IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO OMNIBUSES IN ORDER TO INDICATE THE NUMBER OF PERSONS ENTERING SUCH VEHICLES AND THE DISTANCES TRAVELLED BY THE PAS- SENGERS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Crellin at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th October
1863.
I, ALEXANDER CRELLIN, of Dorset Place, Dorset Square, in the County of
Middlesex, do, hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS APPLICABLE TO OMNIBUSES IN ORDER TO INDICATE THE NUMBER OF
PERSONS ENTERING SUCH VEHICLES AND THE DISTANCES TRAVELLED BY THE PAS-
SENGERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus applicable to
omnibuses in order to indicate the number of persons entering such vehicles
and the distances travelled by the passengers. For these purposes, when
there is only one change of fare in the whole distance, I employ certain
improved moveable steps in combination with an indicator to indicate the
number of persons getting in or on the omnibus and the number that get out
or off the omnibus between the starting point and the change of fare, and
between the change of fare and the destination. When there is more than
one change of fare in the whole distance I employ the same moveable steps,
and I use them in conjunction with tickets and boxes or receptacles, as
hereafter described.
My improvement applicable to the steps is so to apply them that pressing
down the first step by stepping upon it throws the machinery into gear, step-
ping on the second step causes the machine either to thrust forth a ticket or.

page_text: register one on the indicator, as the case may be, and stepping on the third
step (if there be one) throws the machinery out of gear.
This part of my Invention may be carried out in various ways. Thus, for
instance, in working the indicator three shafts may be employed; the first will
be connected to the first dial or that which registers the ingress of the pas-
sengers; the third shaft will be connected to the second dial or that which
registers the egress of the passengers. On getting into the omnibus the
pressure on the first step throws the first and second shafts into gear; on
depressing the second step or tread some rods or levers connected to the step
act on the teeth of a ratchet wheel secured to the second shaft, tending to
move the shaft a portion of a revolution, and, consequently, when the first and
second shafts are in gear the motion of the shaft will cause one to be regis-
tered on the first dial. On getting out of the omnibus the pressure on the
third step or tread would throw the second shaft into gear with the third shaft,
and the pressure on the second step acting on the ratchet wheel would register
one on the second dial. If tickets are employed, some rods or levers will be
connected to the first shaft and will communicate the motion of the shaft to a
wheel on which the tickets are wound, or else to some machinery which con-
tains the tickets, and every depression of the step will tend to thrust forth one
of the tickets, which the passenger takes.
The step may be constructed by using an extra step or tread placed directly
over the one now in use, a strip of leather or india-rubber or some such
material being secured round the upper and lower step to prevent any instru-
ment from being inserted between them to stop the working of the apparatus.
Placed outside the leather is a rigid flange so secured as to prevent the leather
from being pushed in between the upper and lower steps. One or two springs
may be fixed between the steps to force back the moveable step after the
pressure is removed. To communicate motion from the moveable step to the
other parts of the machinery I employ three or four small pins secured to
the upper step; these work easily through the lower step and then pass on
to the machinery. The whole of the machinery, which is under the bottoni
step, is enclosed to prevent access to it.
In the construction of the indicator for one change of fare or for three
separate fares, I employ two dials with hands or else with pencils moving on
paper; this paper is marked off into divisions, each division representing one
fare. At the expiration of each fare the pencils will be moved forward, to the
next division of the paper, and to do this human agency may be employed,
although the same may be effected by means of machinery connected with the
omnibus wheel. The first dial registers for the persons that get in or on the

page_text: omnibus, and the second for those that get out or off the omnibus. On
pressing down the first step the machinery of the first dial is thrown into gear,
and on stepping on the second step the first dial indicates that one person has
entered the vehicle. On getting out of the omnibus the pressure on the third
step throws the machinery of the second dial into gear, and stepping on the
second step causes the pencil of the second dial to register that a person has
got out.
When all pressure is removed from the steps the machinery of the
first dial will be out of gear and that of the second dial will be in gear. When
the door of the omnibus is shut the steps are out of gear with the other parts
of the machinery. For the different parts of the outside of the omnibus the
third step may be dispensed with.
In the employment of tickets in combination with steps I use as many sets
of tickets and boxes or receptacles as there are changes of fare in the distance.
At the beginning of each fare a set of tickets and box (marked to distinguish to
which fare they belong) comes into play; this box is displaced at the beginning
of the next fare, and so on with remainder to the end of the journey. On
pressing on the second step the machine thrusts forth a ticket, which the
passenger takes, and on getting out the passenger drops his ticket into the
box or receptacle then open. The tickets would thus indicate where the pas-
sengers get in, and the writing on the box in which the tickets are found will
indicate where the passengers get out. Human agency may also, in this case,
be employed to effect the displacement of the tickets and boxes at their
respective stations.
The indicator used when there is only one change of fare may advan-
tageously be employed in this case for ascertaining the number of persons
getting in and out between each fare by simply increasing the number of
divisions on the paper.