US 4,276,625 AGranted

Bell-striking clock

AssigneeKundo-Kieninger & Obergfell

InventorsRudolf Broghammer, Franz Kaser

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Abstract

An electronic clock emitting half-hourly time signals corresponding to the strokes of ships' bells comprises an electromagnetic striker driven by a normally blocked astable multivibrator whenever the closure of contacts operated by an associated clockwork, stepped by a crystal-controlled square-wave generator, coincides with a half-circle of predetermined polarity of the generated square wave. The multivibrator has a period of approximately 3/4 the duration of a half-circle of the square wave whereby not more than two pulses energizing the striker mechanism can be emitted by it during an unblocking half-circle so that strokes occurring at the ends of a second, third and fourth hour of a four-hour watch will appear in distinct pairs while those on the preceding half-hours will form one or more pairs followed by a single stroke after a larger time interval. The total number of strokes produced in each instance is determined by a comparator receiving the output of an electronic counter, advanced by the multivibrator pulses, together with binary signals generated by a multibank rotary switch entrained by the clockwork.

Claims10

Dependent claims

An electronic clock emitting time signals corresponding to the strokes of ships' bells, comprising:

a clockwork including a generator of a square wave with two interleaved first and second half-cycles of different voltage levels;
normally blocked pulse-producing means with a recurrence period equal to less than a half-cycle but not less than a quarter-cycle of said square wave;
a striker mechanism connected to an output of said pulse-producing means for sounding a stroke in response to each pulse emitted thereby;
normally open switch means briefly closed by said clockwork every thirty minutes for activating a switching circuit into emission of an unblocking signal to said pulse-producing means, said generator having an enabling circuit connected to said pulse-producing means for making said unblocking signal effective only during said first half-cycles whereby not more than two consecutive pulses can be emitted to said striker mechanism during any cycle of said square wave;
and
control means coupled with said clockwork and connected to said pulse-producing means for deactivating said switching circuit after the emission of a number of pulses rising from one through eight in successive half-hour intervals of a four-hour operating period.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.