OR IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING THE ENTRIES AND EXITS OF PASSENGERS TO AND FROM VEHICLES OR PLACES, AND THE FARES PAID
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Marshall Arthur Wier at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th May 1877.
MARSHALL ARTHUR WIER, of Shepherd's Bush, in the County of Middlesex.
"NEW OR IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING AND INDICATING
THE ENTRIES AND EXITS OF PASSENGERS TO AND FROM VEHICLES OR PLACES, AND
THE FARES PAID."
The special object of the Invention is the registration and indication of the number
of persons entering or leaving omnibuses or tram cars, and of the amount of fares paid
by them, in such manner that any endeavour of the conductor or person in charge
to falsify his account of receipts shall be detected; but the Invention is also applicable
to checking the entries and receipts at public places. It consists essentially of
certain arrangements of registering and indicating apparatus acting upon an indi-
cating card or way bill in such manner that if the conductor or person in charge
operates the apparatus in the proper manner at the entrance and departure of a
passenger, the indicating card or way bill is marked so as to indicate the
number of persons that have entered, in what particular section of the route they
have entered, how many have left, and within what particular section of the
route they have left, and what fares ought to have been paid, and the figures
of a counting indicator agree with the number of passengers that are actually in the
vehicle at any particular moment, but if the conductor or person in charge fails to
operate the apparatus in the proper manner, the indicating card or way bill shows
the fact, or the figures of the counting indicator do not agree with the number of
passengers actually in the vehicle at a particular moment.
The apparatus comprises,-
Firstly. A drum, round which the indicating card or way bill is wound. This
drum is adapted to be set in certain positions corresponding to the sections of the
route by the conductor when the vehicle arrives at certain fixed points. The
indicating card or way bill is ruled with one set of lines corresponding to the fares
to be paid, and with another set of lines corresponding to the sections of the
route.
Secondly. Of a series of finger keys which actuate prickers or other marking
instruments adapted to perforate or otherwise mark the indicating card or way bill.
One of these finger keys is operated by the conductor whenever a passenger enters,

page_text: and a mark is made on that part of the indicating card or way bill which cor-
responds to the section of the route upon which the vehicle happens to be at that
moment. The other finger keys correspond to the fares charged, and the key cor-
responding to the fare paid by a passenger is operated when that passenger alights,
so as to mark the indicating card or way bill on the line corresponding to the fare,
and in that part of the said card or way bill corresponding to the section of the route
upon which the vehicle happens to be at that moment. Each movement by the
conductor of the key indicating the entrance of a passenger causes the wheel or disc
of a counting apparatus to move forward a step, so as to exhibit a number, one
greater than that last appearing, and cach movement by the conductor of a key
indicating a fare and the alighting of a passenger causes the wheel or disc of the
said counting apparatus to move backward a step, so as to exhibit a number, one
less than that last appearing, so that if the apparatus is properly operated, the
number shewn by the counter corresponds to the number of passengers at any time
actually in the vehicle. The object of this indicating counter is to enable a travelling
inspector to compare from time to time the number of passengers actually in the
vehicle, with the number indicated by the apparatus.
It will be found that the double check afforded on the one hand. by the marked
indicating card or way bill, and on the other by the indicating counter, will prevent
the possibility of the conductor cheating or falsifying his accounts without being
detected, and that attempts on his part to do so will be either neutralized at the end
of the journey by inconsistant indications, or turned to his disadvantage by causing
indications of receipts greater than the actual ones.
It will be understood that the operating parts of the apparatus and the indicating
card or way bill are enclosed in a locked case, and so arranged that they cannot be
tampered with.