Movable carriage assembly and ink ribbon control

Claim 1

An assembly for mounting an ink ribbon for use with mosaic printing devices and the like, said assembly comprising: a bar member and a pair of ink ribbon spools rotatably mounted on said bar member in spaced positions; an ink ribbon mounted on said spools such that rotation of one of said spools in one direction rolls said ribbon onto said one spool and rotation of the other spool in an opposite direction rotates said ribbon onto said other spool, means reciprocably moving said bar member in a longitudinal direction, gear means operable when coupled to said spools to rotate said spools in a direction winding said ribbon onto a driven spool, means converting movement of said bar member to movement of said gear means, means sensing the depth of the ribbon wound onto one of said spools and engaging said gear means to the other of said spools such that the direction of movement of said gear means is independent of the movement of said bar member, a slide member slidably mounted with respect to said bar member and in which said gear means comprises: a first pair of gear members mounted to said slide member in meshing engagement with each other; and a second pair of gear embers with one of said second pair of gear members carried respectively by each of said spools, a different one of said second pair of gear members being in engagement with said first pair of gear members at each spaced position of said slide member whereby one of said spools is respectively driven by said first set of gear members at each position of said slide member.