Patent GB-438597-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to vending and amusement apparatus
IPC: G07F17/32
Filed: 1934-05-09
Abstract: 438,597. Escapements. ESDAILE, H. F., Melbourne Works, Crescent Road, New Barnet, Hertfordshire. May 9, 1934, Nos. 13995, 13996, and 28328. [Class 80 (iv)] [See also Groups XVIII and XV] Coin-freed game apparatus of the kind wherein a ball is projected by a trigger 17, Fig. 1, over a playing surface having guides 8 for deflecting or guiding the ball, and pockets 5 for receiving a winning ball and leading it to mechanism enabling the player to receive a prize, is characterized by the provision of a rotary member which effects automatically the delivery of a prize when a winning ball is played, means tending to rotate said member in one direction, means to regulate its movement consisting of a number of teeth or pins on the rotary member and a rockable escapement comprising two or more spaced pins or abutments co-operating, as the device is rocked, with said teeth or pins on the rotary member alternately to lock and to free the rotary member against and for step-by-step movement towards the delivery position, and means, associated with the escapement, actuated by a winning ball whereby the rotary member is automatically freed to deliver a prize. As shown in Fig. 2, a toothed wheel 49 is provided with pockets 64 containing packets of chocolates &c. which are normally retained therein by shields 66, 67, but which fall down a delivery shoot 69 as each pocket comes opposite a gap 68. The wheel is loaded to rotate clockwise by an inserted coin, but such rotation is normally prevented by a pivoted escapement cylinder 54, Fig. 8, engaging teeth 48 on the wheel. When a winning ball is played, it falls to a shoot 12 and depresses a lever 56 so as to rotate the cylinder clockwise and permit the wheel to advance one step, the cylinder being returned to its locking position by the released tooth 48 engaging its surface 61. Fig. 9 shows a modified escapement comprising a pivoted plate 74 having spaced abutments 78, 79, the latter normally engaging a pin 73 to prevent rotation of the wheel. When the lever 75 is pivoted by a winning ball, the plate is rotated clockwise and the released pin passes through the gap 81 between the abutments and engages the surface 82 of the abutment 78 to return the plate to its locking position. In a further modification, Fig. 11, rotation of the prize delivery wheel 90 is controlled by a plate 105 provided with pawls 108, 109, the former normally engaging a tooth on the wheel to prevent clockwise rotation. A winning ball pivots a lever 101 so as to rotate the plate clockwise and by means of a pin 115 on an arm 116 mounted on the plate, disengage an abutment 93 from teeth 91 to permit the wheel to be advanced one step clockwise into the position shown by a weight 94 so as to bring the lower end of a coin pocket 89 into register with a shoot 113 down which the inserted coin falls to be returned to the player. Gaps 122, 123 are provided in the toothed portions of the wheel and a third paw 126 is provided on the plate 105 in order that the coin pocket 89 will register with the shoot 113 when a winning ball is played following a lose.