Printer for off-line printing of subscript and superscript characters and coded vertical tab setting

Claim 2

A typewriter line feed mechanism including a paper feed roller, a ratchet wheel for driving said roller, line-feed means having a pawl engageable with said ratchet wheel to effect stepwise feeding movements of said roller, resiliently biased detent means mounted on a common support with said pawl and engaging said ratchet wheel to establish definite angular positions thereof, and means for selectively rotating said support in either direction from a neutral position through a small arc, to position the paper for printing of subscript and superscript characters with reference to a line imprinted when said support is in the neutral positioN.

Claim 3

A typewriter in accordance with claim 1, and code signal controlled means for energizing said selective moving means.

Claim 4

A typewriter in accordance with claim 1, in which said common support is mounted for rotation about the axis of said feed roller.

Claim 5

In a page printer for producing printing along a writing line on a recording material, a line feed mechanism including: A. roller means for line feeding said material past said writing line; B. guide means to guide said material to and from said roller means; C. a common support means for both said foregoing means, said support means being pivoted for limited rotation about an axis parallel to said writing line; D. means for selectively moving said support means in either direction from a neutral position through a small arc about said axis to position the material for printing of subscript and superscript characters with reference to a line printed when said support is in a neutral position, and E. means responsive to respective coded electrical input signals calling for a subscript or superscript positioning of said material for selectively energizing said selective moving means.

Claim 6

In a page printer for producing printing along a writing line on a recording material, a line feed mechanism including: A. roller means for line feeding said material past said writing line; B. guide means to guide said material to and from said roller means; C. a common support means for both said foregoing means, said support means being pivoted for limited rotation about an axis parallel to said writing line; D. means for selectively moving said support means in either direction from a neutral position through a small arc about said axis to position the material for printing of subscript and superscript characters with reference to a line printed when said support is in a neutral position, and E. means responsive to respective coded electrical input signals calling for a subscript or superscript positioning of said material for selectively energizing said selective moving means.

Claim 7

A printer in accordance with claim 4, and code-signal controlled means for selectively energizing said selective moving means.

Claim 8

In an input signal responsive page printer for producing printing along a writing line on a recording material, the combination including; A. support means for receiving a page of recording material and supporting said material at said writing line; B. line-feeding means for incrementally feeding said page of material past said writing line; C. page sensing means for sensing the passage of the top and bottom edges of each received page of material in relation to said writing line; D. an array of vertical-tab-position memory means which can be selectively conditioned to a set state or a cleared state, whereby each set memory means defines a vertical-tab-position for a page of material; E. conditioning means for setting and clearing said memory means; F. memory readout means responsive to said page sensing means, and said line-feeding means, for serially scanning said array to sense and provide an output signal for each set memory means sensed as it occurs in metered relationship to the incremental feeding of a page of material, said scanning being initiated when the top edge of a page of material is sensed, and terminated when the bottom edge of a page of material is sensed; and G. vertical tabulation control means for initiating line-feeding in response to an input signal calling for a vertical tabulation and subsequently terminating said line-feeding in response to an output signal from said readout means.

Claim 9

In an input signal responsive page printer for producing printing along a writing line on a recording material, the combination including; A. support means for receiving a page of recording material and supporting said material at said writing line; B. line-feeding means for incrementally feeding said page of material past said writing line; C. page sensing means for sensing the passage of the top and bottom edges of each received page of material in relation to said writing line; D. an array of vertical-tab-position memory means which can be selectively conditioned to a set state or a cleared state, whereby each set memory means defines a vertical-tab-position for a page of material; E. conditioning means for setting and clearing said memory means; F. memory readout means responsive to said page sensing means, and said line-feeding means, for serially scanning said array to sense and provide an output signal for each set memory means sensed as it occurs in metered relationship to the incremental feeding of a page of material, said scanning being initiated when the top edge of a page of material is sensed, and terminated when the bottom edge of a page of material is sensed; and G. vertical tabulation control means for initiating line-feeding in response to an input signal calling for a vertical tabulation and subsequently terminating said line-feeding in response to an output signal from said readout means.

Claim 10

A page printer in accordance with claim 6 wherein said conditioning means is responsive to electrical input signals calling for either a set operation or a clear operation, and wherein the output signal from said readout means is an electrical signal.

Claim 11

A page printer in accordance with claim 6 wherein said input signals are coded electrical signals and the combination further includes control means for receiving and de-coding said coded signals and electrically activating the various operational functions of said printer in response to respective coded input signals therefor, including said conditioning means and said tabulation control means.

Claim 12

A page printer in accordance with claim 7 wherein said conditioning means employs electro-magnetic means to condition said memory means to set or cleared states and said readout means magnetically senses each of the memory means that is set.

Claim 13

In an input signal responsive page printer for producing printing along a writing line on recording material, the combination including: A. support means for receiving an inserted page of material and supporting said material at said writing line; B. line-feeding means for incrementally Feeding said page of material past said writing line; C. page sensing means for sensing the passage of the top and bottom edges of each inserted page of material in relation to said writing line; D. a vertical-tab-position memory array having a plurality of elements selectively conditionable to either a set state or a cleared state, whereby each set element defines a desired vertical tabular position; E. conditioning means for setting and clearing said elements; F. memory readout means for serially scanning said memory array to sense and provide an output signal for each set element sensed as it occurs in metered relationship to the incremental feeding of a page of material; G. driving means cooperative with said line-feeding means and responsive to said page sensing means for effecting said scanning, said scanning beginning from a zero position at one extremity of said memory array whenever said scanning is initiated by the sensing of the top edge of an inserted page of material; H. reset means also responsive to said page sensing means for terminating said scanning and effecting reset thereof when the bottom edge of said inserted page is sensed; and I. vertical tabulation control means for initiating line-feeding in response to an input signal calling for a vertical tabulation and subsequently terminating said line-feeding in response to an output signal from said readout means.

Claim 14

In an input signal responsive page printer for producing printing along a writing line on recording material, the combination including: A. support means for receiving an inserted page of material and supporting said material at said writing line; B. line-feeding means for incrementally Feeding said page of material past said writing line; C. page sensing means for sensing the passage of the top and bottom edges of each inserted page of material in relation to said writing line; D. a vertical-tab-position memory array having a plurality of elements selectively conditionable to either a set state or a cleared state, whereby each set element defines a desired vertical tabular position; E. conditioning means for setting and clearing said elements; F. memory readout means for serially scanning said memory array to sense and provide an output signal for each set element sensed as it occurs in metered relationship to the incremental feeding of a page of material; G. driving means cooperative with said line-feeding means and responsive to said page sensing means for effecting said scanning, said scanning beginning from a zero position at one extremity of said memory array whenever said scanning is initiated by the sensing of the top edge of an inserted page of material; H. reset means also responsive to said page sensing means for terminating said scanning and effecting reset thereof when the bottom edge of said inserted page is sensed; and I. vertical tabulation control means for initiating line-feeding in response to an input signal calling for a vertical tabulation and subsequently terminating said line-feeding in response to an output signal from said readout means.

Claim 15

A printer in accordance with claim 10 wherein said conditioning means is responsive to coded input signals calling for setting or clearing said elements, respectively.

Claim 16

A printer in accordance with claim 10 wherein said conditioning means employs electro-magnetic means to effect setting or clearing of said elements.

Claim 17

A printer in accordance with claim 10 wherein said memory readout means and said memory array are supported for relative motion therebetween, and said readout means is supported on a metering carriage for scanning motion past said memory, and wherein said driving means provides the scanning motion.

Claim 18

A printer in accordance with claim 13 wherein said driving means is an electro-magnetic means to effect said scanning motion essentially simultaneously with each increment of line-feeding, and said reset means is a further electro-magnetic means.

Claim 19

A printer in accordance with claim 13 wherein said printer is generally enclosed in a case, said case having a front wall and a line-feed increment scale mounted thereon, and said metering carriage has an indicator supported thereby which cooperates with said scale to indicate the metered vertical position of a page of material, both said scale and said writing line being visible from a normal viewing position in front of said printer.

Claim 20

A printer in accordance with claim 14 wherein said conditioning means employs electro-magnetic means to effect setting or clearing of said elements, and said readout means magnetically senses each of said elements that are set.

Claim 21

A printer in accordance with claim 14 wherein said input signals are coded electrical signals.

Claim 22

A printer in accordance with claim 16 wherein said input signals are coded electrical signals and said conditioning means is responsive to respective coded signals calling for set and clear operations.

Claim 23

A printer in accordance with claim 13 wherein said page sensing means is a metering roller closely positioned to said support means so as to be engaged by said inserted page of material as it is nipped between the roller and the support means, and wherein said metering roller is mechanically connected to said driving means to effect said scanning motion.