IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CHECKING THE AMOUNTS OF FARES COLLECTED BY THE CON- DUCTORS OF OMNIBUSES AND TRAMWAY CARS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Piko at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents on the 15th March 1876.
JOHN PIKE, of Upper Norwood, in the County of Surrey, Tailor. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR CHECKING THE AMOUNTS OF FARES COLLECTED BY THE CON-
DUCTORS OF OMNIBUSES AND TRAMWAY CARS."
This Invention has for its object the prevention of fraud by checking the
amounts of fares received or collected by the conductors of omnibuses and tramway
cars, and consists essentially of a series of radial compartments closed by a revolving
cover having a radially disposed slot or opening therein, which travels over the
several compartments in succession during a journey, the said motion being derived
cither from clockwork (or which I prefer) one of the running wheels of the
vehicle. Concentrically with the said compartments are other compartments corre-
sponding thereto, which are also closed by the revolving cover and exposed by the
passage over them in succession of the radially disposed slot. Each of the first
mentioned compartments represents a stage on the journey, and contains a number
of tickets, which I prefer to make of sheet metal for greater durability, each ticket
having the several fares from that particular stage printed thereon.
The tickets on one side of a compartment should be distinguished from those on
the other side by being of a different color or shape, whilst the tickets of cach
distinct compartment all bear a distinguishing number or letter. As each passenger
enters the vehicle the conductor takes out a ticket from the compartment that
remains uncovered, and which compartment corresponds of course to the stage
where the vehicle happens to be. As the vehicle travels to the next or any other
stage, the opening in the revolving cover also travels slowly to the corresponding
compartment, the whole of the other compartments being closed.
The passenger on alighting. hands his ticket to the conductor who must insert it
into the reception compartment which corresponds to the stage at which the vehicle
has arrived. On examining the tickets in the several compartments at the end of
the journey, the amount of fares received will at once be ascertained, for facilitating
which operation the case containing the several compartments is inade removeable so
as to be readily replaced by a newly charged case.
Should it be desirable to examine the tickets at the end of each day's work only,
in lieu of on the completion of every journey, then each compartment would be

page_text: divided from the centre outwards into as many divisions as the vehicle makes
journeys during the day. In this arrangement the opening must be provided with
a self-acting sliding lid worked by gearing from the surface of the case, so that as
each journey is completed the compartments of the previous journey will be closed,
whilst those for the next journey will be opened. The tickets of each journey bear
a corresponding mark or color, and in combination with the revolving cover of the
said case there is a tooth which gears at each complete revolution of the cover with
corresponding teeth on a revolving drum, which is divided circumferentially into
as many marking pads of different colors as there are journeys in the day's work.
Over the surface of this drum there is a slotted plate which only allows one color to
be visible at a time, and as the conductor receives the ticket from the passenger
his duty is to apply the ticket to the exposed colored part of the drum, so as to
mark such ticket with a color corresponding to that of the tickets for that par_
ticular journey, thus proventing the tickets of one journey being used for another.