Prepayment apparatus with a coded ticket

Claim 1

Prepayment apparatus with coded ticket including a movable reading and erasing head for the data written on the ticket, first mechanical means for introducing and setting in place the ticket, second mechanical means for effecting the successive steps of the working cycle, and means for exploiting the coded data on the ticket to control said second mechanical means, wherein the first mechanical means includes a ticket-carrying slider slidable on a slide fitted with a movable member including two coaxial pinions meshing respectively with a rack fixed to the frame of the apparatus and with a rack fixed to said ticketcarrying slider, relative movement between these two elements producing the setting of helical springs and the movement of a weight, the slide being also fitted with a retaining pawl, the second mechanical means includes a lever associated with a crank which transmits an alternative motion to the magnetic head, a locking pawl for said lever, a setting lever coupled with said lever through a crank and including at one end thereof a longitudinal aperture, said both levers being permanently urged towards each other by a spring whose attachment points determine unequal lever-arms, governor means for moving the magnetic head, a rack slider carrying an electrical feeler whose motion is controlled by a step-by-step escapement which is itself controlled by electrical impulses through an electromagnet and the means for exploiting the coded data includes a countersubtracter with reset controlled by a contact, a diode matrix decoding a plurality of N discrete positions of the counter and a switch a branch of which scans a series of N contacts connected to the conductors representing the N discrete positions of the counter.