US1220440A - Automatic vending-machine. - Google Patents

Description

C. A. MELCHERT. AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE.

LZQQQQQ. 19M. Patented Mar. 27, 1917.

2 SHEETS SHEET I.

C. A. MELCHERT. AUTOMATIC VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 7. 1914. LQQQAQO. Patented Mar. 27,1917.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

IINI'IED SEAS PATENT OFFIQE.

CHARLES A. MELCI-IERI, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO AUTOMATIC MACHINE MANUFACTURING 00., OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

AUTOMATIC VENDING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 2'7, 191W.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES A. MnLo'HER'r, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Vending-Machines; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to automatic vending machines, and has for its principal object to provide a device of this character wherein vendible commodities may be contained in separate compartments and locked within the device until released to a purchaser upon the insertion of a suitable coin.

It is also an object of the invention to provide a device comprising means for confine ing articles within the commodity compart ment but which when actuated to release the articles will remain in inoperative position until the locking mechanism is operated by a suitable key and thereby obviate unauthorized refilling and warn against an attempted purchase from an empty compartment.

In accomplishing these and other objects of the invention I have provided improved details of structure, the preferred forms of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein 1-- Figure I is a perspective view of an automatic vending machine constructed according to my invention, showing the trap for one of the compartments in idle position.

Fig. II is an enlarged rear perspectiveof a part of the device.

Fig. III is a vertical section of the device, showing one of the compartment units in functional position.

Fig. IV is a similar view showing the compartment and cash boX open, and illustrating the use of the key for releasing the cash box.

Fig. V is a rear perspective of a part of the device, showing one of the coin chutes and compartment trap with the coin-con.- trolled mechanism.

Fig. VI is a view of one of the coin chutes and its trap controlling mechanism in released position, and illustrating the method of resetting.

Fig. VII is a detail perspective view of the cash box lock.

Referring more in detail to the parts:

1 designates a casing which is preferably constructed of metal and is adapted for mounting on a wall, so that the articles to be sold mav be easily seen and the device positioned for easy access by a prospective purchaser.

T he casing comprises a body portion 2 which may be provided with a back 3 and has a front a for inc-losing the coin-controlled mechanism and cash receptacle. The upper portion 5 of the front a also serves as the back of a commodity compartment section that extends forwardly from the front of the casing and is fitted into separate chambers by division plates 6;v the lower edge of the part 5 being set forwardly from the lower portion of the front 4 to form a shoulder 7 for a purpose presently set forth.

The commodity section 8 has a front face 9 provided with glass-covered openings 10 through which the articles contained within the bins may be displayed, and with panels 11 hearing the names of the articles and any other information it mav be desired to impart; the entire bottom of the compartment section being open so that thearticles may be inserted into the respective bins from beneath.

In order to support the articles within the bins I provide a trap door 13 for each compartment. such a door being preferably hinged on a common rod 14 that is mounted on thefront lower edge of the compartment section and extends entirely across the device; the rear edge of each of said traps being preferably reinforced, as at 15, and provided with a slot 16 (Figs. II and V) into which a latch (hereinafter mentioned) may take to support the trap in functional position.

The bottom of the casing 1 is projected forwardly to form a shelf 18 upon which articles dropped from the several compartment bins may be caught when their traps are tripped to release the articles.

The mechanism for locking the traps in functional position comprises a separate coin chute 20 for each compartment; the upper end of which extends through the front member 5 and through the upper end of the commodity compartment to a slot 21 5 in the commodity section front 9 directly above the window and name panel on a compartment controlled by the mechanism that is operable from a coin falling through the respective coin chute. Each coin chute terminates at about the level of the bottom of the commodity bin and, pivotally mounted on said chute is a latch 23, the lower end of which is provided with a forwardly directed hook 24 that projects through a slot 25 in the front 4 and is adapted to take into the slot 16 in the respective compartment trap 13 to hold the trap in closed position; the latch 23 being normally, yieldingly tensioned away from its trap by a spring 26, one end of which is connected with the latch and the other with the coin chute in order to automatically rock the latch and release the trap when a coin is inserted into the proper chute.

In order to hold the trap closed so that it may support an article to be sold, I provide the trip 27 which is pivotally mounted on the coin chute and has a lip 28 on one end projected into a slot 29 in the coin chute; the projecting position being maintained by a spring 30 that is connected with the trip and with the coin chute, and the lip being inclined when in normal position so that a coin dropping through the chute will strike the inclined lip and rock the trip against the tension of its spring.

The opposite arm of the trip 27 projects forwardly along an ear 31 on the latch 23 and is provided with a primary tooth 32 and a secondary tooth 33 adapted for stepped engagement with the latch ear.

The detail construction of the latch 23 comprises the hanger 34 which is pivotally mounted on an car 35 on the coin chute and has a rearwardly directed lower portion 36 provided with the stop ear 31 for engagement with the trip teeth and also with a laterally directed lip 37 at about its longitudinal center.

Pivotally mounted on the hanger 34, below the lip 37, is an arm 39 having a laterally turned upper end 40 with which the spring 26 is connected, and having a latch tooth 24 at its lower end.

lVith this construction, when the parts are in set position, the trip member has its lip 28 projected into the chute slot and its primary tooth in engagement with the latch ear 31, so that the latch hanger is held in its forward position with the spring 26 under tension. The spring being connected with the upper end of the arm 39, the upper end of the arm is held against the hanger a lip 37 and. the latch tooth within the slot in the article supporting trap 13, but when the trip 27 is rocked by a coin, the notched arm is raised so that the spring pulls the latch backwardly and removes the latch tooth from the hanger so that the latter may fall.

After the latch mechanism has been automatically actuated through the intermediacy of a coin the spring 26 holds the latch away from the locking position so that the trap may be swung up to normal position without reengaging the latch; in this way insuring against unauthorized refilling or resetting of the device, and warning a possible purchaser that the bin is empty.

To reset the latch mechanism it is only necessary to project a hook 41 (Fig. VI) through the slot 25 to engage the latch and pull the same forwardly against the tension of the spring 26; the trip moving automatically to position for engagement of the primary notch with the latch hanger car.

It is apparent that after the latch is set, the trap may be swung up to position and will displace the latch against the tension of its spring to relock the parts; the upper end of the latch arm being free to move forwardly as it is positively held only against rearward movement by the lip 37 In order to collect the coins I provide troughs 43 which extend from the ends of the casing toward the center at an incline so that coins dropped through the chutes will fall into the troughs and be carried to a cash box 44.

The cash box 44 is pivotally mounted at the front of the casing and is adapted to tip outwardly (Fig. IV) so that a person may collect coins from the front of the device.

In order to lock the box I provide its upper edge with a rearwardly projecting socket member 45 which is adapted to take the end of a bolt 46 that is slidably mounted in a guide 47 on the inner face of the front 4 and is connected with the rear arm 48 of a bell-crank lever 49 which is pivotally mounted in a bracket 50 on the front member 5; the arm 48 having a spring 51 which yield ingly holds the same in its lower position to retain the locking bar in place. The front member 5 has a slot 53 above the bracket 50 to receive a key 54 so that the latter may engage abell crank lever to rock the same and lift the rocking bar out of the door socket.

In using the device, presuming the parts to be constructed and assembled as described, with the latch mechanism set to hold the traps, and with the traps open, articles to be sold are placed in the bins from the bottom and the traps swung upwardly to close the bottom of the bins and engage the latches so that they may be held in place and support the articles within the bins. When a person wishes to secure an article contained in one of the bins, he drops the proper coin into the chute and the coin falling down the chute engages the trip lip and rocks the trip so that the primary tooth is moved out of engagement with the ear on the latch hanger. Nhen the trip is rocked as described, the latch spring pulls the latch back through the engagement of the latch arm with the hanger lip, so that the latch tooth is disengaged from the trap and the trap is free to open under weight ofthe article contained within the bin, so that the article drops onto the shelf 18 and may be removed by the purchaser.

lVhen the latch is automatically released as described, the hanger lip engages the secondary trip tooth to prevent the latch from swinging too far. from its functional position, but sufficiently far to prevent reengagement of the latch with the trap, should the latter be m ved upwardly, until the latch is reset.

lVith the parts in this position the trap may be moved back into functional position but will not catch on the latch so that it is impossible to reset the device until the latch mechanism has been reset. The latch mechanism is reset by pulling the latch arm forwardly by the hook 4C1 so that the hanger ear will again engage the primary trip tooth and when reset the trap will re'e'ngage the latch tooth and be held in place; it being apparent that only those authorized may be supplied with a key for setting the latch and that such person is usually the one who is supplied with articles to refill the bins.

When it is desired to remove the collected coins from the device the bin within which the key slot is located is opened and the key inserted to rock the bell-crank lever and lift the lock bar so that the cash boX may be free to swing outwardlyand expose the coins to the collector.

Having thus described my invention, What c zi Ilt Y r a c c sire -o secure l 11 m as v the em, nl le t by Letters-Patent, is

1. An automatic vending machine comprising a releasable door member, a latch comprising a latch ear and a hook member adapted for holding engagement with the door, a trip having teeth adapted for independent engagement with the latch ear, yielding means for-urging the latch to release position, and yielding means for urging the trip to holding engagement with the latch ear.

2. The combination with a trap door, of a latch comprising a pivotally mounted body member, having a retaining lip and a trip ear, a hook member pivotally mounted on the body member between the lip and the car, a spring connected with said hook member at the one side of its pivotal mounting whereby the latch body member and hook are yieldingly urged to release position, and whereby the hook member may pivot in the opposite direction independently of the latch body member, and a trip adapted for holding engagement with the latch ear to hold the latch against the tension of said spring.

3. The combination with a trap door, of a latch comprising a pivotally mounted body member, having a retaining lip and a trip ear, a hook member pivotally mounted on the body member between the lip and the ear, a spring connected with said hook member at one side of its pivotal mounting, whereby the latch .body member and hook are yieldiugly urged to release position, and whereby the hook member may pivot in the opposite direction independently of the latch body member, and a trip member having stop portions adapted for independent engagement with the latch ear, to hold the latch in different positions against the tension of said spring.

it. An. automatic vending machine having a trap door, a pivotally mounted latch comprising a latch member having a retaining lip and a trip car, a latch arm pivotally mounted on said latch member and adapted "for hearing against said lip at one side of its pivotal point and having a hook at the opposite side of its pivotal point adapted to lock the trap door, a spring connected with the end of the latch arm opposite the hook and adapted for normally, yieldingly urging the latch to inactive position and for retaining the hook in active position, and a trip member for engaging said trip ear to retain said latch in active position against the tension of said spring.

In testimony whereof I aiiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES A. MELGHERT. lVitnesses LYNN A. ROBINSON, LETA E. COATS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

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