IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR INDICATING CAB Fares
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Foster, of Sunderland, in the County
of Durham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
INDICATING CAB Fares.”
Sealed the 23rd December 1875, and dated the 1st October 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Foster at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st October 1875.
I, ROBERT FOSTER, of Sunderland, in the County of Durham, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR Indicating Cab Fares,” to be as follows :-
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for indi-
cating cab fares. For this purpose I mount upon one of the wheels a
pulley, which by means of an endless elastic band drives another pulley
having a bevilled wheel on its axis. This wheel gears with a similar
wheel on a vertical axis at one side of the vehicle. There is a worm on
the vertical axis, which engages with and drives a worm wheel. The

page_text: worm wheel has on its axis a pinion driving another wheel, which by a
pinion on its axis drives in a similar manner a third wheel and axis, and
the latter carries a pointer which indicates the fares and distance in
miles on a circular dial. A. pointer on the axis of the worm wheel
indicates on a dial fractions of a mile.
By means of a handle under the control of the driver the worm can
be drawn back out of gear with the worm wheel, and at the same time a
pawl is dropped into the teeth of the worm wheel, which prevents it
being turned forward, but admits of the wheels being moved back to
zero. A stop on the last wheel of the train prevents the index being
turned past the zero point.
The dial in nuntacted in front by a glass door and the index cannot
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 1
filed by the said Robert Foster in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st April 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
FOSTER, of Sunderland, in the County of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Foster, Her special
license, that I, the said Robert Foster, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Foster, my executors,
administrators, 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, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR INDICATING CAB FARES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Robert Foster, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands

page_text: 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 Robert Foster, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for indi-
cating cab fares. For this purpose I mount upon one of the wheels a
pulley, which by means of an endless elastic band drives another pulley
having a bevilled wheel on its axis. This wheel gears with a similar
wheel on a vertical axis at one side of the vehicle. There is a worm on
the vertical axis which engages with and drives a worm wheel. The
worm wheel has on its axis a pinion driving another wheel, which by a
pinion on its axis drives in a similar manner a third wheel and axis, and
the latter carries a pointer which indicates the fares and distance in
miles on a circular dial. A pointer on the axis of the worm wheel
indicates on a dial fractions of a mile.
By means of a handle under the control of the driver the worm can
be drawn back out of gear with the worm wheel, and at the same time a
pawl is dropped into the teeth of a ratchet fixed to the worm wheel,
which prevents it being turned forward, but admits of the wheels being
moved back to zero. A stop on the last wheel of the train prevents the
index being turned past the zero point.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings here-
unto annexed.

page_text: Figure 3 shows the dial and other exterior parts of the apparatus.
a is a worm wheel, which is mounted so as to be able to rotate upon
an axis b.
It has fixed upon it a pinion c and a short index or pointer d.
The pinion c gears with an intermediate wheel e, to which is fixed the
pinion f, gearing with the wheel 9 fixed upon the axis b. The axis 6 |
also carries the long index or pointer h, which indicates on the dial tho
number of miles travelled and the fare, whilst the shorter index indicates
fractional parts of a mile. The train of wheels above described is driven
by a worm i on an axis gearing with the worm wheel a. The axis ¿¹
has a socket at i*, which receives the end of a vertical axis having at
its lower end a bevilled pinion gearing with a similar pinion fixed to a
pulley which receives an elastic driving band around it, and this band
also encircles a driving pulley fixed to one of the wheels of the vehicle.
The axis of the worm i is carried by a slide k, and by means of an
eccentric, which can be turned half round by a handle l', the worm 1
can either be held in gear with the worm wheel or be drawn back out of
gear when the driver desires to set the indices back to zero. The
handle being on the outside of the vehicle is not accessible to a
person riding inside. At the same time that the slide k is drawn back
a pawl m drops into the teeth of the ratchet wheel n, which is fixed to
the worm wheel a, so that it is then impossible to move the train of
wheels so as to carry the pointers forward. The pawl m is actuated by
a spring m¹, but when the worm i is in gear a finger k¹ fixed to the
slide k comes aginst the tail of the pawl and raises it out of gear.
There is also another contrivance to prevent the pointers being turned a
backwards past the zero point when the worm is out of gear. Attached
to the wheel g there is a stop or projection 9', which when the wheel is
at the zero point comes against the end of a lever p. This lever when
the worm is out of gear stands in the path of the stop g², but when the
eccentric is turned so as to put the worm into gear the pin on the
eccentric acts upon the tail of the lever p, and raises its further end
above the stop; otherwise the apparatus might be injured by the vehicle
backing whilst the stop g' was against the lever. q is the handle which
is provided for the purpose of setting the pointers to zero. It is fixed
on the axis r, on which is mounted the wheel 8, but the wheel is not fast a
on the axis; it is held to it by the nip of a dished disc spring s¹; thus
';
the wheel turns with the axis until it meets with sufficient resistance to
overcome the nip. The wheels gears with the intermediate whealt,

page_text: and this again gears with the wheel e, so that the handle q is in con-
nection with the main train of wheels, and these wheels can be moved
by means of the handle when they are in a position to be free to
move.
u is a disc, which may be fixed on the axis 6 with the object of
registering the fares which the driver should receive. It has corre-
sponding to each faro a projection upon it; ³ is one of these projections.
is a barrel, which is covered with paper, and there is a ratchet d' on
the end of the barrel. A pawl takes into this ratchet, and turns it one
tooth each time that the slide k is moved to put the worm i into gear.
The projections u³ act upon a corresponding number of small marking
levers, not represented in the Drawing, and as each projection passes it
causes the corresponding lever to mark the paper. Thus when the
barrel is examined after a day's work it will be found marked with dots
arranged in lines parallel to the axis of the barrel; the number of lines
will indicate the number of fares, and the number of dots in each line
will indicate the value of the corresponding fare.
The apparatus may be made without this recorder, but in many cases
this part of the apparatus will afford a very useful check on the driver.
What I claim is the construction of apparatus substantially as
described for indicating cab fares.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Foster, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
ROBERT FOSTER. (L.S.)