IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING AND CHECKING THE MONEY TAKEN FOR ADMISSION TO THEATRES AND OTHER PLACES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Maitland and
William Lauderdale Maitland at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 7th November 1870.
We, WILLIAM HENRY MAITLAND and WILLIAM LAUDERDALE MAIT-
LAND, both of Thurloe Square, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR REGISTERING AND CHECKING THE MONEY TAKEN FOR ADMISSION TO THEATRES
AND OTHER PLACES," to be as follows:-
The object of our Invention is to afford efficient means of checking the
money taken for admission to theatres and other places, so as to prevent
fraud on the part of the money takers or others.
The employment of a simple registering turnstile would under ordinary
circumstances register the number of persons who pass through it in
entering a theatre or other place, but as in theatres and some other
places it is usual to re-admit with check passes persons who may have
wished to leave for a time during the progress of the entertainment, an
effectual registration of the money taken cannot be obtained without
registering the number of such persons who so leave and are re-admitted:

page_text: The necessary registration might be effected by the use of two turnstiles,
but
very
few theatres have entrances which afford sufficient width.
'
Now our Invention consists in constructing and arranging turnstiles
and parts connected therewith as hereafter described in such manner
that the number of persons who pass through in both directions is
registered by only one turnstile. The turnstile is free to be turned in
either direction, and fixed bars are arranged at one side of the central-
upright, as in some turnstiles now in use, so that persons whether going
in or out must pass at the opposite side. Connected with the turnstile
are two counters (Nos. 1 and 2) to register respectively the number of
persons passing in and out, and these are so arranged that when the
turnstile is moved by a person going in counter No. 2 is out of gear or
does not act, and when the turnstile is moved by a person going out
counter No. 1 is out of gear or does not act. Thus if on examining the
counters at the usual time to ascertain the amount which the money
taker has received it is found that No. 1 indicates, say, 1000 as the total
number who have passed in, and No. 2 indicates, say, 200 the number of
persons who have passed out, and who it must be presumed have been
re-admitted by check passes, the difference in these numbers, 800, will be
the number who have paid for admission, less the number of any who
may have been admitted by free tickets, which the money taker can
always account for. It is intended in the case of theatres to remove the
turnstile at about 10 o'clock to give free egress to the people. It is a very
rare circumstance for a person to leave a theatre before this hour without
returning, while there are no payments for admission after that hour.
One manner in which the twocounters may be thrown into and out of
action for the purpose herein-before explained according to the direction
in which the turnstile rotates is by the employment of a train of wheels,
ratchets, and springs or pauls, the ratchets and springs or pauls connected
with counter No. 1 acting the reverse way to those connected with
No. 2.
To prevent the turnstile being made to turn without a person passing
through it I fit in the floor a yielding plate which becomes depressed
with the weight of the person passing through. This plate may either
act. as a stop to the turnstile until so depressed or it may be made to act
at each depression on any ordinary arrangement connected with an
electrical counting apparatus of usual construction. In either case any
attempted fraud on the part of the money taker would be prevented.

page_text: When an electrical counting apparatus is not used in connection with
the yielding plate electrical counters in the manager's room or else-
where may be connected with the counters Nos. 1 and 2 herein-before
described.