Postal franking machine

Abstract

Abstract A franking machine of the kind having a rotatable printing head with teeth which are movable radially outwards in respect of the axis of rotation of the head in correspondence with the value to be printed and to be registered, while the register drum for each digit is driven by a toothed wheel which engages the said movable teeth, the toothed wheel being held resiliently in each of its positions corresponding to the values transmitted to the register drum by the movable teeth by a spring loaded pawl, with the exception of the value given by the last tooth in which case the pawl is held rigidly engaged with the toothed wheel by a lever mechanism operated by a cam rotated with the printing head to prevent rotation of the toothed wheel due to inertia when it becomes free of the last tooth. The pawls of the toothed wheels are mounted upon a common shaft to which is fastened a lever having a pin opposite each pawl, and which is engageable with the pawl to hold it engaged with the toothed wheel while one end of the shaft has a cam follower mounted upon a lever which engages the edge of a disclike cam fastened to the printing head.

Inventors

• 👤 John Brian Gillender
• 👤 Leslie Harrold Smith

Bibliographic Details