US481903A - Coin signal-sounding device - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

O. W. HOLBROOK.

COIN SIGNAL SOUNDING DEVICE. No. 481,903. Patented Aug. 30, 1892.

6 WITNESSES Ofzaiie %gg raa7u .ziizorney 2 SheetsSheet 2.

(No Model.)

0. W. HOLBROOK.

00m SIGNAL SOUNDING DEVICE.

Patented Aug. 30, 1892.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES W. I'IOLBROOK, OF WINDSOR LOCKS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGN- MENTS, TO THE GRAY AUTOMATIC TELEPHONE PAY STATION COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

COIN SlGNAL-SOUNDING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 481,903, dated August 30, 1892.

Application filed November 28, 1890. Serial No. 372,848. (No model.)

To whom it y 007L067? guished from those in which the coin is used Beit known thatI, CHARLES W. HOLBROOK, for the purpose of making or breaking conof lVindsor Locks,in the county of Hartford tact in a line of connected wires depending and State of Connecticut, have invented cerupon electricity as the immediate means of 5 tain new and useful Improvements in Coin delivering a signal. The transmitter e is ad- Signal-Sounding-Devices, of which the followjustable as to elevation, being supported on ing is a full, clear, and exact description, a flexible arm. that is jointed so as to enable whereby any one skilled in the art can mak the mouthpiece e to be raised or lowered in and use the same. order to accommodate it to the height of the IQ The object of my invention is to provide a speaker using the telephone. Between this device by means of which a coin may be used mouthpiece e and a transmitter e a T f is into sound a signal in its passage along the troduoed, an inclined diaphragm f extending guideway or channel, means being provided diagonally from the bottom of theT and formto automatically prevent the use of an iming a deflector to deflect the sound that comes 15 proper coin and to keep those coins thathave through the extensible connection g from the served the purpose in sounding a signal sepasignal-box d to the transmitter e. This extenrate from those that have not been so'used sible connection is tubular and may be made after having been dropped into the apparaeither of a piece of flexible tubing or may be tus; and a further object is to provide a simmade in sections that are extensible, as by 20 ple and compactarrangementof coin-channels telescoping one within the other, or it may be and sounding devices in convenient form for slid in a socket in the top of the signal-box. use in connection with a telephone apparatus. This flexible connection provides for a certain My invention consists in the combination conveying of the sound from the signal-box 0f the several parts making up the apparatus to the transmitter while permitting a vertical 25 as a whole and in details of construction of adjustment of the latter.

the several parts, as more particularly herein- \Vithin the signal-box (Z there is arranged after described, and pointed out in the claims. a signal-plate h in an inclined position across Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a the box, the lower end of the coin-channel in View in side elevation of the apparatus in this plate delivering into a section 1' in the 0 connection with part of a set of telephone-indrawer, while other coins, that for the purstruments, part being broken away to show pose of description will be called false coins, construction. Fig. 2 is a detail view, in front will be delivered into a particular section 2" elevation, of the signal part. Fig. 3 is adetail in the money-drawer by means of the several view,in elevation, of the coin-trap. Fig.4 isa devices to be described. In this signal-plate 3 5 detail View, on enlarged scale, in cross-section h the several coin-channels are arranged side throughthe parts,illustratingtheconstruction by side in such position that the coins are inof the several channels and guideways looktroduced flatwise to the plate into the mouth ing toward the left from the plan of section. of the coin channel or cutin which the specific o Fig.5isa detail View, in cross-section, through coin belongs. In the form shown the receiv- 0 the signal-plate, looking toward the right. ingends of the several coin-channels are ar- In the accompanying drawings, the lettera ranged in line across the plate and in sucdenotes the back board, to which is secured oession, the coin representing ten cents havthe battery-box I) and the arm a that suping-the left-hand channel, as shown in Fig.2of 5 ports the transmitter and mouthpiece of a the drawings, with the five-cent channel next,

45 portion of a set of apparatus such as is used and the twenty-five and flfty cent and the onein connection with the telephone. A portion dollar channels following in succession. of the box I) is divided off to form a signal- The coin channels or guides are intended chamber (1, within which is the apparatus and are used for the purpose of directing the used to indicate by a signal the amount of coins in their fallagainst the bell orother sigmoney paid as toll for the use of the telenal-sounding devices thatare arranged so as phone. This signaling apparatus is one that to be struck by the coin in Its descent. To is operated by mechanical means as distinthe signal-plate are secured the bells 70 7t k k and a chime several of the bells projecting into two separate coin-channels. The bell 70, for instance, presents one edge in position to be struck by a ten-cent piece, while its other edge is presented in such position as to be struck by a five-cent piece, while each of the separate coins are moving in their appropriate guides or channels. The coin-channel appurtenant to the ten-cent piece is arranged so that the bell k is struck near the beginning of the descent of the coin, and at a later period of time the bell 7c is struck by the same coin, thus designating by the sounding of two separate signals the fact of the payment of the ten cents. The five-cent coin strikes but a single note to indicate the payment of that amount.

It is desirous that a certain interval of time should elapse between the striking of two signals by any given coin, and in order to provide for the necessary delay in the descending motion of the coin the opposite walls of the guideway or channel may be provided with a series of indentations, as shown in Fig. 2, so that a coin moving from one to the other across the channel is delayed in its descent a sufiicient time, depending upon the number of such indentations Z. Another means for providingfor the delay is illustrated in the curved channel or guideway provided for the fifty-cent piece, the coin, after having struck the first bell k following a zigzag course down the channel before it reaches the bell 7.2

In order to prevent any rattling of the coins in the channels or guideways, narrow tracks m are preferably provided, so that the coin is lifted out of contact as to the greater part of its surface with the side walls of the guideways. Several of the channels (those for the ten-cent, the fifty-cent, and the one-dollar coins) are all arranged practically on one side of the plate, while the channels for the five and twenty-five cent pieces deliver into a channel Z, that conducts the coin along the back of the plate, all of these channels, however, delivering the proper coin into a certain section 2'- of the money-box.

In order to prevent any coin but the proper one from being used to operate a certain signal, a series of traps n, a, n a and n" in the under walls of each of the guideways is provided, so that any false coin-that is, one that does not properly belong in the given channel-will drop through the trap and into a runway 0, through which it will be delivered into a section z in the money-box. These coins will be lost to any one attempting to use them, and the device has the further advantage of enabling the ownerof the toll-collect-ing apparatus to determine what coins have been used in payment for services actually rendered by the telephone company. As none of the false coins strike any signal, no service is rendered by the company on account of the payment of such coins into the tollbox. All of these several coin-channels are preferably formed in a single plate of some material, as metal, that is not subject to an undue amount of change under differences of temperature or weather, and the several signals, whether bells, chimes, or other sounding devices, are all preferably supported on a single plate, which maybe conveniently fitted into any desirable form of inclosi n g box. A cover h is provided that overlies the surface of the plate it, so as to form practicallya fourth wall for the several guideways, making the channels practically tubular in form, although so long as the channels answer the function as guides that direct and control the movement of the coins it is not material how they shall be formed as to the several sides.

In the operation of my device any one wishing to use the telephone rings up the central office, asks of the operator whether the desired connection can be made with a subscriber, and if the user is answered in the affirmative he then drops the amount of toll into the proper coin-channel, and the coin striking a signal indicates to the operator at the central oflice that the proper toll has been paid, the several coins being distinguished, as has already been described, either by a given note or by a given number of signals.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a telephone-toll collector, in combination, a signal-plate having a series of coin channels or guides located side by side across the plate, a trap for the passage of the false coins formed in the walls of the coin-channel and an outlet-channel extending from such traps, and a coin-box having separate receptacles appurtenant to the serviceable and the false coins, respectively, all substantially as described.

2. In a telephone-toll collector, a signalplate having a series of coin-channels arranged in succession across the plate, and the signal-bells projecting into one or more of the separate coin-channels, all substantially as described.

3. In a telephone-toll collector, a coin-channel having an irregular surface forming the eoin-retardin g device, and two or more signalbells proj eetin g into the path of movement of the coin and between which the retarding device is located, all substantially as described.

4:. In a telephone-toll collector, in combination, a transmitter borne on an adjustable arm, an extensible tubular connection having a deflector at the upper end and extending from the transmitter to the signal-box, the signal-box containing the coin-plate and coinreceiving drawer, and the coin-plate having a series of coin-channels arranged across the plate with traps and a separate out-let for false coins, the several bells secured to the signalplate, and the money-drawer divided into compartments to receive the separate classes of coins, all substantially as described.

CHARLES XV. HOLBROOK.

Witnesses:

CHAS. L. BURDE'IT, WM. MUSSER.

IIO

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