US2769517A - Periodic coin collector - Google Patents

Description

PERIODIC COIN COLLECTOR Filed April 27, 1951 3 SheetsSheet 1 74 o o o 4-H z 9142 4 JNVENTOR. 7 7/4 1071?! L KE/9.50M,

14 I 24/4 12 i-L W. L. HUDSON PERIODIC COIN COLLECTOR 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Nov. 6, 1956 Filed April 27, 1951 HPPLIF E INVENTOR. 110M L f/upsan;

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United States Patent PERIODIC COIN COLLECTOR William L. Hudson, Fort Wayne, End. Application April 27, 1951, Serial No. 223,190 Claims. (Cl. 194-9) This invention relates to periodic coin collectors, adapted to be connected to an electrical product to receive agreed payments in coin from the purchaser of the product, and to permit operation thereof only when the agreed payments have been paid. The collector of this invention involves certain improvements of and over the collector shown in my prior Patent No. 2,310,089.

Periodic coin collectors have a wide usefulness in the sale of various electrical devices, which have electrical operating or control circuits, especially in the sale of electric home appliances, such as refrigerators, radio receivers, television receivers, home laundry equipment, etc. These various appliances sell at widely differing prices and their conditions of operation vary widely. For example, a refrigerator normally is kept in continuous operation and requires continuous connection to an electric circuit; radio and television receivers may be used frequently or infrequently; and home laundry equipment may be used only once a week. The differences in price and conditions of use involve variations not met by previously available coin collectors.

It is an object of my invention to provide a periodic coin collector which is flexible in use and is adaptable to widely differing conditions of installation, especially one which is suitable for use with devices which may be used infrequently; and to provide a number of improvements over prior coin collectors. My new collector permits the amount collected per day to be varied widely and in fractional increments of the value of the coins used, to take account of the varying prices of electrical products in connection with which it may be used. The collector renders its connected appliance inoperative if regular payments are made, and it regularly debits the purchasers account, so that if the purchaser fails to make regular payments, he is required to complete past-due payments before the coin collector puts the appliance back into operative condition. The collector is arranged to hold coins fiatwise in a control stack of large capacity, and provides both for a relatively large number of debit operations and for a relatively large number of advance payments.

In the coin collector of my prior patent, the operation provided a dead period of fixed length and frequency, which occurred daily as the mechanism removed a coin from the stack of coins in the collector, and during which the connected appliance was rendered inoperative. While this has certain advantages in some installations, for general use the inflexibility of a fixed dead period is of disadvantage. It is an object of my present invention to provide a coin collector which can be set to provide no dead period, but which, alternatively, will provide a dead period which can be varied both as to length and frequency. This permits the coin collector to provide, for example, automatic defrosting of a connected refrigerator, by breaking the circuit to the refrigerator during a period of selected length either every day or every econd day. This is of economic advantage to the appliance dealer, for it makes the coin collector device of intrinsic value to the purchaser of the refrigerator as an automatic defrosting unit which he may wish to buy. After the refrigerator is paid for, the collector may be adjusted to require no coin deposit, and may be left connected to the refrigerator as an automatic defrosting control.

in the collector of my prior patent the ejection of coins from the coin chute was by direct thrust from a motor-driven rotor. In my present coin collector, coin ejection can be effected either under power actuation of a motor-operated rotor or by the spring-actuated return stroke of an ejection member which is cocked by the motor-driven rotor.

My present invention provides a coin follower to effect substantially positive movement of coins through the mechanism, and which may also carry a visible scale to indicate the amount of advance payments which have been made.

in prior coin collecting mechanism it has been found that the heat generated by the electrical mechanism within the selector tends to attract roaches and other bugs into the coin collector box, and these often render the mechanism inoperative. I exclude such bugs by providing a gate at the coin deposit slot of my new collector, and otherwise closing its housing, and I actuate the gate by the coin-follower so that coins can be deposited only when the coin-follower is in position to permit proper entry of coins.

In accordance with my invention, a coin collector mechanism is enclosed in a housing having openings in which the electric lines may be sealed and having a coin deposit slot normally closed by a gate. A cylindrical holder receives the deposited coins, and holds a considerable number of coins flat-wise in a stack. A coin follower bears against one end of the stack of coins and tends to move the coins toward the opposite end of the holder. The follower desirably ha an exterior manually-operable handle, which may carry a payment indicating scale. To prevent application of excess forces on the mechanism through the follower, it may be yieldingly collapsible. Desirably, the follower handle also controls the gate, so that the follower will be retracted when the gate is open.

The coin holder holds a predetermined minimum number of coins, whose absence represents past due payments, and holds a number of additional coins whose presence represents advance payments. A switch-controlling member engages the stack of coins, and maintains the switch closed when there are more than the minimum number present, and opens the switch when there are less than the minimum number present in the stack. The switch in turn controls the operation of the connected appliance.

A synchronous-motor driven rotor, making one revolution every two or more days, is provided with a circumferential series of a plurality of pin-receiving holes to selectively receive such number of pins or other coin ejection effecting members as may be required for the desired operation. A coin ejection slide, spring-pressed in one direction, is actuated or cocked in the other direction by each pin on the rotor. On each actuation, it ejects the bottom coin from the stack, either on the pin-actuated stroke or on its spring-pressed return, according to its arrangement.

The rotor also carries one or more switch-opening members, as in the form of spring-pressed fingers, desirably having operative and inoperative positions, which when in operative position are effective during a variable predetermined portion of their travel to open a switch in the appliance control circuit. A single switch may be used both for this purpose and for coin-actuation. Preferably, I use a switch comprising two flexible blades or arms, with normally open contacts on the two arms, and arrange the coin actuated cam to move one toward the second, and arrange the spring-pressed finger to retract that second from the first. A control handle projecting through the wall of the housing is desirably also connected to retract that second contact blade from the first, to permit the userto open the control circuit manually.

The driving motor for the rotor is not controlled by such switch, however, but is connected for continuous operation, so that whether or not the appliance-control circuit is closed, the rotor continues to effect regular ejection of coins from the stack.

The accompanying drawings illustrate my invention. In such drawings, Fig. l is a front elevation of the coin collector box with its front cover removed and with certain parts shown in section; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the coin-slot gate; Fig. 3 is a horizontal section taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a front elevation similar to Fig. 1 but with the switch and coin holder removed to expose the underlying parts; Fig. 5 is a plan view of the coin ejection slide mechanism of Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive, in which coin ejection occurs on the driven stroke of the ejector; Fig. 6 is a corresponding plan of an alternative coin ejector slide mechanism, in which coinejection occurs on the spring-actuated return stroke of the ejector; Fig. 7 is a sectional view of a preferred form of coin-follower; Fig. 8 is a front elevation of the switch and certain associated parts; Fig. 9 is a fragmental front elevation showing the circuit interrupting mechanism; and Fig. 10 is a wiring diagram.

In the coin collector shown in the drawings, the coin collecting mechanism is enclosed in a housing 10 having a close fitting removable front cover 12 which may be locked in place by a keeper 14 controlled by a tumbler lock 16. In the bottom of the housing there is an opening 18 surrounded by a tight fitting grommet 19 to pass the electrical supply cord 20 by which the collector may be connected in sealed relation to an outlet receptacle. The box contains a receptacle 22 to receive the plug of the electrical cord 26 leading to the connected appliance. Desirably, the cord 26 is led into the box 10 through a split rubber grommet 24 received in a notch at the front edge of a side wall, and is held in sealed engagement therein by the cover 12.

Coin collector mechanism The collector housing is divided transversely by a frame wall 31), which forms a support for the collector mechanism. A synchronous electric motor 32a clock motor-is mounted behind the wall 30, and has an output shaft projecting therethrough and driven at a speed of one revolution every two days. A disk-shaped rotor 34 is mounted on the shaft, and this desirably carries a circumferential series of hour mark which may be read in cooperation with an index notch 36in the wall 30. The rotor 34 is provided with a series of circumferentiallyspaced threaded holes 38, preferably eight in number as shown, for the reception of one or more ejector-actuating pins 41 as may be desired under the conditions of installation. In front of the rotor 34 there is a cylindrical coin stack holder 42, shaped at the top to receive coins from a coin chute 44 disposed diagonally above and to one side of the stack holder 42. Coins of proper denomination inserted through coin slot 46 in the top wall of the housing 10 drop onto the coin chute 44 and are discharged therefrom diagonally into the stack holder 42. The collector shown is designed for use with 25- cent coins. The chute 44 may have a central opening beneath the coin slot 46, to permit under-size coins to drop through to the bottom of the housing.

The coins entering the holder 42 from the coin chute stack themselves flat-wise therein, and the holder is tall enough to contain a stack of thirty or more coins. A switch-actuating cam 50 is disposed midway of the height of the coin stack holder 42, where it will be deflected laterally by a coin lying in the stack at its level. About half of the coins will lie below the cam 50 and the rest above the cam 50.

A coin ejector 51 removes the bottom coin of the stack each time it is actuated by a pin on the rotor 34. In the mechanism shown in Figs. 1 to 5 inclusive, the bottom edge of the frame plate 30 is bent forward to form a horizontal platform 52 underlying the coinholder 42, and immediately above and at the rear of that platform 52 there is a coin-ejector guide rod 54 supported in forwardly bent ears 55 at the sides of the frame plate 30. A center ear 56 also struck forwardly from the plate 39 supports the middle of the guide rod 54 and forms an abutment to take the reaction of an ejector return spring 53. The coin ejector 51 is slidably mounted on this rod 54 as by a pair of cars 60 at its ends. Its bottom wall projects forward to form an ejector plate 62 slidably resting on the platform 52 and normally lying below the stack holder 42 in position to support the coins therein. The spring 58 is compressed between the righthand car 69 of the coin ejector slide and the abutment car 56, and urges the coin ejector slide to the right.

An arm 64 extending to the right from the left-hand car 69 of the coin ejector slide supports a pawl 66 in the path of the pins 4% on the rotor 34. The rotor moves clockwise, and as each of its pins 40 strike the pawl 66, the coin slide is thereby moved to the left to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 5. This carries its plate 62 out from under the coins and permits the coin stack to drop the thickness of one coin onto the platform 52. As the pawl-actuating pin 40 then releases the pawl 66, the spring-actuated return stroke of the coin slide ejects the bottom coin from the stack and deposits that coin in the bottom of the collector box 10 or in a receptacle therein.

In the alternative arrangement of Fig. 6, the coinejector plate 62' normally liesto the right of the coin stack, and the coins rest on the underlying shelf 52. In this case, the bottom coin is pushed from the stack on the driven stroke of the ejector 51.

In both ejector-slide arrangements, the slide 51 carries a depending finger 59, accessible when the housing cover 12 is removed, by which the slide may be operated to eject coins manually.

To insure that the stack of coins in the holder 42 will drop onto the platform 52 when the coin ejector plate is thus withdrawn from beneath the stack, the stack is desirably weighted with a coin-follower 68, mounted for free sliding movement axially of the stack holder 42. with its upper end projecting through the upper wall of the collector box 10. In its normal lowered position, it rests on the top coin of the stack and its weight supplements the weight of the coins, tending to move them downward in the stack holder when the supporting ejector plate 62 is withdrawn. Additionally, the coinfollower may be spring-biased downward, but the down ward force should be limited to avoid binding the ejector against its desired operation. The upper projecting end of the coin-follower 68 permits it to be raised manually to clear the upper end of the holder 42 for the reception of coins. Such projecting end may he graduated as with marks 69 to indicate the number of coins in the stack on which the follower 68 rests.

Since the coin follower 68 is accessible for manipulation by the purchaser of the connected appliance, it is l desirable to avoid the possibility that downward pressure on such follower 68 would damage the ejector mechanism or bind it against its intended operation. To this end, the coin follower 68 is desirably made in two collapsible parts as shown in Fig. 7. The upper member 70 I of the follower is hollow and telescopically receives the headed lower member 71. A cam member fixed on the lower end of the upper member '70 by threads and a set screw 72 provides a shoulder to engage the head of the lower member and retain the two parts together. A light spring 73 urges them to extended position under normal conditions. Downward pressure on the projecting end of the upper member 70 while the lower end of the follower rests on the stack of coins merely compresses the light spring 73 and telescopes the two parts together, and it is impossible by such pressure to exert suflicient force on the coins or the structure which supports them to damage or otherwise interfere with the proper operation of the coin ejection mechanism.

As has been noted, the coin box 10 is desirably closed against entrance of bugs, which are attracted by the heat of the motor 32. To this end, the openings through which the electric wires pass are sealed by the close fitting grommets 19 and 24. The coin slot 46 is normally closed by a gate shown in Fig. 2. This comprises a slide 74 underlying the top wall of the box 10 and having a portion 75 which normally lies beneath coin slot 46 to close it. The slide 74 is spring pressed by the spring 76 toward closed position-to the right in Figs. 1 and 2. The slide has a tongue 77 extending through a supporting flange 79 toward the coin follower 68, and its movement to the right is limited by engagement of a pair of shoulders 78 at the base of that tongue 7'7 with such supporting flange. To move the gate 74 to open the coin slot as the coin follower 68 carries a cam 80, which when the follower 68 is raised engages the tongue 77 of the gate 74 and moves it to open position. This arrangement ensures that whenever the coin-slot 46 is opened, the coin follower 68 will be in raised position where it will permit the deposited coins to properly enter the stack holder 42.

Switch mechanism The coin-actuated cam 58 controls the operation of the connected appliance, through a switch shown in Figs. 1 and 8. Such switch comprises a pair of flexible contact arms 82 and 83 supported in spaced relation on an insulating block 84 and provided at their free ends with a pair of normally-open switch contacts 85. The normally stationary contact arm 82 is desirably supported against movement toward the movable contact arm 83 by a relatively stifi bar 86, and its lower end carries an insulating button 87 for purposes to be described below. The cam 50 is carried by a third flexible arm 83 spaced from the contact arm 83 by an insulating button 89. Movement of the cam-carrying arm 88 toward the contact arms 82 and 83 carries their contacts 85 into engagement. The three flexible arms 82, 83, and 88 exert relatively light resistance to movement of the cam t), so that the weight of a single coin at the level of the cam 50 will move that cam outward against that light resistance, and carry the arm 82 toward the arm 83 to cause engagement of the contacts 85.

As is shown in the wiring diagram, Fig. 10, the switch contacts 85 are connected to the electrical supply line 20 in series with the receptacle 22 to which the electrical applicance cord 26 is connected, and the appliance circuit is thus connected to the electrical supply line only when the switch 85 is closed. The synchronous motor 32 which drives the rotor 34 is directly connected across the electrical supply line 20 so that it is continuously energized so long as the supply line 20 is connected to a source of current.

Coin collector operation When the appliance is installed, the dealer adjusts the coin collector to require the agreed payments and mounts it in a fixed position on or near the appliance, connecting the electrical supply line 20 to an outlet receptacle and suitably sealing this connection to deter its disconnection by the purchaser, and he sets the rotor 34 to the time of day. He then brings the appliance cord 26 into the box through the sealing grommet 24 and the notch at the front edge of the side-wall, and connects the cord 26 to the receptacle 22. The appliance is thus connected to the purchasers house current through the collector and under the control of the collector switch 85. A stack of slugs may then be deposited in the lower part of the coin holder 42 to bring the stack therein up to the level of the switch-controlling cam 69. The upper slug of the stack will deflect the 50 to the right, to close the switch contacts 85 and to energize the connected appliance. The dealer then closes the box 10 with the cover 12 and locks the cover in place, and this in turn locks the cord 26 in its entering notch. Both the collector and the connected appliance are now ready for operation.

For use of the connected appliance, whether continuous as in the case of a refrigerator or periodically as in the case of home laundry equipment, the purchaser must replenish coins in the coin holder 42 at the same rate that such coins are ejected from the bottom of the stack of such coins. To so replenish the stack, the purchaser deposits the necessary coin or coins through the coin-slot 46 of the collector. In so doing, he raises the coin follower 68 to the position shown in Fig. 1, where it clears the upper end of the holder 42 and where its cam moves the coin slot gate 74 to open the coin slot 46. He then inserts the necessary coin or coins through the slot 46. Coins of proper size-quarters in the device shownwil1 engage the coin slide 44 and will be dis charged thereby into the holder 42.

The rate of coin ejection, and hence the required rate of payment, is determined by the number or" pins 49 inserted in the threaded holes 38 in the rotor 34. Each day, the rotor 34 makes one-half revolution, to carry four of the threaded holes 38 past the coin ejector pawl 66. It may carry from one to four pins in those holes. As each such pin is carried by the rotor 34 past the position of that pawl 66, it moves the dog and the coin ejector slide to the right and then permits it to return under the influence of the spring 58. Whether the coin ejector plate of Fig. 5 or that of Fig. 6 is used, this operation ejects from the bottom of the stack of coins the lowermost coin of that stack, and the weight of the remainirx coins and of the coin follower 63 will lower the stack by the thickness of one coin. With a single pin 48 in the group of four holes 38 which passes the pawl 66 each day, the mechanism will thus eject and collect one coin per day 25 cents per day. With only one pin 45 in the eight holes 38 of the rotor 34, the device would collect only 25 cents every two days at the rate of 12 /2 cents per day. With a total of eight holes 38 in the rotor, the dealer can insert from one to eight pins as and thus can set the coin collector to collect at any rate between 12 /2 cents per day and $1.00 per day, in increments of 12%. cents. The coin collector may thus be adjusted for the collection of payments at widely differing rates depending upon the total amount to be collected and the total period over which collection is to be made.

The purchaser may make regular daily deposits, or may make payments in advance. Coins paid in advance accumulate in the stack of coins in the holder 42, to raise the level of the stack above the cam 54), and the graduations 69 on the coin follower 623 will indicate the number of coins paid in advance. With a high stack of advancepaid coins, the coin ejection mechanism progressively lowers the stack by successive ejections of the bottom coin. During those operations, the cam 50 simply rides along the surface of the stack of coins and is maintained in switch-closing position so long as there is any coin at the level of that cam 578. When the stack falls below that level, cam 58 then moves inward, to open the switch S5 and render the connected appliance inoperative until the stack of coins has been replenished up to the level of that cam 50.

If the purchaser fails to maire the agreed payments and leaves the connected appliance inoperative, the coin ejection mechanism nevertheless continues to remove coins from the bottom of the stack, and in effect debits the purchasers account whether or not the agreed payments are made. When the purchaser again wishes to put the connected appliance into operation he must insert a sufiicient number of coins to meet the payments which have been thus debited against his account and to bring the stack of coins back up to the level of the cam 50.

The provision for making payments in advance is of convenience to the purchaser, especially when the connected appliance is one such as a refrigerator which should be maintained continuously in operative condition. Thus, if the purchaser is to be away for a number of days, he can make advance payments and the connected appliance will be maintained in operative condition for a corresponding period. For example, if the agreed payment is a day, the purchaser can pay in advance as many as fifteen quarters, and these will maintain the connected appliance in operative condition for fifteen days.

The provision for past due collections-for debiting the account of the purchaser-is a convenience and a safeguard to the dealer, and makes the coin collector adaptable for the sale of appliance which are normally used infrequently, such for example as home laundry equipment which may be used only once a week. Thus, if the connected appliance is used but once a week, the purchaser may forget or neglect to insert coins regularly to make the agreed daily payments. The device permits him to do this, but requires that all of the past-due payments be paid before the connected appliance may be put into operation.

Automatic defrosting With some appliances, it is desirable to open the circuit to the appliance for a predetermined period each day. In the ease of a refrigerator, a short dead period occurring regularly will produce automatic defrosting, and prevent accumulation of ice on the freezing unit, yet without permitting any undue rise of temperature within the refrigerator. With other appliances, it may be desirable to provide dead periods at regular times, as in the case of the device of my prior Patent No. 2,310,089, where a dead period normally occurring at night was used to discourage tampering with the normal operation of the coin collector. My present coin collector provides for regular periods of interrupted operation, and provides for adjustment of the length of such periods.

As is shown in Figs. 4-, 8, and 9, a cam plate 100 mounted adjacent the switch 82-35 is arranged for actuation at predetermined times to open the switch 85 for variable periods. This cam plate 100 is mounted for generally pivotal movement by means of a U-shaped leaf spring 101 one end of which is fixed to a support 102 and whose opposite end forms a flange 103 lying opposite the end of the insulator button 07 carried by the switch blade 82. Movement of the cam-plate 100 to the right will carry its flange 103 against the button 87 and retract the switch arm 82 to open the switch S5.

To provide for opening the switch manually, an ear 108 at the right edge of the plate 100 is pivotally connected to a handle 110 which extends outward first through a slot in a wall 111 carried by the frame 30, and then with an offset through the outer wall of the box 10. As is shown in the dotted line position in Fig. 8, the handle 110 may be pulled out mannually and depressed to engage its shoulder 11?. against the outer surface of the side wall of the box 10, which locks the cam-plate 100 in switchopening position.

The cam-plate 100 may also be moved automatically to open the switch at predetermined times and for varying periods. The upper portion of the cam plate 100 is formed to provide an arcuate cam surface 104 presented toward the axis of the rotor 34. Two opposite spokes of the rotor 34 are each punched to provide a J-shaped slot 114 for the reception of a forwardly bent finger 116 at the free end of a U-shaped spring 118. Each U-shaped spring 118 bears at its inner end against the hub 35 of the rotor 34, and the spring tends to maintain its finger 116 in the outermost end of its J-shaped slot 114, where it will be carried against the cam surface 104 to move the cam- 8 plate outward and cause its flange 103 to open the switch. To render the spring inoperative to open the switch 85, its finger 116 may be manually retracted and engaged in the notch 119 at the inner end of the J-shaped slot.

Preferably, and to provide for varying the length of the dead periods produced by the action of the springs 116-118, a vertically adjustable plate 106 overlaps the upper edge of the cam plate 100, in the path of the fingers 116 as they approach the cam surface 104. Such plate 106 is carried by a slide 107 bearing a series of graduations to guide its adjustment, and the slide is adjustably carried by the mounting wall 142 of the coin holder 42. A screw 109 secures the slide in adjusted position.

Defroster operation To provide for a dead period once each day, the two spring fingers 116 are allowed to ride in the far ends of the J-shaped slots 114. If one dead period every two days is desired, one of the spring fingers 116 is engaged in the notch 119 at the inner end of the J-shaped slot while the other is left in operative position. As a finger 116 is carried by the rotor 34 toward the cam surface 104, it first engages the vertically adjustable plate 106, and rides downward along the surface of that plate and moves inward in its slot 114. As the finger passes the end of the adjustable plate 106, it springs outward to the end of its slot 114 and engages the cam surface 104, moving the cam plate 100 to the dotted line position shown in Fig. 9. This causes the flange 103 to engage the button 87 and retract the switch arm 02 to carry its contact out of range of the companion contact on the switch arm 83. In this position, the cam surface 104 is concentric with the rotor 32, and as the finger 116 rides downwardly along the cam surface 104 it maintains the cam plate in switch-opening position. At a predetermined point in the travel of the finger 116, it leaves the cam surface 104 and permits the cam plate 100 to return to the position shown in full lines in Fig. 9, to return the switch arm 82 to a position where its contact 85 can be engaged by the companion contact 05 on the switch arm 83.

The point at which the spring finger 116 leaves the adjustable plate 106and hence the start of the dead periodmay be varied by adjustment of the slide 107, and can be made to occur earlier by raising the slide and later by lowering the slide. This thus permits adjustable variation of the period between the switchopening movement of the finger 116 and the predetermined point at which the finger leaves the cam surface 104 and permits the switch to close, and this varies the length of the dead period produced.

I claim as my invention:

1. A periodic coin collector, comprising a coin stack holder adapted to hold a plurality of coins fiatwise in a stack, time-responsive mechanism operative at predetermined set times to remove coins from said stack, a coin follower acting on said stack to move other coins toward removal position, a control member actuated by coins in said holder, a closed housing about said mechanism and provided with a coin deposit slot, a cam guide leading from said slot to said stack, a gate normally closing said slot, means to retract said coin follower to permit addition of coins to replenish said stack, and means actuated with the retraction of said coin follower to move said gate to open position.

2. A periodic coin collector, comprising a coin stack holder adapted to hold coins in a stack, means operable periodically to remove coins from the stack, a coin follower engaging the coins at the opposite end of the stack and biased to move remaining coins toward removal position, a closed housing about the coin collector, a rod protruding and slidably-movable through the housing wall and manually operable to retract said coin follower, a coin deposit slot through the housing wall to admit coins to said stack, a gate normally closing said slot, and a cam operatively connected to said rod to open said gate when said coin follower is retracted by manual operation of said rod.

3. A periodic coin collector, comprising a coin stack holder adapted to hold coins in a stack, means operable periodically to remove coins from the stack, a coin follower at the opposite end of said stack, said coin follower being retractable to permit the addition of coins to the stack, a housing for said mechanism, said coin follower comprising a coin-engaging member and a handle member accessible outside said housing, said members being yieldingly collapsible whereby to limit the force which may be exterted on the coins by manipulation of said handle.

4. A periodic coin collector for controlling the operation of a connected separate item of electrical equipment, comprising a closed housing within which the separate item of equipment is connected to an electric power line, a coin holder in said housing, means operable periodically to eject coins from the coin holder, means to replenish coins therein, a pair of normally open switch contacts controlling the output from said power line to the connected item of equipment, a control member positioned to engage a coin in said holder and to be actuated thereby to move one of said contacts into engagement with the other, and manually operable means for retracting said other switch contact from contact with the first.

5. A periodic coin collector comprising a coin holder, means operable periodically to eject coins therefrom, means to replenish coins therein, a pair of normally open switch contacts, a control member positioned to engage a coin in said holder and to be actuated thereby to move one of said contacts into engagement with the other, and means operable periodically to retract said other contact from engagement with the first.

6. A periodic coin collector, a coin holder, a timed rotor, a coin ejector periodically actuated by said rotor to eject coins from said holder, a pair of normally open switch contacts, a switch-closing member actuated by a coin in said holder, and a switch-control member carried by said rotor and operable periodically and independently of coin-ejector actuation to open said switch-contacts.

7. A periodic coin collector, a coin holder, a timed rot-or, a coin ejector periodically actuated by said rotor to eject coins from said holder, a pair of normally open switch contacts, a switch-closing member actuated by a coin in said holder, and switch-opening means including a control member having an operative position on said rotor and being removable from operative position, said switch-control member in operative position acting periodically and independently of coin-ejector actuation to separate said switch contacts.

8. A periodic coin collector, a coin holder, a timed rotor, a coin ejector periodically actuated by said rot-or to eject coins from said holder, a pair of normally open switch contacts, a switch-closing member actuated by a coin in said holder, :1 switch-control member carried by said rotor and yieldingly urged toward operative position, a switch-opening member in the path of said switch-control member when in operative position and movable thereby to separate said switch contacts, and an adjustable deflector in the path of said switch-control member and adjustable to delay its engagement with said switch opening member.

9. An appliance controlling device, comprising a switch, a timed rotor, a switch-control member carried by said rotor and yieldingly biased to operative position, a switch actuating plate extending along a predetermined portion of the normal path of said member and adapted to be maintained in actuated position by said member during its travel along said path-portion, and a deflector to retract said switch-control member in advance and release it abruptly within said path-portion.

10. An appliance controlling device as set forth in claim 9, with the addition of means for adjusting the release point of said deflector.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,926,652 Rosenfeld Sept. 12, 1933 2,078,429 Tweedale Apr. 27, 1937 2,131,597 Niederst Sept. 27, 1938 2,185,148 Evans Dec. 26, 1939 2,271,397 McDermott Jan. 27, 1942 2,297,369 San German Sept. 29, 1942 2,310,089 Hudson Feb. 2, 1943 2,491,900 Mihalek Dec. 20, 1949 2,581,502 Wallin Jan. 8, 1952

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