GB408765A - Improvements in or relating to prepayment meter mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

408,765. Prepayment mechanism for meters. GRASEBY, R. C., Venner Works, Kingston By-Pass Road, New Malden, Surrey. Jan. 12, 1933, No. 1070. [Class 27.] Mechanism for prepaying basic charges ; pricechanging mechanism.-In prepayment meters in which the quantity mechanism set forward by a coin is returned to zero to cut off the supply by the consumption meter and by a time-motor which constitutes the means for collecting a basic charge, the time-motor 16, Fig. 1, drives through gearing 1 a crank disc 3 which through a connecting-rod 5 rocks a gear member 7 meshing with a gear 8. A pair of free-wheel clutches is formed by a member 9 in the opposite cylindrical recessed faces, of which are located clutch members 10, Fig. 3, of known construction and balls 11, the arrangement being such that the member 9 will freewheel in the same angular direction with respect to the members 10, the two clutches being viewed from the same direction. The member 9 has a gear wheel 12 connected through gearing 13 ... 17, Fig. 2, to the second differential in the prepayment mechanism described in Specification 397,651, while the gear 8 is fixed to the lower clutch member 10 and the upper clutch member has an arm 18 working between a pair of stop pins 19, 20. The action of the clutches is such that the member 9 is rotated in one direction a distance controlled by the distance apart of the two stop pins and in the reverse direction a distance which is the whole distance of movement imparted to one of the clutch members. The difference between these amounts of movement is transferred to the quantity mechanism through the gearing 12, 13. One stop pin 20 is fixed and the other 19 is adjustable being carried by a disc 22 on a spindle 23 having a worm wheel 24 which engages a worm 25 on a spindle 26. The spindle 26 can be rotated by a key 34 inserted through a hole 32 to adjust the position of the stop 19, the amount of adjustment being indicated by a pointer 29 on a money scale 28. In order further to alter the range of payment, the gear wheels 14 are carried by a removable plate 30 which also carries another set of wheels 14<1>. The plate 30 may be turned over to include the wheels 14<1> in the train of gearing instead of the wheels 14 or it may be replaced by a different plate 30.