Patent GB-190517463-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Apparatus for use with Cabs and like Vehicles for Indicating, Recording, and Checking Fares and Distance Travelled.
Inventor: POPP RICHARD GEORGES
Filed: 1905-08-29
Granted: 1906-04-19
Abstract: 17,463. Popp, R. G., and Horevitz, A. L. de. March 14, [date applied for under Patents Act, 1901]. Fares, registering and checking; odometers; counting-apparatus.-A taxameter for indicating and totalling the fares according to time or distance and the extra charges, is also arranged to register the number of fares and the total distance run whether hired or not. The apparatus described is intended for a tariff in which there is a certain minimum fare covering an initial distance or time longer than the succeeding stages, for which a smaller sum is charged ; but it may be adapted for other tariffs. The registration changes automatically from the distance to the time scale when the speed falls below a certain limit. The apparatus is shown in elevation from opposites sides in Figs. 4 and 5, and in section in Figs. 8 and 9. The. shaft 9 is driven either by clock-work through a wheel 13, Fig. 9, and ratchet-wheel 14, loose on the shaft, and a pawl 12 on an arm fixed on the shaft or by a lever 5, Fig. 5, reciprocated by a main driving-cam 4, and actuating a ratchet-wheel 8 by means of a pawl 7. In the hired condition, the shaft 9 drives a shaft 21, Fig. 9, through gear-wheels 10, 15, 20 and actuates fare-indicating drums 26, 27, Figs. 8 and 9, and totalizing-drums (not shown) through the medium of a lever 34, Fig, 8, reciprocated by a cam 24. Until the initial distance or time is worked off, a flanged drum 22 on the shaft 21 keeps the lever 34 with its roller 37 clear of the cam 24 ; a latchpiece 39 then escapes through a notch in the rim of the drum. A pawl 33 drives the fare-indicating drum 26 of lower denomination. and a pawl 90 drives the corresponding totalizing-drum. The stroke of the former is regulated by means of a screw stop 34<1>. Extra charges are indicated upon a drum 95, Fig. 8, by means of pawls 71, 97 on a slidable rod 72. In the disengaged condition, the wheels 15, 20 are. held out of gear by a cam 16, Fig. 9, on a shaft 17, which bears against an arm 18 carrying the wheel 15. When the shaft 17 is turned and the wheels come into gear, a cam 59 winds up the suspending-band 57 of a "Disengaged" indicator plate 55, and arms 46, 47, Figs. 8 and 9, act upon pawls 33, 44 and detents 33<1>, 44<1> to release the fare-indicating drums, which are then returned to zero by the pressure of hooked levers 49, 50, Figs. 4 and 5, on heart cams 30, 31. These levers are connected by links 51, 52 with springs to arms 48 of the shaft 17, and the arrangement is such that the levers are pressing on the cams and the springs are partially compressed before the drums are released from the detents, thus preventing errors due to shocks and jolts. The extra-charges drum 64 is at the same time released from its detent 109 by an extension of the lever 49, Fig. 4, and returned to zero by a spring. The shaft 21 is brought to its starting position by the pressure of the arm 48 on a cam 25, Fig. 4, and the same arm serves to start the clock-work by removing a spring 113 from the balance wheel. The action of the arm 46, Fig. 8, on the pawl 33 displaces the latch-piece 39 to the outside of the flanged drum 22. The movements of the shaft 17 are registered by a drum 76, Fig. 5, actuated by a pawl 79 on a lever 80 ; the drum is prevented from making more than one revolution by omitting a tooth from its ratchet 78, a double detent 83, 84 being necessary in consequence. A distance register receives motion from a lever reciprocated by the cam 4. The transferring- mechanism for the registering-drums comprises levers 43, 92, Fig. 9, actuated by cams 41, 91 and carrying pawls 44, 94, respectively, to drive the ratchet-wheels of the drums of higher denomination, the stroke being adjusted by means of a setscrew 43<1>.