. The Street railway journal . sfac-tion. Brothers=in=Law. Of all the troubles which arise in the management ofa street railway, one of the greatest is, how to prevent dis-honest conductors from knocking down. We will notsay stealing; oh, no, taking money is not stealing. Allkinds of schemes and devices have been tried, from themuch hated spotter to the famous bell register. When theregister first put in an appearance it gave the conductormuch trouble; he was terribly afraid that he would becompelled to be honest, but after much effort he found away to overcome even this objection. There are t
. The Street railway journal . sfac-tion. Brothers=in=Law. Of all the troubles which arise in the management ofa street railway, one of the greatest is, how to prevent dis-honest conductors from knocking down. We will notsay stealing; oh, no, taking money is not stealing. Allkinds of schemes and devices have been tried, from themuch hated spotter to the famous bell register. When theregister first put in an appearance it gave the conductormuch trouble; he was terribly afraid that he would becompelled to be honest, but after much effort he found away to overcome even this objection. There are three classes of registers, the hand registerand punch, the portable register, which the conductorsuspends from his neck, and the stationary register, whichhas a dial similar to a clock. Of these the first two styleshave been successfully beaten by bogus registers or the brother-in-law method. For the benefit of those whoare unacquainted with these instruments we will say thatthere are three styles of brothers-in law. These are. FIG. 1.—PALM BROTHERS-IN-LAW. the palm signal bell, the vest signal bell, and a bell whichworks under the arm. We illustrate the different stylesof the palm bells in Fig. 1. It will be noticed each hasa small push knob. This knob when pushed will trip alever, which rings one fare; it is a small device com-pact in shape, intended to be carried in the palm of thehand, so that the conductor, when he wishes to appropri-ate a fare, will have a bell to sound, thus deceiving thepassenger. In Fig. 2 we illustrate the vest bells, which are de-signed to be suspended from the neck, and so constructedthat they can be rung from the same position that theregister is rung from; in fact the same motion is used, and unless you are watching the dial to see that it moves, youwill be deceived every time. The largest of the group is a clumsy affair, in-tended to be worked under the arm, but was never muchof a success. The one in the form of a change box was
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, bookidstreetrailwa, bookyear1884
