US544077A

US544077A - Coin signal apparatus for telephone pay-stations

Info

Publication number: US544077A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1895-08-06
Anticipated expiration: 1912-08-06

Description

' .(No Model.)

S. ALEXANDER. COIN SIGNAL APPARATUS FOR TELEPHONE PAY STATIONS;

Patented Augf6, 1895.

NEED STATES tron.

PATEN COIN SIGNAL APPARATUS FOR TEL EPHONE PAY-STATIONS.

SPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 544,0. '7, dated August 6, 1895. Application filed November 13, 1893. Serial No. 490,739. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL ALEXANDER, of Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Coin Signal Apparatus for Telephone Pay-Stations, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact descripcoin-channels.

tion, whereby anyone skilled in the art can make and use the same.

My invention relates to the class of apparatus which are intended for use in connection with a set of telephone-instruments for the purpose of indicating to the central office the prepayment of a toll charged for the use of the instrument. 1

The object of my invention is to provide a signal apparatus of this general class which shall be simple and few in its parts and arranged to give a signal that. can be clearly heard and understood, while not requiring the use of complicated sounding devices.

To this end my invention consists in the details of the several parts making up the apparatus as a whole and in the combination of such parts, as more particularly hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a detail front view of a set of telephone-instru ments. Fig. 2 is a detail edge View, with the lower part of the back board and the signalbox out in section to show a portion of the Fig. 3 is a detail edge View, in section, of the signal-box, showing another of the coin-channels. Fig. 4 is a top View, in section, of the signal-box,'showing the construction of the signal devices. Fig. 5 is a detail edge view,in section, of the signal-box, showing another of the coin-channels.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter a denotes a back board, such as is commonly used to support the magneto call-bell b, the telephone-c, the transmitter d, and the wires which connect the several instruments in the set.

A signal-box e is secured to the back board, which preferably forms, also, the back wall of the box, and coin guides or channelsfare arranged within the box, extending, preferably, from the cover g, in which slots are made to give access to the mouth of each guide or channel. Eachv of these guides is so arranged as to allow a coin of a given directly.

denomination and size introduced intothe mouth of the channel tofall by the force of gravity more or less freely and directly, so as to be thrown against the'wall of the signalbox, and preferably the back wall, with a force depending on the momentum of the coin. The noise made by the sharp contact of the coin with the inner wall of the sigual-box is conducted at once through such walls to the transmitter and the wires which convey the sound to the central station. In order to vary the sound caused by the coin in striking the wall of the box, a hollow space h maybe made in the wall and covered with a plate 2' of any suitable material, and such cavity and striking-plate are located in such position that the coin is thrown directly against the plate. In the side view of the apparatus, as shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, a coin, as a five-cent piece, falling through the guide f strikes the back board and drops intothe money-receptacle at the bottom of the box. Another coin, as a ten-cent piece, falling through the channel f strikes the plate in front of the cavity and then falls into the box. Another guide f (shown in Fig. 3) may have several openings, so that the coin, first striking against the wall of the box, rebounds, strikes again against the wall opposite the cavity, and then drops into the box. Another channel f may be arranged so that the coin strikes firstagainst the back board at 1-, rebounds and strikes again at 2, and from that rebounds and strikes again at 3, the cavity being located at 2 and the coin encountering the plain surface of the box at the points 1 and 3.

My invention contemplates providing the surface of the wall with striking-plates of different materials to intensify or deaden or to change the sound produced by the contact of the coin, but not to act as signals to give out any distinct note, like a bell.

An important feature of my invention resides in utilizing the conductivity of the back board or of the wall of the box connected directly to the back board as a means of conveying the sound produced by the sharp contact of a coin with such inner Wall or surface The insertion of a striking-plate in front of a cavity or securing it directly upon the surface of the inner- Wall comes within and is a part of this main idea.

If necessary to gain the needed impetus.

each coin guide or channel may be arranged so as to wind from side to side of the box before the lower end is reached, this lower end or opening in the lower end of the channel being so directed as to discharge the coin, however, against the wall of the box or of the striking-plate secured to it.

My invention contemplates also the use of a hammer tripped by the weight of a falling coin and with its end held so as to strike a more or less sharp blow against the wall of the box.

The signal-box is provided with a sufiicicnt number of coin channels or guides to receive the coins of different denominations, usually of five, ten, twenty-five, fifty cent, and dollar pieces, one or more of the coins being used in the payment of the toll required.

In order to prevent the use of the wrong coin in any given guideway or channel an opening through the side of the guideway is made of a size a little less than the diameter of the coin, which is so placed in the guideway as to roll along it edgewise, this opening being such as will cause a false coin to fall out, while a coin of the proper diameter will pass readily through along the guideway and beyond the trap 7t", and will then reach the more sharply-inclined portion of the guideway, down which it then moves rapidly and through which it is discharged against the sounding-board.

In order to prevent a coin dropped into the guideway from rebounding from the bottom of the guideway or channel, the inner portion of the guideway is inclined backward slightly, as shown in Fig. 3 of the drawings, this backwardly-inclined feature preventing any rebounding of the coin such as would enable it to bound past the trap 70.

In the operation of my device a person wishing to use the telephone at the pay-station rings up the central office, calls for the person wauted,'and if the wire is not otherwise in use the operator at the central office directs a certain amount to be paid as toll. That amount is then inserted in the upper end of the proper coin-channel and in its fall strikes the wall of the box and transmits the signal to the central station, as described.

My invention greatly simplifies the devices heretofore used for the purpose of sounding signals within a signal-box of this class and obviates the necessity of any special signalsounding device, as a bell or chime.

I claim as my invention- 1. In a signal sounding device for a telephone pay station, in combination, a backboard, a signal box secured thereto and having a cavity in the wall of the box, a coin guide or channel having an opening through the wall of the box and its lower end directed so as to discharge a coin against the cover plate of the cavity, all substantially as described.

2. In a signal sounding device for a telephone pay station, in combination, a backboard, a signal box secured thereto, a cavity in the inner wall of the box having a cover plate, and an open guide or channel havinga series of openings adapted to throw the coin in succession and in alternation against the surface of the box and the cover plate of the cavity, all substantially as described.

3. In combination in a coin signal device for telephone pay stations, a back-board, a signal box secured to said board, a coin channel having a backwardly inclined inlet, the substantially horizontal run with trap in the side wall, and an inclined runway with its mouth adapted to discharge the coin against the inner Wall of the signal box, all substantially as described.

SAMUEL ALEXANDER.

\Vitnesses:

Cans. L. BURDETT, Q. B. JENKINS.