The evening times., 1899-05-31
OPERATION OF THE TAxAMETER
A Machine Used in London Cabs for
Recording Distance.
From the London NewsD


! started out this morning from the COM
pany's yard in ST. Albans Road, Kensing
ton, soon after 10. There were pickets
outside the gate, and a miscellaneous little
mob of people, including, apparently, two
or three drivers, who hailed the vehicle
with bit of a jeer, and wished us good
luck-"kind o SARCASTIC, as Artemus
Ward would have said. Ny driver had not
his white silk hat as he is to have when
regularly equipped. and there was nothing
but the taxameter itself to draw attention
to the equipage. We escaped, therefore.
most Of the chipping that We might 9th
erwise have got and had little to do but
study the little whitefaced machine that
blinked in upon me from the outside like
some George Bidder. the calculating boy,
ready to work out for my information any
sum that the driver up behind might think
proper to set him. The taxameter is a
most intricate piece OF mechanism, some
what suggestive of a circular American
clock, with face perhaps six inches in
diameter. 1t is fixed up just outside the
dial to the rider. Behind the face Is the
counting and calculating brain. whose only
connection with the cab is by sort OF
spinal cord Of metal, reaching down TO the
axle. Down here is a cogged wheel, and
small projection on hub OF the CAP
wheel gives a shove to one of these cogs
at each revolution.
The spinal cord communicates this revo-
luton to the calculating brain up above,
and when a certain number of these SEN
sations have been received and infallibly
recorded the calculating boy, without the
the smallest prompting or assistance. Will
reckon up what they come TO at sixpence
a mile II the vehicle runs beyond the
four-mile radius. the driver simply leans
down and gives him Bit of a tickle, and
he begins at once to reckon up the revolu-
tions at shilling a mile.
AS the cab stood in the yard a little
red flag stuck up over the taXameter. That
showed that the vehicle was disengaged.
AS l stepped in the little flag was pulled
over horizontally, and the mechanism re-
corded one job, and at the same time a slit
in the dial showed Is as the fare that
had become payable by the engagement
of the cab As we ratified on-though with
splendid cab and nice pair OF India
rubber tires and smart grey horse, there
was not much of the rattle-the calculating
boy looked in at the window in the most
stolid and unconscious manner. Nobody
could have supposed that he was all the
time busily engaged in making out my bill
and inexorably counting up every turn of
the wheel. But as We came along the
Brompton Road. down to Hyde Park cor
ner, down Constitution Hill, along the
Mall. and then Click goes the mechanism,
and bang goes sixpence. The boy has got
me now for eighteen-pence. and there is
no getting out Of It. and it is not the least
use to call policeman. On the other
hand. ! know that eighteen pence is the
utmost Of liability. Near the bottom of
the Haymarket l pull up and make a call.
Cabby gives me three or four minutes
grace. and then he reaches down and gives
another little tickle and the wonderful cal
culator now begins to count-not the turns
of the cab wheels. but the minutes as they
fly. and by the time l come out he has
got another little score for me.
II, however, his account of time does not
amount to twelve minutes. he says moth
ing about it. and goes on noting the move
ment Of the cab until another mile has
been completed, and bang goes another
sixpence. Another call at the London
County Council, and a few more minutes
waiting. These are added on to the other
time accounts until twelve minutes have
been made up, and when / come out again
the relentless thing has got half-a-crown