Patent GB-190822991-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Coin-handling Machines.
Inventor: MURRAY REGINALD ARTHUR
Filed: 1908-10-29
Granted: 1909-07-29
Abstract: 22,991. Murray, R. A. Oct. 29. Money-delivering apparatus; coins, separating; coins, handling.-For feeding coins and the like to weighing, counting, sorting, or other coin-handling machines, the coins are placed in a rotating hopper having a movable bottom adapted to discharge them on to a flange, from which they are delivered into a storing-tube provided with a reciprocating pusher for ejecting the coins one by one, a governor mechanism being fitted to control the discharge action of the movable bottom. The hopper 1 is mounted in ball bearings 2 in the frame 3, and at the top has a conical flange 5 around the outside of which, leaving a small clearance, is a guard 6 ; a chamber 7 is fitted beneath the clearance space to collect dirt. A part of the guard 6 is cut away to form a gap 8 leading to a doubly inclined shoot 9 fixed to the top of a tube 10 into which the coins fall. An inner guard 19 rests on the guard 6 and is connected to a cover 20 forming an extension of the hopper 1, the cover having an opening in one side to allow the coins raised on the bottom 30 to pass on to the flange and through an aperture in the guard 19, which at the gap 8 is continued tangentially across the space between the guards 6, 19 to guide coins to the shoot. The coins are carried around by ridges 24 and stripped by rakes 25. The pusher 11 which ejects the coins from the tube 10 is actuated from a collapsible connecting-rod 12 made up of two pieces 12<a>, 12<b>, slidably connected by pins and slots and normally extended by a spring 15, thus allowing for the jamming of a coin. The connecting-rod is driven from a pin 13 on a disk on the main shaft 14 and is connected to a guide 18 which carries the pusher 11, through an arm 16 fixed to a rock shaft 17. The hopper 1 is driven from a side shaft 26, geared to the shaft 14, by a two-to-one gear 27, 28 while the bottom 30 is mounted on a shaft 31 which passes through the hopper and the gear 27 and is screwed at its lower end, the bottom 30 being prevented from rotating in the hopper by a feather 32. A tapped sleeve 34 mounted on ball-bearings 33 engages the screwed rod 3 and has a gearwheel 35 engaging a gear-wheel 36 loose on the shaft 26, which gear-wheel carries on its plate two bevel pinions 37 gearing with fixed and loose bevelwheels 39, 40 mounted on the shaft 26 thus forming a differential gear. Attached to the sleeve 40<a> of the wheel 40 is a ratchet 41, Fig. 4, normally held by a pawl 42 but adapted to be rotated by a pawl 44 attached to a lever 43 pivoted on the sleeve 40<a> and attached by a link 45 to an adjustably pivoted bar 46 which is adjustably attached by a block 46<a>, to the rod 48. By altering the position of the pivot 47 a variable movement can be given to the ratchet 41 for a constant movement of the link 48, which link is connected, through a bell-crank lever 57 pivoted at 58 to a sleeve 59 on the rod 54, to a lug 55 on the rod 54, which is reciprocated with the rod 12 by a lever 16<a> on the rock shaft 17. The movement of the rod 54 compresses a spring 60 and moves the rod 48 when the sleeve 59 is held. A cam-plate 49, loose on the sleeve 40<a>, is adapted to be rotated by a rack 50 which meshes with a geared arc 51 on the cam, a spring 53 normally tending to rotate the cam counter-clockwise but being prevented from doing so by a rod 65 mounted on the arm 64 of a rock shaft 63 which enters a slot 50<a> in the rack. The pawls 42, 44 are of sufficient depth to engage both the ratchet 41 and the cam 49. When no motion is imparted to the cam the differential gear revolves the sleeve 34 at the same rate as the screwed rod 31 so that the bottom 30 does not rise. But if the lower wheel 40 is given an increased movement by means of the pawl 44 and the lever 43, the tapped sleeve 34 causes the bottom to rise to force coins on to the flange and so to the shoot 9 and the tube 10. The movement of the rod 48 is governed to control the rise of the bottom 30 and the consequent feed of the coins by a lever 76 having a pin 75 which may project through a hole near the top of the tube 10. This lever is mounted on a shaft 77 and the pin is normally projected into the hole by a spring 77<a>, but is retracted at each reciprocation of the rod 54 by a pin 78 thereon engaging an arm 79 on the shaft 77. When the lever 76 makes a full movement and the pin projects into the hole, an arm 80 moves into the path of a lug 81 on the sleeve 59 which normally reciprocates with the rod 54. The sleeve is thus retarded and the relative movement between the sleeve 59 and the rod 54 is communicated through the bell-crank lever 57 to the link 48. But when the coins reach a sufficient height in the tube 10 to prevent the entrance of the pin 75 the full movement of the arm 80 is prevented and the sleeve 59 is not retarded. Consequently the link 48 and the ratchet 41 are not actuated and the bottom 30 no longer rises to feed the coins. To return the bottom 30 when it reaches its highest position, a disk 61 is provided on the end of the rod 31 which disk at its highest point contacts with an arm 62 attached to the rock shaft 63 thereby drawing down the bar 65 attached to the arm 64 to cause a slot therein to register with the rack 50, which is then drawn back by the spring 53 and the cam 49 is turned. The rotation of the cam brings the recessed part round to the nose of a spring- controlled pawl 66 fixed to a pin 67, and the inward movement of the pawl throws an upper pawl 68, also fixed to the pin 67, into engagement with the gear-wheel 35 thus locking the tapped sleeve from movement, while at the same time the cam projections throw the pawls 42, 44 out of engagement to allow the ratchet to turn and the bottom 30 to be drawn down. When the rod 31 reaches the bottom it depresses a lug 69 against the action of a spring 70, drawing down the rod 71 and causing a cam-slot 72 thereon to engage with a tail on the pawl 66, rotating the pawl with its pin and freeing the wheel 35. To raise the bottom 30 quickly, the lower bavel 40 is locked to the shaft 26 by a clutch block 73 feathered on the shaft, which block is raised by a forked pivoted lever 81 engaging an annular groove 82, the lever being operated by a rod to raise the clutch block into engagement with a clutch face 74 fixed to the sleeve 40<a>.