IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE ENTRY AND THE EXIT OF PASSENGERS INTO AND FROM PUBLIC VEHICLES, AND ALSO FOR INDICATING THE SEVERAL STOPPING STATIONS WHILE ON A JOURNEY
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Albert Gordon Smith at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th April 1877.
4
ALBERT GORDON SMITH, of 127, Wrotham Road, Gravesend, in the County of
Kent. " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE ENTRY AND THE
EXIT OF PASSENGERS INTO AND FROM PUBLIC VEHICLES, AND ALSO FOR INDICATING
THE SEVERAL STOPPING STATIONS WHILE ON A JOURNEY."
According to my Invention I employ two steps in convenient places for passengers
to tread upon when entering or alighting from the conveyance. These steps are
free to descend through a small space when a passenger treads thereon, to cause
needles to puncture or impress a piece of paper. The paper is preferably a roll or
web, and is so arranged that the needles cause the punctures to be at a convenient
distance apart. The puncture caused by a passenger entering the conveyance by
first treading on the lower step is on one side of the centre line of paper; and
that caused by a passenger alighting, by first treading on the upper step, to
appear on the opposite side of the centre line of the paper, the two punctures being
of different shapes.
The paper from one roller to the other receives an intermittent angular motion
from the wheel of the conveyance, which thus causes an intermittent advance of the
paper. While the paper remains at rest the successive punctures are in a direction
inclined to the direction of the advance of the paper. Upon the paper receiving its
advance, the needles take up their original position again.
A disc or dial on which is written the names of places or landmarks, to which the
conveyance journeys, is fitted in some conspicuous place. An authorized person being
employed to alter the disc as convenient, so that the proper names appear as the
several localities are reached; the turning of the dial also causing a conveniently
shaped puncture to appear on the paper.
To each step I fit a piece of metal which I call bearers; these bearers press against
and move a flap composed of two pieces; the frame and the plate; the frame is
centered so as to revolve through a convenient angle, and the plate slides to and fro
in a groove formed in the frame. The plate is perforated by two slots or slits, and
is so placed that one of them must be opposite one of two needles which are used to
puncture the paper.

page_text: When the flap revolves through a convenient angle from the pressure of a
bearer the plate forces one needle through the paper, but does not move the
needle which is opposite its slot. The needles are returned to their places by the
pressure of springs.
Every time the flap lifts from its axle or pivots a click engages with the plate and
slides it out of the frame as far as it is able, the plate is then in a position to work
the getting-in needle. Should however a passenger next get out, the tread upon
the upper step works the arm of a bell-crank lever connected to the axle of the
click, and this slides the plate into the frame as far as it is able; the flap is
then ready to work the getting-out needle when the lower step is trodden upon.
The upper step arranges the needles, and the lower step forces them. through the
paper. Each needle is attached to a rack, and each rack is in gear with a
pinion, which arrange the needles in their successive positions while the paper is
stationary.
When the paper receives its intermittent motion provision is made to lift the
detents, which allows the racks to obey the pressure of a spiral spring, and return
the needles to their original position. Each pinion is connected by a pipe or
sleeve axle to the working wheel of a masked ratchet wheel; each masked ratchet
wheel has saw-shaped teeth, and is worked by a book click, which click is attached
to a bent lever receiving its motion from the bearer of the upper step.
The paper receives its intermittent motion in the following manner :-A tooth is
fixed to one of the wheels of the conveyance, and gears with a star wheel once
during each revolution; this star wheel gears with other star wheels which reduce
the intermittent motion to any desired frequency. This intermittent motion being
transmitted by means of ordinary toothed wheels to one of the paper rollers, thus
advances the paper.
To return the needles to their original position, part of the intermittent motion of
the star wheel is transmitted by ordinary toothed wheels to two wheels, which
partially encase the masked ratchet wheels, and which I call the encasing wheels;
their functions are to release the detents from the ratchet wheels by performing a
revolution around them each time the paper advances, and thus allow the needles
to return to their original position, also to re-adjust the idle wheel of the masked
ratchet wheel, and thus correct any error that may, peradventure, have occurred.
To assist in performing the functions, I fix an arm of the axle of each encasing
wheel (which arms are prevented from completing their revolution) through
obstructions on the racks until the needles have taken their original position,
thereby keeping the detents off the ratchet wheels as necessary. To constrain this
arm always to finish its revolution at one point, I attach a helical spring thereto,
which spring I pivot as near the extremity of the arm as convenient.
The mechanism connected with the disc or dial is as follows:-The names of
certain localities being written upon the dial are caused to appear in a convenient
place by the rotating of the dial. I use also a hand or pointer to distinguish if
necessary the locality for a person entering the conveyance, from the locality for a
person alighting from the conveyance, that their fares may be reckoned accordingly.
At stated places an authorized person shall move the hand through a certain
angle, the dial shall be constrained to move in this direction with the hand. After
the paper has received a convenient number of advances, the hand is caused to
return to its former position, and not moving the dial in this direction shall there-
fore point to the name of another locality; the hand will continue in this position
until moved by some person; the dial moves with the hand in one direction, but
not in the opposite. A piece of metal is fixed to one, and sprung obliquely against
the other enters one of a series of indentations.
To puncture the paper:-A toothed wheel moves with the dial through a certain
angle, and causes one revolution of another wheel to which is connected a crank. The
throw of this crank is transmitted by connecting rods to a pointed instrument
turning any necessary angles by bell-crank levers. This pointed instrument returns
by the pressure of a spring.

page_text: To depress the hand:-The intermittent motion from the star wheels is transmitted
by ordinary bevil wheels to a wheel having broad and narrow teeth in alternate
order, the narrow being the longer of the two, and alone acted upon by another
wheel shaped like a Maltese cross, one corner of which is shaped differently to the
others. This wheel, which I term the depressed wheel, is centered on the pointer or
hand, and brought into gear with the first shaped wheel by a person moving the
hand; the number of indentations on each of these wheels may be varied as
required.
When a tooth of first named wheel, gears with the shallow indentation of depressed
wheel, this will separate their centres, and thus depress the hand. The depressed
wheel is excentrically fitted on its axle in order to prevent any external force
depressing the band during a certain time.