AN IMPROVED WEIGHING MACHINE
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WILLIAM
COTTON, of Laytonstone, in the County of Essex, Esquire, sends greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Thirteenth day of June, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Cotton,
Her especial licence, that I, the said William Cotton, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Cotton, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and also within all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED WEIGHING MACHINE;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Cotton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Cotton, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascer-
tained as follows, that is to say :-

page_text: My improvements claimed under this Patent have reference principally to
machines for weighing coin and blanks for coin, and consist in the employ-
ment of machinery for the purpose of supplying the balance from a hopper or
receptacle with one coin or blank at a time, and for moving it again from the
balance, separating the light from the heavy. One arrangement of machinery
for effecting the above purposes is shewn in the accompanying Drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine; Fig. 2 a plan turned upside
down; Fig. 3 is a diagram illustrative of the slide and catch which moves
the coin; Fig. 4 a view of the exterior of the machine when complete; and
Fig 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14, are portions selected for the better
illustration of its action; in describing which I would observe, that similar
letters of reference are used to denote the same part in each Figure. a is the
hopper or receptacle for the coin intended to be weighed; b is a slide with a
spring catch c for removing the lowest piece of coin from the hopper, and
placing it upon the scale or platform d. The slide 6 is acted upon by a crank
e, upon the end of the shaft f, and by the epicycloidal wheel g, through con-
necting rod h. i is the beam supported by its knife edge in bracket j; k is
the weight; 1, the shaft to which power is applied, and from which, by wheels
m, n, o, motion is communicated to shafts f, p; q is a gripper which steadies
the scale while one coin is being replaced by another, and is acted upon by
spring, giving motion to slide r¹ in shutting, and cams through levert in
opening, which lever rests on pivots at u in bracket v. The gripper q also
rests on pivots at w in bracket v, so that it is at liberty to
d, by the action of the finger piece a. The toe piece y, which is the point of
the lever t, having its action in a line with the axes of the pivots w, it offers
no resistance to the descent of the gripper q; and the gripper, when opened
by cam s, ascends to its original position by the action of its counterpoise z.
The finger piece a rests on pivots at a', with its point through an opening in
the pendant part of the scale at 6', but without touching, except on its descent,
which it performs by the action of the cam c¹ upon shaft p at the time that
a coin is being put on the scale, so that the lower end of the pendant d' rests
on the guide e¹, in which position the beam is horizontal.
After the gripper g
is opened, the finger piece rises by the action of the cam c', to allow the
beam to determine whether the coin is heavy or light; if heavy, it will
remain down, and if light it will rise. About one tenth of an inch is the
utmost vibration allowed or required. is a sliding hammer for knocking
off the heavy coin, and g¹ a similar hammer for displacing the light. They
are placed at right angles to each other, so that the heavy and the light coin
may be impelled into separate inclines h¹ and , shewn by the dotted lines.
descend with scale.

page_text: The hammer f, which displaces the heavy coin, is brought forward by cam k¹,
upon the shaft p, by it action upon the roller q'; and while the hammer f is in
the act of returning by the action of its spring, the hammer g¹ is brought for-
ward by cam l', by a similar movement, to displace the light coin; and as the
hammer f' strikes low and the hammer g¹ high, if the coin is light the first
will strike under and the second will send it into the light box. The scale d
is notched out opposite each hammer that they may act freely without touch-
ing it, so that every revolution of the shafts f and p, with their various cams,
&c., performs all the operations necessary to the weighing of one coin or
blank, and depositing it into its proper receptacle. m³ is a steel plate on
which the machinery is fixed; n¹ is part of an iron table on which the whole
is secured and made level when in action. The work is surrounded by a
brass shade, as in Fig. 4, which represents the whole machine on a smaller
scale, shewing the tills o' where the coins or blanks are deposited.
Having now described one arrangement of machinery whereby my Inven-
tion is brought into practical effect, it only remains for me to add, that I do
not intend to confine myself to any precise form or construction of the
machinery or apparatus employed, as it must be evident that it is capable,
not only of different arrangements of the parts, but also of much mechanical
variation. But I do claim as my Invention the employment of machinery or
mechanical means for the purpose of supplying the balance from a hopper or
receptacle with one coin or blank at a time, and for removing it again from the
balance, separating the light from the heavy.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cotton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Eleventh day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thond