US1356750A - Savings-bank - Google Patents

Description

Z. M. SPEER.

SAVINGS BANK.

APPLICATION HLED mm. H. 1915. nzuswzn FEB. 9.1920.

Patented Oct 26, 1920.

Invc rufior Zeno M Wjbfiruesses UNITED STATES. PATENT OFFICE.

ZENO M. SPEEB, F MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 SPEEBPROSEFEL'I CALENDAR BANK, INC., OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, A CORPORATION OF WISCONSIN.

SAVINGS-BAN K.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 26, 1920.

Application filed Ianuary 14, 1915, Serial No. 2,188. Renewed February 9, 1920. Serial No. 357,350.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Znivo M. SPEER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Savings- Banks, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawin formin a part of this speclfication.

y invention relates to savings banks and is concerned with a device which I term a calendar bank. The underlying idea is the provision of a perpetual calendar which is automatically kept up to date by the regular deposit of coins, mechanism being insertion of coins of the provided so that the insertion of the coins automatically accomplishes the shifting of the calendar from day to day.

The purpose of the invention is to encourage the habit of regular and systematic saving, and with this in view I utilize the idea of the perpetual calendar which is shifted from day to day, and provide a positive me chanical connection between this calendar and the entry way to a coin-deposit compartment, the arrangement being such that the calendar can be advanced only by the roper denomination. In this way, in or er to keep up the calendar, it becomes necessary for one to deposit coins of the proper denomination regularly and not only do I thus provide a useful, perpetual calendar operated in this unique way, but I also provide means for constantly reminding the owner of such a bank whether or not and to what extent he is in arrears in his savings account.

It is well known that banking institutions frequently adopt the system of encouraging savings by providin their depositors with banks, small portab e devices, the banking institution itself holding the key, the idea being that the depositor will go to the bank at intervals to deposit his savings thus accumulated in the hand bank, and the bank cashier, who holds the key, will open the bank upon the depositors visit, to remove the contents therefrom, locking the bank and returning it to the depositor for use for another eriod.

In or er that my device may effectively play a part in such a system provide it wit a ock and key, and, if desired, the

calendar may be provided with, certain red letter days upon which the depositor will be reminded to make his regular visit to the bank for the purpose of depositing his savin t is a further object of my invention to provide a device of the character described above which will be of simple construction, of attractive design, and capable of economical manufacture, and some of the more specific of the appended claims are directed to features of arrangement and construction which are unique and useful.

My invention will be clearly understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of the calendar bank of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a front elevational view with the front portion of the casing removed and with other parts broken away so as to clearly reveal the structure; and

Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view taken on the plane of the line 33 of Fig. 2 and looking in the direction indicated by the arrows.

i The housing of the device comprises a main base portion 4, which may conveniently be made in the form of a casting, this base portion being provided at the front with an upwardly-extending flange 5, and at the rear with an upwardly-extending flange 6. casing 7, which may conveniently be made in the form of a stamping, is secured to the base in any suitable manner, referably in such a way as to make it difiicu t to open the bank without actually having a key for the lock thereto. A removable base portion 8 is provided, this removable portion being disposed to the rear of the base portion 4 and 'heing supported by an integral tenon 9, which fits snugly in a corresponding groove running lengt wise in the rear of the main base portion 4. The opposite side of the removable base portion 8 is provided with a groove 10, into which a bead 11 stamped inwardly from the back wall of the casing 7 fits. It will be understood that the casing 7 has sufficient flexibility to 'permit of the removal of the base ortion 8 when the lock is removed, as wi l presently be described. The removable base portion 8 is provided with one or more staples 12, which extend through corresponding slots in the back wall of the casing 7 and, upon the outside of the casing, are engaged by one or more padlooks 13, for which a key 14 is provided.

A partition 15 is secured to the upwardlyextending flange 6 on the main base portion 4, by means of screws 1616, this partition extending upwardly for a short distance and then extending forwardly to the front wall of the casing 7. This partition separates the coin-deposit compartment from the compartment which contains the calendar mechanism, as will presently be described.

In front of the partition 15 and at each end of the main base portion 4 a standard 17 is provided, and a shaft 18, running lengthwise of the structure, is mounted in these standards, as clearly illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3. The shaft 18 is preferably stationarily mounted.

A plurality of wheels, upon which configurations are placed, and which are preferably of uniform size, are mounted to rotate upon the shaft 18. Thus I have shown the month-wheel 19, the tens day wheel 20, and the unit-day wheel 21. Each of these wheels has secured thereto concentrically a ratchet wheel 22, and the month-wheel is prevented from having any undue longrt dinal movement by means of the pins 23-23, while the day wheels, separatedby a washer 24, are prevented from having any undue longitudinal movement upon the shaft by mean of the pins 25-25. The shaft- 18 is held in the standards 1717 by means of pins 2626.

At a point in lateral alinement with each of the ratchets 22, the top of the rear flange 6 is provided with a recess 27 in which two forwardly-extendin springs 28 and 29 are secured b means of a screw 30. The spring 28 exten straightforwardly and engages the teeth of the ratchet in such a way as to permit counter-clockwise rotation thereof (viewing the ratchet as is Fig. 3), but preventing rotation in the opposite direction. The spring 29 extends forwardly and then upwardly and then downwardly, as indicated at 31, where it engages under a lug 32 carried by the reciprocating pawl 33, the lug 32 being L-shaped, .as i1 ustrated in Fig. 2, inorder to revent the spring 29 from becoming dislo ged. At it lower end the pawl 33 engages the teeth of the ratchet 22, and at its upper end the pawl is provided with an extension 34, which extends throu h an opening 35 in the forwardlyextending portion of the partition 15.

It will now be understood that there are several units, each comprisin a wheel, a ratchet, springs, and pawl, as as just been described. Dlrectly'over each of the openings 35 there i provided a coin-guide 36, being secured by means of a. flange 37 to the back of the partition 15. The end of the extension 34 travels in this coin-guide, as illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, and is turned at right angles and slightly dished so as to be positively engaged by the coin which is pushed through the associated coinguides. Each of the coin-guides is made of such height as to exactly accommodate the particular coin for which it is intended, and in this way as a coin, for instance as illustrated in dotted lines in Fig. 3, is pushed through the coin-guide, it will engage the end of the pawl 33 and force it downwardly into the position shown in dotted line in Fig. 3. This will advance the corresponding ratchet 22 the distance of one tooth, and any backlash will be prevented by the operation of the spring 28.

It will be seen that the coin-guides are directed directly into the coin-deposit compartment and therefore, after the coins have passed through the coin-guides, they will drop down into the compartment provided therefor and may later be removed by the removal of the lock and the removal of the base portion 8. After the coin has passed through the coin-guide, the pawl 33 will return to its normal position, that is, its uppermost position, due to the influence of the spring 29, and the arrangement will be set for the introduction of another coin. The normal position of the pawl 33 is determined by the engagement of a shoulder 38 which engages the underside of the forwardly-extending portion of the partition 15. In order to properly guide the pawl 33, that portion of the artition 15 which is stamped out to form t e opening 35, is turned downwardl into vertical position, as illustrated in Fig. 3, and the forward side of the pawl 33 rests against this downwardly-extending portion.

Each of the coin-guides 36 registers with a slot 39 in the front wall of the casing 7, and openings 40, 41 and 42 are also rovided in the front wall of the casing so as to display the characters on the wheels. Thus, in the opening 40, either January, February, March or April is displayed through the opening, while through the opening 41 the tens digits are displayed. The units digits are displayed through the openin 42.

It will appear of course that other units comprising the wheel, ratchet, awl, etc., can be provided to display the ay of the week and the car, etc., if desired, but I have deemed what I have shown to be suflicient to disclose my invention, it bein understood that providing other whee s is purely a matter of duplication.

The various coin-slots and coin-guides are made of different sizes to accommodate coins of different denominations. For instance, in United States money, it might be neteneo arranged, as the relative sizes are herein shown, to require a nickel to operate the units wheel, a' dime to operate the tens wheel, and a quarter to operate the monthwheel. Obviousl any arrangement may be provided for ifierent denominations of coins without departing from the spirit of my invention, the scope of which is set forth in the appended claims.

The mouth-wheel is provided with twelve teeth one for each month, it being obvious that ior each actuation of the correspondigig pawl 33 the wheel will be advanced su ciently to display the succeeding month. The tens wheel is provided with twelve teeth, and there are three sets of numbers on this wheel1, 2, 3, and a blank. The units' wheel has ten teeth and the numerals run from 1 to 9 and zero.

Of course it will be obvious that other openings may be provided into the savings compartment, for instance, a coin-slot not affecting any of the calender mechanism, and also an aperture for bills.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In combination, a base, a housing mounted thereon, a partition forming a deposit compartment, a plurality of coin-guides eading into said deposit compartment, means for locking and unlocking said compartment, a shaft mounted on the opposite side of said partition, a pluralit of wheels mounted upon said shaft, each w eel having a ratchet thereon, an anti-backlash spring mounted upon said base and engagin each ratchet, a reciprocating pawl carrie by a spring also engaging each ratchet and having a part disposed in proximity to the associated coin guides, the passage of coins fitting said coin-guides therethrough moving said awl the distance of one tooth, one of said w eels having the successive months inscribed thereon, another having tens digits and another having units digits, and means in said casing through which the inscriptions on said wheels may be successively displayed.

2. In a savings bank, a casing having a plurality, of coin receiving devices, a corresponding lurality of indicating devices each of w ich is supplied with successive calendar indicia to constitute in selected association a visible calendar reading, independent advancing mechanism foreach indicatin device, and an actuating device associate with each of said coin receiving devices to be operated by the insertion of a coin therein and independently mechanically connected with one of said advancing mechanisms, said coin receiving devices having diflerent characteristics peculiar to coins of respectively diflerent denominations, and said indicating devices being thus respectively advanced as a perpetual calendar by the eriodical insertion of coins of the proper enominations in the respective coin receiving devices.

3. In a savings bank, a casing having a plurality of coin receiving devices, a corresponding lurality of indicating devices each of w ich is supplied with successive calendar'indicia to constitute in selected association a visible calendar reading independent advancin mechanism for each indicatin device, an an actuating device associate with each of said coin receiving devices to be operated by the insertion of a coin therein and independentl mechanicall connected with one of sai advancing mec anisms, said coin receiving devices having different characteristics peculiar to coins of respectively different denominations, and said indicating devices being thus respectively advanced as a perpetual c'alendar by the periodical insertion of coins of the roper denominations in the respective coin receiving devices, the indicating device requiring the most frequent advancement being that whose advancing mecha nism and actuating device are associated with the coin receiving device constructed to receive the coins of the lowest denomination.

4. In a savings-bank, a casing having three coin receiving slots of different sizes to receive respectively coins of three different denominations, a perpetual calendar comprising three independently operating wheels, one with month indicia thereon, one with tens digits date indicia thereon, and one with units digits date indicia thereon, said indicia being selectively visible through an opening in said casing, advancing mechanism associated with each wheel, and an actuating device associated with each coin receiving slot to be operated by the insertion of a coin therein and independently mechanically connected with one of said advancing mechanisms, said wheels being thus respectively advanced as a perpetual calendar by the periodical insertion of coins of the proper denominations in the respective slots, the month wheel being associated with that advancing mechanism and actuating device which are associated with the slot sized to receive operatively the coins of the highest denominatlon exclusively, the tens digits date wheel being associated with that advancing mechanism and actuating device which are associated with the slot sized to receive operatively the coins of the next highest denomination exclusively, and the units digits date wheel being associated with that advancing mechanism and actuatin device which are associated with the slot sized to receive operatively the coins of the lowest denomination.

5. In combination, a housing, a partition therein forming a deposit compartment, a

coin guide leading into said compartment, means for locking and unlockin said compartment, a shaft mounted on t e opposite side of said partition, a wheel mounted on said shaft and havin indicia thereon arranged to be displayed through an opening in said housing, said wheel having ratchet means thereon, and a sprin pressed reciprocating pawl enga ing sai ratchet means and having a part isposed in proximity to said coin receiving guide so as to be actu- In witness whereof, I hei'eunto subscribe my name this ninth day of January, A."D. 15 .1915.

ZENO M. SPEER.

\Vitnesses F. J. OKONESKI, LEO. E. BURKE.

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