US1987272A - Weight control escalator - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 8, 1935.

A. l.. SPRECKER WEIGHT CONTROL ESCALATOR Filed Oct. 4, 1933 Patented Jan. 8, 19.35 l

UNITED STATES WEIGHT CONTROL ESCALATOR Alfred'L. Sprecker, Freeport, Long Island, N. Y., assignor to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation oi' New York Application October 4, 1'933, Serial No. 692,064

1 Claim.

vThis case relates to means for preventing jams and large crowds forming at the ends of an escalator.

In department stores or'similar places, par- 5 ticularly at special sales and holiday rushes,

crowds are apt to form at the ends of an escalator,

and as the escalator discharges more and more people into the crowd, it becomes so large and unwieldy that proper ow of tralc through the l0 store is impeded and serious personal injuries may be caused should any situation arise to create a feeling of hysteria or panic in the crowd.

The object of this inventionis to provide means for measuring the degree of 'crowding at the end of an escalator and governing operation of the escalator 'with its attendant discharge of people accordingly.

More specifically, the object is to provide such crowd measuring means in the form of weighing mechanism for automatically controlling movelment of the escalator in accordance with the Fig. 2 is av detail of the control for the escalatorv showing it in a. different position than in Fig. 1.

In detail, the escalator 10 is driven by a belt 12 connected through gearing 14 to motor shaft 16 of motor 18. The circuit for the motor includes a switch S comprising spring blades 20 adapted to be conductively connected in series by a metal-faced roller 22 which is on the forward end of a lever 24 pivoted at 26. At its rear end, lever 24 is forked to provide tines 28 between which is located a roller 30 on the forward end of a lever 32 pivoted at 34 and also forked at its rear end to receive a`A` pin 36 on a weighing lever 38. Connectingthe t forward end of lever 32 and a iixed standard 4.0 is a coil spring 42, the tendency of which is to move lever 32 once it passes a mid-way position to its extreme clockwise or counterclockwise position. Weighing lever 38 is of the rst order, fulcrumed at 44 and has the rear arm provided with an upright 46 formed with a V-bearing 48 at its upper end to receive the knife edge 50 of a long third order lever 52, which in turn is similarly pivotally connected with a short third order lever 54. Both levers 52 and 54 have knife edges 56 for supporting the links 58 connected to legs 60 of platform 62 5 which is a section of the floor 64 at the foot of the escalator 10.

The forward arm of weighing lever 38 has notches 66 any of which may locate a hanging counterweight 68 which thus constitutes an ad- '10 justable load counterbalance of the weighing mechanism.y If the number of people standing on platform 62 is within the desired limit as measured by a maximum prescribed weight, then counterweight 68 is not overbalanced and the lever 38 1* does not move.

When the weight of the crowd on platform 62 becomes greater than the prescribed limit, levers 52 and 54 are depressed and lever 52 exerts a force on lever 38 overcoming the resistance of counterweight 68 and rocking lever 38 clockwise. As the lever 38 rocks clockwise, its pin 36 turns lever 32 counterclockwise and lever 32 through, roller 30 rocks lever 24 clockwise from its normal position in Fig. 1. When during counterclockwise movement of lever 32, it passes its mid-way I point, the spring 42 snaps the lever all-the way' to the position shown in Fig. 2. Consequently the lever 24 has its roller 22 completely disengaged from between blades 20 of switch Sv and the mo- 30 tor circuit is opened', stopping operation of motor 18` and of the escalator 10 actuated thereby. The escalator will now no longer be discharging people onto the platform 62 and into the space adjacent the platform so that if the foot of the escalator is jammed with too great a crowd, the condition will not be aggravated by further discharge of people into the jam but will be remedied by permitting the crowd to dissipate in the normal flow of trailic through the stores.

As soon as the jam at the foot ofthe escalator becomes lessened, the weight on platform 62 is insumcient to overcome the force of counterweight 68 which thereupon rocks lever 38 coun- 45 In a similar manner, the crowd at the head of an ascending escalator may be weighed to regulate operation of the escalator.

The form of escalator or the driving connections may be changed without departing from the basic thought of the invention which is to weigh the crowd at the end of an escalator or the like and stop or continue operation of the latter depending on whether the crowd is too large or not and thereby regulate the traiic adjacent the end of the escalator. The invention is applicable wherever an escalator, conveyor, or elevator is used and not only to prevent overcrowding of an area by people but also the overloading of flooring by goods transported through the conveyor or the like.

While there has been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modication, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made byv those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It

is'the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claim.

What is claimed is as follows:

A device for regulating operation of the con-.- veyor to regulate the trailc of goods or persons at one end of the conveyor, comprising a iioor in line with said end of the conveyor and over which general traffic flows in addition to the trafl'c from the conveyor, said oor including a. depressible section in the general plane of the floor and located immediately adjacent said end of the conveyor to directly receive the discharge of traffic from the conveyor, weighing mechanism for supporting said floor section including a. load counterbalance for resisting operation of the weighing mechanism under the weight of trac on said floor section, an actuator for operating said conveyor and controlling means for said actuator operated by said weighing mecha.- nism in accordance with the weight of both the general and the conveyor trafc on said floor section to regulate operation of the actuator and thereby regulatethe degree of crowding of the traic at said end of the conveyor.

ALFRED L. SPRECKER.

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