Patent GB-829976-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to pre-payment devices adapted to limit the duration of operation of a clockwork movement
IPC: G07F17/00
Filed: 1958-01-31
Abstract: 829,976. Coin - freed savings clocks. ETABLISSEMENT AMORA. Jan. 31, 1958 [Feb. 5, 1957], No. 3284/58. Class 27 A pre-payment device for limiting the duration of running of a clockwork movement comprises a coin slot 17, a passage 15 for guiding coins to a receptacle, a lever 13 which is located in the path of the coin so that it is displaced by each inserted coin and thereby causing movement of a device in response to the number of coins inserted, the latter device having means for locking the clockwork re-winding mechanism to limit the re-winding in accordance with the number of coins inserted. The winding spindle 1 of a clockwork movement (not shown) has mounted to rotate therewith a pinion 2 which drives a gear wheel 3 drivingly attached to a spindle 4 carried between two side plates 5, 6. Freely rotatable on the spindle 4 and adjacent to the wheel 3 is mounted a wheel 7 having a stop 9, Fig. 1, on the inner face which engages a stop 8 on the adjacent face of the gear wheel 3. A spiral spring 10, secured at its inner end to the spindle 4 and at its outer end to a pin 12 on the wheel 7, is arranged to bias the wheel in a clockwise direction and thus to tend to move the stop 9 away from the stop 8 on the gear wheel, but rotation of the wheel 7 is prevented by the lever 13 pivoted at 14, the lower end of which projects into the coin passage 15. The upper end of the lever 13 has a shaped projection 18 to engage with screw heads or bosses 19 equally spaced on the outer face of the wheel 7 which also carries a number of projecting nipples 20 equal to the number of screw heads 19; an arcuate groove 21 allows the passage of the nipples past the end 18 of the lever 13 when in the position shown in Fig. 1. The winding spindle 1 and pinion 2 are turned anti-clockwise for re-winding, but re-winding is prevented whilst the gear wheel 3 is held against clockwise rotation by stops 8 and 9, the wheel 7 being locked by the head 18 of the lever 13. When a coin descends the shoot 15, it moves the lower end of the lever 13 against the action of a spring 22 and so releases the wheel 7 which turns clockwise under the influence of the spring 10, until a nipple 20 abuts the head 18 of the lever which, after the passage of the coin, returns to its former position, the nipple 20 then passing through the groove 21 and allowing the wheel to turn clockwise until the next screw head 19 abuts the portion 18 of the lever 13. Thus the tripping of the lever 13 by a coin permits one eighth of a revolution of the wheel 7 and the stop moves away from the stop 8 on wheel 3 by a corresponding amount. The spindle 1 may then be turned to bring the two stops into contact again, the amount of winding possible being thus proportional to the number of coins inserted. The wheel 7 can effect a maximum rotation of over seven-eighths of a revolution under the action of the spring 10 if seven coins are inserted in the device successively; the stop 9 will then have travelled from above the stop 8 on the gear wheel 3 to a point at which it is nearly in contact with it again from below. If an eighth coin is then inserted, the wheel 7 turns clockwise under the action of the spring 10 as the coin operates the lever, but a full eighth of a revolution cannot be completed before the stop 9 meets the stop 8. A nipple 20 will by then have entered the groove 21 as the wheel 7 will have moved to an intermediate point between two screw-heads 19. By the engagement of the nipple 20 in the groove 21 the lever 13 is locked and when further coins are inserted they accumulate in the shoot 15 above the lever until re-winding of the clockwork movement by the spindle 1 is again effected, when the rotation of the gear wheel 3 permits a corresponding further movement of the wheel 7, thereby allowing the release of the lever 13 and the passage of the accumulated coins proportional to the amount of re-winding. Some of the screws 19 may be removed to increase the re-winding value for a definite amount of money inserted.