The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

ricoxi wrote:Hi SSBN 657, I attached pictures from my moto, it might could assist you.
thanks
Rico

111.jpg

222.jpg

SSBN 657 wrote:The brake has a clip that needs to be positioned properly to function correctly. The clip has popped off of its proper home. Could someone please post a pic of this brake assembled correctly. I would appreciate it greatly. Thanks

Tim

that explains where the spring clip goes but what if anything does it do ?

Rico
Bingo!! Thanks much. Will see if it makes any difference in operation.

Tim

Sooooo… It really didn't matter one iota whether or not the clip was attached. The brake functions well in either case. So why the clip? Better mousetrap design or possibly a superfluous design addition to circumvent a patent infringement lawsuit? At least I now know that the clip is in fact original to the brake.

Tim

As a matter of fact it looks like it just engages over one arm of the pantograph and does absolutely nothing. It would indeed be interesting to find the patent file for this brake, I see that many people here seem to know how to dig in the US patent network. Perhaps there it is explained what they had in mind.

Marco Gilardetti wrote:As a matter of fact it looks like it just engages over one arm of the pantograph and does absolutely nothing. It would indeed be interesting to find the patent file for this brake, I see that many people here seem to know how to dig in the US patent network. Perhaps there it is explained what they had in mind.

Google is your friend when searching patents:
https://patents.google.com/?assignee=vi ... machine+co

I did a quick scan looking at the patents for brakes and did see one for the #1918 brake.

I too would be interested in knowing the story of the mystery spring on this brake.

Here it is: figure 7 and figure 8:

https://patentimages.storage.googleapis ... 219380.pdf

The brake is described in the patend as a reduced manual form of a more complex auto-brake which is the actual subject of this patent (1 219 380) and is visible in figures 9 and 10 and then 1 to 6. Although in the patent the brake is drawn nearly identical to the actual marketed unit, I can see no trace of the spring clip.

Since they took care to describe the guiding hook (part numbered 34 in figures) in the patent text, I then deduce that the pantograph mechanism around which the mechanism of this brake was engineered was prone to flex up and down due to the high number of pivot points and the necessary backlash. My educated guess is that at a point in production they thought to add the clip in order to stiffen it, and keep it clear of the bottom of the turntable or the other way around to avoid it getting stuck at the bottom of the baseplate, as perhaps some units with much backlash tended to flex and get in contact with other parts. Should this be true, there might very well be both units that came from factory with or without the clip.