IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE HIRE OF VEHICLES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Imray at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 31st December 1879 A communication
from abroad by Hermann Pech, of Constantinople, Turkey, but at present of
Paris, France,
JOHN IMRAY, of No. 28, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE HIRE OF
VEHICLES." [A communication from abroad by Hermann Pech, of Constantinople,
Turkey, but at present of Paris, France.]
This Invention relates to apparatus applicable in a hired vehicle, such as a
hackney coach or cab, for registering the various hirings during a day or other
period for which the driver has to account to his principal, these hirings being
reckoned in either of two ways, that is to say, either by the course, irrespective of
distance, or by the time. For this purpose there is fixed in the vehicle clock work
which causes a strip of paper, like that used in electric telegraphs, to move
uniformly onwards under a pencil or style. As the paper travels between two
rollers, one of which has a soft surface and the other has sharp teeth uniformly
spaced, it becomes marked with pricks or indentations, shewing uniform intervais
of time, such as 5 minutes, and it may have another set of such marks indicating
longer intervals, such as half hours or hours. The marking style is mounted so as
to be capable of a little vertical and also lateral movement; it may be raised off the
paper, so as not to mark at all while the paper continues to travel, or it may be
set to mark near the one edge or the other edge of the paper strip or along its
middle. Also it may have an oscillating lateral movement causing it to mark an
undulating line upon the paper. These different markings serve to shew different
conditions in the hiring of the vehicle, whether it is hired by time or by the course,
or not hired at all. The seat and footboard of the vehicle act on the marking
style so as always to make it mark when the vehicle is occupied. This is effected
by arranging under the cushion of the seat a number of flexible straps attached to
n rocking shaft, so that when a passenger seats himself his weight straining the
straps, or some of them, causes the rocking shaft to turn partly round, thereby
depressing the style on the paper. In like manner the footboard is capable of being
depressed and of so acting on the style. When the vehicle is hired by time the
driver moves a handle which may exhibit a signal shewing that the vehicle is hired,
and which at the same time causes the style to be depressed and to mark near one
edge of the paper, the marking in this case being rendered independant of weight,
so that it is continued whether the vehicle is occupied or not; thus although the

page_text: passenger who hires by time may leave the vehiclo for various periods and return
to it, the total time will nevertheless be marked. When however the weight of
the passenger ceases to act a swinging weight is liberated, which causes the style
to oscillate marking on the paper a wavy line. The clockwork has a dial marked
with hours and their divisions, and an index which can be set to shew the time at
which the registration begins, and this being under lock or seal the total time
during which the vehicle has remained out on hire is at once seen when the
vehicle returns to its quarters. The strip of paper can then be removed shewing
the number of courses or the periods of time for which the vehicle has been hired,
and for the fares for which the driver is accountable, the paper likewise shewing
the periods during which the vehicle was not on hire at all, or during which, if it
was on hire by time, it was unoccupied. Should the driver after a time engage-
ment ceases neglect to move back the handle which sets the style for time marking,
the style will continue so to mark, and as the driver will be accountable for this
time, it is to his interest to avoid such negligence. For vehicles that run at nearly
uniform rate the marking of the courses by lines extending over a greater or less
number of the time divisions on the paper will serve to indicate the distances.