Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1876-11-16
Railway Tickets.

with their friends until the train ar
rived, were then conveyed to their
destinations, and left the railway
without giving any proof to the Of
ficials of the station where they dis
embarked. that they had paid their
fare at the point of departure. There
was. therefore, no check upon the
clerk who received the money, and
none, also, upon the passengers-a
state of things, both with regard to
society and also with regard to the
size Of the railway traffic, very differ
ent from what it is now.
1t is now some forty years since
railway tickets were printed and is
sued. The originator Of the idea was
a man who was employed at little
wayside station in the neighborhood
Of Carlisle, and those he then used
were about the same size as the tick
cts now issued But his arrange
ments for printing them were of most
primitive description. In fact a few
types fastened together in a case
about the size Of nailbrush formed
his sole apparatus. The name Of the
station to which the passenger was
going was written upon the ticket at
the time OF issue. We can realize to
ourselves how this system would
work now-say at Chaplain Junction
or at the Underground stationsl But
this system, primitive as it was, grew
and fourished and became the par
ent of the present one. The use OF
tickets on this principle gradually in
creased, until at last it's inventor
found that it would be desirable to
devote himself entirely to the devel-
opment Of the new industry. From
that day to this the printing Of rail-
way tickets has remained in the
hands OF the same family, who have
pursued it with an amount OF perse-
verance and ingenuity perfectly mar
velous. The railways Of nearly the
whole world are supplied with tickets
from the one mandatory. There
may be seen in course of manufac-
ture tickets for English railways,
Swedish. South American, Egyptian,
etc. We saw there on one occasion
Cairo tickets-a special clas5-for
pilgrims going to Mecca" and 9TH
ers for a fourth class, specially print
ed for South American line: for
Slaves without shoes and stockings"
The first great Improvement made
in the tickets was in numbering them.
This was an enormous stride in adj
vance of the old tickets. Every rail
way passenger has noticed that each
ticket is numbered. and many people
imagine that that number is printed
by the little press in front OF the
ticket-clerk when he thrusts the
ticket in before it is issued. But the
duty OF that press is in reality to
print the date the numbering being
done before the ticket arrives at the
station. A large proportion OF the
accuracy Of the accounts OF railways
depends upon these numbers. For
example, take the case OF booking
clerk at Reading. He has before him
box with large number Of pigeon
holes, each holding the tickets for oDe
station. Let us select the pigeon
hole for Salisbury. Before he begins
his days work he knows that the first
ticket from Reading to Salisbury will
be, say, 5026. When his days work
is over he finds that the last ticket is
sued is, say, 5056. He has, therefore
issued thirty tickets OF this particular
class to Salisbury. and is responsible
for thirty fares. He has a return to
fill up each day OF the numbers on
the tickets issued, and by seeing that
the last number on each day and the
first OF the next are consecutive, the
officials at headquarters are able to
have a complete check upon the sta
ton clerks, and to preserve an almost
invariable accuracy in their accounts.
Let us see how this ticket-printing
is done. First of all, here are boxes
filled with colored pieces OF card
board, which will 500 be printed and
made into tickets. An order has come
from the Southwestern Railway for
so many thousand tickets from, say,
Waterloo to Bishopstoke. The order
states color OF coIors, the number of
the last ticket in stock, and the aver
age consumption, watch enables the
printer TO know when the tickets or
dered must be sent i'm.
The little wrought machine
for printing railway ticket is an ex-
,ceedingly ingenious piece OF mechan-
ism. Imagine table about fifteen
inches wide by about twenty-five in
ches long. with long, thin box rising
above it at the back, and another box
falling far below it at the front. The
table contains the printing rollers and
type-case; the boxes (the interior
horizontal section of which is the size
Of a ticket are for holding tickets.
The upper box is filed with a pile OF
pieces OF card board. One at time,
the lowest card is jerked by spring
under the printing machinery, and
falls into the lower box, and in less
than quarter Of second it is print
ed and numbered and safely stored in
the otter box. All that the man has
to do is to keep the upper box filed
with cards, remove the lower box
when filed, supply fresh empty boxes,
place the printed tickets in rows, aud
see that the ink reservoir in full The
machine does the rest, including the
printing, the linking of the type and
moving and storing OF tickets.
The numbering is done by means
OF four wheels, with their centers in
a horizontal line, thus forming a cyl
inder. These wheels have raised nu-
merals on their edges. which imprint