Abstract: Carriage drive means having cables or belts for transmitting drive force and a spring for tensioning the cables or the belts. A rigid member interposed between the spring and the cable or belt, the rigid member constituting a self-locking mechanism which allows the member to move, when elongation occurs in the cable or belt, to a position in which the elongation is absorbed by the tension of the spring, but does not allow same to move in a direction in which it is restored to its original position.In the aforesaid self-locking mechanism, the rigid member may be in the form of a segmental cam which engages with suitable friction the shaft of a pulley mounted for movement while having the cable wound thereon, or the rigid member may engage with suitable friction a pivotal member for supporting in a position remote from the pivot the pulley having the cable wound thereon.

Abstract: A type carrier for use in an impact-type printing machine to form an imprint of virtually the equal quality when used with either a flat hammer or a detentable, shaped hammer is provided. The present type carrier includes a hub and a plurality of fingers extending from the hub, each finger having a printing section which has a front surface provided with at least one type and a back surface having a novel structure. The back surface of the printing section includes at least one flat portion and at least a pair of sloped portions. Preferably, the sloped portions are defined such that they slope down oppositely from a plane common to or below the flat portion in the direction substantially perpendicular to the lengthwise direction of the finger.

Abstract: In a sheet feeding device for a printing apparatus for feeding one sheet after another to a printing station, a stopper hook is located slightly posterior to point of contact between a platen and a roller or between two rollers brought into and out of pressing contact with each other, and a sheet fed to the printing station is stopped by the stopper hook and has its position corrected, if it has a skew, while the platen and the roller or the two rollers are out of contact with each other. Thus a sheet free from skew is pressed by the roller against the platen or the roller to enable automatic skewless sheet feeding to be effected.

Abstract: A printing machine, such as a typewriter, printer, etc., including a platen having wound thereon a sheet for printing characters and symbols thereon and provided with an automatic sheet feeding apparatus including a cassette containing a plurality of sheets automatically fed to the platen. The cassette can be inserted into or withdrawn from the sheet feeding apparatus through an opening in the front of the sheet feeding apparatus. The sheet feeding apparatus enables a sheet to be selectively fed manually, if desired, besides enabling sheets to be fed automatically from the cassette. The sheet feeding apparatus enables a paper bail to be mechanically operated in conjunction with its operation of automatically feeding sheets to the platen.