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US 4,036,005 AGranted
Clock with hour and quarter hour striking mechanism
AssigneeSpartus Corporation
InventorChristian M. J. Jauch
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Clock with mechanism for striking one two-note tone on the quarter hour, two two-note tones on the half hour, three two-note tones on the three quarter hour and, on the hour, a single note tone corresponding to the particular hour indicated. A latch and rack structure control the number of strikes at quarterly fractions of the hour and the rack and a snail cam control the number of strikes at the hour.
Claims15
In a clock having an hour hand shaft and a minute hand shaft:
- striking means operable to cause a sound;
- control means actuable to limit the strikes made by said striking means to a predetermined number of strikes determined by the positions of said hour hand and minute hand shafts;
- a constantly rotating gear;
- a driven gear;
- means mounting said driven gear for movement between a first position, in which said driven gear is in engagement with said constantly rotating gear, and a disengaged second position;
- means normally urging said driven gear to said disengaged second position;
- means for moving said driven gear to its first position when the minute hand shaft attains the quarter hour, half hour, three quarter hour and hour positions;
- drivable means, driven by said driven gear when the latter is in its first position, for operating said striking means and for actuating said control means;
- and means, operable by said control means, for returning said driven gear to its disengaged second position when said striking means has struck said predetermined number of strikes.
6 more elements
In a clock having an hour hand shaft and a minute hand shaft:
- means for rotating said minute hand shaft through quarter hour, half hour, three quarter hour and full hour positions;
- rack means including a toothed periphery;
- means mounting said rack means for pivotal movement between a first position and a plurality of positions displaced from said first position in a first pivotal sense;
- latch means for engaging with the periphery of said rack means to prevent it from pivoting in said first sense;
- means mounting said latch means for movement between (a) a plurality of rack-engaging positions in which said latch means engages the periphery of said rack means and (b) a disengaged position;
- latch-biasing means normally urging said latch means toward a rack-engaging position;
- means responsive to rotation of the minute hand shaft away from the hour position and toward a position corresponding to one of the three quarterly fractions of the hour for moving said latch means from one to another of its rack-engaging positions against the urging of the latch-biasing means;
- rack-biasing means for urging said rack means in said first pivotal sense to a displaced position determined by the particular rack-engaging position of said latch means;
- first drivable means, actuable in response to the minute hand shaft attaining a position corresponding to one of said three quarterly fractions of the hour, for returning said rack means to its first position in incremental movements corresponding in number to the particular number of quarters in said quarterly fraction at which said minute hand shaft is then positioned;
- striking means operable to cause a sound;
- second drivable means for actuating said striking means when said minute hand shaft attains a position corresponding to one of said three quarterly fractions of the hour;
- and limiting means for limiting the strikes of said striking means to the number of incremental movements of said rack.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.