IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS POR INDICATING OR RECORDING AND REGISTERING THE TIMES OF ARRIVAL OR LEAVING OF WORKMEN AND OTHERS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO TELL-TALES FOR WATCHMEN
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alfred Whitty and Herbert Chatteris,
both of 335, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS POR INDICATING
OR RECORDING AND REGISTERING THE TIMES OF ARRIVAL OR LEAVING OF
WORKMEN AND OTHERS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO TELL-TALES FOR WATCHMEN."
Sealed the 13th January 1871, and dated the 14th July 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alfred Whitty:
and Herbert Chatteris at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 14th July 1870.
We, WILLIAM ALFRED WHITTY and HERBERT CHATTERIS, both of
335, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS
FOR INDICATING OR RECORDING AND REGISTERING THE TIMES OF ARRIVAL OR
LEAVING OF WORKMEN AND OTHERS, ALSO APPLICABLE TO TELL-TALES FOR
WATCHMEN," to be as follows:-
The chief object of our Invention is to provide the proprietors or
managers of works or other places where a large number of persons is

page_text: employed with efficient means of checking the times of arrival and
leaving of such persons, and our Invention consists in the means or
apparatus about to be described.
We construct an apparatus consisting of a vertical tube or receptacle
capable of holding a number of tickets or checks, such as are now
employed in many large establishments, the receptacle being of such
form as to cause the tickets to become piled therein. Above this
receptacle is a hopper or similar appliance, and between that and the
receptacle is a slit or opening which will allow only one ticket to pass
at a time. In this slit or opening is a weighted lever or other suitable
appliance, the vibrations or movements of which alternately make and
break contact between the poles of a battery. The wires which com-
municate between the apparatus and the battery are also in commu-
nication with a needle or marker placed in proximity to a strip of
paper or other suitable material in the manager's office or elsewhere.
This strip is caused to travel by clockwork and is divided into sections
or spaces representing, say, five minutes each or other desired portions
of time according to the speed at which the strip is made to travel.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-Each workman as he
arrives or leaves takes his own ticket from a board or other place where
it may be usually kept and drops it into the hopper; it falls from the
hopper into the receptacle below, and in falling acts on the weighted
lever so as to complete the electric circuit, whereby the needle or marker
is caused to come in contact with and mark the strip of paper. As the
lever returns to its normal position the electric circuit is broken until
another ticket is dropped in, and so on. The tickets become piled one
above another in the tube, and the lowest ticket will correspond with the
first mark on the strip of paper, the next lowest ticket with the second
mark, and so on; and as the tickets bear special numbers appertaining
respectively to the various workmen the proprietor or manager can
ascertain with perfect certainty at what time each particular man arrived
or left.
If desired the wires may also be made to work an ordinary
electric counting apparatus in the proprietor's office to shew him at a
glance how many workmen have arrived or left.
Where a very large number of persons is employed several of the

page_text: would be sufficient if divided lengthwise into divisions corresponding
respectively with the several apparatus.
For the purpose of readily removing the tickets from the tube one at
a time we prefer to make the tube free to swing on a joint at the upper
end, and we provide it with a finger piece at the lower end. We also
make a transverse slit near the lower end, through which the front edge
of a blade passes so that upon a person pressing back the lower end of
the tube by the finger piece the blade forces out the lowest ticket into
the person's hand.
Our Invention likewise applies to tell-tales for watchmen, whose duty
it would be to drop tickets into apparatus situated at particular places
every time they passed them.
Instead of employing a strip of paper as herein-before described other
means of registering electrically the tickets dropped into the receptacle
during stated portions of time might be adopted in connection or not
with the electrical counting apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Alfred Whitty and Herbert Chatteris in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ALFRED WHITTY and HERBERT CHATTERIS, both of the Strand, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said William Alfred Whitty and Herbert Chatteris,
Her special licence that we, the said William Alfred Whitty and Herbert
Chatteris, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Alfred Whitty and Herbert Chatteris, our exe-
cutors, 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

page_text: .
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR INDICATING OR RECORDING AND REGISTERING
THE TIMES OF ARRIVAL OR LEAVING OF WORKMEN AND OTHERS, ALSO APPLICABLE
TO TELL-TALES FOR WATCHMEN," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said William Alfred Whitty and Herbert Chatteris, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,
or one of our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 we, the said William Alfred Whitty and
Herbert Chatteris, do hereby declare the nature of our said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to
say :-
The chief object of our Invention is to provide the proprietors or
managers of works or other places where a large number of persons is
employed with efficient means of checking the times of arrival and
leaving of such persons, and our Invention consists in the means or
apparatus about to be described.
We construct an apparatus consisting of a vertical tube or receptacle
capable of holding a number of tickets or checks of metal or other
suitable material, such as are now employed in many large establishments,
the receptacle being of such form and dimensions as to cause the tickets
to become piled therein as they fall into it, as herein-after explained.
Above this receptacle is a hopper or similar appliance into which the
tickets have to be dropped, and between that and the receptacle is an
arrangement upon which the several tickets as they fall one by one
act so as to cause a needle or marker to make a mark or indication
upon a strip of paper or other suitable material placed in proximity
thereto; this strip is caused to travel by clockwork and is divided into
sections or spaces representing say, five minutes each, or other desired
portions of time, according to the speed at which the strip is made to
travel.

page_text: The manner in which our Invention may be carried into effect will be
understood from the accompanying Drawings.
Figure 1 is a back elevation, and Figure 2 a transverse vertical section
of the apparatus; Figure 3 is a horizontal section through the
line x, x.
a is the hopper, and 6 is the vertical tube or receptacle into which
the tickets fall; c is a flat vertical channel forming a continuation of
the hopper a. In this channel c is an opening d to give passing to
arms e, e, fixed on a spindle f which is free to turn on its axis; 9, 9, 9,
are horizontal levers centred at h having a bearing at i and each being
provided with a vertical needle j. One or other of the arms c is always
projecting through the opening d into the channel c, while another of these
arms is always in such position with regard to one of the levers 9 as to be
ready to act thereon; k is a disc provided with a wide flange l, and made
to rotate by means of clockwork placed in the interior thereof. Around
the flange of this disc a strip of paper is placed, the said strip being
divided into sections or spaces representing, say, 5 minutes each or other
desired portions of time, and around this strip a strip of carbonized paper
is placed. The clockwork is so arranged that the disc k may make one
revolution in, say, two hours, or in any other time which may be
considered most suited to the place where the apparatus is employed.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-Each workman as he
arrives or leaves takes his own ticket from a board or other place where
it may be usually kept and drops it into the hopper a, it falls from the
hopper down the channel c into the receptacle 6 below, and in falling
acts on the arm e which projects into the channel, thus giving a partial
turn to the spindle and causing the opposite arm e to raise the
corresponding lever 9 with a sudden movement, so that the needle j
carried by this lever strikes against the carbonized paper on the flange
of the disc / and therefore produces a mark or indication on the other
strip of paper. Another of the arms e now projects into the channel c,
while another is ready to act on another of the levers g upon the fall of
the next ticket, and so on, the number and order of the mark's corre-
sponding with the number of the tickets and the order in which they
fall. The tickets become piled one above another in the tube b and the
lowest ticket will correspond with the first mark on the strip of paper,
the next lowest ticket with the second mark, and so on, and as the

page_text: tickets bear special numbers appertaining respectively to the various
workmen the proprietor or manager can ascertain with perfect certainty
at what time each particular man arrived or left as the case may be.
The reason of having several of the levers g is that if only one such
lever were used, the marks produced by the needle might be so close
together as not to be sufficiently distinct one from another.
In order to prevent more than one ticket at a time passing from the
hopper into the channel c it may be found expedient to use two slides m, n,
connected together by a weighted lever o, so that when one is open
the other is shut. Instead of employing the arrangement herein-before
described the marks or indications may be made on the travelling paper
by electrical means by causing the lever o or some other device operated
by the falling tickets to alternately make and break electrical contact as
the tickets pass with wires which are in communication with the needle
or marker. The needle or marker and travelling paper may then be
in the proprietor's room or at any other convenient place at a distance or
not from the hopper a and tube b. The wires may also be made to
work an ordinary electric counting apparatus in the proprietor's office, so
as to shew him at a glance how many workman have arrived or left.
Or the tube 6 may have a vertical slot and be divided and marked with
numerals, which will shew how many tickets the tube contains.
For the purpose of readily removing the tickets from the tube b one at
a time we prefer to make the tube free to swing on a joint or hinge at p,
and we provide it with a finger piece q at the lower end. We also make
a transverse slit near the lower end, through which the front edge of a
blade passes, so that upon a person pressing back the lower end of the
tube by the finger piece the blade forces out the lowest ticket into the
person's hand.
Our Invention likewise applies to tell-tales for watchmen, whose duty
it would be to drop tickets into apparatus situated at particular places
every time they passed them.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim, the
means or apparatus herein-before described for indicating or recording
and registering the times of arrival or leaving of workmen and others,
also applicable to tell-tales for watchmen, the said means or apparatus
consisting essentially of a hopper or similar device into which checks or

page_text: tickets are to be dropped, of a tube or receptacle into which the checks or
tickets fall and in which they become piled, and of mechanism upon
which the checks or tickets act in falling so as to cause indications or
marks to be made on a travelling strip of paper or other suitable material,
all substantially as herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Herbert Chatteris, on behalf of
myself and the said William Alfred Whitty, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of January One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-one.
HERBERT CHATTERIS. (L.S.)