Abstract: A refrigeration unit for coin-operated, food item vending machines having box-like metal cabinets with substantially flat, vertical front panels; substantially flat, horizontal top panels; coin mechanisms within the cabinets; food item supporting, transporting and dispensing mechanisms within the cabinets; item selecting and operating mechanisms; and, item discharge ducts extending through and accessible at the exterior of said front panels. The refrigeration unit operates to recirculate and cool the air within the cabinets and to maintain food items therein at desired, safe, low temperatures. The refrigeration unit includes a horizontal, downwardly opening box-like base supported atop the top panel of a related machine with said top panel closing the bottom thereof. The base has a vertical partition extending transverse its interior and defining a downwardly opening air delivery chamber and a downwardly opening air return chamber.

Abstract: A particulate material dispenser comprising an elongate, vertically extending body defining an upwardly opening material holding compartment, an elongate, laterally extending semi-cylindrical chamber at the bottom of the body and opening upwardly into the compartment and an elongate, laterally extending vertical discharge opening with front, rear and end edges at the bottom of said chamber, an elongate rotor with a plurality of circumferentially spaced, longitudinally extending, radially outwardly projecting webs with outside edges and defining a plurality of circumferentially spaced radially outwardly opening material receiving and transporting pockets of predetermined volume, is positioned in and extends longitudinally of the chamber with the outside edges of two adjacent webs at the lower half of the rotor in sliding sealing engagement with the inside surface of the chamber adjacent the front and rear edges of the opening and with the pocket therebetween communicating with the opening, a spring is position

Abstract: A coffee making machine comprising a thin-walled molded plastic shell-like housing with a two-piece molded core of heat insulating foam plastic slidably engaged in the housing; said machine includes a water supply unit including a tank with an electric heater means related to it, a hot water dispensing means communicating with the tank, a dehydrated granular coffee concentrate metering and dispensing unit and a coffee concentrate and hot water receiving and mixing unit with a coffee dispensing duct; said core has openings to cooperatively receive said water supply unit, water dispensing means and said concentrate metering and dispensing unit; said housing has openings to facilitate engagement of the core and means within the core therein and to provide access thereto; said housing has means to releasably receive and hold said mixing unit to receive water and concentrate from the water dispensing means and the dispensing unit and to deliver coffee into a drinking receptacle related to the machine.

Abstract: A timer comprising a non-directional synchronous clock motor, an operating arm projecting radially from the motor shaft, a motor control switch controlling power supplied to the motor and engaged and opened by the arm when said arm is in a normal position, stop means spaced radially from the shaft and circumferentially from the control switch to limit turning of the arm in a direction away from the control switch and to cause the motor to rotate in the opposite direction and the arm to turn back to said normal position, a service switch in a power line to related timed means and positioned relative to the control switch, stop means and arm to be engaged and operated by the arm when said arm is in a predetermined position within its travel between said control switch and stop means and starter means connected with said power supply to energize the motor and initiate turning of the arm away from said normal position.

Abstract: A beverage mixer comprising a housing defining a chamber with an outer cylindrical surface and a radial front surface, an impeller rotatably arranged in the chamber and having outside and forward surfaces in close, opposing running clearance with said front and rear surfaces, a fluid material inlet opening in the housings opening at the lower portion of the front surface in the chamber and a fluid material outlet opening, opening at the lower portion of the outside surface in the chamber, said impeller has a plurality of circumferentially spaced radially extending axially forward and radially outwardly opening slots on an annular space rearward of and communicating with the slots, said slots and space allow for circulation of fluid materials within the chamber into and out of the spaces between said opposing outer and outside and said front and forward surfaces, between which said materials are mixed by the surface effect of and between those surfaces when the impeller rotates; the mixer further includes air

Abstract: A beverage dispensing machine comprising a hopper holding particulate dehydrated beverage concentrate, dispensing a device including a dispensing duct intermittently transporting a predetermined volume of concentrate from the hopper out through the dispensing duct into a mixing funnel, a water supply delivering a predetermined volume of water into the funnel to establish reconstituted beverage therein, an outlet tube on the funnel to exhaust moisture ladened air and to drain beverage therefrom, a case about the hopper and defining a compression chamber, an air pump delivering air greater than atmospheric pressure into the compression chamber to cool said hopper and the concentrate therein, an air outlet opening in the case about the dispensing duct and communicating with the funnel, whereby air flowing through the outlet opening about the dispensing duct and into the funnel establishes a minus pressure which draws air outward through the duct and from the hopper and prevents the flow of moisture ladened air i

Abstract: A counter top beverage dispensing machine operable to selectively and intermittently combine and mix measured volumes of granular dehydrated beverage concentrate and water and to dispense the resulting beverage in a waiting receptacle; the machine is characterized by a receptacle supporting base with a removable drip tray, a column projecting up from the base in which water and concentrate components of the machine are housed and which has a removable panel to afford access to said components and a hopper section removably engaged with and supported atop the column; the hopper section includes a concentrate receiving hopper with driven concentrate dispensing means at its lower end which dispensing means is normally releasably engaged with drive means carried by the column and is related with mixing means carried by the column into which concentrate and water is introduced and from which beverage is dispensed into the waiting receptacle.