GB414069A - Improvements in or relating to prepayment mechanisms - Google Patents

Abstract

414,069. Prepayment mechanism for meters. BUTHERUS, F. R., and BRITISH SANGAMO CO., Ltd., Cambridge Arterial Road, Enfield, Middlesex. Jan. 24, 1933, Nos. 2304 and 5010. [Class 27.] In prepayment meter mechanism in which rent or other fixed charges is collected by a constant speed motor 1, the motor 1 through gearing 3 and pawl and ratchet gearing 5, 6 drives continuously a shaft 4 having fixed to it an arm 10 provided with a driving pawl 11 which engages the teeth of a ratchet wheel 9 and drives this through part of a revolution only, the period during which driving takes place being readily adjustable so that the amount of fixed charges collected is easily varied. The wheel 9 is in one with a braking wheel 8 engaged by a spring-pressed ball 106, and with a gear-wheel 7 from which the motion is transmitted through gearing 26, 29 and an arrears mechanism to one sun wheel of an epicyclic mechanism, the other sun-wheel being rotated after the insertion of a coin. The action is such that the constant speed motor returns the quantity mechanism which is set forward by a coin. The pawl 11 is normally held out of engagement with the wheel 9 by a spring 13, but during rotation an extension 17 thereon engages a fixed pin 19 to cause driving engagement. The wheel 9 is then driven until another extension 18 engages an adjustable pin 22. The pin 22 is on an arm 23 carried by a ratchet wheel 24 which can be turned by a screw-driver inserted in a slot 87 to a position corresponding to the fixed charge to be collected, which is indicated by markings on the wheel face. The shaft 4 may be rotated manually by a knob 88 through gearing 90, 91, to test whether the pawl 11 is correctly actuated by the pins 19, 22. A shaft 92 extending through the front plate of the meter and provided with a dial 94 is driven continuously by the motor 1 through gearing 93 which is chosen so that the dial 94 makes one complete revolution per hour if the motor 1 is working at its proper speed. This tests the speed of the motor. The shaft 4 through gearing 26, 27, 96, 97 drives a dial 98 graduated in pence per week. The gearing is so chosen that in a short period, say two hours, the dial indicates the amount of fixed charges collected in a week. Specification 347,794 is referred to.