Improvements in Apparatus for Administering Electric Currents.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Dec., 1886
Complete Left, 1st Sept., 1887
Complete Accepted, 1st Dec., 1887
DEEEDI
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Administering Electric Currents.
1 JAMES ROOTS Crofton Orpington Kent Engineer do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
This invention consists of improvements on my previous application dated
Aug. 31/86 & numbered 11060.
A beam is attached to a spindle mounted on bearings, having two handles one at
each end of the beam projecting through curved slots in the front of the box or case,
permitting the raising or lowering of the handles at the will of the individual to
whom the current is to be administered.
A lever fixed to the spindle is attached to the brass tube which encircles the core
of the induction coil, thus regulating the strength of shock. On the same spindle is
a quadrant gearing into a pinion actuating the indicator on the dial face. On one
side of the case is a shoot made of wood or other insulating material with an opening
at the front to receive the coin. At the lower end of the slide or shoot are two
springs so placed as to hold a penny between them, the thinner one of the two having
another spring fixed about inch from it.
The weight of the penny falling between the two springs causes the weaker of the
two to give way the inch bringing it into contact with the spring at its side, so
completing the circuit with the cell or battery through the operator, when he has
moved the handles. On the front of the shoot is attached a trigger acted upon by a
stud in the beam, and is so arranged that it liberates the penny by moving the spring
& breaking contact when the index is completed or the handles are released. If a
penny be dropped in the shoot and the handles are not moved, the penny falls upon a
spring above the contact spring and the machine is not actuated.
When the handles
are moved this spring is liberated by a stud on the beam and returns to its position
when the handles are at rest. The bandles are connected with the secondary coil.
A spiral spring is attached to the beam to return it to its normal position.
Dind this 20th day of November 1886

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Administering Electric Currents.
'
I JAMES ROOTS of 1 Wolseley Gardens, Gunnersbury, Middlesex Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
This invention relates to a novel construction of apparatus for administering an
electric current to a person operating handles of a beam after the insertion of a coin
into a slit, which coin lodges upon a temporary plate, and, as the handles are moved,
the plate springs clear for the coin to drop between two spring plates, one of which is
thin and gives to the weight of the coin, so as to put it into contact with a rigid
plate, making electrical contact and completing the circuit.
The beam axle also carries a quadrant which through the intermediation of a pinion
causes an index hand to travel over the face of a dial and thus indicate the strength
of the current administered.
The coin is held between or upon plates while one end of the beam is being forced
downwards but so soon as the person returns the beam to its first position, or the
beam returns under the action of a weight on its opposite end, a stud on the
depressing end comes into contact with a trigger the other end of which forces one of
the plates away and allows the coin to drop into a till or receptacle, the contact being
then broken by the thin spring assuming its normal position.
The invention is illustrated in the annexed drawings at Figure 1 a view from the
back, and Figure 2 a transverse section of the apparatus in which the foregoing
operations take place.
A is the rocking beam, the axle B of which is carried by bearings within the
casing D.
E. E are the handles of the beam projecting through slots F, F, to the outside of
the machine to enable a person to grip and operate them and G is a weight by which
the beam is returned to its normal position after being acted upon.
His the slit or hopper into which the coin is inserted, shown in section Figure 3,
and I is a spring plate which, when the beam is in the position indicated at Figure 1,
is held within the slit and temporarily arrests the descent of the coin, but so soon as
the handles E, E, are moved, a stud J on the end of the beam releases its hold of the
spring plate I so that the coin is free to drop a greater distance.
Simultaneously with the movement of the pin another stud K frees a trigger L
which allows the spring plate M to move inwards and form a side wall against which
the coin will lodge, the opposite end of the coin pressing against a very thin spring
plate N which the weight of the coin, forces into contact with the thicker spring
plate P to make electrical connection through the conducting wires Q. R.
The beam spindle B carries a lever S which operates the tube of the core of the
induction coil T for regulating the strength of electric shock administered to the
person in proportion to the distance to which a person moves the handles E, E.

page_text: U is a quadrant on the spindle B gearing into a pinion V for actuating an index
finger over the face of a dial plate which indicates the strength of the current
according to its figuring.
When the unweighted end of the beam is raised by the weight G or by the hand
of the operator the stud K. strikes against the upper end of the trigger L and another
stud Won its lower end presses against the plate M pushing it sideways sufficiently
far to release the coin, the thin spring N then returns to its normal position out of
contact with the plate P, as shown at Figure 1, the coin is also released when the
unweighted end of the beam has reached its lowest position by the stud K striking
against the lower end of the trigger the stud W then forcing away the support of the
spring plate P allowing the coin to drop.
In a modification the spring and plate N & P are arranged horizontally as at
Figure 4, in which case the beam is arranged as described in my patent 11060,
August 31st 1886, the stud W acts only on the spring plate P which on being
depressed by the stud permits the coin to drop out at the side of the shoot or hopper.
A stud fixed to the beam actuates the trigger on the handles returning to their
normal positions. The plate I is moved to allow the coin to drop by a smaller stud
on the beam coming in contact with the bell crank lever I when the handles are first
moved.
I have shown a weight G affixed to the beam A but a spiral spring can be attached
to return the beam to its normal position.
The curved slots are closed during the movement of the handles by plates which
move with them.
A locking device may be arranged in connection with my beam for its release on
the insertion of a coin, but according to the apparatus shown on the drawings the
handles are free to be moved up and down without a coin being inserted into the slit,
no current being given, this being effected only through a coin pressing the thin
plate N into contact with the plate P, which two plates alone make contact and
completes circuit after the handles have been moved a short distance.
XX are pins at the lower part of the slit H for keeping the coin in an upright
position.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what 1.
claim is
1. The arrangement of appliances shown in the annexed drawings by which an
electric current can be administered to a person moving the handles and beam, after
the insertion of a coin, and when said coin by its weight has put the two plates N. P
into contact for completing circuit, as described.
2. In an apparatus for administoring electric currents, the employment of a
plate P and a plate N, put into electrical contact by the weight of a coin, as herein-
before described, and substantially as shown at Figures 1 and 4 of the annexed
drawings.