Patent GB-190215438-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Vending Machines.
Inventor: SHAW EDWARD
Filed: 1902-07-10
Granted: 1903-10-10
Abstract: 15,438. Shaw, E. July 10. Sale apparatus.-Relates to apparatus of the kind described in Specifications No. 18,748, A.D. 1898, Nos. 10,375 and 25,479, A.D. 1901. On the insertion of a halfpenny or farthing, the goods are fed into a scale-pan, weighed, and delivered on to a sheet of paper, which drops through a flared shoot to the exterior of the apparatus. Coin action ; actuating - mechanism; delivery mechanism.-A coin inserted through one of two slits 262 in a casing, secured to the outside of the apparatus, displaces a bar 272, and so moves a bar 266 longitudinally against the action of a spring, thus disengaging a catch and freeing a coin receiver 260, which is then moved to the right through its connection with a pivoted lever 297 acted on by a cord 304 and weight 306. The catch 266 is held disengaged by a weighted pawl 274. The part 277 of the coin receiver is connected by pins 279 and slots with the part 260, and has tongues 276 working in grooves 264 in the part 260. A cam acting on the bar 266 releases the coin, which drops in the slot 264, and acts as a key between the two parts of the coin receiver. The receiver is returned to the left by a cam 301 nn the handle shaft 300 acting on the lever 297. The coin now drops into a slot 286 on to a weighing-platform 288, and down one of two shoots 292 into a coin pocket 294 in the lever 297, and forms a connection by which the lever 297, when operated by the cam 301, acts on one arm 320 of a threearmed lever 337, 322, 320 fast on a shaft 319 or on a lever 342 connected to the shaft 319 by a pin and short slot in its boss. The arm 322 trips the pawl 274 and releases the catch 266, when the coin receiver returns to its normal position. On the shaft 319 is a lever 366, which engages a detent arrangement 150 and holds the shaft 319 at rest till the completion of the weighing operation, when a rod 153 connected to the scale beam 11 trips the detent, and the weight 338 then brings back the shaft 319. An arm on the shaft 319, through links and levers, moves a clutch on the supply-drum operating-shaft, which is geared to the handle shaft 300, and so puts the drum into action. The lever 342 is connected by a link to a bell-crank lever 345, by means of which the weight 347 is lowered on to the scale beam 11. The scalepan 357 normally hangs upside down, but is reversed when the lever 297 is moved to the right, by means of a cord 316 and pulley 364. When the shaft 319 is turned, it acts through levers 387, 386, 384 on a pawl, and by means of a ratchetwheel partially rotates the upper paper feed-roll 368, which is geared to the lower one 369. This partial rotation brings a pawl out of a blank space into gear with the teeth on a ratchet-wheel on the lower roller, and consequently the pawl, which is driven by a crank-pin 378 on the shaft 300 and lever 375, drives the lower roller, and feeds the requisite amount of paper forwards on to the delivery shoot until the pawl again reaches the blank space. A pivoted blade 373, reciprocated at the required time by connections which are moved into and out of the track of the lever 375, now cuts off the paper. In the meantime, the weighing operation is completed ; the detent now releases the lever 366, and the parts all come to the normal position, the scale-pan tipping the goods on to the paper, which drops to the outside of the machine. Instead of the arm 322 disengaging the pawl 274 and releasing the catch 266, this may be effected by pins on a ratchet-wheel carried by the coin receiver ; this ratchet-wheel is rotated by a fixed pawl, and its pins disengage the catch 266, when the coin receiver comes to its normal position the first or second time. Fraud, preventing ; returning coin.-If a soft disc is inserted into the receiver instead of a coin, a knife-edge 282 causes the receiver to jam, and to return the coin to an exterior shoot 285, when it returns to its normal position. Similarly, if the coin is too light to tilt the weighing-platform 288, it is returned to the outside of the apparatus. Coin tipping or discharging mechanism.-On leaving the pockets in the lever 297, the coins drop into a shoot 67, and are conveyed into a coin chain 64 and displayed through a window in the casing. The coin chain is fed on step by step by a ratchet-wheel and pawl 62 operated by the weighted arm 337. Coin-slit closing-devices.-The plate 336 is connected to the coin receiver by a pin and slot, and is acted on by a spring 335. When the receiver returns to its normal position, the plate 336 is held by the end 331 of the lever 322 until the completion of the weighing operation, when it is released and caused by the spring to return.