Newspaper vending machine

Claim 1

An automatic vending machine for papers having a receptacle for a stack of papers, said receptacle having a frontwall and a delivery slot, a delivery device arranged to remove a paper from the stack and feed it to the delivery slot, an operating handle for said delivery device, a rearwardly ascending slide track having an upstanding ledge at its forward edge, said delivery slot being defined between said front wall and said upstanding ledge, a pressure member for exerting forward pressure on a stack of papers placed on edge on the said slide track, said pressure member having an upper part whose pressure surface is parallel to the said front wall and a lower part whose pressure surface extends rearwardly and downwardly at an acute angle to said surface of said upper part, whereby the upper part of the foremost paper of the stack is pressed against the front wall while the lower part is pressed against the said upstanding ledge, said delivery device having first carriers engageable with the said foremost paper of the stack to lift said foremost paper until its lower edge rises above the upstanding ledge and swings forward above the delivery slot, said first carriers comprising obliquely-upwardly-directed pointed members mounted on a carriage movable in a vertical direction by said operating handle, said pointed members being biassed toward said foremost paper by springs, and second carriers engageable with the said foremost paper to feed it downwards into the delivery slot, said second carriers comprising obliquely-downwardly-directed pointed members mounted on said carriage and biassed toward said foremost paper by springs.