AN IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ENTERING VEHICLES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Baird at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th September
1867.
I, WILLIAM BAIRD, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "AN IMPROVED
APPARATUS TO BE USED FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ENTERING
VEHICLES," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention, which relates to certain arrangements of mechanism by
which the number of passengers entering or travelling by vehicles can be
registered, consists as follows:-At the entrance to the vehicle a moveable
step is placed constituting the lid or cover of the box wherein the registering
mechanism is by preference contained, so that in entering the vehicle each
passenger walks over or upon the moveable step, the weight of the passenger
causing the step to be depressed to an extent sufficient to actuate the regis-
tering mechanism, which under one arrangement consists of a ratchet wheel
divided into any convenient number of teeth, and having an index either in
one piece with or revolving simultaneously with it, the index having on it the
same number of divisions as there are teeth in the ratchet wheel. The manner
of actuating the indicator is as follows:-An upright sliding bar is so placed
that its upper end is in contact with the moveable step, and the lower end
rests upon a tooth of the ratchet wheel, so that each time a passenger enters
the vehicle, and therefore depresses the step, the motion being transmitted by
the upright bar to the ratchet wheel causes the latter to be rotated through

page_text: the distance of one tooth; a pall is applied to the ratchet wheel which pre-
vents it from turning back into its former position, and springs are applied to
force up the lid and bar in readiness for the next registration. To render the
registration more perfect a second indicating dial is also applied, the indicating
pointer for which is driven by means of a tangent screw on the axis of the
ratchet wheel gearing into a worm wheel on the shaft of the index pointer.
Another arrangement of indicating apparatus consists also, in the first place;
of a moveable step, as in the preceeding arrangement, which acts upon a lever as
it is depressed; this first lever actuates a second lever the end of which is
formed with an opening in it that embraces or surrounds a tooth wheel, the
teeth of which are angularly shaped; the upper and lower sides of the lever
have a tooth each similarly shaped to the teeth in the wheel, and so situated
that as the lever is raised the point of the under tooth catches the point of one
of the teeth in the wheel, which as the lever is further raised causes a partial
rotation of the toothed wheel, and when the lever is lowered by means of a
spring or springs lifting the moveable step, as soon as the passenger has
entered the vehicle the toothed lever is again depressed and the tooth in the
upper side of the lever descends into or between two teeth on the opposite
side, so that the tooth then retains the wheel in position. To the wheel an
indicating dial is attached, and it may by suitable gearing be arranged to
actuate any number of dials so as to indicate a more perfect registration. In
addition to using the two arrangements of apparatus separately they may be
used in combination, so that the one may act as a check upon the other.
This arrangement of indicating apparatus is especially applicable for omnibuses
and hired vehicles as a check upon the return rendered by the conductor or
driver.
The apparatus herein-before described is intended to be applied to vehicles
constructed with two doors, an entrance and an exit; or in applying it to
vehicles with one door only the number of passengers will be exactly one half
of the numbers indicated by the apparatus, as one passenger will thus on
entering and leaving cause two movements of the pointer on the dial.