A NEW REGISTERING AND STAMPING MACHINE FOR OMNIBUS, RAILWAY, OR ADMISSION TICKETS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Theiler and Meinrad Theiler
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th March 1876.
RICHARD THEILER and MEINRAD THEILER, both of No. 86, Canonbury Road,
Islington, in the County of Middlesex, Telegraph Engineers. "A NEW REGISTERING
AND STAMPING MACHINE FOR OMNIBUS, RAILWAY, OR ADMISSION TICKETS."
The object of our Invention is to prevent omnibus conductors or other persons
collecting fares or admissions or issuing tickets from appropriating to themselves
any of the money received. This object we attain by the following means :-
The conductor or collector is required to give a receipt for every fare or amount
received by stamping on a ticket the figure representing that amount. While
stamping this ticket a bell is struck automatically as many times as there are units
in the amount received or charged; for example, if the fare is twopence the bell
strikes two, if it is fourpence it strikes four. By the same operation of stamping
the ticket a set of wheels is put in motion, which wheels constitute a register
indicating the actual and exact total amount of money received. The whole
mechanism required for performing these operations is enclosed and securely locked
and protected from interference in a small case, which the conductor or collector
may carry hooked on a belt.
We shall now describe the construction of our machine more particularly. As
many tappers or keys as there are different fares or charges are projecting through
the case of the instrument, which keys may be operated upon after the manner of
accordion or concertina keys. Thus, if there are penny, twopenny, threepenny, and
fourpenny fares, or one, two, three, and four shilling admissions, there will be four
keys to the instrument, each of them carrying on its other end a stamp or die
corresponding with one of these amounts. Each key is besides marked or engraved
on its face with the figure which it will stamp on being depressed. If, therefore, a
ticket or paper be inserted into the instrument and, say, the key marked 4 be
depressed, a clear and legible figure 4 will be imprinted or embossed on the ticket.
The motion of the key on being depressed winds up the striking mechanism to such
an extent and in such a manner that the depression, say, of the key marked 4, will
cause the bell to be struck four-times, of the key marked-3 three times, and so forth.
The shaft or spindle actuating the striking mechanism is connected with a train of
wheels in such a manner that the depression of any of the keys will cause each of
these wheels to turn a certain part of a revolution, that part being less or greater
according to the key depressed. A hand is mounted on the projecting pivot or
centre of each of these wheels, one hand indicating on a dial from one to twelve

page_text: pence, another from one to ten shillings, and the third from 10 to 100 shillings.
By this means each single fare or amount stamped is added up by this register, and
the total amount of money received is shown in a plain manner as soon as the lid of
the instrument is unlocked and opened. The public see, by the figure on the ticket,
whether the money paid has been correctly registered, and they, moreover, hear
whether the conductor or collector has pressed the right key.
By the peculiar construction of our instrument it becomes the interest of the
conductor or collector to produce a correct and perfect impression on the ticket, ns
he has to stamp a new ticket for every mistake or attempt to defraud committed,
the register indicating the refused tickets as money received. The stamping may
be done dry or with colouring matter, and the figure stamped may be an actual
figure or only a number of holes or perforations. The register may be arranged in
a variety of ways to suit the particular purpose and nature of the employment of
our machine,