| 摘要 |
A sectional, double-depth serpentine column for a dispensing or vending machine has a pair of spaced vertical walls provided with inclined rails on their inner surfaces arranged to support the ends of cylindrical articles, such as canned beverages, in a serpentine stack for gravitational movement in unison as individual articles are delivered from the bottom of the column. Inwardly projecting, narrow beads on the inner wall surfaces extend in the direction of inclination of the respective rails and are spaced thereabove less than one-half the diameter of the articles for engagement by the ends of the articles below the center thereof in order to prevent such ends from contacting the wall surfaces and to provide minimum resistance to rotation of the articles as they engage the beads during downward travel. The column is a sectional assembly comprising an uppermost, a lowermost, and one or more intermediate sections, each of the three types of sections having different wall, rail and bead configurations designed to permit the number of intermediate sections to be varied in accordance with the desired article capacity, or permit complete elimination of intermediate sections if it is desired to provide a shorter column of reduced article capacity.
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