A CERTAIN MODE OR METHOD, OR CERTAIN MODES OR METHODS, OF ASCERTAINING AND REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PERSONS ENTERING IN OR UPON PASSENGER CONVEYANCES AND PASSAGE WAYS, AND THE INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
JAMES POWNALL, of Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send.
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the thirteenth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors; give and grant unto
me, the said Charles James Pownall, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Charles James Pownall, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as
I, the said Charles James Pownall, my exors, admors, 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 expressed, should and lawfully might make,"
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CERTAIN MODE OR METHOD, OR CERTAIN
MODES OR METHODS, OF ASCERTAINING AND REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PERSONS
ENTERING IN OR UPON PASSENGER CONVEYANCES AND PASSAGE WAYS, AND THE
INSTRUMENTS OR APPARATUS FOR EFFECTING THE SAME;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Charles James, Pownall, should
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of 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
Charles James Pownall, hereby declare that the nature of my Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in causing the entrance of every person into or upon
a carriage or other conveyance, or into or upon any passage way, to complete
an electric circuit in connection with a voltaic battery suitably placed, and
such completion of the circuit to actuate a system of wheelwork and numbering
index connected therewith, whereby the fact of such entrance and any number
of such entrances will be unerringly ascertained and registered. The different
Drawings annexed represent this Invention as applied to an omnibus. Figure
1 is a plan of the bind step in an expanded state. Figure 2 exhibits an
edge view of it, and Figure 3 and 4 are cross sections of it in different
positions. It consists of two leaves or platforms H, I, placed one above the
other. The under leaf H is connected to the floor of the hinder part of the
omnibus by brackets or stays G, G, and remains always in a fixed position
with relation to the body of the carriage. The upper leaf I being that on
which the passenger treads, is connected to the under leaf by hinges. K1, K2, are
two strips or bands of metal, one affixed to the upper leaf I, the other to the
under one H, and which occupy positions immediately opposite to each other,
so that when the two leaves of the step are pressed together these metal
bands come in contact. L, L, are springs which are interposed between H
and I, and serve to keep the metal bands K', K2, from coming in contact,
unless when some weight, such as that of a person of average weight treading
úpon it brings them together. M, M, are wires which lead from the bands
K', K, to a galvanic battery N, placed immediately under the floor of the
carriage or in any other convenient part. R is the registering apparatus
which occupies a position alongside of the battery. Figure 5 is a front view
of the battery and registering apparatus. Figure 6 is a back view of the
registering apparatus on an enlarged scale. A, A, is a system of wheel or
clock work, B, B, a ratchet wheel, D a piece of steel, and E: an electro-
maguet composed of a piece of soft iron enclosed in a helix of wire.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-Every time a person treads
the upper
leaf of the step, the two bands K¹ and K² are brought into
upon

page_text: contact, and a metallic circuit completed in connection with the battery N.
The current flowing through the electro-magnet E attracts to it the piece
of steel D, which in its turn causes the pallet C to push round the ratchet wheel
one tooth, which movement of the ratchet wheel is transferred to the index hand
F of the numbering dial R, and causes it to move forward one division.. Of
course, the moment the pressure is removed from the step of the omnibus the
circuit is broken, and the apparatus ceases to operate. As; however, the exits as
well as entrances of passengers must necessarily be thus registered, the index
will mark double the actual number of passengers to be accounted for..
.
In the Drawing (Figure 5), the dial is shewn as calculated to indicate
from 1 to 5,000, by the employment of two hands, one of which (F) is con-
nected to the first motion of the instrument and indicates from 1 to 100, and
the other f is connected to the second motion of the instrument, moving over:
one division only for each entire revolution of the other hand, and thus indicat-
ing hundreds and thousands. To guard against the fraudulent insertion of
any. substance between the under and upper leaves of the step, with a view to
prevent the bands coming together, the space between the two leaves should be
enclosed all round; and to prevent also two persons pressing on the step at one
time, in which case the entrance of one only would be registered, the step should
either be made narrow so as to render this impracticable, or have guards
or fenders on each side, with such interval only between as would allow the
passage of but one person only at a time. A guard is also attached to the
lower part of the door (see Figure 7), which covers the step when the door
is closed. Steps. of the same construction: as that before described, and
connected in like manner to the battery, may be made use of for the ascent to
the roof or outside of the omnibus.. Moreover, instead of the numbers being
indicated upon a dial they may be marked by the decomposition of some chemical
substance on paper, or cloth, or by a marking point upon paper, in which
cases the strip of paper or cloth or other substance will require to be kept in
motion that the marks may fall upon separate portions of it and not always in
the same place. Figure 8 is a front elevation, and Figure. 9 a plan of
machinery suitable for the purpose. A, A, is a case containing a set of clock->
work actuated and put in motion by a main spring of the usual construction.
B1, B2, are two rollers affixed to the outside of the frame of clockwork, and
put in motion by the train of wheels C, C. The paper or cloth to be marked
is wound upon the roller B, and as it is unwound is received upon another
roller B². D is an electro-magnet composed of a piece of soft iron enclosed
in a helix of wire. E is a bent lever which has its axis in the bracket F;
at its upper end it carries a piece of steel E', and at its lower end a marking

page_text: point or pencil F', immediately beneath which there is a roller T, over
which travels a ribband of the paper or other substance which is to be
marked. When the electro-magnet D is excited by the flow of the
electric current, as at each completion or making of the circuit, as before
explained, then the piece of steel E¹, placed on the one end of the bent
lever E, is attracted towards the electro-magnet, and for the time it is so
attracted keeps the point or pencil in contact with the ribband of paper,
underneath which is to be marked; and as that ribband is kept, by means of
the clockwork, constantly passing from off the one roller on to the other each
"make"" and "break" of the circuit will thus cause a distinct mark or trace to
be left upon the paper. I give no preference to any substance by which the
paper or cloth may be saturated for the purpose of being decomposed by
of the electric current, as there are many well-known substances which
will answer the purpose and are already in use in telegraphic arrangements.
Apparatuses of either of the sorts before described may be used in connection
with passage ways of all descriptions, such as gardens, landing piers, toll-
paying bridges, &c. All that is necessary is that the person's traversing
these passage ways should be obliged in doing so to tread upon movable
platforms, or to pass through wickets, or turnstiles, connected, as before
described, with an electric battery and registering apparatus.
means
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not limit myself to
the use of any particular mode of producing an electric circuit, or of causing
the completing and breaking of that circuit to accomplish the objects of my
Invention, and that what I claim is as follows:-
Firstly, I claim the method of causing the entrance of every person into or
upon a carriage, or other conveyance, or upon any passage way, to complete
an electric circuit in connection with a voltaic battery, and such completion of
the circuit to actuate a system of wheelwork and numbering index, or electro-
magnet and dotting pointer connected therewith, as before described. And,
Second, I claim the construction of the steps of or entrance ways into or
upon carriages of two separate leaves or plates, by the pressing together of
which a metallic circuit is completed in connection with a voltaic battery, as
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles James Pownall, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, One thousand
5.
CHAS J. (L.S.) POWNALL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Charles James Pownall came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.