MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING OR INDICACATING THE NUMBER OF PERSONS WHICH ENTER ANY DESCRIPTION OF CARRIAGE, HOUSE, ROOM, CHAMBER, OR PLACE, AND ALSO THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS AND CARRIAGES THAT PASS ALONG A BRIDGE, ROAD, OR WAY
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
RANWELL, of Bowling Green Row, Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Artist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at. Westminster, the Thirteenth day of April, in the sixth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Ranwell, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Ranwell, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said William Ranwell, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully. might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVE
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING OR INDICACATING THE
NUMBER OF PERSONS WHICH ENTER ANY DESCRIPTION OF CARRIAGE, HOUSE, ROOM,
CHAMBER, OR PLACE, AND ALSO THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS AND CARRIAGES THAT
PASS ALONG A BRIDGE, ROAD, OR WAY;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Ranwell, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of

page_text: the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Ranwell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention consists of a novel construction of apparatus to be applied to
the entrances of carriages, conveyances, rooms, and other places, whereby the
number of persons entering may be registered and correctly ascertained, and
also the number of passengers and carriages that pass along a bridge, road, or
way. In the Drawing accompanying this Specification, I have shewn three
views of one of these improved apparatus, as applied to a common street
omnibus.
Fig. 1 is a vertical section, taken through the middle of the apparatus and
dial plate; Fig. 2 is a back view of the apparatus; Fig. 3 is a plan view of
the under side of the same; and Fig. 4 is a front view of the dial plate or
indicator, which, when the apparatus is in use, is covered over with a shield,
secured in such a manner that it cannot be removed by the conductor. The
essential feature of this Invention is the employment of a lever or levers, which
are or may be connected to the other parts of the apparatus in such a manner
that, by acting upon one end of this lever or levers, motion is, by means of the
opposite end of the lever or levers, communicated to the registering part of
the apparatus. In constructing an apparatus of this description, there are
inany points to be attentively considered in order to make it effective and
useful. The first and grand desideratum is a certainty of action whenever any
person enters the carriage, room, or place; and secondly, the impossibility of
the attendant or conductor tampering with the apparatus, and thereby prevent-
ing it from registering correctly. The construction and arrangement of parts
requisite to effect the object of a correct registery, in connection with the
above precautions, necessarily renders the apparatus somewhat more com
plicated than it otherwise need be; but without proper measures of this kind
are taken, the apparatus would be totally useless. In the accompanying
Drawing the ordinary steps and riser of an omnibus are seen at a, a, a, a, and
the flooring or bottom of the carriage at b; two additional steps or treads c, d
are placed on the top of the ordinary steps a, a, for the passengers to tread
upon; these steps c, d, are connected to or act upon a lever or pair of levers e, e
the step c being connected by means of an upright rod or rods f to the shorte

page_text: arm of the lever or levers e, and the step d to the longer arm thereof, by means
of the long upright rod or rods g; the lever or levers e are connected together
by the rods, 2, Figs. 2 and 3, and are supported in bearings, and have their
fulcrum at h, consequently as the step c, and by it the shorter arm of the lever
or levers e, is depressed, it will raise the longer arm of the lever or levers, and
with it the rods g and step d; on one side of one of the upright rods g is
fastened, by bolts or otherwise, a bent arm i, (Figs. 1 and 2,) the extremity of
which acts upon the shorter arm of a small vibrating lever j, which has its
fulcrum at k, Fig. 2; the opposite end of the lever j is jointed to an upright
rod I, which has a small ratchet rack formed on one part of its side, as seen at
Fig. 2, the teeth of this rack take into the teeth of a small wheel m, which
carries a small pinion that gears into another wheel n, and by this means
rotary motion is communicated to the other two toothed wheels o and p, which
carry indices on their front sides, as seen at Fig. 4.
The way in which the apparatus acts is as follows:-Upon a person placing.
his foot upon the step c, which is fastened to the upright arm or arms f, by
screws or pins g, the shorter arm of the lever or levers e is depressed, and the
longer arm and the upright rod or rods g are consequently raised. This, by
means of the bent arm i raises the shorter end of the lever j into the position
shewn by dotted lines in Fig. 2; the longer arm of the lever j thereby
becomes depressed and draws down with it the rod 7, and by means of the
teeth on this latter, the ratchet wheel m is pulled round, and motion com-
municated to the wheels of the registering apparatus. Immediately that
the weight of the person is removed from the step c it rises again, and all the
other parts assume their original position. In order, however, to guard against
the possibility of the conductor preventing the apparatus returning into its
original state, which will be the case if the step c is prevented from rising when
the weight of the person is removed, another step d is employed, and is con-
nected to the longer arm of the lever or levers e.
As the passenger passes
from the step c into the carriage he must of necessity place one foot upon the
step d, and owing to this arm of the lever or levers e being so much longer
than the other, the weight of a boy on the step d will be more than sufficient
to counterbalance that of two men on the step' c.
In order to prevent any
extraneous substance from being pushed or placed under either of the steps
c or d, so as to prevent them from descending when any person steps on to
them, each step is surrounded with a metal shield r, r, r, which is accurately
fitted to the step, and has its edges bevilled off so as to prevent its catching on
a stone or other stop. This part of the apparatus may be further protected
by surrounding the joint with a leather or other flexible band, fastened to

page_text: both the fixed and moveable steps c and d, in order to prevent dust or sand
from getting in; the whole of the apparatus is covered in by a box or casing
s, 8, s, s. Furthermore, the door of the vehicle, seen at t in the sectional view,
shuts over the step d and prevents it from rising, except when the said door
is opened for some person to enter or leave the carriage, consequently correct-
ness of registry is further insured by the prevention of excess which might
otherwise take place from intention or accident.
Having now explained and described one method of carrying out my Inven
tion, as shewn in the accompanying Drawings, I would observe that it must
be evident that an apparatus of this description admits of a great variety of
modifications, according to circumstances and the will of the manufacturer;
for instance, instead of fastening the steps c and d, to the upper ends of the
upright rods fand g, as shewn in the Drawings, the steps may be hinged on
to the ordinary step a, a, and allowed to rest only on the rods f and g. The
levers e, e, may also be arranged in a different way, or even dispensed with
as seen in their present form, and in place thereof a pulley or pullies of
differential radii may be used, still, however, adhering to the lever or counter-
balance principle.
The way in which I apply a pulley or pullies is represented in Fig. 5.
The pulley or pullies u turning upon an axis at vis or are placed inside or
outside the carriage, and contiguous to the roof, and a cord or chain w and a,
is fastened to the top part of the pulley as at y, one end of this cord or
chain being connected to the step c, and the other to the step d. The other
part of the arrangement is similar to that already described, and the registra-
tion depends in the former instance upon the alternate depression of the two
steps, the longer radius of the pulley or pullies u representing the longer arm
of the lever or levers e, e, and the shorter radius of the pullies, the shorter
arm of the said levers. The part a of the cord or chain is connected to the
shorter arm of the small lever j, and by that means transmits the requisite
motions to the wheelwork which is arranged in exactly the same manner as is
shown in the other Figures, and has not therefore been shewn in this Figure.
It may, however, be observed that a small weight should be attached to tho
longer arm of the lever j in order to insure its return to its original position.
Another method of dispensing with the use of the lever or levers e, e, is shown
at Fig. 6. In this Figure one or two bent tubes supplied with a number of
small balls are used in place of the levers e, e. The additional steps c and d
are hinged on to the fixed steps, and they are furnished at their under sides
with small plungers z, z, which are inserted into the ends of the bent tubes.
The plunger of the step c is placed nearer the front of that step than the plunger.

page_text: of the step d, consequently the leverage of the latter is greater than the former;
and will thereby prevent the possibility of arresting the action of the apparatus.
The plunger of the step d is elongated, and its lower end is connected to the
shorter arm of the lever j. The indicating part of the apparatus is actuated
by the balls in the bent tubes raising and depressing the shorter arm of the
lever j, the other end of which is connected to the upright rod .l as in the
former instance. In place of the balls above-mentioned, the bent tubes may
be supplied with quicksilver, water, oil, or other liquid, but when either of
these is employed proper precautions must be taken to prevent their escape
from the bent tubes, otherwise, after a little use, the apparatus will not
act. As the mode of applying these substances to the above-mentioned
purpose will readily suggest itself to the mind of any competent mechanic,
and as all the other parts of the apparatus will be exactly similar to that above
described, I have not thought it necessary to give a more minute description.
I have shewn in the accompanying Drawings a system of. wheelwork, with a
dial and indices, as the method I employ for registering. I have done so
because I conceive it to be the most convenient, but I do not intend to confine
myself thereto, as a correct registry may be effected in many different ways.
For instance, the wheelwork may be dispensed with, and, in place thereof, I
propose to enclose a number of small balls (similar to marbles) securely in a
box or chamber furnished with a slide valve, which, being acted upon by the
longer arm of the lever j, may open the said valve and allow one ball at a
time to escape and fall into a second box below. At the end of the journey
the number of balls or marbles in the lower box will shew the number of
passengers that have entered the carriage.
In order to prevent useless repetition, I have only shewn the improved regis-
tering apparatus as applied to an omnibus, as, with the exception of both steps
being on the same plane, the apparatus may be applied in nearly the same form
to the entrances of rooms or places in order to ascertain the number of persons
entering the same, or to bridges, roads, or ways to indicate the number of persons
or vehicles passing over or along such ways; the principle of my Invention being
a counterpoise in order to prevent any tampering with the apparatus. An
endless variety of methods of applying the Invention above described to these
purposes may be suggested, I have not therefore thought it desirable to shew
any particular arrangement of parts other than those above described, as it is
evident that the mode of applying my Invention must depend entirely upon
circumstances, and may be easily modified by any intelligent mechanic.
In conclusion, I wish it to be particularly understood that I do not intend to
confine my claim to the precise arrangement herein shewn and described, but

page_text: claim any arrangement of mechanism in which, by acting on one end of a lever
or levers, the other end may be made to move or actuate any registering appa-
ratus; or, as shewn in Fig. 5, by acting on or depressing one side of a pulley
or pullies of differential radii, the opposite side may be raised and made to
effect the same object.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ranwell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
N. W. DENIOR.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventeenth day of August,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Ranwell came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of October, in the year above written.