Patent GB-629951-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in coin-controlled vehicle parking time meters
IPC: G07F17/24
Filed: 1946-08-16
Abstract: 629,951. Prepayment timing meter for vehicle parking. MARKMAN OF LONDON, Ltd., S. Aug. 16, 1946, No. 24416. Convention date, June 26, 1942. [Class 27] A prepayment time meter for regulating car parking comprises, in a single unit, two or more mechanisms for regulating two or more adjacent parking spaces independently, each mechanism having a separate coin slot and time indicator but all being driven from a single clock movement or other time-controlled drive. The twin time meter shown has two vertical side-by-side scales 26, 226 visible through windows 25, 225 and each with a shutter 27, 227 which, on insertion of a coin in the appropriate slot 24, 224, falls to expose the scale and is then slowly raised to cover it progressively by a clock movement 40 located between the two shutter mechanisms and serving both. When the time has expired and the shutter reaches its upper limit, the drive from the clock movement is interrupted, the clock movement running continuously. Provision is made for prepaying a short period by insertion of a smaller coin than that required for the full period. The main shaft 41 of the clock movement has a pinion 42, 242 at either end for driving the two shutter mechanisms which are substantially identical. Fig. 5 shows that for the shutter 27 of the right-hand indicator (Fig. 1), the shutter being in its normal raised position obscuring the scale 26 and held there by a toothed portion 127 of a pivoted U-lever 121. A link 77 connects the shutter to an actuating arm 79 rotatable with a partially toothed wheel 73 adapted to be driven through an idler 75 from the pinion 42 of the movement 40. In the normal position of Fig. 5, the teeth 72 of the wheel 73 are just clear of the idler so that the wheel remains stationary with a pin 71 on it at the lower end of one limb 66 of a time-control lever 48 pivotally mounted at 47. The smaller coin, upon insertion into the slot 24, passes down a chute 94 and moves aside an arm 100 on a rock shaft 98 so that a second arm 110 on the rock shaft moves with it and, by means of a cam slot, raises a pivoted supporting arm 86 for the idler 75 so lifting it out of gear with the clock pinion 42 and wheel 73. At the same time, the arm 110 also rocks the U-lever 121 to release the shutter 27 which consequently falls and rotates the wheel 73 (anticlockwise in Fig. 5) until both are arrested by engagement of the pin 71 in the wheel under a step 68 on the time-control lever 48. The shutter then exposes the short period only on the time scale 26. As the coin clears the arm 100 in the chute, idler 75 drops back into mesh to re-establish the drive between the clock movement and the wheel 73 and the shutter is slowly raised to cover the scale until finally the teeth on the wheel pass out of range of the idler and the shutter actuating arm 79 locks over the teeth 127 of the U- lever 121. With the larger coin the action is the same except that, as it passes down the chute, owing to its larger diameter, it thrusts aside a pin 50 on the time-control lever 48 which is consequently displaced whilst the wheel 73 is turning back so that the step 68 is cleared by the pin 71. The wheel 73 is consequently freed for a full movement sufficient for the shutter 27 to uncover the whole of the scale. U.S.A. Specification 2,394,554 is referred to as describing a similar-apparatus for controlling one parking space only. Returning coin.-Small coins inserted while the additional period, prepayable by the larger coin, is operative are diverted by a finger 62 through a slot 64 in the top part of the main chute 94 into a side chute 130 Fig. 4 which either returns them or passes them straight through to the till 36. Large coins cannot pass through the slot 64 and are always effective to set the indicator. The finger 62 is pivotally mounted and biassed by a spring to enter the chute. A cam 58 at the end of an arm 57 turning with the time-control lever 48 rocks the finger clear of the chute after the lever 48 has been displaced by insertion of a large coin and until the pin 71 passes under the step 68 determining the limit of the short period. Exhibiting coins.-After passing the arm 100, the inserted coin comes to rest on a stop 106 in which position it can be inspected through a window 28. The stop 106 is at the end of an arm 105 secured to the rock-shaft 98 and is therefore moved clear of the chute to release the coin to the till when the next coin is inserted.