IM- PROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING THE FARES TAKEN ON OMNIBUSES AND TRAM CARS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John William Bigrigg McAdam at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th August 1879.
JOHN WILLIAM BIGRIGG MCADAM, of Battersea, in the County of Surrey. "IM-
PROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR CHECKING THE FARES TAKEN ON OMNIBUSES
AND TRAM CARS."
My improved means or apparatus for checking the receipts on omnibuses and
tramway cars consists of a number of receptacles filled with metallic tokens in the
form of coins, each receptacle corresponding to a fare of a certain denomination or
value which is stamped upon the tokens contained therein. The tokens are
extracted from their receptacles one at a time, and a bell or gong sounded each
time one is withdrawn by means of mechanism hereafter described, and it is
intended that a token taken from the receptacle corresponding in denomination to
the value of the fare paid should be given in acknowledgment of the payment of
the said fare, and that these tokens should have a definite uniform monetary value,
say, of one halfpenny each, and be receivable as money in payment of fares, or that
they should be redeemabie by the proprietors of the vehicles at any rate agreed
upon.
D.
Supposing however the tokens to represent halfpence in value, it would be
necessary to nominally but not actually raise the fares one halfpenny all round, for
instance in payment of a 2D. 4D. or 6D. fare, the passenger would tender 21/2 4/
or (D. respectively, and in either case would receive in return a token (representing
the value of the excess halfpenny) taken from the receptacle appropriated to fares
of that denomination or value, so that the number of tokens taken from each
receptacle would, at the end of the journey or of the days' work, denote the number
of fares of that denomination or value received, thus affording a perfect check ou
the takings and preventing peculation.
The apparatus consists of a number of tubular receptacles of a size to correspond
to the diameter of the tokens and of a length to hold a sufficient number thereof
piled one on top of the other. These receptacles may conveniently be assembled in
a box or case provided with a handle at bottom by which it is held in the one
hand whilst the apparatus is operated by the other. The receptacles are provided
with locked lids or covers, or the lid of the box or case in which they are contained
may serve to close the whole and would be locked to prevent access to the interior.
A spiral spring is arranged to press on the pile of tokens in each receptacle so as

page_text: to feed them constantly down towards the bottom in whatever position the
apparatus may be held. At bottom of each receptacle is a lateral slit guided by a
spring or other device to prevent the introduction of tokens thereat for the purpose
of fraud, said slits being each just large enough to allow of one token being with-
drawn at a time which is effected by means of a slider working in guides on the
bottom of the case and projecting up through a slot therein so as to catch and
withdraw through the slit the bottom token of the pile. Each receptacle is
provided with a similar slider or extractor, each operated by hand and acting on the
hammer of a bell or gong contained within the box, so as to give an audible signal
each time a token is withdrawn, to prevent the substitution of tokens received in
payment in lieu of tokens taken from the proper receptacle.