, to; depress an arm l3 exten ded therefrom and rry ng a his 1 331115, t todrop thetrip l t fron its,normal pos ition,

indic ted i d tted i i 2); it active positio n jndiqated iir full lines-an said iFig, 2. llfhenthe trip "l tisat its nor-r nial ,position .it, outofsinterfering .relatipn with the trigger, ,10 but whenldepressed in h t lll sated. ri ims ed i we sr l ti0n-W h ai 1Fr s t that as. the type 4 ar. thrown down, to print t e. movementgf the bar and the inte iferencew of ithe trip with .thetrigger \villhcause the type head to be shifted and thus present the upper case type at theiprinting point'oi'i the-machine.. w. I,

The described character of case shiit is usual and Well knosvn but its purposehas aliyays been, to cause either-Hot twoytype 'carried by tliesame type bar tol e presented at the single printing point of the machine so, that the printing of either character would,havemoetfeet whatever on the sp re: ing ofthecharacters printed in agiven line,

' Such indeed, is still. the general purpose. oif

the case Shit ft mechanism of a machine embodying myinvention, but in such machine a difl'ereut. ;purpose is subserved with respect to the ease shift of the bars carryin-, digit typeand operated from the digitheys. Thus, as shown, in Fig. 3, for example, the tXPt'dICZUlS-flf the digit printing bars are equipped with upper and lower (:pilfictligfji type 8 and 9?, These typeare or may he identical,'exce-ptthat while the lowercase type 9 is arranged to print the digit .torins stance 9, at the normahprinting point ofthe machine, the upper case type S is mounted on the. head with the digit, 9 for instance, 10-- cated in such volt-set relation to the lower. case digit that it will printto theright of'the normal printing point when the type bar is thrown down. This will be clearly understood by reference to the diagrammaticrecord shown in Fig. 5.

lhe upper row of 9s are printed in the usual uniformly letter spaced positions by successive operation of the nine key, print,- ing from the lower case type. The first i-ve of the lower row of 9shave oeen similarly printed but prior to the printing of the-last two 9s the depression of the trip 14;: has caused the shift of the type head antl the 1' values, without in consequent printing of these two characters incojfset position so as to leave adecimal.

space between dollars and cents, not\vi thstanding the fact that the letter spacing ing of the entire line of digits, has been uniform. In other words, the two rows of 9s in Fig. 5 show the digits spaced as usual in making records of quantity and money any way effecting or changing the uniform letter spacing movement of the carriage, which, y reason of my invention, is maintained regardless of which character of printed, record is deisired.

20,-, pr n i The description of the invention as thns far described is thought to be complete in the sense that it embodies an instrumentali movement of the. carriage, during the printity whereby in a machine ofthis successive ass the normal printing: point ofthe machine may be, changed on varied In itsqfurtherdevelopment however, :the

invention contemplates the automatic shift-H ing of the printing point ofthe-machine at Ziua ,predeterm ined,pointiin theltravel of the cargiagg so that; a .norma]. or-{uniformly spaced necord -will, ,beprinted untilQsuch predeterniined-pointis reached. and aivariation of ithe spacing; efi'ected at, the desired loca-v tion, fasfior, instance, the. decimal! point Jn the, ,Elliott Fisher ,bi lling lmachines they typewriter, having :the-ichaxaoteristics dc seiiibedg-i-s iequipped .with computing meclr anism' which jcomputes'i t the: I total,r :for in stance, ,of the va1uesnrecordedi on the work 7 sheet, by the, typewriteri i :1Thi5l computing 'flfifihflnifim embraces one :or; fnore iregisters 1, mounte,d on a-register-supporting: bar;

i a ilied by the? time space fframec3;

40! rear nof the} carriage 4n iEach -registen- 15 I actuator 18, movable with the carriage li innludesoa series: 1015 denomination at mem bers orifnumhennwheels 17;ioccu-pying snccessive, denominational: positions itransversely ,p,fj the reg ster-wand l operated: by ''--a :master and operatedi Q12: 1 controlled: Efrem the .mt

mgral keys; 5.1- i {The letters spacing 'of the pnintedmrecords and thev denominational pinni g l iofiilthex number: uwheels 157: of the lreg sbe r are coincident." i

dltfollows thabzwhen aseries of numerals (KN-digits iarevpninted on thewwdrl'r she'et in") positi onsto express Y ated-the wheels :17: of: the register, occupy-' ling corresponding denominational ositions,

different denominational jute-operatedby the actuatZir IS tO accurqulate inl the register the value printed on the nvxirkrsheet. i Itehas already been stated that insom'eregisters a space-is leftfor-the maticallyg, tripped -over.- this both ,the printing point 0t the machine and the master actuatortwill he jumped over the, decimalispace'bv an exag gcrn te tspacing movement of the ca rriaigd' decimal; spaceand that the carriage is auto .space s'o that In, certain cases, however, for reasons which,- or thepurpose of this invention, need not-be entered into, it is not desirable when printing and computing money value to employ registers having decimal spaces. On the contrary it is highly desirable to secure a very compact arrangement of the registering mechanism, notwithstanding the desirability of having the printed record show the decimal space at the proper point.

For illustrative purposes there is shown in Fig. 2, two quantity registers in close relation. Each of these registers exhibits a se ries of digits in uniformly spaced denominational positions as indicated, for instance, by the upper row of digits in Fig. 5. Obviously, if the. Wheels carrying these digits are operated in succession by the actuator 18 pre sented to them by successive letter space movements of the carriage, such letter s ace movements must conform to the uni orm spacing of the number heelsfand, if, the printing .point of the, machine similarly advances across thecolumn, the digits must be printed in uniformly; spaced relation. This last, however, is, undesirabletjn printing money values, the record of which should ex hibit a space at the decimal point for convenience 1n,readi 1 1g.,,- l J rfthiar s are i o m y e autornatical1yshifliing the printing point of the machine to the ri tion ofjthe record which lies to the leftpf the decimal position, has, beencompleted, so that the next normal advance of the carriage will effect ai normal advance of the! master wheel to the nextnumber w heel of the register but will; cause that partbi the record lying to the'rightof thedecimalposition to be prints ed an extra letter space from normal position s the! la t W n' a r h e ir n tas n s ftenslloif cents. and i ,fi cents i are operated byth'e" actuator-l Toithis end it, is. merely neeessarybto provide'ineans ,vvhich ,will auto manta-11y de ressant 'ti'ip'l' at? proper point in thqcmovement ofl t eicarriage so a th in "bnmti lb'fa' e hk will effecti 'thefprinting of the ,dig i tfby an off-set typdasheretofore d 'ribed j v a as means of "accomplishihg this resultin eludes the rearward e'itension of an arm 19,

from the shalf' t 12, and itsconnection by means of afllink '20 with} anarni 21, carried by'the' rear end' of a roel'rshaft 22, extended through the. rear wall of the [casing 4 and having onitsiezlr endatri arlfn' 23, having to cijntact with and ride under acase-shi'ft cam {25, carried automatically" by Zanddependingjroinl the bottom wall of the register'1 5J: the carriage advances the'digits' representing the value in dollars are printed in their proper denominational positionsunifoi'rnlys aced apartns usual,

and the master wheel is'advancel to operate tlfe corresponding' denominational members of the register. By' the time the master wheel reaches the tens of cents member of the register the mo ement of the carriage will have caused the depression of a trip arm 24 by the cam 25, to depress the trip 14 and the parts will be retained in this position ::s long as the'mnster actuator-remains opposite any number wheelrepresenting a denomination to the right of the decimal,t'hils insuring the oil-set print-in o-f'thecorresponding digits and the provision of a decimal space in the. printed record.

For illustrative purposes I have shown two registers on the bar, one only being equipped with a ease-shift euro. The second.

1. having: no cum, wi'llnot emise'the printing of uppercase digits at any time (hiring the trm'eise of the register. 'lherefm-e, the spacing of the printed d igits will remain uniform :1 nd a quantity value will be indicated h the printed recnial, as well as thc'secondquantity register. i

It is thought-that fromthe foregoing, the

illustrated embodiment of the invention will he clearly unrleistoothhntI expressly reserve the-right to e fi'ectsnch variations thereof {is may fall within the scope of the protection prayed.

l. The combination with a 'plnten a'ncl gozprinting mechanism rolzi'tiyly "nioi'abl'e to space the printed ehari'rcteis; of automatic means for vnrying the relation between the spacing of the printed characters and the spacing movementof the pla'ten and print- .5 in; mechanism.

2. The combination with, a plate). and printing-mechanism having uniform relative nim'ementto uniformly space thecharacters printed, of means brought into action du-iby sii'eh uniform relative'morement of the platen and printing mechanism to cause a variation ,in the spacing of the prin'tctl characters while the relative spacing morem'ent of the 'alaten ancl'printing mechanism 45.- remains uni ornn i 3. The combination with a platen, of type writing mechiinism inclmling'a complete set of numeral type bans each having a plural: ity .of. type presentable in position to print so in the same line but at different. printing points.

4. The combination of n platen and printing meclmnismdmving relative movement, said printing mechanism including a series sir-of type Imus two complete sctso't' upper and lower ease numemltypes mounted in relatively off-set positions to present the some at different laterally spaced printing points, and case shifting mechanism controlled 1% no the relative movement of the platen ant printing mechanism.

5. In :1 \\-ritin; -adiling machine, the comhination with a series of denominational mcmheis of recording mechanism, for printn5 ing digits in a line to express value, keys controlling the operation of the recording mechanism and the denominational members and operative to reeord any number the digits of which are non-uniformly spaced with rcspet'ttp'the spacing of the-denominational membeis.

6. In a writing-ucldingmachine the cornhination with -useries of uniformly-spaced den omina-tio'nal members; (if'mea'iis fdr printing a non'unifomnly spaced series of digits to express any pr determined value, :en-l keys opemtive "to c'fiertt' the simiiltanedns print-in" of am number end the operation of the den hminationulmdmbers'.

T. In a wiiting-nilding machine, the combination with a series of uniformly spaced denominational=menihe'rs 0? means for printing a series of' digits, a'earriage moral'flenniformly to-difierentdenominational positions and servin to bring successive tlen'ominm tional mem hers into action and tospace the printed digits, and a ntmnabic means fox-exaggerating the s aoing betweenmertai'n of the digits printed 8. In a writing-adding maeh-inefithe'odtn hination with a series of uniformly spaced denominational members,- of means foi p1'inting a series of digits',- u arriagemovabw umfonnly'to different denoinimitibnzil "posi tions and serving to bring sueossiw'dnomi national x'nembers into 'uctitin' axii1"to pb;ce the printed digitgiandfintmatit: means p era'ted by 'the' mm ex'nent. ofith e -cgrriage to" chaiwe-thezspacingof-oertaip-digi'ts;

"9. n a writingadding-m'aohimfi the comf bination with a iuniformly spaoed' series of denominational membersofmctuating means presentableto said -mem ers in succession, g. carriage uniformly-- movable toptesfit theactuator to 'snc'oessivedenom inatwnal me im bers, and nieans-"for'pi'i'nting a series of digits corresponding imn'umber' to tha uni formly spaced=denominabidnal= membershkt'j having a variation 'm-spuei n'g ab'th'e decimal point, i Iii.

l0. Ina writifig-zitlding'maichinefihe combin'ation with'w series of= iii1ifor1nly s aced denominational members, of typewri f iiiig" mechanism, inbl ud-ingacarr iage hniingmniform spacing movement;-'prmting"mebhanism letter spaced hy' the movement Qt the carriage, and mean-is for automnticiilly vai'ying the-spacing of the printed "character, while the uniform movementbfthe carriage continues. 1 I

11. In *a-writing-add-ing machine -the com-- binution with a series -of"-unifot*m= sphcetl denominational members, of tj pewriting mechanism a can'iage, having selective relation to said 'dehoininatlonal members and having printedmeohanism including upper and lower casechara dters having different printing points, and automatic means controlling the case-to hie printed.

12. Inatypewi-iti-ng machine the combination with a platen and rinting mechanism having uniform relative etter spacing movement to space the characters printed successively in the same line of writing, of means for causing exag erated spacing of certain characters printe in said line notwithstanding the uniform letter spacing movement of the platen and printing mechanism.

13. In a typewriting machine the combination with a platen and printing mechanism having uniform relative letter spacing movement to space the characters printed successively in the same line of writing, of means supplemental to and operated by the uniform relative movement of the platen and rinting mechanism to exaggerate the space tween certain characters printed in said line of writin 14. a writin adding machine, a series of denominationail members, a platen and printing mechanism having relative step by step spacing movement, such relative spacing movement being uniform and corresponding to the spacing of the denominatlonal members, and means whereby the characters printed will be nonuniformly spaced.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature in the resence of a witness.

HARRY A THUR FOOTHORAP.

Witnem:

J. F. ULVER EIL,

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