Patent GB-190411778-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Store Service Apparatus.
Inventor: GIPE EMANUEL CLARENCE
Filed: 1904-05-24
Granted: 1904-08-11
Abstract: 11,778. Gipe, E. C. May 24. Rope railways for propelling and conveying cash and package carriers in stores. A car or carrier having upper and lower opposed wheels is mounted upon two wires located between the wheels and connected at one end respectively to a lever and bar arranged so that power applied to the bar will cause the two wires to separate behind the carrier with substantially equal force and will propel the carrier. Fig. 1 shows the invention as applied to an inclined-wire store service system. The wheels 45, 46 of the carrier 44 are mounted upon inclined wires 14,18 secured at their upper ends to a device which allows these ends to move in substantially parallel paths. The wires are attached by clevises to bell-crank levers 37, 39 connected together by a bent link 42 and pivoted to the ends of a yoke 35 connected to a clevis 33 and adjustable in position by set-screws 43. The clevis 33 is secured to one of a series of lugs 32 secured to a bar 31 connecting two fittings 28 attached to supports 2 by slots and lugs as described with regard to the fitting 5 below. Clevises 29 and wires 30 prevent the fittings 28 from rotating. The lower end of the wire 18 is connected to an arm 16 pivoted to the rear end of a lever 12, attached at its other end to the wire 14 and pivoted to a fitting secured to a plug 3 screwed to support 1 by means of slots 6 and lugs 4 as shown in Fig. 3. The fitting 5 is supported by an arm 9 recessed to engage the support 1, and by a clevis 7 and wires. On drawing down a handle 20 on the bar 16, the lever 12 assumes a vertical position, and the wires are separated so as to propel the carriers to the other end. A spring 15 returns the lever 12 to the position shown. The carrier is secured at either end by means of lugs 64, Fig. 4, formed on its ends and adapted to engage between and to be held by padded jaws 26 pivoted to yokes 25 supported by rods 22 which slide under the influence of springs 23, 24 in brackets 21. The jaws 26 are pressed into the position shown by springs 27, the motion being limited by stops 60, 61. The yokes 25 are padded at 63. In the case of the lower fitting, the brackets 21 are secured to the bar 16 so that, when the handle is actuated, the jaws 26 are carried below the lugs 64, but the brackets at the upper end are formed on a yoke 49, Fig. 4, pivoted to the ends of extensions 47 of the yoke 35, and pressed by springs against stops 54 which hold it in a position parallel to the wires. The carrier, when released from the upper end by depressing a handle 50 attached to the yoke 49, runs down the wires by the action of gravity. In the case of a horizontal wire system, both ends of the wires are fitted with propelling-arrangements, the levers 12 at the two ends being at right - angles to each other. In a modification, shown in Fig. 7, the wire 18 is attached to a lever 69 pivoted at 70 to a lever 67 pivoted at 68 to a fitting 66 similar to the fitting 5 and attached to the wire 14. The end of the lever 69 is connected to an arm 74 on the fitting 66 by a link 72, which is shorter than the distance between the pivots 68, 70, so that, when the lever 69 is depressed by means of a handle 76 and cord 75, the ends of the wires are separated. Fig. 9 shows a modified arrangement for keeping the paths of the upper ends of the wires parallel. The wires are attached to levers 91, 94, connected by a link 92 and pivoted to a lever 88 pivoted at 89 to a fixed support. In another modification, the wires are connected by clevises to the inner ends of two links connected to the outer ends of a vertical lever pivoted in its centre to a grooved bar hinged at its other end to a fixed support. The inner ends of the links are fitted with rollers which run in the grooved bar. In another modification, an endless chain, which connects the ends of the wires, passes round a toothed wheel mounted in parallel supporting-bars, pivoted at one end, and carrying at the other end a toothed wheel which bears on the chain and keeps it taut. In another modification, the wires are secured to two racks guided by rollers in a pivoted frame, so as to engage a pinion mounted in the frame between the racks. In another modification, shown in Fig. 12, the wires are connected to arms 114, 115 formed on segmental wheels 112, 113 mounted in a frame 108 pivoted at 109.