US3348895A

US3348895A - Rolling sales dispensing unit and multple cash drawer for gasoline stations

Info

Publication number: US3348895A
Application number: US495553A
Authority: US
Inventors: Eugene F Settlemire
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1965-10-13
Filing date: 1965-10-13
Publication date: 1967-10-24
Anticipated expiration: 1984-10-24

Description

1967 E. F. SETTL EMl RE DISPENSING UNIT AND MULTIPLE CA DRAWER FOR GASOLINE STATIONS 2 Sheets-Sheet ROLLING SALES Filed Oct. 13, '1965 Mm [aye/7e f Seff/em/re ATTORNEY Oct. 24, 1967 E. F. SETTLEMIRE v I ROLLING SALES DISPENSING UNIT AND MULTIPLE CASH DRAWER FOR GASOLINE STATIONS Filed Oct. 13, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 l3 l2 l4 A f H/ iV-' FIG. 5

- INVENTOR fa ehe f Se/f/em/re ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,348,895 ROLLING SALES DISPENSING UNIT AND MULTI- PLE CASH DRAWER FOR GASOLINE STATIONS Eugene F. Settlemire, 1443 Broadway, Tucson, Ariz. 85719 Filed Oct. 13, 1965, Ser. No. 495,553 8 Claims. (Cl. 312212) This invention relates to improvements in a rolling sales dispensing unit and multiple cash drawer for gasoline stations. The principal objects in this invention are:

First, to provide a movable sales dispensing unit having individual compartments filled with merchandise to be sold by each gasoline station attendant.

Second, to provide a movable sales dispensing unit having individual cash drawers wherein each attendant may deposit the money from his sales and thus each attendant will be responsible for the money from his sales and a check can be made on an individual basis as to the sales and moneys made therefrom.

Third, to provide a movable sales dispensing unit wherein a credit card printer can be mounted in conjunction with a cash drawer.

Fourth, to provide a movable sales dispensing unit which can be moved out near the gasoline pumps during the daytime and in fair weather and back into the garage at night or in foul weather thereby providing a step saving convenience.

Fifth, to provide a movable sales dispensing unit wherein all of the materials necessary for the usual servicing of a car and the related operations necessary in the making of sales by individual gas station attendants are conveniently housed.

Related objects and advantages of this invention will be easily seen from consideration of the following description and claims. The drawings illustrate'one form of my invention as applied to a gasoline station.

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the apparatus showing the overall organization.

FIGURE 2 is a front view.

FIGURE 3 is a vertical section made along the line 33 of FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary side view taken along the line 44 of FIGURE 3.

FIGURE 5 is a view taken in sections along the line 55 of FIGURE 2.

Experience has shown that in the operation of gasoline service stations there exists a need for a means of checking the accuracy and honesty of each of the several attendants who are operating the station during a given shift. Under the system currently in use in most gasoline stations oil cans are left loose in the cartons in which they are shipped to the gasoline station or they are stacked away on shelves to be used by the gasoline station attendants as needed. Because the oil cans are left loose there is no accountability on an individual basis for the sale of oil.

Previously oil was generally stored inside the garage at some distance from the automobile and steps and time were lost in obtaining the oil from inside the garage.

Many gasoline and oil sales today are made by means of a credit card. In most filling stations the credit card printer is located in a protected place inside the filling station. Thus each time a sale is made on credit the attendant is required to walk from the pumps to a place inside the filling station.

Further, under the present system operating in many filling stations the attendant is required to go inside the filling station to make change or to take the money from the sale to the filling station manager who makes change for him. This system results in a loss of time in the same way as pointed out above.

3,348,895 Patented Oct. '24, 1967 The apparatus which is the subject of this invention provides a mechanism which necessarily requires that each attendant use an individual key to obtain oil from racks specially reserved for him and use his individual key to open his cash drawer at each sale. Thus, at the beginning of each shift the garage owner or manager can place an allotted number of oil cans into each rack controlled by a given attendant and he can put a certain amount of cash into the cash drawer belonging to that attendant. Then at the end of each shift an accurate account can be made of merchandise sold and cash on hand.

The apparatus which is the subject of the present invention is adapted to be used in conjunction with a similar apparatus shown in Patent No. 3,026,032, issued Mar. 20, 1962, to Mr. E. F. Settlemire. It is contemplated that the keys used in the subject application for patent will be or can be the same keys used in the patent cited above.

With continued reference to the drawing, the apparatus of the present invention is essentially a movable platform having racks for oil cans forming sides of a superstructure mounted on the base platform. These sides may come together at the top or may be spaced from each other at the top and be connected by a horizontal spacing element which may be used for writing purposes or to stack goods upon it.

The supporting platform upon which the sides are mounted has a wheel at each corner. These wheels are mounted upon the platform in such a way that the platform may be rolled into the station at night and rolled out near the gas pump for use during the day. It would appear convenient to have two adjacent wheels mounted in fixed position and two other wheels mounted upon pivots so that the direction of roll of the platform may be controlled. Alternatively, all four wheels may be pivoted.

The details of the framework of the movable platform are considered to be conventional. Various arrangements and constructions of the movable platform will appear obvious to one skilled in the art and this invention is considered to include all such constructions.

The embodiment showed in these drawings as exemplified in FIG. 1 features racks I mounted on opposite sides of the platform and inclined for display purposes. At the top of the rack is a small door or panel 2 adapted to swing outwardly and to be locked in place at its bottom. Each upper panel has a conventional lock 3 with a key which fits all the upper panels. Each upper panel is adapted to swing outwardly about hinges mounted at its upper end and attached to the upper part of the dispensing unit. In this way the filling station owner or manager can periodically refill each individual rack to a predetermined level. The Oil cans slide down the slide formed in the rack to the bottom as shown in FIGURE 1. At the bottom of each rack is one or more small doors or panels 4, which is locked in place by lock 5 shown in FIG. 4 and fastened in a way similar to the upper panel. Each of these lower doors is controlled by a key held *by the individual attendant. Thus when the attendant wishes to remove a can of oil he inserts his key into lock 5 and opens door 4. When door 4 is opened the entire horizontal layer of his selection of oil cans is available to him. He will then remove as many cans as needed for the particular job on hand and relock his panel thus denying access to any other person.

The rack has a number of slides, see FIG. 3, defined by T-shaped angle iron frame elements 6 so that although the stacked oil cans can be seen from outside of the platform and thus provide a display they may not be removed from outside of the platform without a key. Angle elements 6 are both on the outside and inside of these racks. At each end of a rack are two L-shaped angle irons 7 defining the last piece of each individual rack.

element in the form of a separator 8. The T-shapecl angle irons on the outside of the rack are supported at the top and bottom by a horizontal member 9 which runs across each individual rack. 'The 'T-shaped members forming the back of each rack and the retaining slides upon which the stacked cans are held extend from the top to the bottom, i.e., from the platform to the spacing member 10 at the top of the display device.

Suitable frame work exists within the movable platform so as to'support the cash drawers'll and to provide an inset desk on top of the cash drawers. The space on the inset desk may be used to house a credit card printer 12 or the like.

Each end. of the movable platform has a flat sheet 13 of metal, plastic, or the like made in a generally triangular configuration. Cut out of one end is space as shown in FIGURE 3 for the desk, cash drawers, and empty can receiver opening and a can and residue oil collector. Mounted in the top opening is the desk top 14 which lies over the cash drawers 11. In thetypical movable platform will be found four cash drawers 11 one above the other. These cash drawers 11 are supported by suitable conventional framework and each cash drawer is locked by the individual key and lock 15 as shown in FIGURE 1. Directly underneath the bottom cash drawer is the empty can receiver opening 16. This opening is closed by a small door 17 which opens outward. Thus when an empty can is placed in the door it can be slid into the can collector below. Underneath the empty can receiver opening 16 is a large opening 18 to allow for removal of the can and the residual oil collector 19 which is located on slides inside the movable platform. In this way the contents of the can collector can be dumped out at the end of each shift or at the end of each day.

On top of the desk and to one side is the credit card printer 12. There is'space enough beside the creditcard printer for a person to sign his name. In addition, this space .on the desk can be used for various bookkeeping functions such as signing of receipts, and totaling up the credits and debits'of a days work.

Since the invention is broad in its scope and not limited to the details described above it is understood that the limitations of the invention are only those defined in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A movable sales dispensing unit having a hollow body with substantiallyparallel side walls which are spaced apart by generally upright racks connected together and adapted to carry cans, said racks comprising several slides each of Which'has space for holding cans set one above the other in said slides, said racks including means preventing entry and removalof cans to and from the slides except at the tops and the lower ends of the slides, plural doors mounted at the bottoms of each of said racks, each door extending over the lower ends of several of said slides, single top doors mounted at the tops of said racks,'each opening to the topsv of all slides on their sides of the body, upper locks and lower locks coacting with said doors, so as to'prevent opening said doors when said doors are locked in closed position, said locks for said top doors being operable by a common key and said locks at the bottoms of said slides each being operable by a different key that is different than said common key.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 whereinvone of said side walls defines an opening with cash drawers mounted therein and each cash drawer has a lock opened by the same key as a corresponding lower lock of one of the doors mounted at the bottom of a rack.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2 wherein one of said side walls has another opening formed therein of suita-. ble size to. allow oil cans to be inserted and another opening below it is of size to allow removal of a collector.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1 in which wheels are pivotally mounted at each corner of the movable sales dispensing unit.

5. A device as in claim 1 in which said racks are con nected at their tops by a flat horizontal piece.

6. A device as defined in claim 1 in which said racks and the slides therein are inclined downwardly and outwardly from the top.

7. A device as defined in claim 1 in which said slides and the contents thereof are visible between said doors at the tops and bottoms of the slides.

8. A device as defined in claim 7 in which said racks and the slides therein are inclined'downwardly and outwardly from the=top and in whichsaid slides and the contents'thereof are visible between said doors at the tops and bottoms of the slides.v

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,550,457 8/1925 Sather 312-117 1,673,711 6/1928 Richeson 312-42 1,908,596 5/ 1933 Friernund 221-92 2,164,855 7/ 1939 Florence 232-21 2,432,455 12/ 1947 Smith 312-229 X 2,654,508 10/ 1953 Wright 222-112 CHANCELLOR E. HARRIS, Primary Examiner.

Claims

1. A MOVABLE SALES DISPENSING UNIT HAVING A HOLLOW BODY WITH SUBSTANTIALLY PARALLEL SIDE WALLS WHICH ARE SPACED APART BY GENERALLY UPRIGHT RACKS CONNECTED TOGETHER AND ADAPTED TO CARRY CANS, SAID RACKS COMPRISING SEVERAL SLIDES EACH OF WHICH HAS SPACE FOR HOLDING CANS SET ONE ABOVE THE OTHER IN SLIDES, SAID RACKS INCLUDING MEANS PREVENTING ENTRY AND REMOVAL OF CANS TO AND FROM THE SLIDES EXCEPT AT THE TOPS AND THE LOWER ENDS OF THE SLIDES, PLURAL DOORS MOUNTED AT THE BOTTOMS OF EACH OF SAID RACKS, EACH DOOR EXTENDING OVER THE LOWER ENDS OF SEVERAL OF SAID SLIDES, SINGLE TOP DOORS MOUNTED AT THE