AN IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING VOTES BY BALLOT
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Nettlefold, of Bromley, in the County of
Kent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR
REGISTERING VOTES BY BALLOT."
•
Sealed the 5th December 1873, and dated the 11th June 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Nettlefold at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th June 1873.
I, JOHN NETTLEFOLD, of Bromley, in the County of Kent, do hereby
3 declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MEANS OR
APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING VOTES BY BALLOT," to be as follows:-
The engine is a self-adjusting one, of considerable strength, of wood
or metal, or a combination of both. The whole of the effective move-
ments are strongly enclosed.
The first portion consists of four pieces of woodwork forming a
portable room that can be readily fitted up in any public room, having
two doors in the front of it, one an ordinary door for the use of the
returning officers, the other an angular door so arranged that as a voter
enters he is screened from view. To the angle of the voters' door is

page_text: fixed a jointed rod with various adjustments to ensure its accurate
action, the other end of the rod acting on the machinery on pushing
open the door to enter the small room. Opposite the door is an oblong
box about three feet long by about one foot from front to back, and one
foot deep, containing the mechanism, with vertical handles rising above
it, and the names of the various candidates (and distinguishing colours)
above the handles is all that is seen by the voter. The number of
This
handles must correspond with the number of the candidates.
engine is available for any number of candidates who may offer them-
selves, and for the return of any portion of them.
If there were more than five candidates the box containing the
mechanism would exceed three feet long, and extra strength required in
some parts, while other parts would be repetitions.
The engine now in course of being further perfected is constructed on
the supposition of there being five candidates, and only two of them to
be returned. The voter on entering the aforesaid small portable room
sees five vertical handles with the candidates names and colours over
them; all five handles are free to the voter. He can pull down one
only, or two, either together or singly, but if he moves a third handle to
a slight angle the engine stops and rings a bell, each handle, as it is
pulled down, is caught by levers fixed to the framing, and cannot be
lifted up again by the voter. Beneath each of the handles is a dial
registering the number of the votes given to each of the candidates;
such dials are locked up from view by several locks by different makers,
with keys for officers and others connected with the returns; further, the
vote is only partly registered while the voter is in the room; when he
leaves the room by pushing back the part of the door that screened him
from view the jointed rod fixed to it is moved forward, and by its action
on a lever causes a bar that was in an inclined position to become
vertical, and projections on the edge of the bar so raised lift up the
levers that kept down the handles and set the handles again free to
move; and a continuation of the same movement elevates the handles to
a vertical position, and by other studs or projections on the edge of the
said bar the tongues are freed from a cylinder forming the axis for the
handles to move on; and the cylinder, being now free to rotate, is drawn
back to the position the voter had drawn it from by weights fixed and
acting on one side only of it. The cylinder is horizontal, and rests in
bearings at each end, with grooves for the handles to rest in, and angular

page_text: grooves in the direction of its length beneath the tongues in the handles,
which tongues are moveable in the handles, and have projections that
fall into the angular grooves of the aforesaid cylinder; on the sides of
the handles are studs with levers over, kept free by other studs on the
surface of the cylinder so long as the handles are vertical, but on pulling
down any handle the studs on the surface of the cylinder approach more
nearly horizontal, and the lever then rests on the studs in the handles,
and slides along the studs until the handle is down, when a groove in the
lever spans the studs and keeps the handle down. But as it is obvious
that a voter might attempt to pull down more than two handles while
all the handles are free a check movement regulates the number of
handles that can be pulled down, consisting of a narrow angular bar
fixed in bearings at an angle, over, but near to it, pass levers fixed to
the upper part of each handle, with a projection weighted at the end of
the lever and resting on a shelf beyond; the angular bar is balanced so
as to bear the weight of two of the weighted levers, which weights rest
on it when the handles are pulled down, but if more weighted levers are
pulled on it the bar partly rotates and moves a lever with a cog into a
ratchet at the end of the grooved cylinder, and the engine is then and
there stopped, and a bell by that movement is caused to ring. As the
handles is fixed to the cylinder by the moveable tongues, when the
cylinder is stopped all the handles are fixed, and can only be adjusted by
the voter pushing back the door on leaving the portable or small room.
By that act he pushes back the connecting rod, which raises the levers
from the handles, causes the handles to be again vertical, throws out the
tongues from the angular grooves of the cylinder, leaves the cylinder to
rotate back to its first position, and at the same time the uprise of the
handles cause the levers of the check movement to slide back over the
narrow bar and rest on the shelf, and the narrow bar being freed from
their weight returns to its angular position lifting the lever with cog
out of the ratchet at the end of the cylinder, and further completes, by
the vertical position of the handles, the complete registering on the dials
of such votes as the voter, according to the adjustment of the engine, was
entitled to.
Thome ara various adinstments not vot noxfented which fartha

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Nettlefold in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
NETTLEFOLD, of Bromley, in the County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Nettlefold, Her special licence, that
I, the said John Nettlefold, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Nettlefold, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein ex-
pressed, 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 "AN IMPROVED MEANS OR
APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING VOTES BY BALLOT," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Nettlefold, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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 John Nettlefold, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
-
This Invention will be most readily understood by describing the same
with references to the Drawings accompanying these Presents. I will
therefore in the first place present a definitive statement of the Figures
exhibited in said Drawings, that is to say:-
Figure 1 represents portable balloting room, closet, or cabinet with
angular door, as hereafter explained.

page_text: section; also in Drawing Figures 5 by pulling down the handle a cog of
the ratchet wheel is to half register a vote, and it is completed as the
voter leaves by the door.
I. The check movement, comprising an angular bar X, the length of
the apparatus working in bearings at the ends. To the projecting part
at each end are fixed angular levers, one end of the levers having a
catch adjusted so as to be near the ratchets at the ends of axis, the other
ends so balanced by adjusting weights that when the upper levers of
handles are ready for voting all the levers rest over, but near to the
angle of the bar, but as each handle is drawn down the weight of the
levers rest on the angle of the bar, and that being regulated by the
weight to bear a certain number of the levers on it. If a voter should
attempt to give more votes than he is entitled to the extra weight over-
balances the angular bar and the stop levers fall in the ratchet of axis
and stop the apparatus before the handle reaches the impinger of the
registering dial, and at the same time the circular plate on the left hand
end of the angular bar frees the striker of the bell, and the hammer
strikes the bell.

page_text: The one shown in the Drawing Fig. 2 is for five candidates, and is
three feet two inches across the front, one foot one inch from front to
back, and one foot eight inches high. It is shewn in the Drawing
standing on an enclosed base three feet high; at the back of the upper
part of the handles are the names of the candidates and any distin-
guishing colors they may adopt.
By slightly varying some of the mechanism this apparatus is available
for either single or for cumulative votes.
The framework of the machinery is of metal having an inch and a
half metal axis or cylinder marked L in Drawings, secured by bearings
near each and marked K in Drawings. At suitable distances along
such axis (L) grooves are cut for the lower parts of the handles to work
in, shewn in section Drawing (Fig. 5); between the grooves in which the
sides of the handles work cams are cut for direct voting; the number of
cams are the same as the number of candidates to be returned. But in
cumulative votes the cams are cut at regular distances all round the axis ;
on the axis are also projecting studs at regular distances. Connected
to and working freely in the grooves of the axis are the handles with
their upper parts passing through the casing; these handles have tongues
(Y, Drawing Fig. 5) with a catch that falls into the cams of the axis (L).
In the handles are also projecting studs at each side, and over the
said studs of the handles are pieces of metal or levers (Z) wider than
the handles, hinged to the framing and part cut out, so that the handles
freely move in the opening. This lever has transverse grooves cut into
it and so arranged that it rests on the studs of the axis when the
apparatus is ready for a voter, but as soon as the voter has, by pulling
down the handle drawn the axis partly round, the lever has then lost
its support and the grooves in it fall over the stud of the handle and
prevent the voter lifting it up again; a similar operation on the next
handle draws a similar pair of studs round, and when the apparatus is
adjusted for two or other number the remaining levers having lost their
supports also fall on the studs of the other handles which are thus fixed
up, while those used would be fixed down. Higher up on the handles,
but movable on centres, are similar levers weighted at the extreme end
and resting on a part of the framing by small wheels, as shewn at (W);
these levers rest over but near an angular bar (X), presently described
as a part of the check movement. Still higher on the handle is a metal

page_text: plate covering the opening cut for the handles through the upper casing,
and above is a metal stem for the wooden handles to be fixed on. At
the bottom part of the handle is an opening with a small pin passing
through it, on which a lever fixed on a rod (Q) presses and restores the
handle to the vertical position after having been drawn down. In front
of the handles is the impinger (c) working the registering dial shewn
in Drawing, Figure 9.
In Drawing, Figure 3, is a bar (R) secured by bearings to the metal
framing, which, as the handles are elevated free the lever from the studs,
and the tongues from the cams, and that movement enables the axis to
be drawn back to its first position by the weight (S) acting on the
pulley (M) as shown in Drawing (Figure 3) as the voter leaves the
room. As the next voter enters the tongues are let fall into the cams,
and the levers rest again on the studs of the axis ready for the voter
who is then entering.
The Drawing, Figure 5, represents a full size section of one move-
ment.
The portions marked L, Q, X, are made the length of the apparatus
and act on all similar parts whatever be the number.
Drawings, Figures 3 and 4 represent a full size section of the two
ends of the apparatus. Figure 3, the right-hand section; C, metal
casing of machinery; I, check movement with balancing weight and stop
lever, which regulates the number of handles that can be drawn down by
a voter; K, the bearing in which axis rests; L, part of the axis with
a pulley wheel M, and with the stop N keyed on to it. Between the
stop and the bearing the axis on both ends is formed into a ratchet in
which the stop lever drops by the increased weight thrown on the bar
X when a voter attempts to register more votes than the apparatus had
been adjusted for. O are screw holes cut in the metal framing into which
the pin P is screwed when in the lower hole it would allow a voter to
register a vote for two of the candidates, but by moving forward the
stop N, and placing the pin P in the upper hole, and adjusting the
balancing weight of the check movement, only one vote could be given;
this applies to the apparatus whatever may be the number of the can-
didates it was constructed to return. If constructed for the return of
four, by altering the pin P it can return any lesser number. S is a weight
in an outside casing, fixed to the pulley by a band which acts as the

page_text: voter leaves the room and draws back the axis, as soon as the tongues
of the handles are free from the cams, and the levers are free from the
studs. G is part of the rod fixed to angular door; Q and R are two
rods passing through the apparatus to which levers are fixed that elevate
the handles and raise the tongues from the cams and the lever from the
studs; E is wood casing of upper part of the handle.
On the left end, Fig. 4, is keyed on to the axis L a weight, so shaped
as to bring the handle to its bearing, both up and down.
Q is the rod
running through the apparatus on to which a bar is fixed, which as the
voter leaves the balloting room presses on the arm of bell striker and
elevates it until it falls into and is held in a notch in the check
movement until any voter should by error or design draw more handles
than he is entitled to, when the striker is freed, and by its gravity falls
on the bell V, signalling what has been done. By the same act the
voter stops the apparatus before the handle can reach the impinger of
the registering dial, and the voter thus loses his vote, and can be
instantly removed through the official door, if necessary, and as no voter
can again enter by the angular door until it has been placed in its
position, no error can occur from the irregularity. L is a section of the
axis, shortened to show the parts of the full size.
Fig. 7 is a section of the crank fixed to the angular door, to which the
rod and movements shewn above it are attached. The rod and move-
ment are shown by scale, three inches to the foot. The metal weight
acts on the angular movement, and ensures the exact opening and
closing of the angular door on the ingress and egress of each voter.
For cumulative votes all the following parts are dispensed with,
marked J, M, N, O, P, R, the levers Z, the studs both on axis and on
handles 6 and a, and in lieu of them the axis L has cams cut all round
at sixty degrees apart. A small angular plate m is fixed on the upper
part of the metal framing on the left end of axis.
In lieu of the iron weight J a metal plate designated the planet
wheel is keyed on to the axis, upon which planet wheel rests a
weighted lever to determine the exact distance the handles shall be
brought down to.
On the right of the axis L is keyed a wheel of twelve cogs. Working
into this wheel is another wheel of forty-two cogs, when seven candidates
are to be returned; one of fifty cogs when 5 are to be returned; one of

page_text: forty-eight cogs where four, three, or two candidates are or one candidate
is to be returned.
The following is a description of the arrangement when seven are to
be returned: On the side of the forty-two cog wheel is a regulating
wheel shewn in Figures 12, 13, determining the number of votes each
voter can give.
On this wheel are indents, as shewn by the dotted line.
To the regulating wheel is fixed a rachet with a pawl working on it
from the forty-two cog wheel, and outside of the said wheel is a
compensating plate with three projecting studs, so arranged that a stud
is opposite an indent of the regulating wheel. The regulating wheel,
the rachet wheel, and compensating plate are firmly fixed to the one
axis, which the cog wheel works freely on. Over the regulating wheel
is a lever x with a projection in front, which when free just clears the
indent of the regulating wheel, by the extreme end being the heavier.
Beneath the extreme end, as shewn in section, is a slight spring which
is pressed up by a short lever (as the voter enters the room) worked by
the rod Q, and is brought to bear on the solid part of the regulating
wheel by the planet wheel on the other end of the axis being so
adjusted as to slightly rotate the axis when the lever is free of the
indent of regulating wheel.
The mode of its action is as follows:-On entering the balloting room,
by the action of the angular door the lever is thrown up and presses
back the short lever 1, and the lever x by the slight spring causes it to
bear on the regulating wheel. The voter in registering seven votes
draws down fourteen cogs of the wheel r, and that by the pawl draws the
ratchet. wheel and regulating wheel round the same distance, and the
lever then drops into the indent of regulating wheel and the wheel” is
stopped the axis therefore cannot rotate, and the tongues of the handles
are held by the cams.
When the voter leaves the room the door causes the rod Q to rotate
with the levers that elevate the handles, and the external adjusting
lever lets the lever drop, and the front of lever rises out of indent of
regulating wheel, and the planet wheel by its weighted lever causes the
axis to rotate sufficiently to bring the solid part of the regulating wheel
under the projection, and is kept out of the indent until another seven
votes have been registered. The adjusting lever as the voter leaves the
room makes a sweep over the compensating plate i, and should a voter

page_text: action of which the machinery is restored to its normal condition as a
voter leaves the portable balloting room, and causes the vote to be
completely recorded on the dial.
I also claim as novel the arrangement of the various portions of the
framing which, with the machinery, constitute one apparatus or means
for registering votes by ballot. The whole of the aforesaid machinery
and balloting room is either invented by me, or adapted by me to a
purpose for which it has not been previously used. This apparatus is
of considerable strength for public voting, but more portable for general
use, and it is suitable either for registering single votes, as returning the
members to the Commons House of Parliament, votes for clubs, &c., or
for cumulative votes, as for school boards and similar elections. It is
constructed of metal, or wood, or partly of metal and partly of wood.
The effective movements are all enclosed. The first portion (Drawing
Figure 1) consists of four pieces of wood framing forming a portable
room that can be expeditiously fitted together in any room suitable for
a public election. The back and the ends are ordinary pieces of wood
panelling. The front framing contains two hinged doors, one of them
an ordinary door for the use of the officials having charge of the election,
the other door formed of two doors joined together at right angles, so
that as one part is pushed inwards by the voter the other part follows
him and screens the inside of the balloting room from view. As the
voter leaves the room the reverse occurs, and the part he pushed inside
now closes behind him and screens the mechanism from view, and by
the same movements of the door the machinery is restored to its normal
position ready for another voter to enter and use it, which operations
are done with rapidity.

page_text: by ballot.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Nettlefold, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
Witness,
T. MORGAN,
Secretary,
Inventors' Patent Right Association, La.,
21, Cockspur Street,
S.W.
J. NETTLEFOLD. (L.S.)