Patent GB-752481-A (GB)
Title: Metered parking apparatus
IPC: G07F17/24
Filed: 1954-03-31
Abstract: 752,481. Parking meters. CUMMINGS, R. A. March 31, 1954 [May 5, 1953], No. 9436/54. Class 27 A car parking space is provided with a barrier 5 that normally lies horizontally to allow a car to be driven into parking position but is raised to imprison the car by means which are operated by movement of the car to its parked position and which initiate the timing operation of a coin-freed meter 86, the meter preventing manual operation of a handle 79 to return the barrier 5 to its horizontal position until coins corresponding to the charge for the elapsed parking time have been inserted. Barrier operation.-A ramp 1 is provided with a pair of plates 5 on a shaft 8 and as a car is moved into parking position the plates are fully depressed as shown in Fig. 4, and, through a link rod 19 and levers 23 and 28 move a rod 32 upwards to compress a spring 34 against a trunnion 35 on a lever 36 which is also connected through a rod 37 to the lever 23 and is thus moved downwards to compress the spring further. The rod 32 is temporarily held in raised position by a stop 70 on a lever 63. Expansion of the spring 34 then raises the rod 37 under the restraint of means such as a centrifugal governor 54 and oneway clutch 65 geared to a rack 56, which is connected to the rod by a lever 48 and latch link 46. The lever 23 is thus moved to raise the barrier plates 5 and, by contacting the lever 68, remove the stop 70 to allow the rod 32 to fall to its original position. A spring- loaded latch 76 then locks the link 46, and therefore the barrier plates. in the raised position and is held in this position until, after insertion of the appropriate coins in the meter, it can be released by the hande 79. When the latch link 46 is released, the plates 5 fall under gravity to the horizontal position and as the car wheels move over the ramp 1 in moving out of the parking position they first depress smaller plates 10 with stops 15 that underlie the plates 5 and prevent their full depression and a consequent undesired resetting operation. Meter.-As the lever 36 is moved up to raise the barrier plates, a rod 128 connected to it raises a push rod 117 and as the latch 76 engages the latch link 46, by moving out of a slot 145, Fig. 8, in a locking cylinder 85 under the pressure of a spring 80, the rod 117, through a resilient connection 120, rotates the cylinder to lock the latch 76. The rod 117 also raises an actuating member 98, Fig. 10, thus rotating a lever 96 and calibrated flag 91 counterclockwise so that a flange 131 on the flag pivots a lever 132 to start a clock mechanism connected to the shaft 87 of a pointer 88. As the flag rotates a lug 94 on the pointer moves through a gap 95 on a flange 93 and a tip projection 135 on the pointer engages a flange corner 136 to move the pointer slightly counterclockwise and withdraw a member 112 out of engagement with a lug on the member 98. A spring 105 then pivots the member 98 to withdraw it from engagement with a pin 101 on the flag lever 96 and the member 98 falls until a lug 108 engages the upper leg of an L-shaped stop 109. When the member 98 falls the flag 91, of which the counterclockwise movement is limited by a stop 138. returns clockwise until the flange 93 is supported by the lug 94 on the pointer and the latter. under control of the clock, moves counterclockwise over the scale on the flag until eventuallv the lug 94 moves beyond the end of the flange 93 and allows the flag to fall to its initial position. By inserting the appropriate number and denomination of coins at this stage, or any prior stage, a resetting device 89 having a pin 90 rotates step-by-step to return the pointer 88 to its initial position, when the member 112 disengages the member 98 from the upper leg of the stop 109 and allows it to fall to the lower leg. The member 98 then re-engages with the flag-resetting pin 101 and the load is removed from the resilient connection 120 on the rod 117 to allow the lock 85 to rotate under gravity or spring bias and permit the latch 76 to be disengaged from the link 46 by operation of the handle 79, thus restoring the barrier plates to the horizontal position.