Page:Patent for a Voting apparatus US1219053.pdf/6

This page needs to be proofread.

4.

319,053

and N, respectively, and thence through the conductors 21 and 22 to the return R. It will thus be seen that when the person voting, after momentarily turning the switch lock N withdraws his key therefrom so that the contact between the contact, blocks 9 and 11 is broken, the lamp N at the member's station, and the lamp N on the indicator board will remain lighted be O cause the lighting circuits thereof remain closed at the contacts 24 and 25. Y., P and N are indicator board lamps. When these lamps are lighted, however, as just described, the member's vote is not recorded or counted, but is merely indicated by the light at his voting switch and by the light onwillthe prevail indicatorthroughout board, andthethisperiod con dition allowed for voting, which may be, for in stance, five minutes. In order to record the votes, We provide at the central station or clerk's cabinet, a recording mechanism for each member. In the present, instance we have shown the 'e25

cording 'mechanism of one member or voter,

which mechanism in this case is in the na

ture of a card or sheet punching machine, operated by solenoids, and is indicated as an entirety by the letter T. The punching 3. mechanism of each member consists of three solenoid punches Y, P and N for punch ing and indicating the “yea” vote, “pres ent’ vote and “nay’ vote, respectively. The three solenoids are arranged so as to Oc cupy the Smallest possible space, and are so constructed that when an electric impulse is sent through any one of the solenoids, and the latter is consequently energized, as here inafter described, the plunger of the sole noid which carries a cutter, will project the latter through a card or sheet of paper prop erly inserted therebeneath. Each punching Solenoid is in an auxiliary circuit so that the record is made from a measured impulse 45 from , which the human factor is entirely eliminated. At the clerk's desk or central station we

also provide counting mechanism indicated as an entirety by the letter U and which is 50 employed for counting and totaling the vote of the entire voting body. In the present instance this counting mechanism includes three solenoid operated adding or counting devices of any suitable form, and in this 55 connection we wish it to be understood that we may employ any type of adding machine or counting mechanism which is applicabie to our purpose. The counting device Y is for counting and totaling the “yea’ votes, 60 the counting device P is for counting and

65

at the clerk's desk or station by means of a Switch W which in the present instance is in the nature of a push button. Controllied by this switch W, and located at the clerk's Station is a motor M', the shaft m of which 70 meshes with or is geared to the shaft 28 of the commutator arm. 29. This arm is pro vided with a disk-like head 30 having a lock ing lug 31 extending from the periphery thereof, while 32 designates a solenoid tri O 75 magnet, the plunger 33 of which is provided With a locking lug. 34, which, when the magnet 32 is deemergized, is adapted to inter lock with the lug. 31 of the head of the com mutator arm when the latter is positioned 80 therebeneath, as when the brush 6 of the arm rests on the segmental contact strip 35 which occupies the space 36 between, but Out of contact with the ends 37 of the split commutator ring 38. Surrounding this split 85 commutator ring are three rows of segmental contact plates. One row is made up of the plates /, which are brought into operation as hereinafter described when recording and counting the 'yea' votes of the mem 90 bers, the plates of the second row are shown at p", and are likewise used in the recording and counting of the “present’ votes, while the third row of plates shown at n°, are used in recording and counting the “nay' votes. 95 Each member has his voting unit, or appa ratus electrically connected with one plate of each kind, that is, with one of the plates gy, one of the plates p", and one of the

plates, n°, and each member's set of plates, as will be seen by reference to the drawings,

OO

is arranged in radial alinement relative to

the commutator ring 38. Now, when the clerk closes the switch button W, as herein after described, the trip magnet is ener gized. So that the locking plunger thereof is withdrawn or released from interlocking engagement with the commutator arm, and the motor is energized so that the commu tator arm is caused to travel over these Segmental platesy, p" and 'n', and will also travel in contact with the split commutator ring 38. The result will be that as the traveling commutator arm contacts with the individual segmental plates, circuits will be closed through these plates to the respec tive recording and counting devices, and the members' votes will be recorded and counted. This operation in detail is as foll

05

O

5

lows:

When the clerk closes the button switch W, current will pass from the main feed line F, through the conductor 39 to the contact 40 of the button switch, thence to the contact 41, and through the conductor 125 totaling, the present” votes, and the count 42, to the trip magnet 32, and from the trip ing device N is for counting and totaling magnet 82 through the conductor 43 to the the “nay' votes. return Wire R. The magnet is thus ener The counting mechanism and the record gized, and the locking plunger 33 thereof ing mechanism are controlled and operated drawn inward to release the commutator 130

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.