AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR INDI- CATING, ASCERTAINING, AND REGULATING THE SPEED OF OMNIBUS AND TRAM CARS AND OTHER VEHICLES."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Edward Parker at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th January 1877.
"
JOHN EDWARD PARKER, of 2, Dunford Road West, in Holloway, in the County
of Middlesex, England. AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR INDI-
CATING, ASCERTAINING, AND REGULATING THE SPEED OF OMNIBUS AND TRAM
CARS AND OTHER VEHICLES."
The apparatus is designed for indicating and ascertaining and regulating the
speed of omnibus and tram cars and other vehicles in order that a uniform speed
may be maintained throughout the journey, and so that the vehicle may arrive at
every part of its journey at an appointed time, and that drivers or conductors of
vehicles may be able to regulate the speed, despite the more or less stoppages that
may occur during such journey.
The Invention will be especially useful on single line tramways, where it is
important that the cars should arrive at the various crossing places at an exact
time.
The apparatus may be described as follows:-An instrument in the form of a
clock having two dials, with an indicator to each dial, or (one dial with two indi-
cators working independently of each other) whichever form may be found most con-
venient. One of the indicators receives its motion from a spring in the ordinary
manner of a clock, and registers the time of one hour with the usual divisions of
time (or any other convenient period of time). The other indicator is actuated by
an attachment fixed on the body or spring or any other suitable part of the
vehicle, and rests on the boss or other part of the wheel. The attachment has a
small wheel at its extremity, and causes the distance indicator to be actuated by
the revolution of the wheel of the vehicle. The mechanism of the distance dial is
so arranged that the indicator makes the circuit of the dial in one hour (or other
convenient period of time) at a certain prearranged speed of the vehicle. The
conductor or driver is thus able to ascertain at a glance when the vehicle is losing
or gaining on the appointed speed, and it should be his object to keep the two indi-
cators in equal positions on the dial, the amount of divergence shewing the exact
period the vehicle is behind or before its appointed time.
There is a provision whereby the two indicators can be thrown to zero at any
time, and another for regulating the speed of the time indicator, so that instru-
ments on each car may be regulated in accordance with the time of one particular

page_text: clock. On the vehicle arriving at its destination the distance indicator of course
stops, but the time indicator still continues its course until arriving at a moveable
point denoting the time for the commencement of another journey, when a small
bell placed inside the instrument is rung, and the two indicators are automatically
dropped to zero. The time indicator then commences a fresh circuit, thus
obliging the conductor to proceed, as it is so arranged if desirable that the provision
for throwing the two indicators back to zero is out of the control of the conductor.
The apparatus may also be used with some alteration in the periods of time
marked on the dial to indicate the speed of locomotives and railway trains.