Improvements in or relating to printing machines employing electrical facsimile reproduction

814,909. Copying-telegraphy. ADDRESSOGRAPH-MULTIGRAPH CORPORATION Dec. 7, 1956, No. 37460/56. Class 40 (3). In an electrical facsimile printing machine arranged to reproduce data borne by individual subject-matter members, such as business cards, in predetermined areas thereof, and including a scanning position to and through which the members are passed in flat-abutting or overlapping relation, together with scanning means at the scanning position to translate the card data into signals transmitted to a printing position to effect reproduction, means is operable in each cycle of the machine during passage of matter-bearing members through the scanning position to render the transmitting means ineffective for a predetermined time interval during which the leading edge of each respective card passes through the scanning position. The scanning and printing arrangement is similar to that described in Specifications 767,284 and 808,008, in which cards C are fed from a stack past a scanning arrangement comprising a drum 25 with two groups of four 90-degree helical slots 35, 36 arranged to scan, for example, lines A1, C3 of a card C, whilst the lines B2, D4 of the next or subsequent card are being simultaneously scanned. The printing arrangement comprises four discs 62 each carrying four 90- . degree helical ridges 61 engaged by the printing anvils 65 of four printing units 60 arranged in two pairs at diametrically opposite positions of the discs. The arrangement for suppressing the outputs of the four photo-cells associated with the four simultaneously operative slots 35, 36 of the drum comprises four similar switches SW with switch arms 90 carrying rollers 91 operated by cams 115-1 ... and effective in the closed position shown, effected by the lobed portion L, to short-circuit the resistor 122 to allow the output of a scanning photo-cell, such as 59, to pass via capacitor 123 to the associated printing unit. In the open position of the switch SW, the resistor 122 reduces to a very small value the signal corresponding to black which may be derived from a card C. Each of the cams 115- 1 ... 115-4 for operating the switches SW is formed by two relatively and independently adjustable cam discs mounted on a shaft 100 secured to a gear 105 driven by a gear 106 from a gear of the driving arrangement which feeds the cards C past the scanning position, and the cam discs are adjusted so that the dwell portion D of the double-disc cam, such as 115-1, Fig. 7, is effectiv