IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR TAKING THE VOTES OF ELECTORS AT PARLIAMENTARY, MUNICIPAL, AND OTHER ELECTIONS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Shaw Lowe at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th September 1875.
I, JOHN SHAW LOWE, of Southampton Street, in the City of West-
minster, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR TAKING THE VOTES OF ELECTORS AT PARLIAMENTARY,
MUNICIPAL, AND OTHER ELECTIONS," to be as follows :—
The object of my Invention of improved apparatus for taking the
votes of clectors at parliamentary, municipal, and other elections is to
effect this object with greater facility and security than by the present
mode, and by which the results can be seen and made known shortly
after the close of the poll.
The apparatus consists of a box large enough for a person to step
into, and having a mová le platform resting on springs, and connected
by rods, with a row of movable catches, which, when the elector enters
the box, are pressed down to their proper position.
Each candidate's name is placed close to a small lever, and when the
elector enters the box he pulls down that lever against which the name
of the candidate he wishes to vote for is placed. Immediately any of

page_text: the levers is pulled down it is locked by the catch connected with the
platform, so that the elector cannot vote the second time for the same
candidate, but when the elector retires from the platform the levers are
released, and rise to their former and normal position ready for the next
elector.
Each lever acts upon and moves round a disc of a counting apparatus,
consisting of a series of three or more connected discs, cach disc having
on its outer edge at equal distances the figures 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
Each time one of the levers is pulled down it moves the first disc round
one figure and strikes a bell; after that has been repeated 9 times the
second disc is moved with the first, the 0 of the first acting in con-
nection with the figure 1 of the second, and so forming ten, and so
on throughout the series of discs, according to the number of votes
given.
The whole of the machinery is enclosed in a case, but on the outside
of the balloting box and directly opposite to the balloting figures is an
aperture, which is closed by a door, and is locked by the returning
officer until the close of the poll. On the outside of this door and
directly opposite the front figures are placed the names of the candidates
exactly corresponding in position with those by the levers.
Previous to the poll commencing the candidates or their friends duly
appointed by them can have the privilege of seeing that all the figures
stand 0000, when the returning officer or his appointed agent can
shut up the aperture and lock the door and turn it against the wall (so
that it cannot be tampered with) until the close of the poll, when the
returning officer or his appointed agent can have the box moved and
open the aperture in the presence of the candidates or their duly
appointed friends, the officer calling out in an audible voice and copying
down the names of the candidates and the numbers opposite them; then
when the candidates or their friends are satisfied that the numbers are
given correctly the aperture can be again locked and left in the care of
the police until after the public declaration of the poll, which may
always be proclaimed within an hour of the close of the poll.