Improvements in Registering Tills.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 26th June, 1891
Complete Specification Left, 21st Mar., 1892-Accepted, 25th June, 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Registering Tills.
We, THOMAS WALTER WOODHOUSE C.E., and ALFRED STEER, Commercial
Traveller, both of No. 35, Red Lion Square, in the County of London, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to improvements in registering tills.
In carrying our invention into effect, we provide a suitable till, or drawer, to
hold change and to receive the customer's cash.
Upon the cashier's desk, the counter, or in any other equivalent and convenient
position, there stands a column which may be used to support the case which
contains the registering mechanism, or at any rate some of it.
The till is fitted in the desk above mentioned, or in or to its equivalent.
Between the till and the case there is a rod adapted to rotate in suitable bearings.
In the normal position of the rod the till is locked.
A suitable device is provided above the till for releasing the latter and rotating
the rod once at a time." prefer the following device. A disc or drum carries a
spur wheel which gears with a second one on the rod, both revolving in equal
times. The disc is revolved by a spring-controlled stud adapted to engage by
means of a finger in a spiral groove in a second disc or drum. This groove starts
from and returns to a descent into which the stud is driven by the strength of its
spring as soon as one rotation is completed. The till is opened automatically
as the rotation commences and may be closed in a corresponding or similar way.
do not confine myself to the above mentioned details of the disc or drum mechanism
last described, but may adopt any other which is adapted to automatically lock
itself at the end of a revolution.
In the case already mentioned there is a drum upon which is wound a ribbon of
paper. This is taken across both faces of a fixed tablet, suitable guides being
provided to keep the ribbon in close contact with both the said faces. One of
these is next the back of the case which is there open to allow of the amount of
the purchase being marked on the ribbon. The front of the case is glazed so that
the registered amount can be inspected by the customer after the mechanism of the
till has been set in motion.
The winding up or receiving drum is mounted upon a spring-controlled carriage
inside the case. The axes of the said drum revolve in slots in the carriage so
that as the diameter of the drum increases, the drum itself is moved along the
slots. There is provided a pressure drum mounted in adjustable bearings. Its
function is to press against the periphery of the winding-up drum so as to prevent
the ribbon ruckling or creasing.
There is a second drum in the case which receives its motion from gearing upon
the top of the rod above mentioned and transmits it to the winding up drum in any
convenient way. A ring of points projects from its periphery and these puncture
(say) two layers of ribbon on the drum so as to keep the latter light and moving
with the gearing.
A gong to be sounded when the disc is turned is also provided.
Provision may be made for exhibiting the coin just paid by the customer after its
entrance into the case or the till.
The cashier first registers the amount of the purchase upon the portion of the
ribbon, then upon the face of the tablet next to him. The disc is next turned
with the result that the ribbon is wound up far enough to present the registration
on the front face of the tablet at the glazed front of the case. The till is

page_text: automatically opened and change given. The revolution of the disc or drum may
be completed when the till will be locked.
Dated this 26th day of June 1891.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Registering Tills.
We, THOMAS WALTER WOODHOUSE, C.E., and ALFRED STEER, Commercial
Traveller, both of No. 35, Red Lion Square, in the Administrative County of
London, 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:-
This invention consists in improvements in registering tills; and its objects are
to provide a ribbon upon which the cashier can, and must in self defence, register
the amount of the purchase-money; to indicate the fact that the till is being opened
and that therefore the cashier ought to be paying the purchase-money into it; to
traverse the ribbon for the purpose of exhibiting to the customer the cashier's
registration of the amount of the purchase-money; and to gather up the used portion
of the ribbon by instalments of equal length.
In order that the invention and the means by which it is to be carried into
practical effect may be thoroughly understood, we will now describe them in detail,
referring in so doing to the accompanying drawings which are to be taken as part
of this Specification and read therewith.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation.
Fig. 2 is a part sectional side elevation taken on the line w-r of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a plan.
Fig. 4 is a section taken on the line y-z of Fig. 1.
The above figures illustrate the invention made up as a portable till. The
cover of the registering mechanism is omitted from Figs. 1, 2 and 3 for the-
sake of lucidity, and also because any convenient type of cover may be adopted.
a is the till drawer, and is its case. This latter would, in the case of a
till fixed upon a counter or desk, be discarded, and the till-mechanism be
fixed upon the latter, the till being supported underneath by known means.
c is a hollow vertical pillar. It is fixed to the top of the case by means
of a socket d and plate of sufficient area both made fast to its lower
extremity, and supports the registering, indicating, and exhibiting mechanism on
its top.
e is a rod standing centrally within the pillar c. Its function is to connect the
mechanism for releasing and locking the till with the mechanism above the till for
the purpose of making them both move through a cycle of operations in equal and
identical times. Suitable bearings of any known type are provided for the rod to
work in.
f is a hand lever by which the till locking mechanism is unlocked and the rod e
operated. It has its fulcrum upon the said rod about which it works loosely
through a seventh of a circle. A suitable portion of the socket.d is cut away for
the lever to project and work through. g. is a disc fast upon the lower end
of the rod, and h, h are seven vertical and equidistant studs arranged in a circle upon
the top face of it. i is a finger pivotted to the lever f. When the latter is back
or, in other words, when the till is closed, the disc g stands with one of its studs
in front of, and in contact with, the nose of the finger i. jis the locking bolt.
It is a lever pivotted at upon a bracket 2 depending from the plate d. In its
operative position, the rear and heavier portion of the bolt is held by gravity in
front of the back of the till. kis a pin projecting from the opposite end of the
bolt in the direction of the centre of the disc g, and standing in the path of a set

page_text: of inclines arranged equidistantly in a circle on the under face of the said disc.
m is a cross stay. n is a bell-lever adapted to act as an automatic detent. It is
pivotted at n. n² is its actuating spring. n³ is its tooth adapted to enter one of a
set of seven notches, at, under the influence of the spring n² when tooth and notch
are opposite each other. The said notches are cut equidistantly in the periphery
of the disc. is a downward extension of the outer end of the pivotted detent n.
It stands, under the action of the spring n², normally in the path of the till, when
the latter is pushed in after it has been opened for the purpose of depositing
money in it. a is the till-expelling spring.
:-
The indicating, registering and ribbon traversing mechanisms are as follows:-
o is a spur wheel fast upon the top of the rod e. o¹, o¹ are seven' pins set out
equidistantly in a circle upon the face of the wheel. It will be noticed that the
number of pins o', notches n' and inclines all coincide with the aliquot size of the
arc through which the hand leverf is moved in either direction. 02 is the indicating
bell and o is its hammer. The latter is carried on one end of a bell-lever o
pivotted at 0. 0 is the actuating spring of the hammer. It is adapted to keep
that arm of the bell lever which is opposite to the hammer, normally in the path
of the pins o¹. o' is the lever-stop. p is a post constituting with the two plates pl, p²,
a stationary paper drum. p³ the paper ribbon. The unused portion of it is
rolled up and dropped over the post upon the plate p², the plate p¹ being held at
a little distance above it. The hollow centre of the roll is of a larger diameter
than the post. p is a bar spring adapted in point of strength and position to press
upon the roll so as to prevent the outer rounds of the ribbon automatically unrolling
from the inner portion.
Its
7 is a vertical slotted guide through which the paper ribbon is passed on its
way to the tablet. Both guide and tablet are made in one piece and are fixed
to the plate v. The ribbon is led around the opposite edge of the tablet and back
through the guide to the traversing mechanism. is a drum driven by the spur
wheel o engaging with a pinion fast on the lower end of the axis of the drum.
This drum may advantageously be made of wood. s is a second drum.
periphery is of rubber for the purpose of adapting it to always bite the surfaces of
the two adjacent drums. This second drum is driven by a pinion s. (which is fast
on the axis of the drum ) engaging with a pinion 72 fast on its own. t is the
winding up or receiving drum. is a vertical slot in it through which the end of
the ribbon can be passed for the purpose of giving the drum a hold thereon. The
axis of the drum has its bearings in a frame consisting of two bell-cranks 2, 1.
This frame is pivotted upon a post or axis to. t is a bar spring taking its bearings
upon a post t, and always pressing against the post for the purpose of keeping
the wound up ribbon on the drum pressed up against the second drum s. 76 IS a
stop pivotted at u²; u², its thumb-bit; and u³ its actuating spring. It is fixed in
such a position that it can be set to stand in the way of the adjacent end of the
pivotted frame of the winding up drum. u is a stud. When the thumb-bit is.
pressed against it, the stop will stand in the way of the frame..
,, are the top, middle and bottom plates, and these, with their connecting
and holding posts and, constitute the frame of the three mechanisms last
described. w is a hand rest for the use of the salesman or cashier.
The invention constructed as above described is used as follows:-
د9
The till having been supplied with change is closed. When it is nearly closed
it bears against the extension n', and, pushing it backwards, disengages the tooth ³
of the automatic detent n from the respective notch n in the periphery of the
disc and into which the last opening of the till allowed it to be engaged by the
spring n². At the same time that the tooth n is disengaged, the locking bolt j
drops in front of the till-back. The pin k now stands in front of the adjacent
incliné 1, and the hand lever to the right, the position in which they were left by
the previous actuation of the till-mechanism.
The frame of the winding up drum t is next locked back by the stop u, and the
end of the paper ribbon p is led through the slot in the guide 3, round the tablet y',

page_text: back through the guide, between the rollers and s and through the slot in the
winding up drum from the back as far as may be necessary. The said frame is
then unlocked, when it will at once press the roller t against the second roller s.
The till is now ready for use. Suppose that the first purchase is seven shillings
and sixpence. This sum is marked on the ribbon on the front-i.e., the cashier's
side of the tablet, as shown in Fig. 1. The hand lever is next moved over to
the left. As it is so moved, the finger i bearing against the stud h in front of it,
moves the disc through the seventh part of a circle, and, at the same time, the
incline behind the pink lifts the bolt and unlocks the till which is then pushed
open by the spring a³.
9
The tooth is then locked into the respective notch. Consequently, the
disc g cannot be moved again until after the till has been shut. The hand lever
being loose upon the rod e may now be moved back to the right hand ready for
the next cash transaction. It has been already explained that the disc
and
rod
9
spur wheel o, are fast together, consequently the latter moved with the two former
when the hand lever was pushed over to the left. This had the effect of rotating
the winding up drum through the toothed gearing o, », and s, and traversing the
ribbon round the tablet far enough to bring the amount of the purchase to the
customer's side of the till where it is legible to him through a glazed sight hole
in the cover of the mechanism.
At the close of, say, the day's transactions, the nsed ribbon is wound up and
severed from the unused. The latter is then made fast to the winding up drum in
readiness for the business of the next day.
With reference to the mechanism for releasing and locking the till specified in
our Provisional Specification, and also to the one particularly described in the
foregoing Complete Specification and illustrated in the accompanying drawings,
we wish to point out that we lay no claim to the constructional details of either
till-releasing-and-locking-mechanism by itself, but only to the combination in a
registering till of a till-releasing-and-locking-mechanism operated by a hand lever
in combination with the till-drawer, the winding up mechanism and connecting rod;
or with the registering device, winding up mechanism and connecting rod; and
therefore,
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that
what we claim is:
1. In registering tills, the combination of the till-drawer, operating hand lever,
locking and releasing mechanism actuated by and in conjunction with the latter
a paper ribbon, a tablet over both sides of which the said ribbon is drawn, a
winding-up mechanism, a self adjusting winding-up drum and a rod connecting the
two mechanismis.
2. In registering tills, the combination of till-drawer, hand lever, disc and detent
locking and releasing mechanism operated by the said hand lever and automatic
spring devices.
3. In registering tills, the combination of till and till-locking-and-releasing
mechanism, winding up mechanism and a rod connecting the adjacent members of
the said mechanisms, as set forth.
4. The combination of a till-locking-and-releasing mechanism, a ribbon-winding-
up mechanism, a rod fast to the adjacent members of the said two mechanisms and
a lever loose upon the said rod adapted to actuate the till-releasing mechanism by
engaging one of a series of studs upon a correspondingly notched disc, as set
forth.
5. The combination of paper drum, ribbon, fixed tablet across both faces of
which the latter is traversed, and a self adjusting winding up drum, with gearing
the first member of which is rigidly connected with the till releasing mechanism,
as set forth.
6. In registering tills, the combination of winding up drum and swinging frame

page_text: whereby the periphery of the wound up ribbon on the said drum is moved away as
the diameter of the ring of wound up ribbon increases.
7. The general construction of registering till as specified and illustrated whereby
the act of releasing the till-mechanism and consequently the till, moves that part
of the mechanism upon which the amount of the purchase has been registered
by the cashier or salesman, away out of his reach and presents it to the
customer.
Dated this 21st der of Merch 1892.
PHILLIPS & LEIGH,
22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.