A MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT OR 'TELL-TALE' FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES TAKEN TO OR TTY D.
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jonathan Tabor, of Leadenhall Street, in the
City of London, for the Invention of "A MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT
OR 'TELL-TALE' FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES TAKEN TO OR
TTY
D. Lana
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jonathan Tabor at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd June 1872.
I, JONATHAN TABOR, of Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, do
3 hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A MECHANICAL
ARRANGEMENT OR 'TELL-TALE' FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES TAKEN
TO OR FROM VESSELS, VECHICLES, WAREHOUSES, AND OTHER PLACES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists of a mechanical arrangement for ascertaining
and registering on a dial the number of packages that have been passed
from a warehouse or other building into a van or other like vehicle or

page_text: conveyance, or to or from a ship or other vessel from or to a warehouse
or into a waggon or cart, barge, boat, or other receptacle employed for
the conveyance of packages where landing stages or shoots are employed
for the purpose of loading and unloading packages of such size and
weight as cannot be conveniently carried by hand, such as chests con-
taining tea, heavy luggage, and other like packages.
The following is an example of the means by which it is proposed to
effect the object of this Invention, that is to say, I form or construct a
landing stage or shoot in the following manner:-Across the bottom
and sloping part of a landing stage or shoot I arrange and dispose a
series of cylindrical rollers side by side independent of each other, say,
fourteen in number, the surfaces of the said rollers being on the same
plane or nearly so as the bottom of the landing stage or shoot, a portion
of such said bottom being formed recessed or sunken to receive the
said rollers, care being taken also to place the first or top roller of the
serics at such a distance from the top end of the bottom of the said
landing stage or shoot as to leave a solid flat part to receive a moderate
size package before it comes upon the first of the said rollers in order
that as several packages are passed down the landing stage or shoot in
succession the foremost package shall have operated upon the registering
mechanism before the next package comes on the aforesaid rollers,
in other words to insure each package being separately registered.
The mechanism I propose to employ for registering or indicating the
several packages that have been passed down the said landing stage or
shoot is as follows:-Midway between the aforesaid fourteen rollers I
arrange a tell-tale roller, which instead of being made cylindrical like the
other rollers I make of an oval or egg shape in cross section, and I so
connect it with a spring or weight as that the sharp or pointed edge of this
roller always stands above the level of the other rollers, so that as cach
package descends the weight thereof presses down the edge of the tell-
tale roller and moves an index hand on a dial connected therewith, on
which are painted or printed numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, and more up to any
required number. And after each package has been registered the
tell-tale roller rises by the action of the aforesaid spring or weight
thereon ready to be again acted upon by the next package and so on in
succession.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jonathan Tabor in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONATHAN
TABOR, of Leadenhall Street, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Jonathan Tabor, Her special licence that
I, the said Jonathan Tabor, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Jonathan Tabor, my executors, adminis.
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, usc, cxcrcise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENT OR 'TELL-
TALE' FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PACKAGES TAKEN TO OR FROM VESSELS,
VEHICLES, WAREHOUSES, AND OTHER PLACES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Jonathan Tabor, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jonathan Tabor, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, that is to say :-
This Invention consists of a mechanical arrangement for ascertaining
and registering on a dial the number of packages that have been passed

page_text: for the purpose of loading and unloading packages of such size and
weight as cannot be conveniently carried by hand, such as chests con-
taining tea, heavy luggage, and other like packages.
The following is an example of the means by which it is proposed to
effect the object of this Invention, that is to say, I form or construct a
landing stage or shoot in the following manner :-Across the bottom
and sloping part of a landing stage or shoot I arrange and dispose a
series of cylindrical rollers side by side independent of each other, say
fourteen in number, the surfaces of the said rollers being on the same
plane or nearly so as the bottom of the landing stage or shoot, a portion
of such said bottom being formed recessed or sunken to receive the
said rollers, care being taken also to place the first or top roller of the
series at such a distance from the top end of the bottom of the said
landing stage or shoot as to leave a solid flat part to receive a moderate
size package before it comes upon the first of the said rollers in order
that as several packages are passed down the landing stage or shoot in
succession the foremost package shall have operated upon the registering
mechanism before the next package comes on the aforesaid rollers, in
other words to ensure each package being separately registered.
•
The mechanism I propose to employ for registering or indicating the
several packages that have been passed down the said landing stage or
shoot is as follows:-Midway between the aforesaid fourteen rollers I
arrange a tell-tale roller, which instead of being made cylindrical like
the other rollers I make of an oval or egg-shape in cross section, and I
so connect it with a spring or weight as that the sharp or pointed edgo
of this roller always stands above the level of the other rollers, so that
as cach package descends the weight thereof passes down the edge of
the tell-tale roller and moves an index' hand on a dial connected there-
with on which are painted or printed numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, and more up
to any required number. And after cach package has been registered
the tell-tale roller rises by the action of the aforesaid spring or weight
thereon ready to be again acted upon by the next package and so on in
succession.
And in order to explain my said Invention more completely, I will
now proceed to describe the means by which it may be effected, reference
being had to the illustrative Sheet of Drawings accompanying these
Presents, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference marked
thereon respectively as follows :-

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal and vertical sectional elevation on
the line A, B, at Figure 2, which is a top plan view of "A Mechanical
Arrangement or 'Tell-tale' for Registering the Number of Packages taken
to or from Vessels, Vehicles, Warehouses, and other Places;" Figures 3
and 4 are detached parts of my said Invention shewn drawn to an
enlarged scale. At each of the above-mentioned Figures similar letters
of reference are employed to denote corresponding parts.
A, B, mark a wooden shoot, the bottom B whereof is composed of a
series of revolving rollers C, and a plain fixed piece of flat wood D.
The sides A of the shoot are securely fixed to the pieces D and rod a,
and there are holes in the sides A for the axes b of the several rollers
C, C', to revolve in freely; E, G, are standards fixed to the sides A.
The standard E may be made hollow to receive any suitable. known
indicating mechanism fixed inside the said standard and connected by a
rod H to a vibrating skeleton shaped piece of metal I, shewn at Figure 3
and hereafter described. The dial and indicating hand of the aforesaid
registering mechanism may either be concealed from view and locked
within the standard E, and inspected from time to time, or the said dial
may if desired be exposed to view through an opening in the said
standard, in which case the dial should be protected by a stout glass to
prevent the index hand being tampered with.
I now proceed to describe the construction of the skeleton piece I
above referred to. The piece I vibrates by its ends K. upon the axis of
the roller C³, and is connected by a pin at L to one cnd of a rod H,
the upper end whereof is intended to be connected to the indicating
acchanism as before stated. M is an india-rubber spring connected by
one end to the piece I at x, and by its other end to the side A of the
shoot, a recess being made to receive the said spring and protect it from
injury; N is a shutter capable of being slidden and fixed in grooves
between the standards E, G. The use of the shutter N when lowered
down is to prevent any thing being passed down the shoot when out of
use. At Figure 40 marks a V-shaped roller or vibrating piece, which
may be substituted for the piece I, but I prefer to use the piece I.
I would here remark that instead of the standards E, G, as above
described and represented by the Drawing, the indicating mechanism
and dial may be arranged along the side of the shoot in any convenient
manner, in which case the shutter N will require to be differently

page_text: arranged, for example, it may be hinged to one side of the shoot and
placed across it when the shoot is out of use, and be flush with the side
of the shoot when the shoot is in use.
The operations of the above described mechanism are as follows:-
Suppose the shoot to be connected to a ship's side, for example, by the
hooks P and the opposite end of the shoot to rest on a quay or the
gunwale of a barge or other craft, upon a package being placed on
the uppermost roller of the shoot the roller will revolve and allow the
package to descend and the rotation of the series of rollers will facilitate
the descent of the package, which upon arriving at the piece I and
coming into contact therewith will press it down in the direction denoted
by the arrow's flight, and by so doing the spring will be stretched and
the rod H moved upwards and impart motion to the index hand of the
registering dial above mentioned, and thus register the number of pack-
ages that have passed down the shoot. The spring will place the piece I
in its normal position after each package has passed entirely over it.
And in this manner and by these means the number of packages that
have been passed down the shoot may be ascertained in a ready and
efficient manner.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of
my said Invention for "A Mechanical Arrangement or 'Tell-tale' for
Registering the Number of Packages taken to or from Vessels, Vehicles,
Warehouses, and other Places," together with the means by which it
may be effected, I would remark in conclusion that I do not claim the
exclusive use of any of the separate parts above mentioned and referred
to, except in so far as the same may be employed in combination and
for the purposes of my said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist
in and I claim, the skeleton piece I and V shaped piece O at Figure 4,
in combination with the rollers C and any suitable indicating or
registering mechanism for the purpose of ascertaining the number of
packages that have passed down the shoot, as above stated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Tabor, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Twentieth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
JON TABOR.