IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE DISTANCES TRAVELLED BY AND THE RATE OF TRAVELLING OF CABS AND OTHER VEHICLES, AND THE TIME THEY HAVE BEEN ENGAGED
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th October 1864.-A communication from abroad by Alfred Claustre,
of Paris, France.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE DISTANCES
TRAVELLED BY AND THE RATE OF TRAVELLING OF CABS AND OTHER VEHICLES, AND
THE TIME THEY HAVE BEEN ENGAGED," to be as follows:-
This apparatus is intended to be fitted to cabs and other public vehicles to
register the distances travelled by such vehicles, both when occupied and
unoccupied, as well as the time the vehicle remains at rest, distinguishing the
time the vehicle is engaged from that when it is disengaged.
I fit clockwork in a box placed in any suitable part of the vehicle, say, a
cab; the clockwork moves two vertical cylinders, on which a sheet of paper
is wound impregnated with a solution composed by preference as follows,
viz.Water, 100 parts; azotate of ammonia, 150 parts; yellow cyanide of
potassium and of iron, 5 parts; the presence of the azotate of ammonia
renders the paper sufficiently hydroscopic to make it always conveniently
damp. The cylinders are mounted on axes received at top and bottom in
horizontal plates, which form the upper and lower parts of the apparatus.
The cylinders are furnished at top and bottom with two discs for maintaining
the paper while being wound and unwound. The diameter of the cylinders is,

page_text: 7
say, half an inch, which allows of 1½ inches of the paper being wound or
unwound for every turn of the axes. The axes of the cylinders enter them
freely, and carry at the points at which they enter ratchet wheels furnished
with pauls, which rest on the cylinders. The ratchet wheels are arranged so
that the axes actuated by the clockwork move the cylinders without the latter,
turned in a direction the reverse of the first movement for changing the paper,
being able to act on the clockwork apparatus. The axes each carry at their
upper part a bevil pinion in gear with another bevil pinion on the ends of a
horizontal shaft supported by vertical plates. This shaft-makes-one-revolution
an hour; it carries a toothed wheel in gear with another toothed wheel below,
which makes four revolutions_for_cach revolution_of_the_shaft; the axis of the
last-named wheel carries a bevil pinion. All these parts being moved by or
depending on the clockwork, work simultaneously with it all the time the cab
A paul or tappet on the box containing the apparatus, which is
closed by a key (no part of the mechanism being at the command of the
driver) allows the inspector or supervisor to stop the movement of the clock-
work as soon as the cab is returned to the yard.
is in use.
.
The apparatus for registering the distance travelled. is worked by two, small
electro-magnets, magnetized and demagnetized at every revolution of one of
the wheels of the cab; a lever connected to the magnets is united to a bent
lever, which it causes to describe the same are. The bent lever carries two
arms fitted with pauls; the lower arm remains engaged in the teeth of a large
ratchet wheel all the time that the electro-magnets are not in action. When
"they are put in action by the revolution of the cab wheel the lower arm is
freed from the ratchet wheel, and at the moment that one tooth of this wheel
passes, the upper arm engages into a tooth of the wheel after the point of the
upper tooth has, passed, owing to the action of the clock work barrel and of
the gearing which connects it to the ratchet wheel, thus two teeth cannot pass
at the same time. A spring draws back the two levers into their first position
after the magnetization. The ratchet wheel has, say, 50 teeth, so that
supposing the cab wheel makes 250 revolutions a mile, the ratchet wheel will
'make 5 revolutions. The axis of the ratchet wheel carries a pinion, and is
terminated by an endless screw. The screw gears into a small wheel below,
working another wheel, the axis of which carries a drum supporting an
endless chain, which passes over another similar drum at the lower part of the
apparatus. The chain travels, say, half an inch for every mile passed over by
the cab; it carries two styles, one of which is a watch spring, and the other
an ordinary pencil. Now, supposing that the cab after leaving the yard
performs à journey, and remains on a stand successively, the style being raised

page_text: half an inch for a mile travelled, and the paper moving from right to left at
the rate of three inches an hour, a curve will be produced, the ordinate of
which corresponding to the point where the movement ceases will indicate the
miles travelled during the time indicated by the number of inches counted or
registered on the absciss between the origin of the curve and the last ordinate
produced. If between two journeys or movements of the cab there is a
stoppage, the style ceasing to rise will trace a horizontal line comprised.
between two ordinates of the same number of inches. It is, however;
necessary to point out how to distinguish a part of the curve with the
horizontal line produced when the cab is disengaged from a part of the curve
produced when the cab is occupied. I have before mentioned that the endless.
chain rising half an inch for each mile passed over carries two styles, one:
consisting of a watch spring, and the other of an ordinary pencil. The latter
is preceded by the former style towards the left, but both have their points in
the same horizontal and contiguous line. So arranged the positive wire of
a galvanic element placed in the seat of the cab at the side of the element
which produces the current for the electro-magnets is adaptéd to one point,
and the negative wire to another point behind the disc on which the paper.
rests in its movement from right to left. The negative electricity is imparted!
to a plate insulated by rods; to this plate the point of the watch spring style
corresponds, which, itself in contact with another rod, always receives positive
electricity. If now the current be open when the cab is occupied, the
decomposition of the cyanide with which the paper is impregnated will
produce a special line on the paper all the time the cab is occupied; this line.
owing to the arrangement of the two styles will cover the line traced by the
ordinary pencil. The opening of the current is produced by means of a
movable seat, which by being depressed by the person in the cab puts in
contact two metallic pieces forming part of the current; these pieces separate
and break the current by the seat rising when the person alights. The line
produced by the decomposition of the cyanide is interrupted when the
passenger alights, supposing he has engaged the cab for several journeys and
stoppages; the horizontal line of the ordinary pencil only indicates the time
the cab stops; then on the passenger again getting into the cab the line-pro-
duced by the watch spring-again commences with an ordinate equal at its
origin to that which terminated the preceding line; the horizontal line
between the two other lines thus indicates how long the cab has waited. If
the passenger after having stopped the cab discharges it without getting into.
it again, the line produced by the decomposition of the cyanide will be;
followed by a horizontal line, and then by a curvod line traced by the ordinary.

page_text: pencil. Every stoppage indicated by the ordinary pencil, immediately preceded
by a curve also traced by the ordinary pencil, shows that the stoppage has
been when the cab was disengaged. From the foregoing description it will
be seen that the curves traced by the two styles indicate the distances
travelled by the cab when occupied, the stoppages when engaged, the
distances travelled when unoccupied, the stoppages when disengaged, and
finally the speed travelled. In order to render the inspection of the curved
lines easier, a hook fixed to the immovable part of the seat keeps the movable
part lowered all the time the cab is engaged, and makes the curve traced by
the watch spring style and its horizontal line continuous; this-hook-is-under
the control of the driver. The curved line also indicates the time occupied in
a slow drive, the speed of which, regulated-at-the will of the passenger, is less
than the ordinary rate at which the vehicle is driven. To direct the attention
of the cab inspector or supervisor to this special case, the electric current of
the style movable with the chain is transmitted by an arm to a fixed style
which rests on the paper. When a passenger engages a vehicle for a slow
drive he turns a button in the vehicle, which opens a current in the arm' just
mentioned, the circuit of which is completed before it is united to the wires of
the movable style. A horizontal line traced below the curve produced by the
motion of the vehicle is the result, and shows under what conditions this
curve was traced..
In order to show on a dial the distances travelled, the mechanism put in
action by the revolution of the cab wheel is caused to move a toothed wheel.
Stoppages are indicated by the clock work which moves the paper, the paper
being always visible renders control easy with a watch. When the cab is in
motion the wheel last mentioned gears. into the pinion on the axis of the
ratchet wheel with 50 teeth, herein-before referred to, and makes one turn for
every mile travelled. The axis of the wheel carries a movable pinion, which
is always in gear with another wheel, which, through gearing, moves the large
hand of a dial; the pinion makes one revolution per mile, and carries the
other hand of the dial. When the passenger stops the cab without dis-
charging it, the driver pushes from right to left a lever which extends outside
of the apparatus, and the lower end of which then raises a spring, which
presses on the axis of the wheel to-which-the-pinion last referred to is con-
nected. The axis of this wheel is movable on an interior concentric axis.
Another pinion on this axis is thus made to gear into the bevil pinion herein-
before referred to, as being on the same axis as a toothed wheel which makes
4 revolutions for each revolution of a horizontal shaft, also herein-before referred
to; this pinion is caused to make 8 revolutions for every revolution of the

page_text: horizontal shaft, that is to say, 8 revolutions an hour. The hands of the dial
are thus now actuated by the clock work. All the time of the stoppage of the
cab the action of the spring is stopped by a tappet or catch which retains the
lever. When the cab is again moved, the driver releases the tappet or catch,
returns the lever to its first position, the spring again comes into action, the
other parts take up the positions they previously occupied, and the hands of
the dial are again actuated by the mechanism connected with the cab wheels.
In order to return the hands to zero after the cab has been discharged, I
employ the following mechanism:-The wheel shortly herein-before mentioned
as being always in gear with a movable pinion carries another pinion and a
ratchet wheel, the teeth of which are arranged to slide on a tappet carried by
a bent lever when it turns from right to left; a spring barrel works the last-
named pinion, and makes it turn from left to right. When the driver
moves the lever from right to left, as before mentioned, the bevil pinion
which is then geared into by the pinion which makes 8 revolutions an hour,
as before stated, although solicited by the spring barrel will not turn from left
to right all the time that the wheel which is put in motion by the mechanism
connected with the cab wheel does not participate, either in the action of the
cab wheel mechanism, or in the movement of the clockwork, owing to the
action of the bent lever and its tappet. When it is required to return
the hands to zero, it is sufficient for the driver to move the lever which
extends through the top of the apparatus over half the space it is free to
traverse, in order to push another vertical lever from left to right, and thereby
release the ratchet wheel from the tappet of the bent lever, the hands are
then free to be moved to zero; a stop prevents their being moved too far.