IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE DISTANCE TRAVELLED BY VEHICLES, OR THE SPEED OF MACHINERY
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Claude Marie Bathias at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
January 1865.
0
.I, CLAUDE MARIE BATHIAS, Civil Engineer, of 164, Rue Montmartre,
Paris, & of 29, Boul St. Martin, Paris, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE
DISTANCE TRAVELLED BY VEHICLES, OR THE SPEED OF MACHINERY," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improved apparatus for registering the distance
traversed by vehicles, or the number of revolutions or oscillations of a machine,.
the indications being given by ordinary numerals or by figures arranged
according to the purpose or position of the apparatus. This apparatus, which
is represented at Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying Drawing, consists of a
box, of metal or other material, which is hermetically closed and furnished
on one side with a glazed aperture 6 for reading off the indications. A shaft
is fitted in this box a, carrying at one end a ratchet wheel c, in which a pawl
d takes, set in motion by the machine of which it is desired to ascertain the
peed. In addition there are mounted on said shaft a number of ten-sided
discs e, each bearing numerals, arranged according to the indications it is de-
sired to obtain; on the flat side of each disc e is fixed a ten-toothed wheel f, a
pin g, projecting about one-eighth of an inch being fixed on the inside of the
first disc. There are also a number of five-toothed pinions h, mounted on a
shaft i, and gearing with wheels f, mounted on the disc spindle, from which

page_text: arrangement it results that at every revolution of the wheel f, the pin g,
mounted on the left side of the disc, gears at a given moment with the pinion
h, causing it to turn, and also the disc bearing the numerals, which advances
one figure every time the toothed wheel has performed a complete revolution.
In this manner notation may be employed for calculating all kinds of distances
by means of the arrangements herein-after described. I will, however, first
explain the combinations by which an indicator of this kind, notwithstanding
its extreme simplicity, may be made to render infallible indications, what-
ever may be the speed. The five-toothed pinions h, being all mounted on
a spindle running from end to end of the box, the same as the figured discs,
I fix on one side of the box two flat springs j, to which are attached a semi-
circular bar of iron k, taking into the teeth of pinions h, so as to hold them
in position, as also the discs. From this arrangement it results that on the
pinions and discs being turned, the teeth of the former raise the semicircular
bar k, which again drops into the next tooth immediately the ten-sided discs
have turned, so as to present a different figure, thus the bar always keeps the
indicator in perfect order, whatever may be the number of wheels of which
it is composed.
"Modifications in the preceding arrangement in order to adapt it as a
distance indicator.-For this purpose it is necessary to ascertain the number of
revolutions of the wheel of the vehicle for a given unit of distance, and then to
apply two, three, or it may be four discs having an equal or different number of
sides serving to indicate, exactly or nearly so, the whole distance required to be
measured, which is effected by the above described arrangement of multiplying
discs. It should also be remarked with regard to this latter combination that
the discs have different numbers of sides, and are consequently of different
sizes, the pinions also being of various sizes. Thus if the wheel of a vehicle be
three yards in circumference, I calculate a French kilometer by means of two
'discs (see Fig. 8), one being eight-sided and the other four-sided, which will
give as a product thirty-two revolutions of the running wheel on the ground.
I then apply a third disc having ten sides which will multiply the thirty-two
by ten making three hundred and twenty revolutions for a kilometer. For an
English mile I employ one disc (see Fig. 4) having nine sides, another
with six sides, giving fifty-four revolutions of the running wheel, while a third
disc of ten sides gives five hundred and forty turns to advance the disc (de-
noting the miles) a single notch or figure. Any other unit of distance may be
adopted by arranging the discs, which when multiplied give the number
of turns necessary for indicating a given distance.
Instead of calculating distance by the number of revolutions of the running

page_text: wheels of a vehicle I may substitute toothed wheels for the many sided discs,
which wheels at each revolution carry with them figured discs bearing either
units or other fractions of the distance travelled over.
Supposing the apparatus is to show a certain distance travelled, the ratchet
wheel worked by the pawl is furnished on one side with an arrangement of
wheels for totalizing the distance travelled in a day, and on the other side
with a similar arrangement which is returned to zero for each passenger by
means of a rod actuated by eccentrics fixed to each of the discs bearing the
numerals.