GB455225A - Improvements in prepayment gas meters - Google Patents

Abstract

455,225. Prepayment mechanism for gas meters. SOUTH METROPOLITAN GAS CO., SMITH, C. H., COLEMAN, E., and DOUGHTY, T. A., 709, Old Kent Road, London. April 12, 1935, No. 11415. [Class 27] Coin action, with stationary coin forming abutment and with delivery proportionate to value of coin.-A prepayment mechanism for gas-meters of the kind which can be selectively operated by two coins of different diameters, e.g. a penny and a shilling, and in which the handle rotated by the consumer operates differential gears in axial alignment with each other, comprises a shaft 6 on which is mounted two differential gears 12, 15, 13 and 13, 15<a>, 12<a>, the wheel 12 being fixed to the shaft and the wheels 12<a>, 13 being loosely mounted thereon. The wheel 13 is a double wheel common to both gears and is connected by an arm 16 to a handle 1 so as to be rotated thereby. The planet wheels 15, 15a are mounted in cages 14, 14<a> respectively which are rotatable on the shaft 6 and are in the form of toothed wheels. A penny or a shilling inserted into a channel 29 engages the tooth spaces in the cages 14, 14<a> respectively and locks these against rotation, the shilling being located by the end of the channel 29 and the penny by a stop 31 carried by a fixed side of the channel, the other side of which is pivoted. When a penny is used, the cage 14 is locked and rotation of the wheel 13 by the handle 1 causes the wheel 12 and shaft 6 to rotate until a stop 20 on a drum 3 fixed to the handle engages a stop 21 on the movable side of the channel 29. The channel is thus opened and the penny drops out. If a shilling is used, the cage 14a is locked and the wheel 12<a> is given the same rotation as was the wheel 12 for a penny. The wheel 12<a> is mounted on a sleeve 22 carrying a cradle 23 in which is rotatably mounted a spindle 24 having fixed to it two unequal toothed wheels 25, 26 meshing respectively with wheels 27, 28. The wheel 27 is fixed to the shaft 6 and the wheel 28 to a sleeve 8 loose on the shaft, and the gearing is such that the sleeve 8 is rotated twelve times as much for a shilling as for a penny. The sleeve 8 sets forward in known manner through an epicyclic mechanism an arm 9 carrying a valve-operating stop 10, the arm 9 with stop 10 being returned to its initial position by the metering mechanism during consumption of gas. Price-changing mechanism.-The drum 3 attached to the handle 1 has a number of perforations 4 into any one of which, according to the price of gas, a pin 17 on the arm 16 is inserted and held by a finger lever 18.