Improvements in Tills.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Oct., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 24th July, 1893-Accepted, 26th Aug., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Tills.
1, JEHU CHRISTOPHER Cox, of 174, Queen Victoria Street, City, E.C.,
Victualler, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in money tills, and consists in providing a
locking device or check to stop the return of the sliding frame or other apparatus
used. Excepting when having travelled the full and proper distance to transfer
the payments from one division or compartment to another the signal bell will ring,
thus making the locking device independent of the signal bell and preventing the
possibility of ringing the bell by any sudden or short return.
For this purpose, I use a click or pawl pivotted or attached to the stationary
part of the lock, to act on a plate of metal having grooves similar to a ratchet,
and fitted to the before mentioned transferring apparatus. When this is moved,
the ratchet or grooved plate engages with the pawl, the grooves checking any
attempted return action, until the whole length of the ratchet has passed, when the.
pawl is left free to take the proper position to act on the return action being made.
The locking pawl is made much shorter than the striking arm in the bell action so
as to engage and lock in the grooved plate before the striking arm can have
travelled any distance of consequence.
The abutments or shoulders on the striking arm are to be made above the centre
line of the pivot on which it moves, allowing longer action to the striking arm and
crutch piece without the possibility of falling sideways.
Dated this 24th day of October 1892.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicant.
UUMI LELE SIMOIFICATION.
Improvements in Tills.
1, JEHU CHRISTOPHER Cox, of 174, Queen Victoria Street, in the City of
London, Victualler, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to improvements in money tills, and the object of it is to
prevent fraud in connection with indicating tills of that class in which the coin
paid by the customer is transferred, or passes, from the receptacle into which it is
dropped by the salesman, by, or in consequence of, the rectilinear or arcual
traverse of a slide which he ought to move from one of its terminal positions into
the other. It has been the practice to fix a gong in the till in such a way that its
trigger should be actuated each time that the slide was traversed, the intention of
the inaker of the till being that the completion of the traverse of the slide and the
sounding of the gong should take place simultaneously, and only simultaneously.
So long, therefore, as this intention was realised, the gong could not be sounded
unless the traverse of the slide had been completed, and a provision for the release
of the gong-trigger being effected only by such completion of the traverse of the
slide, was relied upon as a sufficient safe guard.
But experience has shewn, that a clever manipulator of the till mechanism
described above. could sound the gong, in spite of giving only a short traverse to

page_text: the slide, and pull the latter back again. This getting the slide back coupled with
sounding the gong gave the manipulator an opportunity of keeping the customer's
money without being betrayed by the till.
The object of the present invention is to make it impossible to traverse the slide,
even for the minimum distance necessary to sound the gong, without it becoming
engaged and locked by an automatic detent, which latter cannot disengage itself
from the slide before the latter occupies the terminal position towards which it was
being moved at the moment when the detent engaged it.
In order that my invention and the means by which it is to be carried into
practical effect, may be thoroughly understood, I will now describe it and them in
detail, referring in so doing to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken
as part of the Specification and read therewith.
I have chosen for illustrating the nature and scope of my invention, as well as
the mechanical details of it, the particular form which it takes when applied to
the till described in the Specification of a former Patent granted to me for
improvements in tills, No. 2986, June 15th 1883.
Fig. 1 is a sectional side elevation shewing the respective positions of the parts
of the invention when it is out of action.
Fig. 2 is a rear elevation illustrating the present invention and shewing the
several parts of the mechanism in the positions which they respectively occupy
when the slide has been traversed to the right far enough to be engaged and locked
by the automatic detent.
Fig. 3 is likewise a rear elevation. It shews the several parts of the mechanism
in the positions which they respectively occupy when the slide, still being traversed
to the right, has nearly cleared both the gong trigger and the automatic detent.
Fig. 4 is an inverted plan of the combined finger and locking or ratchet plate
upon the slide.
A is a portion of the slidė. Its traverse is rectilinear and, in direction, from
left to right or the reverse. B is the base plate upon and to which is fixed the
gong, the hammer, the trigger and the detent. This plate is stationary with
respect to the slide A. This relative immobility is indicated in the figures by the
presence of the screw holes through which the plate is screwed to the frame of
the till. C is the gong. It is carried by an arm c which springs from the plate B
c is the hammer, and 2, the hammer lever or striking arm.
The latter has its fulcrum in the screw e³. is the spring by which the hammier
is driven against the gong. This spring is shewn as of the V type. It is held by
a screw which enters the plate B, and works between a fixed base c and the
lever c². c is a stop to limit the motion of the striking arm away from the edge
of the 'gong.
for that purpose.
d.is a lever adapted to act as the gong trigger. Instead of being, as heretofore;
one arm of a bell crank lever of which the striking arm is the other, it is an
independent lever, the connection between it and the striking arm being by means
of a crutch piece. The trigger nose is bevelled equally on each side in order
that it can be engaged with equal effect and smoothness by the finger of the locking
plate as the latter is moved up to and over it from either side. It stands normally
in the path of the said finger which is described further on. This latter does not
per se form any part of the present invention. The lever d has its fulcrum on a
screw pin d². ³, ³ are a pair of abutments. They are lateral extensions of the
lever, counterparts of each other, and are symmetrically arranged with reference to
the fulcrum of the lever. is the shorter arm of the lever. It is symmetrically
heartshaped in order that its sides may both in turn engage smoothly with the
respectively adjacent arms e, e of the crutch piece e', and in so doing serve as a
guide for the travel thereof. The arms are therefore parallel and separated by a
distance equal to tlie maximum width of the arm so that they are always in
contact with the gong trigger. The extremities of the crutch arms e, e are both
convex and the contacting faces of the abutments d³, concave to the same radius, so

page_text: that the former roll smoothly upon the latter, respectively. It is of importance
that the respective positions of the abutments 3 and the fulcrum d' of the trigger
are such that the latter shall always be beneath, or on the striking arm side of, a
right line drawn from one abutment to the other. This relative position is of some
importance, inasmuch as it permits of the striking arm having a longer stroke.
The opposite end of the crutch piece is pivotted by a screw pin e² to the short arm
of the striking arm on the side of the fulcrum e opposite to the hammer c¹.
f is a finger which is fixed to the slide from which it projects at a proper level
and distance to engage the trigger d, as heretofore, during each motion of the
slide.
The novelty in the mechanism above described is confined to the connection
between the trigger and the striking arm, but the principal feature of the present.
invention is the combination of the locking pawl and plate.
is the automatic detent or locking pawl. I prefer that it should work in a
plane parallel with and side by side with the trigger. For that reason it is pivotted
on or to the plate B by a screw pin g' and works between the trigger and the plate.
This relative position is not an essential feature of the invention but it is convenient
as a position. The radius of the pawl is less than that of the trigger in order that
its nose shall the more quickly engage in the next of the notches g² ²²²² are
four V shaped notches. They are uniform in size, each one being capable of
receiving and holding the nose of the pawl g. There is provided for their pro-
duction a metal plate g³ in which they are aligned (because the motion of the slide
is rectilinear) and at equal distances. They are included within a distance equal
to the traverse of the slide, and present themselves on both sides of the finger f
The plate g³ is fixed to the slide in a proper position for the surface in which the
notches are formed to depress, and the recesses to be carried over, the nose of the
pawl each time that the slide is moved from one of its terminal positions to
the other of them.
'
The pawl g is tapered equally on both sides to provide for its working with the
notches 2 and the surface in which they are formed during both of the motions
which the latter share with the slide. g, g' are a pair of stops symmetrically
arranged on the plate B, right and left of the pivot g'. They serve to limit the
depression of the pawl in either direction. 9, are a pair of returning springs.
They bear equally on opposite sides of the pawl and consequently suffice to make
the pawl enter the notches and also to raise it, after every depression, into a
position intermediate between the two stops.
I have shewn the trigger and pawl working side by side and both projecting
above the plate B to the same height. The plate g³ and the finger fare therefore
necessarily in one and the same plane, and the finger and the line of notches as
much side by side as the trigger and pawl. For that reason I have shewn the
plate g³ and finger in one piece which is held to the slide in a plane at right
angles with those in which the trigger and pawl work, and at a proper height for
just clearing the edge of the plate B.
My invention acts and accomplishes its purpose as follows:-
During the traverse of the slide-say, referring to Figures 2 and 3, from left to
right, the first engagement between it and the mechanism attached to the plate B
is that of the pawl g by the right hand edge of the plate g³; the second is that of
the trigger d by the right hand edge of the finger f, and the third, the forced
entrance of the pawl g into the right hand notch g². It must be noted that my
invention requires that the entrance of the pawl g into the first notch g" shall be so
timed with reference to the engagement of the trigger d by the finger f, that the
lift of the hammer c¹ from the gong C shall not be enough to lead up to its striking,
no matter how smartly the slide may be pulled back, before such entrance shall
have been effected by the respective spring 9. Further, the trigger d is, and is
required to be, released by the finger passing it before the plate g³ has passed the
pawl g.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what. I
claim is :-
:-
1. The combination of gong, gong trigger, slide carrying a finger adapted to
actuate the gong trigger, a pawl pivotted on a fixed portion of the till frame over
which the slide is traversed and series of notches carried by the slide, the former
adapted to enter the latter seriatim, and the latter disposed with reference to the
relationship between the said gong trigger and the finger, that the pawl shall be
forced into one of the notches and the slide thereby locked against its being
traversed back before its traverse forward shall have been completed.
2. The combination of a gong trigger pivotted upon a fixed portion of the till
frame, a pawl pivotted upon a fixed portion of the till frame, a finger fast upon a
traversing slide adapted to actuate the said trigger and a notch adapted to receive
the nose of the pawl thereby locking the slide against a premature return traverse.
3. The combination of lever adapted to act as a gong trigger, a crutch piece and
striking arm, as and for the several purposes set forth and illustrated.
Dated this with 1 TL 1000
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.