IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS AND FARES, AND FOR OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Herbert Montague Smith
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st October 1881.
HENRY HERBERT MONTAQUE SMITH, of No. 9, Fenchurch Street, in the City
of London, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE
NUMBER OF PASSENGERS AND FARES, AND FOR OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES."
This Invention relates to certain improvements in those apparatus now used or
employed to record the number of passengers and the respective fares paid by
them;
and in instruments at present employed where a bell or alarm is used, the
signal therefrom simply records the fact that a passenger has paid, but by my
present Invention the amount of the fare paid, together with the number of the
passengers of each of several distinct classes of fares, are visibly and audibly
indicated to others as well as to the officers in charge of the instrument, thus giving
a reliable means of checking.
The particular form or construction of my apparatus depends upon the number
of distinctive classes of fares to be taken and accounted for, as, for instance, where
four fares of different denominations are to be taken the apparatus will be composed
of four sets of mechanism combined together, and I arrange them in a cylindrical
or other case which has slots or recesses therein, into each of which slots or recesses
a knob, slide, handle, or button, or any equally convenient prime mover works, the
stroke of which in the slot or recess serves to actuate the the registering mechanism,
and upon the prime mover being put in motion by the attendant, the ratchet to
which the prime mover is connected is also set in motion and prevents the prime
mover returning to its normal position without actuating the registering movements
and completing the intended record by carrying the wheel onward one division,
and as that wheel will either upon its face or upon the face of a dial attached
thereto be provided with numbers, one of such numbers will be exposed through
an opening in the cylindrical or other case; and upon the wheel being carried
forward a fresh number will be presented to view. Thus, supposing the wheel or
dial plate to be arranged for twenty divisions, and a second wheel to be attached
to the first, also carrying twenty divisions, and upon the first wheel completing
its circuit actuating the second wheel, a registering capacity of four hundred will
be attained, and any variation of registering wheel or disc may be adapted to suit
special circumstances.

page_text: Immediately upon the prime mover being put into action the hammer of a bell
or alarm is actuated by acting on a spring or other suitable contrivance; and
directly the prime mover has made its complete stroke, which when once started it
is caused or compelled to complete, the bell or alarm is struck, and the prime mover
returns back to its normal position, and thereupon the recording mechanism is
called into play.
I either mount within the apparatus one bell or alarm, and to each of the various
prime movers attach the number of hammers or strikers corresponding to the
particular denomination to be recorded, or employ tho required number of bells or
alarms and the corresponding number of hammers or strikers, in which latter case
I shall obtain a clearer and more distinct indication where the numbers of strikes
are multiplied to any extent to indicate the fare taken, and I prefer in some cases
to have each alarm or bell of a distinct and different tone, so that the signal sounded
can be less liable to be mistaken. In the illustrative case before referred to, where
four distinct fares are to be recorded, according to this arrangement ten bells or
alarms and ten hammers or strikers, or the like number of tongues of steel and
vibrators, would be required, and they can be arranged and combined so as to
produce a scale of musical tones or notations, at once perceptible to ordinary
passengers, and unmistakeably so to a travelling inspector.
In some cases I employ and arrange a combination of a bell, gong, or alarm, or a
bell, gong, alarm, and vibrator, so that each of such signals inay represent the
different denomination of fares, and from the permutation of such integers of sound
any combination can be made to represent any amount taken.