US584294A - Mileage-ticket - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

C. W. REIPF. MILBAGE TICKET.

No. 584,294. Patented June 8,1897.

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SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 584,294, dated J une 8, 1897. Application filed January 7,. 1897. Serial No. 618,352. (No model.)

T0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES WESLEY REIFE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mileage- Tickets, of which the following is a specification, reference being made to the accompanying drawings.

My invention relates to certain improvements in mileage-tickets, in which series of larger and smaller coupons or defined spaces are employed, whereby the cost of manufacture is greatly decreased by the lessened numloer of pages needed, the legibility and adaptability of reading matter increased by the elimination of the book or ticket number from smaller coupons, with consequent decrease of cost of numbering, and where the continuous-strip form is used the means of confining and detaching the mileage is superior to all other forms in current use.

In the accompanying drawings, Figures l and 2 are page illustrations wh ere larger coupons are lused alternately with one and two smaller coupons, intermediate, respectively, arranged in columns, with coupons adapted to baggage-checking purposes. Fig. 3 represents four smaller coupons or spaces, intermediate between larger coupons or spaces, arranged continuously in strip form. Fig. 4. is a metal and rubber clinging coupon-cutter. Fig. 5 shows the continuous strip in folded form, with side-binding attachments and cutter clinging to mileage-strip.

Every other form of mileage transportation ticket employs coupons or spaces of uniform size throughout, to which the ticket-numbering and essential reading matter is made to conform. The essential features of the conductors mileage-ticket collections for passages ridden are the ticket and consecutive mileage-numbers, together with the designation of the issuing company. It has always been the custom to embrace all of these features in each coupon in many current forms of mileage-tickets, necessitating the crowding of numbers and reading matter in a limited space to the sacrifice of clearness, and in the continuous-strip forms of tickets to number and over-print the separating-space lines in different-colored inks to preserve legibility.

As all railroad companies have different minimum mileage-lifts for individual trips, as specified in ticket contracts, the purpose of my invention is to accommodate the size of coupons and spaces to the requirements of the different companies, while preserving all the essential features of the coupon collections.

In Fig. l the page of ticket is adapted for use on such roads as will not detach less than two mileage-coupons should the passenger have ridden only one mile. By having one 0f the coupons larger for the accommodation of the ticket-number the additional coupon may be reduced in size to accommodate the name of the issuing road without any disadvantage, as the conductor, with each lift of mileage, will have coupons invariably bearing all essential information as to the name of the issuing line, ticket, and consecutive mileage-numbers for the information of the account-ingdepartment. Bythiscurtailment in size of the alternate smaller coupons in each'column and the consequent elimination of the ticket-number therefrom the page of the usual size will accommodate thirty mileage-coupons instead of twenty, as currently used, and the cost of imprinting the fewer ticket-numbers, with attendant changing of type for each number where numbering-machines cannot be employed, is materialiy lessened. The larger coupons are always located at the top of each column to insure the collection of the ticket-number with each. minimum lift. This arrangement also permits of the embodiment of a 13. C. or baggagechecking cancellation-space A, by the cancellation of which the shipment of baggage is limited to the distance represented by the consecutive mileage-number of said coupon, thus dispensing with the cost of additional marginal baggage-coupons, with the cost of numbering same when so desired, together with the labor and time involved in their detachment by baggage agents and subsequent handling by auditor.

In Fig. 2 the smaller coupons are increased in number, the larger coupons bearing the ticket-number having two smaller coupons IOO , modated to such lines as inforce a minimum lift of three miles, whereby the conductor Will invariably collect coupons showing the name of the issuing road, ticket, and consecutive mileage-numbers. By the employment. of the increased number of smaller coupons each page, as represented, Will cover forty miles of travel instead of twenty miles, as used in current forms of such tickets, thus reducing a one-thousand-mile ticket from fifty to twenty-five pages, largely decreasing the number of coupons imprinted vvith the ticketnumber, and reducing the cost of ticket Inanufacture almost fifty per cent., While enhancing the legibility and general appearance of the ticket.

In Fig. 3 the coupons or spaces are extended in length horizontally and accommodated to the continuous-strip form deemed most desirable by manycompanies, owing to the mileage-lift always being in a single piece as detached. Between the larger coupons or parallel spaces bearing the ticket-number there are four intermediate smaller coupons or spaces of uniform Width, each bearing their respective consecutive milenumbers,adapted to the use of such roads as exact a minimum lift of live miles for each passage, which will invariably include the ticket and mileage numbers and designation of the issuing line. By the arrangement shown the ticket-number having a space free from lines or reading matter is brought out more distinctly and there is never a severance of the number, which frequently occurs in making small detachments of mileage in current forms of striptickets and renders the ticket-number of such collection undistinguishable to auditor. The vincreased Width thus secured to the combined intermediate smaller coupons can be made available for the purpose of enlarging the reading matter and imparting a desired individuality to the mileage-strips used by the different lines in preference to the present sameness in appearance, made necessary by the form of ticket itself. By maintaining the parallel feature of the lines at both consecutively-numbered ends the centers thereof may be broken and made to conform to the outlines of the printed centers which may be employed, preferably the trade-marks used vin business by most of the principal transportation lines, which is a most desirable feature in all railroad-ticket printing and advertising and Would be a novelty in mileagestrips, as shown by the keystone represent-ation in the figure-drawing.

In Fig. 4 is shown apiece of metal or other unyielding material B, fastened to a strip or band of rubber C, which perlnit of the drawing of the single strip of mileage between the metal and the rubber to the mileage-space desired, when the paper strip may readily be torn off by being drawn against the straight edge of the metal, as shown in Fig. 5. As the stretched rubber clings to the metal surface the mileage-strip is retained between them and held at any point Where it may be placed. If the clinging cutter is not desired, the narrow mileage-strip may be folded along the line and severed or drawn out and cut against the edge of the ticket-cover.

In Fig. 5 the strip is folded at alternate ends and the margins of strip cut away, eX- cepting at the central portion of either side, Where there is an extension E for binding purposes, capped or reinforced by a piece of metal or other firm material D for imparting rigidity thereto and facilitating a clean straight-edge detachment of the body of the strip on a line with the margin of the strip. The body of the strip may or may not be perforated at the parts coincident with the lateral extensions. The extended portions of the strip, with reinforced tops, being confined together With binders, as shown, the entire strip is folded securely and conveniently held together in page-sections, dispensing with the rubber bands used in all other forms of strip mileage-tickets, which are readily broken, permitting of the spilling of the entire lengthy strip.

While the feature of binding the mileagestrip by a side connection, limited to the central portion of the sheets, the sides of the sheets at and near each end being free, is covered by Patent No. 541,388, issued to me on June 18, 1895, my intention in cutting so much of the margin of the strip away is to reduce the size of the body of the strip, afford. a stronger and more rigid binding, and to give a freer movement to the strip than when gummed centrally along the margin or Where the strip is merely slit down to the central binding portion thereof. Baggagey Will be checked on the strip form of ticket by the use of the baggage-check punch in the body of the mileage-strip.

The arrangement of the page forms of` coupon mileage-tickets Will be preferably in regular book form, open from right to left,` and of the continuous strip ticket, preferably in regular book form, bound only on one side of the strip by means of the reinforced side connection, although it may be desirable to attach the strip to the stiff cover of a book and bind at both lateral extensions for detachment in regular pad form. All reading matter, preface and contract pages, as Well as general style and form of ticket, will conform to the pleasure of the issuing company.

I therefore claim as my invention 1. A transportation-ticket comprising a series of uniform large-sized passage coupons or spaces, bearing the ticket number, together With an intermediate series of uniform small-sized passage coupons or spaces, from which the ticket-number is eliminated; all of such coupons or spaces being numbered and arranged consecutively in accordance With their respective mileage-numbers, substantially as shown and described.

2. A transportation-ticket comprising ase- IOO IIO

ries of larger and smaller or different sized mileage-coupons, regularly arranged in relation to each other, in a single strip folded s o as to form sheets, connected at alternate ends; the marginal sides of the sheets being cut or reduced in part, leaying lateral eXtensions from the body of the strip at the uncut portions, for binding purposes; and such side extensions being capped or reinforced by a piece of metal or other unyielding material to facilitate the detachment of the body of the mileage-strip, substantially as shown and described.

3. The combination of aconsecutively-numbered mileage-coupon strip, folded at alternate ends and having the margins thereof partially cut, forming lateral extensions E at the uncut portions thereof, such side extensions being topped or reinforced by a cover of unyielding material D bound therewith; together with a clinging cutter B C for mileage detachment, substantially as shown and described.

CHAS. AVESLEY REIFF.

Witnesses:

WM. HENRY ToRR, W. J. PURCELL.

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