Also 9 taxameter. [ad. F. taximètre, f. taxe tariff + -mètre = -METER. The form taxameter, used a few years earlier, was from German: cf. med.L. taxa tax. (An earlier German name from c. 1875 was taxanom.)]
An automatic contrivance fitted on a cab or other vehicle to indicate to the passenger at any point the distance traversed and the fare due.
The earliest forms of this indicator were simply distance-recorders, but it was soon made to comprise an automatic fare-reckoner and index.
α. [1890. German Patent Spec., 56310. Taxameter-Fabrik Westendorp & Pieper in Hamburg.]
1894. Times, 2 June, 19/1. I have severally interviewed the proprietors of the ‘taxameter,’ owners of cabs at Hamburg, and several of their employés.
1898. Daily Chron., 21 March. An illustration and description of the taxameter has been sent us.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 30 April, 7/3. Each vehicle will be provided with a taxameter—the little instrument for registering distance which has found such favour in Paris and Berlin.
β. 1898. Daily News, 14 April, 7/2. One of the new Berlin taximeters, attached to a London hansom cab, on which it has been in operation for the past six months in an experimental way, was shown [etc.]. Ibid. (1907), 4 Feb., 7/5. The Committee’s report … declared strongly in favour of the taximeter as a means of regulating fares.
1908. Whitaker’s Almanack, 434/1. The fare payable for the hiring of a Motor Hackney Carriage fitted with a Taximeter shall be … (a) Not exceeding one mile, or … ten minutes … 8d.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 22 June, 7/3. A taxi-meter was tried on horse-cabs in London over half-a-century ago.
b. attrib. and Comb., as taximeter cab, -driver, hanson, -maker, scale, system, vehicle.
α. 1899. Westm. Gaz., 23 March, 8/1. A report … from our Consul-General at Berlin on the subject of taxameter cabs in that city, and its nature should bid our Taxameter Syndicate, Limited, be of good cheer despite recent rebuffs.
1903. Daily Chron., 16 Nov., 4/5. Some years ago there was an attempt to introduce the taxameter system, which is the rule in all big German towns. The London cabman would have none of it. Ibid. (1906), 20 Feb., 4/1. A few minutes later a taxameter motor brougham drove up with the bride.
β. 1907. Daily News, 18 March, 9. By the end of this week London may expect that about sixty taximeter motor cabs will be plying for hire in the streets.
1907. Daily Chron., 23 Sept., 3/4. A horse cab driver … was charged with assaulting [a] taximeter cab driver.
Hence Taximetered a. (also Taximetric a.), provided with a taximeter.
1907. Daily Chron., 18 March, 4/7. The competition of the *taximetered motor-cab will entitle the poor old four-wheeler more than ever to the name of ‘growler.’
1908. Even. Standard, 1 Feb., 1/3. Seventeen taximetered hansoms took the London streets to-day.
1906. Westm. Gaz., 15 March, 2/3. I have just returned from Paris, where most cabs are now *‘taxametric.’
