US409126A - Moses c - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

M. O. SWEZEY. STORE SERVICE APPARATUS. No. 409,126. Patented Aug. 13, 1889.

N. PETERS, Plumb-Lithographer.WashingwmDIC.

UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

MOSES C. SW'EZEY, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE ACME CASH RAIINVAY CORPORATION, OF SAME PLACE.

STORE-SERVICE APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 409,126, dated August 13, 1889.

Application filed March 25, 1889.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, MOSES C. SWEZEY, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented new Improvements in Cash-Railway Apparatus; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connect-ion with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure 1, an illustration of a railway as heretofore constructed, and upon which this improvement is made; Fig.2, a like view of a railway, showing the apparatus with my improvements in the normal condition; Fig. 3, the same as Fig. 2, showing the apparatus as having just imparted the impulse to the car; Fig. 4, a detached top view of the weight; Fig. 5, a modification in the weight; Fig. 6, a side view of a portion of the upright wound with wire.

This invention relates to an improvement in the apparatus which is adapted to be arranged in stores and other places for the convenience of transferring cash or parcels from one point to another, commonly called cashrailways, and particularly to that class in which the railway is a wire drawn taut, and from which a'car is suspended, the wheels of the car running above the wire, the body of the car being below, the invention having special reference to means for giving an impulse to the car at one point, which will be sufficient to drive the car to its destination.

Before proceeding to particularly describe my improvement I will first describe the apparatus to which my invention specially relates.

A represents the wire which forms the track over which the car is to run. B represents a vertical support secured, say, to the ceiling above, and to which one end of the wire is attached, this post representing a station from which the car is to be sent to the cashier. To give the impulse to the car a cord a is attached to the track, as at b, and runs obliquely upward-say over a pulley d-and thence down, as represented in the illustration. The support B is tubular, and the cord runs down Serial No. 304,628. (No model.)

through the lower end,boing provided with a suitable handle, as e, for convenience of taking hold of the cord.

As the car approaches the support B it runs 5 5 onto the oblique cord at and draws it down onto the track, as indicated in broken lines, Fig. 1. This raises the handle e, as also seen in broken lines. Then, when it is desired to throw the car from this station, a pull is made upon the cord through the handle 6, tending to bring the cord into its straight line, as from b to (Z, and this rising of the cord gives an impulse to the car sufficient to throw it to its desired destination, but leaves the handle 6 5 in its down position. This is objectionable as being in the way of the clerks in the vicinity of the station, the up position being the pointwhere the handle must be when it is required to be used. It will be understood that the cord must be kept sufficiently taut for the car to run onto it; hence the handle serves as a weight to draw it up into the straight oblique position shown.

The object of my invention is to combine with this apparatus a device which will not only hold the cord in its proper relation to the track, but will also automatically raise the handle to its up position, and so that the handle will always stand in the proper position for pull whether or not the car be at that station; and the invention also has for its object to give an inclination to the track between two stations to insure the car running to its destination after it shall have received its impulse.

To this end the invention consists in the combination of mechanism, as hereinafter described, and particularly recited in the claims.

As in the first illustration, A represents the wire track, and B the support for the wire at the station, the support represented as secured upon the ceiling. This support is tubular and is made firm, so as to hold the track at the required tension. 5

a represents the cord for imparting the impulse to the car, and Z) the point of attachment, as in the first illustration; but, instead of running the cord (1 directly to a stationary pulleyd and thence down and having the han- 10o dle attached to the other end, the other end of the cord is made fast, say, to the track. and near the support, as at f, and it runs over a pulley g, which is attached to one end of a cord h, that runs over the pulley g and thence down, the handle 6 being applied to the other end of the cord 71. The cord 72, running over the pulley g, forms a loop '11 in the cord (1, and upon this loop a weight is applied, which, as here represented, consists of a frame I, carrying two pulleys m in, (see Fig. 4,) so that the said weight hangs upon the loop, tending to hold the two sides of the loop nearly parallel with each other when in the normal position, as seen in Fig. 2, and so that the cord a runs substantially parallel with the track A until the weight is reached, where it turns up through the weight over the pulley g and thence down, running through the weight to the fixed point f.

Now, it is evident that if the cord h be pulled down, as indicated in Fig. 3, the pulley Q will rise, and in so doing will tend to spread the loop i, which will cause the weight to rise, as seen in Fig. 3, until the desired inclination of the cord to is attained, the up position being represented in Fig. Thus raising the cord a will impart the impulse to the car, as in the first illustration; but after the impulse has been given, and as soon as the handle 6 is released, the weight will fall, running down upon the cord a and again forming the loop '11, as in Fig. 2. This will be sufiicient to raise the handle to the up position and leave the cord in its proper position to receive the car. Owing to this operation of the weight upon the cord the normal position of the handle is at its highest point instead of at its lowest point, as in the first illustration. y

In Fig. 2, 0 represents the car as advancing toward the station, and in Fig. 3 the same car is represented as just leaving the station under the impulse given to it through the cord a.

I have described the appliances a and 7). as cords; but it will be understood that chains, flexible wires, or other suitable material may be substituted therefor, and that by the term cord such equivalents are to be understood as included.

lVhile I prefer to make the weight which embraces the two runs of the cord below the pulleyg in the form of a frame, with two pulleys adapted to work upon the two runs of the cord, a weight I, in the form of a link, as in Fig. 5, may be employed, it simply sliding up and down upon the two runs of the cord.

The pulleys g and (Z are to be understood as devices of any suitable character over which the cords may run freely.

To give to the track an inclination which, after the car has been started under the initial impulse, will insure the running of the car to the end of its route,I make the connection between the track A and the upright movable on the upright, and this connection is best made in the form of a carriage D, arranged to run on the surface of the upright on the side opposite the track, with connections E from the track around the upright to the carriage, and so that the strain of the track comes directly upon this carriage, the carriage being provided with wheels, so that it may run vertically on the upright and carry that end of the track with it up or down, as the case maybe. I then connect the track with the cord 71. by another cord F, which is of a length so that the pull of the cord h will not come to a pull upon the track until the impulse is completed, or during the last part of the impulse. As here represented, the connection is such that the cord becomes taut just as the impulse is completed. Now, a further pull upon the cord 71. will retain its strain upon the cord (1, and at the same time will draw that end of the track upward to the position indicated in broken lines, Fig. 3, and thereby give to the track an inclination in the direction in which the car is running, and so that the car starting under the impulse will move rapidly over the track with the certainty of reaching its destination should the impulse not have been quite sufficient to drive it to that destination had the track been level. \Vhen the cord is released, the weight l comes down, as before, drawing with it the cord 71, which slackens the strain upon the track, leaving the track free to descend by its own gravity, the carriage being weighted sufiiciently to insure the return of the track to its down position.

The connection between the track and the cord h may be made directly, as I have described, oi' indirectly say as to the weight as indicated in broken lines, Fig. 2.

A suitable stop, as G, should be provided on the upright to arrest the descent of the carriage, so that the track will be supported in its proper position.

It will be understood that the track is provided with a like arrangement at both ends, so that the movement of the carriage will be facilitated by the inclination in both going and coming. This inclination of the track is specially desirable where the apparatus is used for transferring packages.

The weightl is not essential to the combined impulse-giving and track-raising device, although I prefer to employ the weight, as described.

It is desirable to provide means for retaining the carriage D in its elevated position without being necessarily held there by the operator. The upright B is usually made from metal tubing. I wind upon the surface of the upright wire, as indicated in Fig. 6, I representing the wire, also seen in Figs. 2 and 3, which produces a roughened surface, over which the wheels of the carriage will run, and the wire, making an uneven surface, will serve to hold the carriage at any position to which it may be raised untilit is returned by a pull thereonsay by means of a cord 11, which extends into convenient reach for the operator.

I claim- 1. In a cash-railway apparatus which consists of a track composed of a wire, with a car suspended from wheels upon the track, the combination therewith of a cord at, attached by one end to the track at a point distant from the station and upon which the wheels of the car may run as it approaches the station, the other end of the said cord attached at the station, the said cordbeing of greater length than the distance between its two points of attachment, a suspended pulley g, over which the said cord 0, runs between its two points of attachment, a cord h, running from said suspended pulley over a pulley above and thence down to convenient reach for the hand, and a weight applied to the cord at between the said pulley g and the points where the cord at is attached, said weight adapted to embrace the two runs of the cord a below the said pulley g, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. In a cash-railway apparatus, the combination of the wire track A, the upright B, from which the track extends, a carriage D, arranged to run vertically on said upright, that end of the track being secured to said carriage, a cord at, attached by one end to the track at the upright and by the other end at a point b distant from said upright, a cord h, running over a pulley above, one end eX- tending downward and carrying a pulley over which the said cord 60 passes the other end of the cord extending down and provided with convenient means for pulling upon said cord, the said cord h having an extension F in connection with said track at the upright, substantially as and for the purpose described.

MOSES C. SWEZEY.

Vi tn esses:

FRED (J. EARLE, 'LILLIAN D. KELsEY.

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