US1902465A - Centralized meter recording - Google Patents

Description

March 21, 1933. w, H. PRATT 1,902,465

CENTRALI ZED METER RECORDING Filed Aug. 12, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet l Invenfior: William H. Pratt,

b His Abbov'neg.

March 21, 1933. W H P TT 1,902,465

CENTRALI ZED METER RECORDING Filed Aug. 12, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Egg.

V Inventor:

William H. Fvorbc His Atcor'heg.

March 21, 1933. w. H. PRATT 1,902,465

CENTRALIZED METER RECORDING Filed Aug. 12, 1930 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 T ng. 5

Inventor: William H. Pratt, bg (AW His Atco'r heg.

W. H. PRATT CENTRALIZED METER RECORDING March 21, 1933.

Filed Aug. 12, 1930 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 wm m6 QN mQ Inventor William H. Pva'bb, b M

His Abborheg.

March 21, 1933.

w. H. PRATT CENTRALIZED METER RECORDING Filed Aug. 12, 1930 5 Shets-Sheet 5 ITfi/entor': William H. Pratt,

bg His Attorney.

' Patented Mar. 21, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE WILLIAM H. PRATT,

OF LYNliT, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK I CENTRALIZED METER RECORDING Application filed August 12, 1930. Serial no. 474,746.

My invention relates to a system and apparatus for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote, point. More particularly my invention relates to the recording at the central station of the indication of the meters of a number of customers scatteredover the area served by a public service company, by the temporary use of the several customers telephone lines. My invention may be' applied to any type of customers indicating or integrating meters such as the customary integrating gas meters, wa-

. 'ter meters, electric watt-hour meters, etc.

. The expense and inconvenience incident to the readlng'of customers meters by central station employees need only be mentioned in order-that, the resulting economiesand good will of the customers flowing from the application of such apparatus may be'appreciated.

It is, therefore, an object of my invention to provide apparatus by means of. which a customers meter of any of the above or similar types may be recorded directly at the central stat'on without the necessitypf employing meter readers. It is a further object of my invention to provide apparatus for transmitting the indication of a customers meter directly to the central station by the temporary use of the customers telephone lines without the aid of any independent connections between the two points.

Another object of my invention is to provide means for recording the reading of any number of customers meters by the use of the customers telephone lines in cases where a number of customers are located upon the same party telephone line.

Still other and further objects. of my invention will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the drawings and will be pointed out with more partcularity in the claims appended hereto. In describing the apparatus and its principles' of operation which I consider at present to be the best embodiment thereof I have illustrated its application to the recording at a central station of the indication of a customers electrical watt-hour meter, but it is to be clearly understood that my apparatus is in no wise limited to this application, but

inay be applied to any type of a meter either integrating or indicating.

Referring now to the'drawings in which the same reference numerals apply to the same elements in each of the several figures Fig. 1 illustrates in schematic form the several pieces of apparatus, which go to make up my meter recordingsystem; Fig. 2 is a plan view, partly in section, of the meter contact making mechanism; Figs. 3 and 4 are per-' spective views of details of the mechanism; the manner of operation of the contact mechanism is illustrated in Figs. 10 and 11. F ig. 5 is a plan view of the assembly of the resonant relay, distributor and contact making drum, of which Fig. 6 is an elevation; Fig. 7 is a plan view, partly diagrammatic, of the recorder mechanism, of which a portion is shown inelevationin Fig. 8, and Fig. 9 is a perspective View of a zero-stop motor latch telephone lines and to one side of the tuned relay 13. The supply lines 10 are adapted to be energized from any source of alternating current supply, well known in the art, which "will generate a current of any of a number of desired frequencies. Located in the customersstation is an electro responsive device comprising a tuned relay 12 similar to the tuned relay 13 in the central station and when it is desired to record the reading of this particular customers meter an alternating current is impressed upon the supply lines 10 of a frequency for which the relays 12 and 13 are tuned.

The two relays 12 and 13, when properly energized, serve to start the apparatus in both the customers station and the central station. The operation of the apparatus in the two stations is effected by the self-starting synchronous motors 16 and 17, respectively,

--meter dial pointer.

which are exactly similar. Motors of this type are well known in the art and may be, for example, of the type disclosed in United States Patent No. 1,546,269 to Warren, July 14, 1925. 17 are the contact drums 14 and 15, respectively. Normally, the contact arms of these two drums engage insulated portions of their drums but when actuated by their cooperating relays 12 and 13, the contact arms are moved to conducting segments and the circuits through the motors 16 and 17 are simultaneously completed. These motors are supplied from the standard commercial frequency alternating current supply lines 23 and 24, which are energized from the same or synchronized central stations.

Operation of motor 16 which is operated independently of the meter serves to rotate the distributor 18 and contact making gears 19, of which one is provided for each meter dial. Each of the contact making gears 19 carries a pawl which engages a contact makmg member positioned in accordance with the meter indication associated with each The distributor 18 is geared to rotate at a speed which is a fraction of that of the contact making gears 19 dependent upon the number of dials of the meter. In the example illustrated, which is the usual four dial meter, the distributor rotates at one-fourth the speed of the gears 19. Thus, it will be noted that the distributor 18 places the contact members of the meter dials successively in circuit after'each complete revolution of the gears 19. As a result, a contact is made by the several contact making gears at the instant at which the contact making pawl engages the contact element of the respective meter dial pointers which is, of course, dependent upon the angular position, that is, the-reading, of the respective meter dials. The effect of these series of contacts is to momentarily short-circuit the cus tomers telephone lines each' time a contact is made. 1

Turning now to the apparatus located at the central station, there is provided a recording means or instrument 20, which is driven by means of the synchronous motor 17. The rotating arm of this recorder is so geared that it rotates synchronously with the distributor 18. The arms of the rotating re corder are provided with dial identifying markers numbered consecutively 1, 2, 3 and 4 corresponding to the numbers of the dials on the customers meter. When a contact is made at the customers meter the eifect of the short-circuit of the telephone lines is amplified by means of an amplifier 21 of any type well known in the art, the output of which is used to energize the electromagnet 25. Each of the arms of the rotating recorder is provided with an armature which cooperates In circuit with the motors 16 and with the electromagnet 25 so that when an This strip is divided longitudinally by eleven reference lines corresponding to the digits of the several meter dials. Since th1s recording arm is synchronized with the contact making apparatus the position in its travel across the recording chart at which anime pression is made is dependent upon the angular position of the contact making gears 19 at which contact is made, which, in turn, is dependent upon the reading of the meter. Thus, there is obtained at the central station a record of the reading of each .of the several dials of the customers meter. Such apparatus may be duplicated at each customers meter although it is obvious that the recording apparatus will serve for any number of customers meters. Thus, in Fig. 1, I have indicated at 12' a second relay, assumed to be of lower inductance than relay 12, connected to the left-hand wire of thetelephone circuit 22 through a condenser, which relay will perform the same function as relay 12,

.but with respect to another meter and associated apparatus similar to that shown, when a higher selected frequency isimpressed on' the telephone circuit, and to which frequency the high inductance relay 12 does not respond. For instance, if a low frequency of F cycles be impressed, relay 12 will respond, but the condenser in the circuit of'relay 12 prevents sufficient current flowing to operate the last mentioned relay. Now, if a frequency of F+X cycles beimpressed on the selective relay circuit, then the high inductance relay 12 does not vrespond, but. the higher frequency current readily flows through the condenser circuit to operate the lower inductance relay 12. The recording electromagnet 25 and the relay 13 of the re cording mechanism will then be designed to respond to either of the selected frequencies,

be recorded, reference is had to Figs. 2. 3 and 4. Referring more particularly to Fig. 2. the four customary dials of a commercial type watt-hour meter are indicated at 30, 31,

'tached to a meter whose indications are-to i I q Q 32, and 33; the dial 33 representing the units dial and the others, the successively larger multiple dials. The indicating pointers cooperating with these dials are illustrated as being actuated in the usual manner by the meter disc (not shown) through the main driving gear 34 and the ratio gearing 35.

' Attached to the spindles of the several dials are the contact arms 36..

As shown more clearly in Fig. 3, these contact arms comprise a hub portion 37 provided with a set screw 46 by means of which an arm is secured to its respective spindle.

The contact arm consists of a flatelongated strip' the outer end of which is bent at substantially right angles to the main axis of the strip and parallel to its axis of rotation.

This outer end is provided with a projecting tongue 39 pressed out near the center oi. one side. Pivotally mounted on this endportion is a fiber contact operating member 38 of an irregular outline which is clearly illustrated in the drawings. It is provided with a recess 47 which loosely engages the tongue 39. Extending oyer the range of all cradle 41 secured to the gear. The result is that the outer end of the pawl 41 acts to efiecta drivingengagement when the rotation of the gear is in the one direction but when the rotation is in the opposite direction the flexibility of the pawl permits it to spring past any driving engagement.

In the operation of this contactmaking= mechanism, the-contact actuating gears 19 are driven by the synchronous motor 16 as shown in Fig. 1. The outer end of the wire pawl mounted on each gear is adapted to engage the projection 48 of the fiber plate 38, mounted to pivot freely onthe outer end of the contact arm 36. The contact arm 36 is secured to the meter dial spindle and assumes a position corresponding to that of the dial pointer, that is, it gives an indication of the reading of the corresponding dial. Upon the rotation of the gears 19, when the pawl 40 engages the projection 48 ofthe fiber plate .38, this plate is slightly rotated about its pivot 42 and the resultant angularity of the side of the plate 38 which engages the corresponding contact plate 44.presses this plate 44 into ehgagement with the corresponding contact disc 43. Fig. 10 illustrates the position of the parts as a pawl 40 approaches a contact device before plate 44 is pressed against disc 43, and Fig. 11 illustrates the parts as a contact making operation is made and the posi tion of pawl 40 just before it slips past projection 48. Ordinarily two of the gears 19 will rotate in a clockwise direction and the other two in a counter clockwise direction.

. The saddle 41 will be on the'driving side of.

pawl 40 in either case. As indicated by the arrow adjacent thereto the gear 19 illustrated in Figs. 10 and 11 is shownas operating in a clockwise direction as viewed from the front of Fig. 2. As shown in the connections illustrated in Fig. 1 this results in a momentary short circuiting of the customers telephone lines to eflect an impulse at the central 3 station. As explained below these gears are adapted to make four complete revolutions, one for each of the meter dials, and by means of the distributor 18 the contact discs 43 are successively placed in circuit.

In the preferred embodiment of my invention I mount the rotary distributor 1 8 and 'the contact drum 14 on the same shaft as il-' lustrated in, Figs. 5 and 6, and assemble them together with the tuned relay 12 into a unitary structure. The tuned relay 12 comprises a U shapedfmagnetic core 50 provided with the energizing winding 70. One of the legs of the U. shaped core 50 is provided with a pole piece 51 and bridging the gap between the two legs of the U is the vibrating magnetic reed 52, secured to the other legof the U by'means of the clamping member 71. The outer end of the vibrating reed 52 engages aprojection 7 2 on the contact arm 53 which is resiliently mounted at 54. The contact arm 53 is provided with the contact 55 which cooperates with the insulated segment 57 and the conducting segment 56 of the contact drum 14. This contact drum is driven from the synchronous motor 16 throughthe main dr1v1ng gear 60 and the cam ring 59. The insulated-segment 57 is provided with a tongue 58 pro ecting into a recess in the conducting segment 56. Thecontact drum-14 is mounted upon the shaft 69 upon which is also secured the rotating contact brush 74 of the distributor 18, In the preferred embodiment oi my invention this distributor 18 comprises the conducting segments 61,62, 63 and 64 which terminate in the conductingspools 65, 66, 67

there is no appreciable interval of time during which contactis not made with any of the contact segments. As stated above when the apparatusis at rest the contact55 engages the projection 58 of the insulated segment 57 of the contact drum 14. When an impulse of the proper frequency is received by the resonant relay 12 as described in the outline of operation of the system, the reed 52 will vibrate in resonance and move the contact arm 53 until the contact 55 engages the conducting segment 56 of the contact drum. This completes the circuit to the synchronous motor 16 as described'above and the contact drum together with the distributor will rotate through one complete revolution until the contact 55 again engages the insulating projection 58, when the motor circuit is broken and the apparatus comes to rest. In the operation of this apparatus the switch 11, Fig. 1, for starting the motor is intended to be closed only momentarily. The switch 11 should be closed long enough to cause the contact 55, Fig. 5, to be moved from the offset insulating segment 58 to the conduct ing portion 56, but the switch should be opened again before segment 56 makes a complete revolution unless it be desired to repeat the recording operation. After reed 52 stops vibrating it leaves contact 55 on the conducting segment 56 which starts the synchronous motor 17, and cam'member 59 is provided to move contact 55 back again to its initial position during the latter part of a revolution of segment 56. Thus, just before the contact 55 comes opposite the offset insulating segment 58 it is moved by cam member 59 so that it will ride upon the insulating portion 58 and open the motor circuit.

The apparatus for recording at the central station the readings of the various customers meters is illustrated in more detail in Figs. 7 and 8. This apparatus consists of a rotatably mounted platform 80 which carries the pivotally mounted recording arms 81, 82, 83 and 84. This rotating platform is driven by the synchronous motor 17 through the intermediate gearing 90. On the lower end of the platform spindle 91 is mounted the. contact drum 15 which is identical with the contact drum 14 described in detail above. The synchronous motors 16 and 17 being in synchronism cause the contact drums 14 and 15 and the distributor 18 and recorder 20, all to be rotated in synchronism. On the outer end of each of the recording arms 81-84 is provided a magnetic armature 85, some what arcuate in form, and centrally disposed on the underside of each of these armatures is mounted the marker 86. These markers carry the numerals 1, 2, 3, and 4 for the ed in any convenient manner, and between the faces of the magnetic poles 87 and the path of the magnetic armatures 85. This record chart is longitudinally marked by eleven equally spaced lines marked from zero to 10 inclusive and corresponding to the respective digits of the meter dials.

Assume that the units dial 33 of Fig. 2 has an indication of 5 when the contact arm 36 is engaged by its corresponding actuating gear 19 and an impulse is sent out from the customers station. When the dial reads 5 this impulse will occur at the end of approximately a half revolution of the gear 19. During the same interval of time the contact arm 81 will have moved half-way across the recording chart 88 and at the instant the impulse is received, the magnetic armature 85 is drawn down by the electromagnet 25 and the marker 86 imprints the numeral 1 upon the longitudinal ruling marked 5. Similarly each of the successive recording arms 82, 83 and 84 will print a record on the chart corresponding to the reading of the respective dial of the customers meter. If desired, arcuate rulings may also be made upon the record chart to facilitate inidentifying the corresponding readings of the several dials of a single customer. For example the reading indicated on the arcuate rul-' ing 93 indicates a meter reading of 4627 and that on the arcuate ruling 94 representing a reading of a second'meter is 4486.

In order to prevent the synchronous motors 16 and 17 from coasting when they are deenergized and to insure that they will both stop in the same position in readiness to perform another meter recording operation I have found it advantageous to use a stop latch, such, for example, as is illustrated in Fig. 9 of the drawings. In the preferred embodiment of this device the motor core member 100 is provided with polar projections 105, 106 which shunt the main magnetic gap in which is mounted the motor armature. Bridging these two polar projections is a resilient magnetic strip 107, secured to the pole 105 by means of the screws 111' and normally resting against the adjustingscrew 109 which is mounted on a member 108 supported'from the pole 106. This strip 107 is provided with an outturned flange 112 in which is cut the recess 110*. Fixed to the driving pinion 104 of the motor and rotating therewith is an arm 110. -When the coil 101 of the synchronous motor 16 is energized, the armature 107 is attracted to the polar projection 106, withdrawing the flange 112, and the arm 110 is free to rotate unobstructed; but upon deenergization of the motor the arm 107 springs back against the stop 109 and the tapered fiange112 enters the path of the moving arm 110 which drops in the recess 110 and latches the motor in this zero position. Although this feature is not absolutely essential to my invention I have found that by the use of such a latch it is possible to accurately stop each of the motors whole will be readily understood.

While I have described with particularity the structures and arrangements which I consider at present to be the best embodiment of my invention I do not wish to be limited thereto but I aim to cover-in the following claims all those modifications and variations within; the true spirit and scope of my invention.

What I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent ofthe United States is:

1. A system for recording at a central station the indication of an integrating meter 7 havinga plurality of dials, comprising-contacts and a contact actuating'device, positioned in accordance with the dial indication associated with each ofsaid dials, an independently driven mechanism for operating said devices, an electro-responsive device located at the central station, a circuit connecting said contacts and said electro-responsive device, recording means including recording elements corresponding to each of said dials successively actuated by said electro-responsive device, and -means for synchronizing, said mechanism and said recording means whereby the time of actuation of each recording element is dependent upon the indication of its corresponding dial.

2. A system for recording at a central station the indication of an integrating meter having a plurality of dials comprising contacts and a contact actuating device positioned in accordance with the dial indication associated with each of said dials, a mechanism for operating said devices driven independently of said meter, a circuit extending from the contacts "associated with the dials of said meter to the central station, distributing means for successively connecting the contacts associated with said dials in said circuit, an electro-responsive device located at the central station and connected in said circuit, dial identifying recording means ac-. tuated by said electro-responsive device, and means for synchronizing said driving mechanism, said distributing means and said recording means.

tuating device positioned in accordance with the meter indication associated with said meter, mechanism for operating sald devlce,

the use of the customers telephone lines,

comprising contacts and a contact actuating device positioned in accordance with the meter indication associated with said meter, a connection between said contacts and the customers telephone lines whereby the latter are adapted to be short-circuited'by engagement of said contacts, driving mechanism for said device, an electroresponsive device located at the central station and in circuit with said telephone lines, movable recording means controlled by said electro-responsive device and means for synchronizing said mechanism and said recording means.

5. A system for recording at a central station the indication of an integrating meter having a plurality of dials, comprising contacts and a contact actuating device positioned in accordance with its dial indication associated with each of said dials, a synchronous motor for driving said devices, a circuit comprising the customers telephone lines extending from said meter to said central station, distributing means for successively connecting the contacts associated with said dials in said'circuit and electro-responsive device located at the central station and connected in said circuit, movable recording means including a plurality of recording elements corresponding to the several dials, successively actuated by said electro-responsive device, a synchronous motor for driving said recording means, and means for supplying synchronized alternating currents to said motors at the local and remote points.

6. A system for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, comprising a contact making device positioned in accordance with the meter indication associated with said meter, a synchronous motor driven mechanism for actuating said device, an electro-responsive device located at the central station, a circuit connecting said devices, recording means actuated by said electro-responsive device, a

second synchronous motor for moving said a definite cycle of operation associated with said meter, synchronous motor driven means for driving said mechanism, an electro-responsive device located at the central station, a circuit connecting said contact-mechanism and said device, recording means actuated by said electro-responsive device, a second syn-' chronous motor for moving said recording means to recording position, means for simultaneously initiating operation of said synchronous motors, a common source of supply for said motors, and means for stopping operation of said two synchronous motors after the completion of a single cycle of said contact mechanism.

8. A system for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, comprising contact mechanism associated with said meter, synchronous motor driving means for said mechanism, an electroresponsive device located at the central station, a circuit connecting said contact mechanism and said electro-responsive device, re-

cording means actuated by said electro-re-' sponsive device, a second synchronous motor for moving said recording means to recording position, a common source of supply for said synchronous motors, latch means associated with each synchronous motor to insure thgir stopping at predetermined points, and means for releasing said latch means simultaneously to initiate a meter recording operation.

9. A system for recording at a central station the indication'of a remote customers integrating meter having a plurality of dials comprising contacts and a contact actuating device associated with each of said dials, a synchronous motor for driving said devices, a circuit comprising the customers telephone lines extending from said meter to said central station, distributing means for successively connecting the contacts associated with said dials in said circuit whereby said lines are adapted to be short-circuited by engagement of said contacts, an electro-responsive device located at the central station and connected in said circuit, recording means including a plurality of recording elements corresponding to the several dials successively actuated by said electro-responsive device, a synchronous motor for driving said recording means, means for supplying synchronized alternating currents to said motors at the local and remote point-s, means for simultaneously initiating operation of said motors, means for de-energizing said motors after a complete cycle of operation of said distributing means, and latch means associated with each of said motors to insur'e'their stopping at predetermined points upon their de-energization,

10. A system for selectively recording at a central station the indication of a plurality of customers meters located at remote points.

comprising contacts and a contact actuating device associated with each of said meters, mechanism driven independently of said meters for actuating said devices, electrical devices responsit'e to different frequencies of periodically varying currents for initiating the operation of the several mechanisms, a single circuit connecting said electrical devices, means for supplying to said circuit periodically varying currents of any of the several frequencies to which said electrical devices are responsive, an electro-responsive device located at the central station, a connection between said contacts and said electro-responsive device, recording means actu ated by said electro-responsive device, and means for" synchronizing a selected mechanism with said recording means.

11; A system for selectively recording at a central station the indication of a plurality of customers" meters located at remote points, comprising contacts and a contact actuating device associated with each of said meters, mechanisms driven independently of said meters for actuating said devices, resonant relays tuned to different frequencies of alternating currents associated with the several meters, a single circuit connecting said relays, means for supplying to said circuit alternating currents of any of the several frequencies to which said relays are tuned, contact devices controlled by the several relays, each adapted upon actuation to initiate the the operation of its corresponding actuating mechanism, an electro-responsive device located at the central station, a circuit connection between said contacts and said electroresponsive device, recording means actuated by said'electro-responsive device, and means for synchronizing a selected actuating mechanism with said recording means.

12. In an apparatus for recording at a central station the indication of a dial type meter at a remote point, a contact mechanism for said meter comprising a contact disc'and a contact plate associated with the dial of said meter, a contact arm rotated with the meter pointer, means associated with said contact arm for actuating said plate and disc into engagement, and independently diven means adapted, during operation, to operate said actuating means at a point dependent, upon the position of the meter pointer.

13. In an apparatus for recording at a central station the indication of a dial type'meter at a remote point, comprising cooperating contacts associated with the dial of said meter, a contact arm rigidly secured to the spindle of the meter pointer in the same radial plane as said pointer, contact actuating means associated with said arm, and independently driven means adapted, during operation. to control said actuating means to close said contacts at a point dependent upon the position of said meter pointer.

tral station the indication of a dial type meter v 14. In an apparatus for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, said meter including the usual dial and pointer, a contact mechanism for said meter comprising cooperating contacts associated with saiddial, a rotatable contact arm the outer end of which is bent parallel to its axis of rotation, rotated with said pointer, contact actuating means comprising an irregular shaped plate of insulation material freely pivoted on the outer end portion of said arm, and independently driven means adapted, during operation to engage and turn said plate on its pivot to close said contacts at a point dependent upon the position of said meter pointer. v

15. In an apparatus for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, said meter including the usual dial andpointer, a contact mechanism for said meter comprising cooperating contacts associated with the dial of said meter, a contact arm moved with the meter pointer, contact actuating means associated with said arm, and an independently driven gear provided with a spring pawl adapted to engage said contact actuating means to close said contacts at a point dependent upon the position of the meter pointer.

16. In an apparatus for recording at a cenat a remote point, a contact mechanism for said meter comprising a contact disc and a contact 'plate associated with the dial of said meter, a rotatable contact arm, the outer end of which is bent parallel to its axis of rotation, rigidly secured to the spindle of the meter pointer in the same radial plane as said pointer, contact actuating means comprisingan irregular shaped plate of insulation material freely pivoted on the outer portion of said arm, and an independently driven gear provided with a spring pawl adapted to engage said plate and turn it on its pivot to close said contacts at a point dependent upon the position of the meter pointer.

17. In an apparatus for recording at a cen "tral station the indication of a multi-dial meter at a remote point, said meter including the usual dials and cooperating pointers, a contact mechanism for said meter comprising cooperating contacts associated with each of the several dials, contact arms rotated with the several pointers, contact actuating means associated with each arm, and independently driven means adapted. during operation, to control the several actuating means to close each of said contacts at a point dependent upon the position of their corresponding pointers. v

18. In a system for recording at a central station the indication of a. multi-dial meter at a remote point, said meter including the usual dials and cooperating pointers, an indication transmitting means comprising cooperating contacts associated with each of said dials, independently driven contact operating mechanism, associated with each of which is a fraction of that of said mecha-.

nism depending upon the number of meter dials, and connections between said distributor and the several contacts whereby the several contacts are successively connected in said signaling circuit.

19. In a system for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, comprising in combination with such meter, recording means comprising a continuously moving recording element, a record chart positioned adjacent to the path of movement of said recording element, an electro-responsive device energized in response to the indication of said meter, and a magnetic member carried by said recording'element and actuated by said electro-responsive device to cause said element to record an indication upon the chart when in a position with respect to the chart corresponding to the meter indication.

20. In a system for recording'at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, comprising in combination with such meter, recording means comprising a rotating recording element pivoted about an axis perpendicular to its axis of rotation and provided with a magnetic armature, a record chart graduated in meter indicating units and positioned adjacent to the path of movement of the recording clement, an electro-responsive device energized in response to the indication of said meter and adapted to depress said element and armature upon energization. V v

21. In a system for recording at a central station the indication of a meter at a remote point, comprising in combination with such meter, recording means comprising a continuously moving recording element provided with a magnetic armature, a record chart positioned adjacent to the path of movement of the recording element, and an electro-responsive device including a magnetic core member and an elongated pole piece mounted in proximity to and conforming substantially to, the path of movement of said magnetic armature, said electro-respon'sive device being energized in response to the indication of said meter to actuate said armature.

22. In a system for recording at a central station the indication of'a meter at-a remote point, comprising in combination with such meter, recording means comprising a continuously rotating recording element provided with a magnetic armature, a record chart graduated transversely in meter indicating units, and an electro-responsive device ineluding a U-shaped core member substantially arcuate in section and provided with arouate elongated pole pieces extending substantially across the width of the record chart and located in proximity to the path of said magnetic armature said eleotro-responsive device being energized in response to the indication of said meter to actuate said armature.

23. In a system for recording at a central 10 station the indication of a multi-dial meter located at a remote point, comprising in combination with a meter having a plurality of dials, recording means comprising a rotatable platform provided with a plurality of recording elements, one element for each of said dials, a record chart graduated transversely in meter indicating units and positioned adjacent to the path of movement of said recording elements with its graduation lines transverse to the direction of movement of the recording elements, an electroresponsive device energized successively in response to the indications of the several dials, and magneticarmatures carried by the several recording elementsand successively actuated by said electro-responsive device. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 7 th day of August, 1930. 5 WILLIAM H. PRATT.

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