Coin operated article vending machine

Claim 1

A coin operated article vending machine comprising a cabinet; a door at the front of the cabinet; a delivery compartment in the door, accessible from without; electrically operated coin-freed actuating means and a plurality of manually operable selector switches mounted on the cabinet; and two series of adjacent dispensing units within the cabinet, a rear series being within the rear of the cabinet, a front series being mounted on a frame hinged within one side of the cabinet; each of the dispensing units including an upright magazine, a platform in the magazine, the magazine being adapted to contain, and the platform being adapted to support within the magazine, a stack of superimposed articles to be vended, a discharge station at the upper part of the magazine, an outlet from the magazine at the discharge station, the outlets of the rear series of dispensing units being above the level of the top of the front series of dispensing units, a vertical screw at the rear of the dispensing unit, a clutch on the platform releasably engaged with the screw, an elecTric motor operated drive to the screw to rotate the screw to lift the clutch, and the platform and articles supported thereby, an elevator switch operated by an article elevated to the discharge station to interrupt the electric motor operated drive, and an ejector operated by the insertion of predetermined coins to the coin-freed actuating means and the operation of a selector switch corresponding to the appropriate dispensing unit to eject an article at the discharge station through the magazine outlet to the delivery compartment.