IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING OR IMPRESSING RAILWAY AND OTHER TICKETS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Kemble at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with. bis Petition, on the 15th November
1866. .
I, JOHN KEMBLE, of Hatton Wall, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR MARKING OR IMPRESSING RAILWAY AND OTHER TICKETS," to be
as follows:
In apparatus for impressing dates and other marks on railway tickets
constructed' heretofore it has been impossible to obtain pressure to indent
sufficiently the impression unless great exertion is made by the operator, con-
sequently the marks have been more or less imperfect and uncertain,' besides
the labour and inconvenience to the operator.
Apparatus arranged according to my Invention serves to impress or indent
sufficiently or even to cut through a railway or other ticket by 'using an
amount of exertion convenient for the operator, and about the same, perhaps,
as that used for printing such tickets. It consists of a fixed base, on which I
joint an upright stem piece about six or seven inches high containing the
whole of the apparatus; this upright is hollow and encloses a sliding bolt or
stem fitted to slide freely therein; this sliding piece carries at the upper part
the mouth-piece at which the tickets are inserted for marking; at the lower
end it bas jointed to it a short pawl or tooth-like piece (it is about half an
inch from the axis to the point of the tooth); the point of this tooth rests in
a curved notch formed in the periphery of the joint or knuckle of the axis

page_text: carrying the whole upright, as before mentioned. The point of contact of this
tooth-like piece or pawl with the base piece is a little out of line (behind) of
the main or base fulcrum and the line of motion of the enclosed sliding stem
piece, while the axis of the said tooth piece is in or near the said line of
motion and axis. The consequence of this arrangement is that when the
ticket is inserted and the whole stem pushed backwards the strut formed by
the pawl or tooth piece offers resistance and the sliding inner stem is forced
upwards and thrusts the top of such sliding stem, and with it the ticket,
against the cutting type or impressing surface held in the head of the outer
stem and opposed to the motion of the sliding stem. A spring is enclosed
and exerts opposite forces on the sliding and outer stems, the action of which
is to depress the inner sliding stem in the outer one and to throw the whole
stem forwards on the base fulcrum; a stop limits the forward motion, while
the backward movement is limited by the pressure of the card or ticket on
the type, or a stop provided for contact of the sliding parts when no ticket is
inserted. The extent of the oscillation or throw of the apparatus in stamping
a ticket is arranged to be about the same as in the ordinary stamping presses,
say, about one inch and a half, more or less, as convenient for the operator.
In addition to the great leverage provided to produce the impressing effect
the operator is aided by the momentum of the weight of the whole stem in
motion in its backward oscillation in the act of impressing, the enclosed spring
before mentioned returns the apparatus to the forward position in readiness
for a repetition of the operation. The mouth-piece where the tickets are
inserted I joint at one side to the sliding stem, so that it can be moved out of
position, and so as to disclose the type mounted on the head of the outer stem,
which can be changed at pleasure as may be required for altering dates and
other purposes.