Patent GB-190218403-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Mechanical Cashiers.
Inventor: MILLS BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD
Filed: 1902-08-21
Granted: 1903-08-20
Abstract: 18,403. Mills, B. J. B., [Fairchild, C.]. Aug. 21. Receipts, checking and recording; counting- apparatus. -A stock of money of a decimal currency is initially contained in pockets 4, for single pieces or notes, on the peripheries of rotary receptacles 6 for different denominations. After a coin or note tendered in payment has been inserted into its proper receptacle through an aperture in the casing 8, the receptacle is turned to bring the next empty pocket to the aperture and then (the receptacle having central springs) by the selective operation of escapements 22 a combination of receptacles is allowed to turn in the opposite direction in order to bring the required change to the aperture through which it drops into a trough 5. The mechanism for selecting and operating the escapements includes, on a shaft 48 with a wing 61, a set of levers 47 bearing slides 50, and on a shaft 44 a nest of perforated drum-segments which having independent angular movements offer different combinations of holes in line to needles 49 on the levers. The outer or " deposit" segment 38 has a raised part in which is a slot for each receptacle, the lengths of the slots corresponding to denominations of coins, and dogs 80 normally kept off by spring plates 33 are provided to drop into the slots ; the sbaft carrying the dogs has a web like the shaft through the selective levers. Link plates 30 are hooked to the spring plates and engaged at shoulders 35 by slots in the escapements. Each of the inner or " purchase " segments corresponds to a row of decimal push-keys 65, and has a tongue 74 in the plane of its row. Being urged to rotate by springs, all the sectors are normally prevented from so doing by spring stops 71, which the keys are prevented from striking away because they are supported by a bail 108 subject to a spring on its shaft. The bail is shown disengaged. A main operating shaft 54 with crank handle is normally locked by one arm of a bell-crank lever 113, Fig. 15, the other arm of which ends under a wiper 111 on the spring stop for the units purchase segment. The angular movement of a receptacle by hand operates the corresponding escapement 22, link plate 30, and spring plate 33, allowing the corresponding dog 80 to fall into the path of the deposit segment 38, and disengaging the locking bail 108 from the spring stops 71. The amount of the purchase being then set up on the keys and the spring stops 71 being so disengaged, the purchase segments turn till they encounter the struck keys, and the deposit segment being released last by the units key turns to the fallen dog. If several receptacles have been used to take the payment, the dog for the receptacle of lowest denomination is the one which determines the position of the deposit segment. Operation of the units key also, through wiper 111 and lever 113, unlocks the operating shaft 54. The operator now, by using a crank handle, turns the main shaft 54 through the angle between the lines 55<a> and 55c. The effect of the movement to the position 55<b> is, through a lug 75 on a disc 56, to depress the wing 61 on the shaft of the selector levers, allowing them to fall, so that each of the needles 49 which finds a hole through all the segments, will pass to the position shown in dotted lines, the corresponding lever assuming then the position with the lower end of the slide 50 in the path of a bail or frame 57 on the segment shaft. Simultaneously a wing 93 with slits on the main shaft lifts the deposit links 30 out of engaging relation with the escapements 22. The disc being connected to the bail by a slotted link 58 the further movement of the operating handle results in lifting the bail 57 and raising those selector slides 50 which have been brought into cooperative relation therewith, from the position indicated at 50<b> to the position 50<c>. The upper ends of such selector slides strike the corresponding escapements and rock them from position 22<b> to position 22<c>, thereby freeing the corresponding cash receptacles, which turn back under the influence of their central springs from position 6<b> to position indicated in dotted lines 6<c>. The operator then pulls the handle forward again, allowing the bail 57 to fall away from the operated selector slides, whereupon the latter following the escapements recover their normal position, allowing the operated receptacles to move a further distance to complete one full backward step. The backward movement of a receptacle brings one charged pocket of such receptacle opposite the opening 4 and the money in such pocket thereupon falls into the trough 5. By means of the one-way mechanism shown in Fig. 14, in the return movement of the handle a bail 98 re-sets the segments, allowing the purchase keys to return to normal position, and by the action of a latch 90 on the disc the dogs 80 are raised and reengaged with the spring plates 33, which return the link plates 30 to engagement with the escapements and so allow the bail 108 behind them to re-lock the spring stops 71. With the return of the units key the locking bail 108 is again applied to the spring stops 71. Some of the one-dollar selector levers have tails hooked towards a shaft 115, Figs. 20 and 21, under the escapements, which bears two sets of pallets 129 for obstructing one or the other half of the tails and so rendering the corresponding levers inoperative. The five-dollar escapement drives the shaft through ratchet gear so as to reverse the condition of each half of the levers for each five-dollar piece paid. When an odd number of pieces is paid at one transaction, the condition is finally restored by a finger on the main shaft driving through the ratchet pinion 117. A similar alternating arrangement is provided in connection with the 5-cent. selector levers and the 25-cent. escapements. At one end of the machine the purchase segments are geared to adding wheels. At the other end of the machine the purchase segments are combined with typebearing sectors 154, Fig. 22, for printing the amounts on a paper strip which runs from a supply roll 160 to a winding shaft 175, an endless inking band 155 intervening. The lever frame 166 bearing the spring platen 168 is operated by the foot of the link 58 from the disc on the main shaft, and the ratchet lever 174 for driving the winding shaft is prolonged by a rod 179 bearing a slide 178, which is pinned in a slot 172 in the lever frame and is pressed against the roll of paper by a spring. Thus the feed is automatically adjusted to the thickness of the roll. The segments are geared to the adding wheels through driving ratchet-wheels, similar gear being also provided in the carrying-mechanism.