Prototype model of Heron Rogers taximeter, 1903

This prototype model of a ‘Rogers taximeter’ was built in 1903 by Mr. A. Heron Rogers, in London.

This machine has an enclosed case design, within which is a mechanical tape recorder, moved by rollers and marked by a combination of ink-line marked and hole-punched tapes.

In the first years of the 20th century, newspapers across the UK were filled with articles highlighting a worsening public issue: taxi fare fraud and manipulation. Fares were consistently altered with additional fees (called ‘extras’), and taxi fares became wildly inconsistent across the UK’s cities.

This became such a public issue that the UK government passed various bills to regulate and standardise taxi fares, which continued to be avoided by some taxi drivers. The issue was no taximeter machine had yet been built which could not be manipulated or which held taxi drivers accountable for their charges.

In 1903 Mr. A. Heron Rogers developed a prototype taximeter which not only improved on previous ‘fully enclosed and unalterable’ designs from the late 19th century but provided various highly accurate and reliable ways to measure fares.

This machine’s main mechanism is a recorder with a narrow strip of paper revolving slowly over a series of rollers and receiving either ink impressions or spike perforations which, as the cab is in motion, create a tape record which indicates every five minutes of the period the cab is ‘on duty’.

Another line of dots, one for each mile, shows the miles traversed by the cab, whether plying for hire or conveying a fare. An inked line running parallel to these two rows of dots traces the progress of the cab during engaged periods. By adding the dots which run alongside the length of the ink line, an exact length of the journey/fare can be determined and the time it took to complete the fare.

This patent became the first to meet the requirements of Scotland Yard and the National Physical Laboratory, who were responsible for enforcing the fairness and transparency of taxi fares. The final iteration of the patent was submitted in 1908, leading to the mass production of ‘Roger taximeters’ across the UK and later Europe.