GB404980A - Improvements in prepayment mechanism for delivery meters - Google Patents

Abstract

404,980. Prepayment mechanism for meters. McROBBIE, W., 14, Orchard Bank, and MILNE'S METERS, Ltd., 22, Milton Street, both in Edinburgh. July 20, 1932, No. 20486. [Class 27.] Relates to prepayment mechanism for meters of the kind in which quantity control mechanism is set forward proportionately to the value of one or other of two coins or checks, the coins being inserted in a rotary coin holder and causing selective engagement, according to the coin used, of driving means with a pair of coaxial measuring wheels. The invention consists in a specific construction of epicyclic mechanism for transmitting the drive from the measuring wheels to the quantity mechanism, and comprising a pair of planet wheels U, V, Fig. 1, carried by and mounted one on each side of one wheel T of the measuring wheels T, W and meshing with sun-wheels A, W<1> which are coaxial with and located one on each side of the wheel T. The wheels T, W are loose on a shaft B which directly drives the quantity control mechanism, the wheel A being fixed to this shaft and the wheel W being compounded with the measuring wheel W. The mechanism is shown as applied to the quantity mechanism described in Specification 275,510, [Class 27, Coin-freed apparatus &c.], the planet carrier C of which is fixed to the shaft B and has planet wheels E, D meshing with loose sun-wheels G, K, the wheel K being driven by the meter and the wheel G being coupled to the valve actuating disc H. When the coin of larger denomination, a shilling, is inserted a pin 15 on a lever 14, Fig. 2, rocks a cam plate 17 and causes a long tooth 19a on a dog 19 carried by the plate 17 to engage both measuring wheels T, W so that the wheels T, W, U, V, A, W<1> are locked together, and there is a solid drive between the outside handle of the coin carrier disc Y and the shaft B. When a penny is used, the plate 17 is rocked so that a short tooth 19b on the dog 19 engages the wheel T only, and the drive takes place through the train of wheels acting as an epicyclic reduction gear. In a modification, Fig. 3, one or other of the wheels T, W is actuated by a single dog 20 on a slide 21 which is moved by a lever 22 in engagement with one or other of the wheels according to the coin inserted. Backward rotation of the wheels T, W is prevented by pawls A<2>.