IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RECORDING THE NUMBER OF PAS- SENGERS CONVEYED IN PUBLIC VEHICLES, AND THE DISTANCE EACH HAS TRAVELLED
Year: 1873

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Josiah Latimer Clark, of 5, Westminster
Chambers, Victoria Street, in the City of. Westminster, Civil
Engineer, and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, of 12, Thurlow
Road, Hampstead, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RECORDING THE NUMBER OF PAS-
SENGERS CONVEYED IN PUBLIC VEHICLES, AND THE DISTANCE EACH HAS
TRAVELLED."
.
Bealed the 29th May 1874, and dated the 11th December 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah Latimer Clark
and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 11th Decem-
ber 1873.
We, JOSIAH LATIMER CLARK, of 5, Westminster Chambers, Victoria
Street, in the City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, and EDWARD ORANGE
WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE, of 12, Thurlow Road, Hampstead, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN. APPARATUS FOR RECORDING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS

page_text: CONVEYED IN PUBLIC VEHICLES, AND THE DISTANCE EACH HAS TRAVELLED," to be
as follows:
The first part of our Invention consists in automatically counting and
recording the number of passengers who may be at any given time
actually travelling in the vehicle to which the instrument is attached. 5
This result is obtained by each passenger closing a portion of an electric
circuit on taking his seat, and such circuits being at intervals automa-
tically tested, counted, and recorded by the instrument.
The counting, and recording can be effected either by electro-chemical
decomposition, by the use of capillary siphon pens described, or by type 1
wheels with a step-by-step motion recording in figures the number of
circuits closed.
The counting apparatus may be said to consist mainly of a mechanical
arm, spring, or "traveller," driven by a suitable train of wheels, and
passing over a circuit piece containing as many insulated metallic studs 1
as there are seats or places to be counted.
Tho "traveller" is in circuit with a battery, and the recording part of
the apparatus and the studs are each in connection with the respective
place or seat in the vehicle which they represent.
Each seat must contain or have attached to it a simple contact maker, 2
which is called into play by the mere weight or presence of the sitter in
his place, and the contact is complete and continued at that part of the
circuit only so long as the passenger remains there.
دو
At given intervals the various circuits in the vehicle are tested by the
movement of the "traveller over the studs in the circuit piece, and so 2
many of them as are found to be closed at the seat have the fact
recorded automatically by the production of the appropriate mark upon
paper either electro-chemically or mechanically by siphon piece or type
wheel.
The paper is kept in motion by a suitable train of wheels, and we
also 3
place upon the same paper automatically by clockwork marks denoting
the hour and minute.
Side by side with these time marks we record the movement of the
vehicle itself in measured distances in such a manner as that the speed
attained may be at all times read off from the paper, together with the 3
exact time of every stoppage and starting of the carriage.
:

page_text: The addition of another style pen or type wheel gives the power of
marking also the terminal and road-side stations.
The second part of our Invention consists of a portable counter and
recorder combined, which may either be used as an accessory and check
upon the above method of noting the fares, or may in some instances be
employed alone as a control of the receipts by the conductor.
Certain studs representing the amounts received for different fares on
being pressed record the accounts on a strip of paper or on a step-by-step
wheel and dial. To this may be added an audible indication of the
amount recorded by causing the pressure on the different studs to sound
different bells or different numbers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Josiah Latimer Clark and Edward Orange Wildman
Whitehouse in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSIAH
LATIMER CLARK, of 5, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, in the
City of Westminster, Civil Engineer, and EDWARD ORANGE WILDMAN
WHITEHOUSE, of 12, Thurlow Road, Hampstead, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said Josiah Latimer Clark and
Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, Her special license, that we,
the said Josiah Latimer Clark and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Josiah Latimer Clark and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use;
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RECORDING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS

page_text: CONVEYED IN PUBLIC VEHICLES, AND THE DISTANCE EACH HAS TRAVELLED," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Josiah Latimer Clark
and Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, our executors or administra-
tors, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, on behalf of myself and the said Josiah Latimer Clark, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists in the arrangement of apparatus for auto-
matically counting and recording the number of passengers who may be
at any given time actually travelling in the vehicle to which the instru-
ment is attached. This result is obtained by each passenger closing a
portion of an electric circuit on taking his seat. Such circuits arc at
intervals automatically tested, and the closed circuits are counted and
recorded by the instrument.
The counting and recording can be effected cither by electro-chemical
decomposition, by the use of capillary syphon pens, or best of all by type
wheels with a step-by-step motion recording in figures the number of
circuits closed.
$6
The counting apparatus may be said to consist mainly of a mechanical
arm, spring, or traveller," driven by a suitable train of wheels, and
passing over a circuit piece containing as many insulated metallic studs
as there are seats or places to be counted.
The "traveller" is in circuit with a battery, and the recording part of
the apparatus and the studs are each in connection with the respective
place or seat in the vehicle which they represent.
Each seat must contain or have attached to it a simple contact maker,
which is called into play by the mere weight or presence of the sitter in
his place, and the contact is complete and continued at that part of the
* circuit only so long as the passenger remains there. Such a contact

page_text: Figure 1 is a Diagram plan of the apparatus as we prefer to construct:
it, but the parts are shewn somewhat wider apart than will be requisite
in practice; Figure 2 is a corresponding vertical section.
Figure 3 is a Diagram of the record which is produced by the
apparatus. The figures in the two left-hand columns shew the time in'
hours and minutes at which cach part of the record was produced. The
figures in the next two columns shew at the corresponding time the
number of outside and inside passengers respectively. In the right-hand
column the letters indicate the station reached by the vehicle. The
colored line shews the speed at which the vehicle has travelled at the
time marked on the left-hand side of the paper strip. The pen which
produces this mark completes its traverse to and fro whilst the vehicle

page_text: travels one hundred yards. When the line is straight along the paper it
indicates that the vehicle was standing still.
In Figures 1 and 2 a is an axis driven by a balance wheel clock, so as
to rotate once in each hour; b, c, d, e, and ƒ are five type wheels
mounted upon this axis. The way in which they are caused to rotate
we will presently describe. 9 is a strip of paper drawn from a reel and
passing beneath the type wheels; it is led between two rollers h and h¹,
one of which is rotated by gearing it with a wheel of the same clock
train which drives the axis a. The paper is in this way moved. con-
tinuously forward; a speed of one foot per hour will be found suitable.
Below the paper is a small padded roller i mounted upon a double
lever, to which is affixed the armature of an electro-magnet ². When
the electro-magnet is excited, say once every minute, it attracts its
armature, raises the padded roller i, and dabs the paper against the typo
wheels, which produce their marks upon the paper, according as they
may happen to have been previously set. j,j, are inking rollers; they
are covered with velvet, and an ink which remains constantly moist (it
has glycerine or non-drying oil for its base) is spread upon them at
intervals. The inking rollers rest by their own weight upon the type
wheels; k is a syphon pen, consisting of a small silver tube dipping at
one end into a reservoir of ink (we use glycerine and water colored with
magenta dye), and terminating at the other in a little glass nozzle
cemented on to it with shellac; this nozzle rests lightly upon the
travelling paper. The tube k is carried by a lever ¹ turning upon a
centre at 2, and connected with an eccentric pin ³ mounted upon an
axis ', having upon it a pulley k5, from which an endless cord passes to
another similar pulley, which is driven in any convenient way from the
wheels carrying the vehicle, and at such a speed conveniently that the
pulley k makes one rotation for every hundred yards passed over.
Having thus made clear the action of the syphon pen we will return
to the explanation of the printing wheels.
The station type wheel ƒ is set by the movement of a suitable handle
worked by the conductor which actuates the mechanism shewn on an
enlarged scale at Figure 4. The type wheel has upon its periphery 13
(or it might be other number) of type; 12 of these type are letters or
symbols, each representing a station on the course over which the vehicle
travels. The remaining type marks a line; it is the zero point of the

page_text: wheel, and it indicates when printed that the vehicle is not at a station.
There is also a blank space in the type wheel. Fixed upon the type
wheel side by side are two similar ratchet wheels f¹ and f' with right
and left teeth. The wheel f2 is indicated by dotted lines. With the
wheelf two pawls engage, the pawl 7 moves about a fixed centre,
and serves merely to retain. The pawl m is a driving pawl. It is
mounted upon a lever m¹ on an axis m², and this axis also carries another
arm m³, which by an elastic connection takes motion from the handle
worked by the conductor, and each motion works the ratchet wheel one
tooth forward.
The required number of impulses are given by a simple mechanical
contrivance, whilst the handle is moved by the conductor over the face
of a dial to a position upon it where the name of the required station is
marked. m¹× is a tooth upon the lever m¹³ engaging with the teeth of
the wheel to check the type wheel at the end of each step. The
space in the wheel f¹ prevents it from ever commencing a second revo-
lution; m² is a spring to cause the return of the lever m¹, and m³ are
adjusting screws; n is a pin fixed upon the wheel f¹ when it abutts upon.
the pin m on the lever m¹. The type wheel is at the zero point as the
Drawing shews it. As the wheels are rotated step by step by the driving
pawl m the fine cord o becomes wound around the snail cam p, and the
spring, q is extended. This spring is intended to bring the wheels back
to the zero point. To admit of this the pawls and m are lifted by
means of a lever ", which is thrown up each time the handle passes back
to the zero of the dial, so that the station type wheel always stands at a
position corresponding with that of the the handle upon the dial.
.
The hour wheel 6 has Figures one to twelve upon it and a blank or zero
space. It is worked by mechanism similar to that shewn at Figure 4,
the lever m¹ being worked by the striking mechanism of the clock which
drives the axis a, each motion of the lever corresponding to what in a
striking clock would be a blow upon the bell. The lever " for tripping
the pawls is in this case worked by an electro-magnet, through which at
intervals a current is passed, as is herein-after described, to allow the
hour type wheel to return to blank or zero.
The minute wheel c carries 12 type figures, 0, 5, 10, 15, and so on up
to 55. This wheel might be fixed upon the axis a and revolve uniformly
with it, but unless the wheel be made inconveniently large or the figures

page_text: the battery. The end of the spring u stands over a metal wheel v with
projections upon it. The wheel v is fixed to the wheel d, and when this
wheel is at its zero point the spring is over a space in the wheel v when
a projection is wanting. When the wheel d has been moved from its
zero point and any one of the figures is in position to print the spring u
will be in contact with the wheel v, and then immediately the battery
connection with this spring is made, the current flows through the coils
of the magnet, the armature is attracted, the wheels are moved round
half a step, and the circuit is broken. As soon as the circuit is broken
the escapement lever returns, contact is again made, and the operations
recur until the wheel d has been worked back to its zero point.
The mechanism in connection with the wheel e is in all respects
similar. There are two "travellers," one for each counting wheel. The
traveller is a metal arm mounted upon an axis, which once in each
minute turns and carries the traveller round so as to bring its end in
succession into electrical contact with each one of a series of insulated
metal pegs or contact pieces arranged in a circle in a piece of vulcanite.
A front view of the traveller is shewn at Figure 6. w is the axis ;
w¹, the traveller arm; and x, x¹, &c., the insulated contact pieces. The
axis w is driven by a clock train, which when liberated carries the
traveller round the circle of the contact pieces in five or six seconds
or thereabout. It is retained by a pawl, which once every minute is
lifted by an electro-magnet, and the pawl falls in again when the
revolution is completed. The contacts for this electro-magnet (which is
not shewn in the Drawings) are made by a star wheel on an axis driven
by or forming part of the same clock which rotates the axis a.
star wheel has five points, and turns round once in five minutes, and
once a minute one of its points touches for about a second upon an
insulated spring, and so completes a battery circuit through the coils of
the magnet, which liberates the traveller.
The
The current which liberates the traveller passes through the stud x
and through the traveller itself; and if it be desired occasionally to
print more frequently than once a minute a circuit may be passed
through the coils of the magnet at intermediate times by pressing upon
a button by hand or otherwise.
The contact pieces x¹ to x² are in connection with the seat circuits,
each for each, and the traveller couples the battery with these circuits in

page_text: instrument to be moved into position to record the number of closed
circuits, substantially as and for the purposes described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Orange Wildman White-
house, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-four.
E. O. WILDMAN WHITEHOUSE. (L.S.)