Patent ID: 7770753
Filing Date: 2010-08-10
Classification: G07F

Abstract:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a vending machine for printed publications including at least one of magazines, periodicals or newspapers, said vending machine comprises a single vend newspaper vending machine including: a machine housing having outer walls; a newspaper elevator system mounted in said machine housing, said newspaper elevator system including: newspaper thickness sensing means movably mounted in said machine housing and operative to determine the thickness of the topmost paper; newspaper pusher means mounted in said machine housing operative to engage a topmost paper on a newspaper stack supported on said newspaper support trolley and slide the topmost newspaper off of the newspaper stack, said newspaper pusher means moving the topmost newspaper to a dispensing position in which at least part of the topmost newspaper is external of said machine housing whereby a customer can access the topmost newspaper and obtain possession thereof; newspaper pusher and movable height control member actuation means operatively connected to said newspaper pusher means and said movable height control member such that engagement of said actuation means first actuates said newspaper pusher means to remove the topmost paper from the newspaper stack, said actuation means operative to secondly raise said movable height control member a distance determined by the thickness of the topmost paper as determined by said newspaper thickness sensing means, thereby raising said newspaper support trolley such that the penultimate newspaper replaces the vended topmost newspaper in substantially the same position that the topmost newspaper was in prior to being vended; a storage area for the printed publications; a dispensing means for selecting and dispensing one of the printed publications and output means for dropping the selected printed publication downwards through and out of said vending machine; and an output chute including;