Iм- PROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CHECKING, REGISTERING, AND INDICATING, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE FOR CHECKING, REGISTERING, AND INDICATING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS CARRIED IN VEHICLES, SUCH AS OMNIBUSES AND TRAMWAY CARS, AND RECORDING DIFFERENTIAL FARES."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Johnson Aspinall at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th May 1877.
Alfred JOHNSON ASPINALL, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster.. "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CHECKING, REGISTERING,
AND INDICATING, MORE PARTICULARLY APPLICABLE FOR CHECKING, REGISTERING,
AND INDICATING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS CARRIED IN VEHICLES, SUCH AS
OMNIBUSES AND TRAMWAY CARS, AND RECORDING DIFFERENTIAL FARES."
My Invention relates to a certain improved method for checking, registering, and
indicating, more particularly applicable for checking, registering, and indicating the
number of passengers carried in vehicles, such as omnibuses and tramway cars, and
recording differential fares, and consists in a novel means of working a ticket system,
in which the ticket being provided with a counterfoil, such counterfoil is separated
from the ticket, and filed, at the same time the filing of such ticket is indicated by
an alarm bell and also checked by a dial registering apparatus.
An apparatus for carrying my Invention into effect may be arranged to suit
differential fares, such as twopence, threepence, fourpence, and sixpence, and in
describing my Invention I will confine myself to such an apparatus, although it will
be evident that the apparatus can be modified to suit one, two, three, or more
differential fares.
In connection with my apparatus I will describe a way bill, such as may be used
in connection therewith.
My apparatus may consist of a rectangular box, constructed of suitable material,
such as sheet brass, and provided with a strap to hang, round the conductor's or
guard's neck or shoulder. The rectangular box is provided with, say four slots or
apertures of different widths, two in the front, respectively representing twopence
and threepence, and one on each side, respectively representing fourpence and six-
pence. These slots are arranged of different size, the highest fare being the largest
size, and the sizes decreasing to the lowest fare, which is the smallest size.

page_text: The apparatus is surmounted by a dome, being a gong or bell, and is provided
with a plunger and hand knob. The plunger is provided with a guillotine or knife
edge, which works inside the apparatus and immediately across the slots or
apertures.
The plunger also works a registering apparatus, being a disc lial of any suitable
known construction, and also strikes an aların by ringing the bell or gong. In the
box below the apertures are divisions or cases which are respectively provided with
impaling files, the end of the impaling file being slightly swelled out.
In connection with the guillotine, and immediately above the impaling files, is a
pressing plate for forcing the counterfoils of the tickets, herein-after described, ou
to the spikes of the impaling files.
The tickets used in connection with my apparatus just described consist of four
tickets of different widths, the smallest ticket representing twopence, the next three-
pence, the next fourpence, and the next, being the widest, sixpence. These tickets
are of different colours, and are provided with counterfoils at one end; each ticket
is numbered, as likewise its counterfoil, and each ticket and counterfoil bear the
rate of fare.
The tickets may be carried in a folded bundle, but by preference I keep
them in a casing at the bottom of the apparatus which is so arranged as to
deliver only one ticket of each colour at one time, and will not deliver a second
ticket until the apparatus has been worked and the previous ticket registered,
checked, and the counterfoil filed. This is effected either by winding the respective
tickets as a tape on a continuous spring-retained barrel, which is actuated by the
depression of the guillotine and filing apparatus, so as to unwind one ticket at a
time through an aperture at the bottom of the apparatus, such ticket being provided
ns herein-before described with a counterfoil, or by placing ordinary cut tickets one
above the other, and arranging the guillotine and filing apparatus with a lever and
rake which delivers the top ticket or the bottom ticket, as the case may be, of the
pile through an aperture with each action of the apparatus.
The piles of tickets are held in position and up to the delivery aperture_by_a
spring, so that the top or bottom ticket, as the case may be, is always ready for
delivery.
In operation the conductor takes the ticket indicating the fare for the distance
travelled, places it with its counterfoil in the fare aperture corresponding with the
ticket, and by pressing the plunger cuts off the counterfoil with the guillotine and
registers on the dial such operation; upon a further pressure on the plunger the
ticket is driven and impaled on the file corresponding with the fare, and at he
same time the operation is checked by the sounding of the bell or gong.
The operation of actuating the apparatus also delivers another ticket, corresponding
with the fare of the ticket just registered, to be ready for the next passenger.
The files for receiving the tickets of each-fare are removable and can be taken out
several times during the day, and duplicate files placed in the apparatus at the
receiving office.
The tickets used are by preference of different colours, and it is easy for the
cashier or book-keeper to check such tickets on the different files, as to whether a
white ticket has by accident got on the blue file, or the blue ticket on the white
file, or in like manner the other tickets been misfiled; the different sizes also
facilitate the sorting of the tickets.
A way bill for use with my apparatus consists of a sheet of ruled paper divided
into divisions, giving the number of passengers by different rates, and the total
amounts posted at the end of the sheet; for example, 39 passengers, thirteen
at twopence, seventeen at threepence, seven at fourpence, and two at sixpence;
total amount of passengers, thirty-nine; amount of fare, nine shillings and nine-
pence.
The apparatus is provided with suitable doors, which are kept under lock and key,
and can only be opened at the receiving offices,

page_text: Although my Invention has been described with checking four rates of fares, it
will be evident that the number of fares recorded can be varied.
It will also be evident that my method and apparatus is applicable either in part,"
or as a whole, for other checking, registering, and indicating purposes than that
particularly described, such as registering weights, entries into public buildings,
ferries, and many other similar purposes.