Time-print′ing ma-chine′.
An apparatus for imprinting on a letter, dispatch, or other document the time at which it was sent, received, filed, etc. Adapted for use in telegraphic or other offices where numerous records of this kind have to be made.
Fig. 6456 is a stamping-apparatus which automatically records the time of each impression made upon it. It comprises a clock provided with a minute-wheel having 60 teeth, which, through the medium of a lever having at one end a spring nib which has a limited freedom of movement in one direction, acts upon a ratchet-wheel also having 60 teeth, and borne upon the same shaft with the plain wheel
e on which the minutes are engraved.
A pin on this wheel at the expiration of each hour strikes a pawl-lever, which rotates a wheel
a, having the hours engraved on its periphery; to this is affixed a wheel
b having 24 divisions, 12 marked A. M. and 12 marked P. M.
c is a wheel numbered from 1 to 31, corresponding to days, and
d a wheel having the months engraved on its circumference; these two wheels are adjusted by hand.
An endless ribbon passes over the faces of the wheels
a b c d e around rollers
k k k k, and is inked by contact with the inking-roller
r. Impressions are made by the hand-stamp
p, which at the same time depresses a pawl-rod
q that engages a ratchet-wheel
s, causing the lower left-hand roller to rotate and feed the ribbon.
In this device the clock-work only acts upon the printing mechanism for an instant in each minute, so that no shock is communicated to the former in the act of stamping.
In another machine a time-piece, provided with minute, hour, and calendar wheels, having raised figures and letters on their edges, arranged in line side by side, and operated from the timepiece by a pawl and armature lever of a magnet, is combined with a suitable inking and spring-plate device, so that the time and date may be at any time printed, either by a hand-pad or by the action of a second electro-magnet.
In a third machine by the same inventor, the type-dials are
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concentrically arranged in a horizontal plane, and are operated by bevel-gears connected with the main shaft.
Each revolution of the minute-dial moves the hour-dial one space, while one revolution of the latter moves the vertically arranged meridianwheel and the disk indicating the day of the month each one space, and the latter in turn moves the month-disk.
When the platen is depressed to make an impression, and the rotation of the shaft is suspended, the clock movement winds up a spring within one of the cog-wheels connecting said shaft with that of the clock, which spring, as the shaft is released, communicates to it its lost motion.
