On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 21:33:18 +0100, "Andy"
wrote:

Does anyone know anything about the details about the BESI (Bus Electronic
Scanning Indicator) sytem and how it worked? Other than it based on barcodes
and scanning heads?
http://homepages.enterprise.net/beul.../london28.html


BESI was around before barcodes were in common use. It used metal
strips with little reflective bits in them. Traditionally London
buses have always had a holder on each side for a plate which denotes
the bus's 'running number' (I think that's the correct term). Buses
which used BESI had an extra holder like this, but mounted near the
front between the decks, and the metal strips slotted into this.

The scanning heads had fairly large lenses in them. I've no idea what
sort of light source was used but it would have been very low
technology by today's standards. It certainly wouldn't have been a
laser as they were strictly for laboratory use in the 1960s and 1970s

Martin