US1209464A - Universal tone-arm. - Google Patents

Description

L. MABKELS. UNIVERSAL TONE ARM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. I6. I915.

Patented Dec. 19, 1916.

2 SHEETSSHEET I- IIIllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII a IIIIII 'JII WITNESSES.-

L. MARKELS.

UNIVERSAL TONE ARM.

APPLICATION FILED APR. l6. l9|5 Patented Dec. 19, 1916.

INVE/VTUR [eonard/Warkels W/ T IVE SSE S:

A TTOR/V E Y UNITED STATES rkTnaT @FFTQE.

LEONARD MARKELS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO CHAMPION GRAPHAPHONE COMPANY, INC., OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

UNIVERSAL TONE-ARM.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented De 19, 11916.

Application filed April 16, 1915. Serial No. 21,719.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that .I, LEONARD MARKELS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city'of New York, borough of Manhattan, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Universal Tone-Arm, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a tone arm for phonographs of the disk type and has to deal more particularly with an arm of that class which is provided with a reproducer holder whereby the reproducer can be set .for operating on disk records having a lat- 15- erally waved groove or a vertically waved groove. 1

The general objects of the invention are to improve and simplify the construction of tone arms of the character referred to so as i to be reliable and efiicient in use, comparatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture and so designed that the reproducer can be quickly and reliably adjusted to either of its two operative positions.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide novel and effective means for locking the reproducer-carrying member of the arm in position with the diaphragm held for operation on either type of record, and

yet by simple movements of the outer member first longitudinally and then rotary the said. member can be adjusted to its other position and effectively locked against turning.

With such objects in View, and others which will appear asthe description proceeds, the invention comprises various novel features of construction and arrangement of parts which will be set forth with particularity in the fol-lowing description and claim appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate one embodiment of the invention and wherein similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views, Figure 1 is a plan view of a phonograph with the invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a side view of the tone arm with thereproducer set for operation on a record having a laterally waved sound groove; Fig. 3 is a similar View showing the reproducer set for a record having a vertically waved sound groove; Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view on the line H, Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a vertical section when the reproducer is set in dottedline position (Fig. 1) and Figs. 6 and 7 are sectional views respectively on the lines 66 and 77, Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing, A designates the tone arm of the phonograph, which is constructed and movably mounted in the usual manner so as to move over the record B carried on the usual turntable C. The outer end of the tone arm has a socket 1 disposed at an angle to a vertical plane similar to the angle that the needle requires, this socket 1 being open both at its top and b0ttom and communicating with the passage of the arm A, so that sound waves can pass therethrough. Rotatably mounted in the socket is the straight portion 2 of the elbow member 3 which carries an ordinary reproducer l). The straight portion 2 of the member 3 has two openings 4 and 5 disposed with their centers about ninety degrees apart, so that the member 3 will always communicate with the arm A when the member 3 is adjusted to throw the reproducer D from the full to the dotted line position, Fig. l, or vice versa, or to the position shown in Figs. 2 and 3, whereby records of any well known make can be used with the needle 6 of the reproducer in itsaproper angular position with respect to the plane of the record disk. The reproducer-carrying member 3 has a screw plug 7 threaded in its upper end, and this screw has a knurled head 8 projecting circumferentially so as to engage the upper edge of the socket 1. This head projects beyond the circumferential surface of the socket 1 so that the head can be conveniently grasped between the thumb and forefinger to enable the reproducer-carrying member to be pulled upwardly or longitudinally in the socket memher 1 for shifting the member 1 to its different positions. The reproducer is held in either of its desired positions by means of a locking pin 9 engageable in either of two slots 10 and 11 extending longitudinally and downwardly in the socket from the upper edge. This pin 9 can be removed by unscrewing from the straight portion 2 of the member 3, and then when the screw plug 7 is removed the member 3 can be taken out by being pulled downwardly out of the socket 1. To adjust the reproducer the member 3 is moved upwardly to disengage the pin 9 from one slot, and then the member is rotated through ninety degrees to bringthe pin 9 into alinement with the other slot, when the reproducer-carrying member is moved downwardly to engage the member 9 in such other slot.

Although the invention has been shown as of suchv design as to enable a single tone arm to hold a reproducer in position for operating on either of the types of record referred to, there are certain features of the invention which are useful in tone arms where the reproducer is not adjustable. It will be noted that the straight portion 2 of the member 3 is exteriorly smooth and is freely slidable longitudinally of the socket 1. This is advantageous, as the reproducer will be free to rise and fall with the unevenness of the revolving turntable or record tablet thereon, this being especially true in that type of tone arm where the joint between the latter and the sound box admits of only a horizontal swinging motion. Of course when the arm 3 is not supposed to be rotatably adjustable only one slot 10 or 11 is provlded in the socket 1 to receive the pin 9, which latter keys the reproducer-carrying member 3 in place against rotation, but allows the said arm to move up and down in the socket 1. To permit of the up and down movement of the member 3 in the outer end of the arm A, the fit of the parts will be loose enough to prevent binding.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, the advantages ofthe construction and method of operation will be readily understood by those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains', and while I have described the principle of operation, together with the device which I now consider, to be the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that the device shown is merely illustrative and that such changes may be made when desired as fall within the scope of the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent: V i

A phonograph tone arm having a socket on its extremity and open at its to and bottom and inclined at an angle to t c axis of the arm, an elbow member having a straight portion slidable longitudinally and rotatably in the socket, a reproducer on the said elbowv member, said socket having in its upper end a pair of slotsextending vertically, a pin on the elbow member engageable in either of the said slots, the said pin being removable to permit the removal of the member from the socket, and a screw plug threaded in the upper end of the said member and having a head of larger diameter than the external diameter of the socket to form means whereby the member can be gripped for adjusting the same.

- In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

LEONARD MARKELS.

Images