MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ENTERING TRAMWAY CARS AND OMNIBUSES."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left-by the said Benjamin Haigh at the Office
"IMPROVE-
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd August 1878.
BENJAMIN HAIGH, of Cubitt Town, in the County of Middlesex.
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ENTERING
TRAMWAY CARS AND OMNIBUSES."
My Invention has for its object to provide an apparatus which will automatically
record the number of passengers entering an omnibus or tramway car without
however being effected by the passengers leaving the vehicle.
In carrying out my Invention in the case of an omnibus, I provide it with a
platform and staircase like that of a tramway car, and which is the only means
of access, either to the inside or outside seats of the vehicle. I enclose the said
platform, whether in the case of an omnibus or car, with a railing, in which but a
single entrance is provided, preferably at the near side of the vehicle. At this
entrance I mount a turnstile partly enclosed by a semicircular grating, through
which turnstile all passengers entering or leaving the vehicle must pass.
In the case of double ended tram cars which are hauled at either end alternately,
both platforms will be similarly enclosed and provided with turnstiles.
The axis of the turnstile is mounted in a footstep bearing having rounded surfaces
and notches corresponding in number with the number of arms of the turnstile so
as to limit the movement of the turnstile to a certain portion of a revolution for
each passenger. The axis of the turnstile rises and falls slightly in the said notches
in its footstep as it revolves, and the number of its partial revolutions is registered
by the following mechanism contained in a box in the top of the grating which
partly encloses the turnstile as before described. At the upper end of the axis is
a collar connected to the axis by a groove and key, so that the collar which rotates
with the axis does not participate in its vertical movement. To this collar a pawl
is attached, and immediately beneath it a ratchet wheel is mounted loose on the
turnstile axis. This ratchet wheel is driven by the pawl, one tooth for each partial
revolution of the turnstile in the one direction, but passes over the teeth of the
ratchet without affecting it when the turnstile is rotated in the reverse direction.
This ratchet wheel has as many pins or projections upon its circumference as it has
teeth which come in contact with and operate a lever carrying a pawl that engages
with and operates another ratchet wheel, which is thus moved one tooth for each
partial revolution of the first ratchet wheel.

page_text: The second ratchet wheel has one pin or projection which, on completing each
revolution, operates another lever and pawl, whereby a third ratchet wheel is
operated, which in turn, by similar mechanism, operates a fourth ratchet wheel, and
so on, the said wheels all, except the first, having needles on their axes working
over dials numbered to correspond with the numbers of teeth of the wheels, these
being arranged to indicate units, tens, hundreds, thousands, up to any number
required.