US552878A - Device for insuring collection of fares on railways - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G. L. LUKENS.

OP mans DEVICE FOR INSURING OOLLEGTION ON RAILWAYS. No. 552,878.

Patented Jan. 7, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

GABRIEL Ii. LUKENS, OF DECATUR, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO CHARLES RONEY, OF BETHANY, ILLINOIS.

DEVICE FOR INSURING COLLECTION OF FARES ON RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,878, dated January *7, 1896.

Application filed August 15, 1895- 20 a-ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GABRIEL L. LUKENS, of Decatur, in the county of Macon and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Device to Insure the Collection of Fares on Railways, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is designed to provide means whereby failure of conductors on railway-cars to collect and report full fares in all cases may be easily detected. It is exemplified in the structure hereinafter described, and it is defined in the appended claim.

In a general sense the invention comprises a set of ticket-holders so placed with relation to the seats that each occupant maybe identified with a ticket in the holder, the holders bein g adapted to mark the tickets in a manner showing use.

The method of operating the device, is as follows: Each passenger should, as nearly as possible, be required to purchase a ticket be fore entering the car, though rigid enforcement of this rule is not absolutely necessary to the successful operation of the device, and each ticket is to be provided with the names of the stations at both ends of the trip for which the ticket is sold, such names, particu larly that of the destination, to be conspicuously printed. When the train leaves a station, the brakeman precedes the conductor through the car and instructs each passenger to place his or her ticket in the holder adjacent to the seat occupied by such passenger. In case a passenger has no ticket the brakeman sells one, which is preferably of a color different from that of the regular ticket, and this is deposited in the proper holder. In all cases the tickets are so placed that the names of starting-point and destination are plainly exposed. Each holder is in the nature of a gripper, which is adapted to impress a mark or marks of some peculiar nature on the ticket that is placed in it, either in the act of receiving or the act of withdrawing the ticket, and each ticket is permitted to remain in its holder, except under circumstances to be hereinafter explained, until the train has passed the station nearest the destination-point, at which time it is taken up by the conductor, to be re- Serial No. 559,873. (No model.)

ported in the usual manner. If a passenger desires to change his seat he may remove his ticket to the holder of the seat to which he moves; but in all cases he must leave it ex posed in such manner that any one may readily see that he is riding on a ticket, and also see whether or not he has passed the destination indicated by the ticket. Under this'arrangement the conductor never receives cash fares. All cash fares received by the brakeman are receipted for in the form of a ticket, which is immediately exposed to the scrutiny of any person who may care to investigate. Each ticket receives a mark that unfits it for further use, and, as before explained, the factof the ticket and the destination of the passenger are matters for public inspection. Every person not having a ticket exposed is a dead-head or a privileged person, and in the latter case the pass or other authority under which the trip is made may be put into the holder instead of the ticket.

In the drawings forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is an elevation of a swinging arm carrying two ticket-holders, and Fig. 2 is a perspective representation of a holder with a ticket in place therein.

The arm 1 has a bent end 2, which pivots in a bracket 4, secured to a side of the car nearly over a seat. At 5 is shown an enlargement on the swinging end of the arm, which is designed to protect the passengers against injuries that might be received by accidental contact with the bare end of the arm. At 3 is shown an upward extension which forms a point of connection for a shifting-rod.

The ticket-holder frames 6 are each secured to the rod in any desirable manner and in such locations that one will be identified with the passenger at one end of the seat and the other with the passenger at the other end of IOO of the car and provides means for swinging cured to the swinging end of the arm, such all the arms inwardagainst the side of the holder comprising a rigid jaw, a pivoted, car at one operation. spring-actuated jaw and a spur wheel jour- The spur-wheel will make indentations in naled in one of the jaws, substantially as set I 5 the ticket which may answer to show use, or forth.

other marking devices may be substituted for In testimony whereof I sign my name in the the wheel. presence of two subscribing witnesses.

Having thus described my invention, I GABRIEL L. LU KENS. clain1- Attest [0 An arm swung from a side of a car adja- ALEXANDER MCINTOSH,

cent to a seat thereof, and a ticket holder se- L. P. GRAHAM.

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