US29778A - Appaeatus foe steeet oaes - Google Patents

Description

L. H. FRENCH. REGISTERING APPARATUS FOR STREET CARS, &c.

No. 29,778. Patented Aug. 28, 1860.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CAR-REGISTER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 29,778, dated August 28, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEWIS H. FRENCH, of Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Method for Registering the Number of Passengers Entering or Leaving Street-Railroad Cars, &c.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, in which Figure l shows the top of the platform of a street car having my registering device applied to it. Fig. 2, is a bottom view of Fig. 1, showing the registering mechanism. Fig. 3, is an elevation of Figs. 1 and 2 with a portion of the platform broken out to show the connection of the gate with the registering wheels.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the three figures.

The object of this invention is to register automatically, the number of passengers passing into or leaving a street railroad car, omnibus or any place where it may be desired to number such.

My invention consists in combining with a stile-gate placed on the platform of a car,if the invention is to be applied to a car,and surrounded by a suitable railing so that an entrance or exit can only be through the gate. A number of strikers which act upon a. spring bar so connected to certain wheel work, pawls, stops, &c., as will be hereinafter described that each passenger entering the car will be registered by an index hand: the registering apparatus being so arranged that the gates will operate'the registering apparatus only once for each passenger either in entering or leaving the car.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand my invention as applies to a car I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A represents the end of a street car, and A the entrance and exit passage into and from the car.

B is the platform and C, C, are railings which will prevent passengers from entering or leaving the car except through the gate D, the post of which gate is placed at the corner of the railing C and the wings forming the gate extend across the opening be tween rail G and C. The gate is one commonly known as the stile-gate, having four wings projecting out at right angles to each other which will admit only one person through the entrance at a time, and as one enters he turns the post one quarter round. This post stands upright and has its bear ings in the railing C and in the platform B the lower end passes through the platform and through a plate E, and receives four strikers a, a, a, a which are turned by turning the stile.

F, is an index plate which may have marks on it numbering from one to twenty or fifty, at which the hand Z) will point as it moves around the graduated circle. The stem moving this hand 5 passes through plates F and E and receives a ratchet wheel G, with as many teeth as there are marks on the index plate, under this ratchet wheel, G, passes a vibrating pawl bar G with a pawl c pivoted to one end which engages with the teeth of wheel Ga spring (Z keeps the pawl c in contact with the wheel. To the other end of pawl bar G a bar H is jointed which is acted uponby a spring 9 and which is kept in place by a slotted arm I and a stop pin 72. K is a stationary pawl, acted upon by a spring, K, that prevents the ratchet wheel, G, from rotating backward. By moving the bar H backward in a direction with its length, it will cause the pawl c to move the wheel, G, the distance of one tooth, thereby releasing the bar, H, the spring 9 will return it to its original statethis will make one move of the index hand and cause it to point at such a number on the plate, and by repeating the operation the index hand will point at 2 and so on up to 20 or fifty, as the case may be. Vhen the hand 7) has made one revolution a tooth m inclosed between the plates E, F, will move an index hand 7) causing it to point at twenty, or fifty, and thus while one hand registers each passenger the other will be made to register every twenty or fifty passengers.

The wheel work and levers may all be covered up closely so as to prevent dirt or water from injuring them and the index plates and hands may be placed within the car in any suitable place and confined in a close box so that they cannot be tampered with.

It will now be seen from this description that a passenger on entering the car through the door way A must turn one of the four gates, closing the succeeding one after him; this movement will cause one of the strikers The combination with the turn-stile arranged substantially as set forth, of the strikers a, spring bar H, slotted arm I pawl a to push the bar H backward and register, one, on the index plate as above described, and the next passenger entering will move the index hand to two and so on for any bar G with its spring pawl 0 and ratchet number of passengers. 7 wheel Gr combined with a suitable register- On passengers leaving the car the gates ing apparatus and arranged and operating will be turned in an opposite direction and in the manner and for the purposes herein in this instance the strikers will pass by the set forth.

bar H without moving it backward or affecting the registering apparatus.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- LEWIS H. FRENCH.

WVitnesses I. HENRY RADEY,

M. MONTGOMERY.

Images