US504312A - cieroll - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 18 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. CARROLL; OOIN CONTROLLED RACE COURSE.

N0. $04,312. V PatentedAug. 29', 1893.

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-(No' Model.) 18 Sheets-Sheet 6.

O. CARROLL. 00m, GONTROLLEURAGE 00111155.-

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18 Sheets-Sheet. 8.

.CARROLLQ COIN CONTROLLED RACE COURSE.

(No Model.)

Patented-Au 29, 1893.

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No. 504,312. Pat e n ted Aug. 29, 1893."

(N0 Model.) 18 Sheets-Shgt 11.

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COIN CONTROLLED RAGE 0011333. I I No; 504,312. Patented Aug. 29, 1893.

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.0. CARROLL. COIN CONTROLLED RACE COURSE.

No. 504,312; #iPatented Aug. 29, 1893.

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Patent-ed Aug. 29,1893.

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Patented Aug. 29, 1893.

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COINOONTROLLED RAGE GOURSE. No. 504,312.. Patented Aug. 29, 1893.

fIIllllllllllllllllllmflllllfl any desired number of horses, but I think the track is straight on each side and has its by the image of'a jockey, the whole being UNITED STATES PATE T. OFFIcE.

CHARLES CARROLL, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA, ASSIGNOR TO THE AUTOMATIC MACHINE COMPANY, LIMITED, OF SAME PLACE.

COIN-CONTROLLED RACE-COURSE.

SPECIFICATION forming part'of Letters Patent No. 504,312, dated August 29, 1893.

Application filed August 29, 1891.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES CARROLL, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented anew and Improved Coin-Controlled Race-Course, of which the following is a specification.

My object is to provide a machine which shall represent an ordinary horse race in miniature. By means of the mechanical devices. and appliances, of which I make use, certain figures or images, representing horses, start simultaneously as if setting out on a race, the speed of each being varied from time to time, and at the end of the race each is stopped almost or absolutely in line with the others, so as to have all in position for the ensuing race. The race-track may be circular, elliptical or in any desired form. In practice I have found the most satisfactory results when ends in a curved or circular shape. The images representing horses may be made of metal, papier mach, or any suitable material, and each preferably should have the form and position generally shown in pictures or engravings as representing a running horse. Each of these figures should be surmounted painted in suitable colors so as to represent actual life as near as may be. There maybe the most satisfactoryv results would follow from having six, seven or eight. In this application reference is made to a machine having four horses, but there will be no difficulty in understanding the construction of a machine with a larger or'smaller number, since the necessary changes and modifications amount merely to multiplying or decreasing the numbers of certain parts and are so slight as to suggest themselves.

Each image, by means of mechanism described hereinafter, is made to imitate the running or galloping motion of a horse, when running a race, the mechanism effecting this result being concealed from view. When the machine is in operation, each image is seen supported by a rigid upright piece on the top of which it rocks or oscillates, the image or horse deriving its running or galloping mo- Serial No, 404,113. (No model.)

tion from a vertically reciprocated rod connected at its upper end with the horse and at its lower end with suitable actuating mechanism to be hereinafter described. Suitable carriers support the uprights or standards upon which the horses are mounted together with the reciprocating rod, and also carry the actuating mechanism for said rod, there being one carrier for each horse in the race. These carriers travel in suitable channels or conduits formed parallel with, but beneath the surface of the track and they are moved in said channels by means of endless belts and driving pulleys. The belts travel in a series of lower conduits in which are also located the driving pulleys, which receive movement from a suitable source of power through the medium of a chance speed changing mechanism to be hereinafter described. The belts are provided with upwardly and downwardly extending projections, the former of which engages the carrier, while the latter is adapted to engage and operateacompound switch located beneath a certain point in the track. The compound switch comprises a set of make and break controlling electro magnets and the motor which are adapted to establish working connection between the driving gear and the belt driving pulleys. The projections on the belt may be at the same place or they maybe at different points in the belt. In practice, however, I have found the best results to follow when they are located at the same point and made in one piece.

It is possible to construct the machine so that each strip or bar attached to its belt can serve the double purpose of pulling along a horse and of stopping that horse at the desired point, say the termination of the race, but the arrangement suggested above is to be preferred. The belt passing from pulley to pulley, takes the form of a broken line made up of sections each beinga straight line, and, where the course is circular, the belt resembles a series of chords in an arc of a circle.

The greater the number of pulleys, the more nearly the belt becomes a perfect curve.

The groove provided for the carrier or mechanism which carries the horse and gives the running motion is rectangular in cross-section, but is straight or curved in its general direction according to the portion of the track under consideration. Where this groove is straight the belt is also straight, but where the groove is curved, the belt takes the shape of a broken line as explained. I prefer to place the belt so that the strip attached to it may move in the center of this groove, but

this cannot be the casein curves without having more pulleys than I desire, and on curves the belt does not always carry the strip or bar, which pulls along the mechanism carrying the horse, precisely in the center of the groovein question. Accordingly, the connection or coupling between the strip or bar and the carrier which it pulls along is made so as to give suitable play to the parts and allow the mechanism in question to be pulled smoothly and evenly along its uniformly circular groove by the bar moving with the belt on a broken line.

It is necessary to so arrange the mechanism that the machine as a whole shall start and all of the magnets shall be thrown in simultaneously at the commencement of each race, (starting the horses together) that each magnet shall retain its power until the horse to which it belongs reaches the end of the race; that, when this occurs, the circuit controlling the magnet in question shall be broken, (stopping that particular horse and that, when the last horse reaches the end of the race, the action of the entire machine shall cease.

Since the machine is moved by electricity, it is started and stopped by closing and opening an electric circuit. It is necessary, therefore, to provide a switch so arranged that, at the moment of starting five circuits shall be closed, one for the motor which operates the machine as a whole and the four others to close the circuits which govern the magnets above referred to. If there were five horses, then the switch would be required to open and close six circuits, one for the machine at large and one for each of the horses.

The compound switch comprises as many make and break devices as there are electromagnets and one more for the motor circuit. The magnets are equal in number to the horses in the race and eachis designed to establish and maintain connection between the power and the driving pulley of the particular horse controlled by said magnet. until the horse has finished the course. The working connections between the power and the driving pulleys include the speed changing device as will hereinafter appear.

The compound switch comprises a number of pivoted levers controlling the respective magnet circuits, and an additional pivoted lever or frame controlling the motor circuit, the latter lever or frame being so arranged that, when any one of the magnet switches energizes its magnet, then the motor circuit is closed. At the same time, this latter lever or frame can be moved so as to close the motor circuit without closing any of the magnet circuits. I-Ience the motor circuit can be closed and the general machinery kept in operation although none of the magnet circuits are closed; but, if any or all of the magnet circuits be closed then the motor circuit is also closed and remains so until each and all of the magnet circuits are open.

Each one of the magnet-controlling levers is provided with a detent which projects upward and these detents are adapted to be engaged by the hereinbefore mentioned downwardly projecting arms, on the respective driving belts. The respective levers will by this means be released, the individual circuits opened, the magnets de-energized, and the horses stopped as each arm strikes its detent and the horse arrives at the stopping-place. When the last horse arrives at the stoppingplace or when the arm of the belt which drives said horse reaches the detent, the lever controlling the motor circuit also operates to break the motor circuit so that the whole mechanism comes to a standstill.

In order to close all the circuits employed, simultaneously, a pivoted frame is made to engage, by one of its ends, all of the switch levers of the magnet circuits, while the opposite end is adapted for engagement by any form of operating mechanism or by hand.

In order to adapt the machine for operation by a coin, a suitable cam is arranged to be operated by a spring power and a detent for said cam mechanism is adapted to be disengaged by a coin dropped upon a tray or lever with which said detent is connected.

The changes of speed are etfected by cone pulleys. Motion is communicated to a suitable shaft, which by means of beveled gearing turns a numberof cone pulleys, the numher being the same as the number of horses. Each of these cone pulleys has a uniform or constant speed or velocity, during a race, all deriving their motion from the same shaft, but, compared with each other, they preferably differ in speed to adegrce corresponding with the difference in distances to be traveled by the several horses, the object being (disregarding the speed changing device) to have the cone pulleys cause all the horses to traverse the course in the same time. As there are differences in the distances traveled by the horses, there should be corresponding differences made in some part of the machinery, so that each horse, (when all are similarly situated and none is influenced by the speed changing device,) may make the course in the same, or approximately the same, time. It is easiest to arrange for these diflerences by modifications in the bevel gearing from the main shaft, but it may be made in the pulleys connecting the followers with the belt drivers, or in other parts of the machinery. The method of accurately adjusting the machine on this point will be explained later. Each one of these pulleys is connected by a belt with another cone pulley, which has its

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