AN IMPROVED HAND SIGNAL LAMP
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Armitage Brown, of 27, Victoria Road,
Peckham, in the County of Surrey, and Richard Lionel Jones, of
.423, Edgware Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineers, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVED HAND SIGNAL LAMP,"
Sealed the 2nd October 1868, and dated the 14th May 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Armitage
.Brown and Richard Lionel Jones at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 14th May 1868.
We, WILLIAM ARMITAGE BROWN, of 27, Victoria Road, Peckham, in
the County of Surrey, and RICHARD LIONEL JONES, of 423, Edgware
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED HAND SIGNAL LAMP,"
to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to an improvement in the construction of hand
signal lamps used for showing lights of different colours.
The improvement consists of mounting slides of coloured glass or
other suitable material to be moved in a vertical plane within the body

page_text: of the lamp by means of levers attached to the side of the lamp and
worked by stops or push pieces from above, and the colour of the light
thereby changed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Armitage Brown and Richard Lionel
Jones in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th November
1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ARMITAGE BROWN, of 27, Victoria Road, Pecham, in the County of
Surrey, and RICHARD LIONEL JONES, of 423, Edgware Road, in the
County of Middlesex,. Civil Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-first
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said William Armitage Brown and Richard Lionel
Jones, Her special licence that we, the said William Armitage Brown
and Richard Lionel Jones, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said William Armitage Brown and Richard Lionel
Jones, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"AN IMPROVED HAND SIGNAL LAMP," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said William Armitage Brown and Richard Lionel Jones,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our
or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the
same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said. Letters
Dabant

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Armitage Brown and
Richard Lionel Jones, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof,
reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our Invention relates to an improved construction of hand signal
lamps used for showing lights of different colours.
The Invention consists in mounting slides of coloured glass or other
suitable material to be moved in a vertical or nearly vertical plane by
means of levers attached to the side of the lamp and worked by stops
or push pieces from the top of the lamp in such a manner that the
colour of the light may be changed by the same hand that holds the
lamp.
The manner of operating the slides may be variously modified; thus
they may be made to slide downwards between or upon guides, or they
may be arranged to slide sideways, or even to be raised from below, the
levers and stops being however in all cases so arranged that the latter
can be actuated by the same hand that holds the lamp, the principal
object of our Invention being to supply a hand signal lamp requiring
one hand only unassisted by any other part of the body or by any other
object to both hold and manipulate it, thus leaving the pointsman or
other operator otherwise perfectly free to work the points or perform
any other duty.
Our Invention is applicable not only to hand signal lamps employed
on railways, but also to other kinds of hand signal lamps, such, for
instance, as the description of lamps known as dark lanterns.
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is shown the arrangement of
our improved signal lamp which we prefer to employ.
Figure 1 shows a sectional elevation of the same on line X, X,
Figure 3; Figure 2 shows a sectional elevation on line Y, Y, Figure 3;
Figure 3 shows a plan of the lamp, and Figure 4 shows a sectional plan
on line Z, Z, Figure 2. Similar letters of reference indicate similar
parts in each of the Figures.
A, A, are two flat slides of coloured glass or other suitable material
held in position between the light B and the bull's-eye C by means of

page_text: the guides D, D, I), on the one side, between which the slides move, and
on the other side by means of the rods E, E, fixed to the bottom of the
lamp, over which a loop F, F, fixed to the bottom of each slide fits
loosely. Each slide is hinged at G, G¹, to separate levers H, H', the
other ends of which levers are hingel to the casing at I, as shown.
When not acted upon the slides are held in the raised position shown
on the Drawings by means of the springs J, J¹, connected at one end
to the levers H, H', aud at the other end to the top of the lamp. To
the levers are furthermore connected the stops or push pieces K, K,
passing up through the projecting tube L on the top of the lamp, and
terminating in buttons of any convenient form, the stops being arranged
in such proximity to the handle M of the lamp as to be conveniently
actuated by the thumb of the hand that holds the latter. These stops
have furthermore projections or shoulders, to be presently described, to
engage with a catch or detent for holding the slides in their downward
position, and so arranged that the act of depressing one stop removes the
catch from the other.
From this arrangement it will be seen that by depressing the one or
the other of the stops it will move the corresponding lever, and with it
the slide attached thereto in a downward direction between the light
and the bull's-eye; when in its lowest position the stop, and therefore
also the slide, is held there by means of the spring catch or detent N
either attached to the tubing L as shown, or made to slide as a bolt,
catching on to the shoulder or formed on the upper end of the
stop, and preventing it from being raised by the spring. When one
slide is thus depressed, and it is desired to change the colour of the
signal, this is effected simply by depressing the other stop, either
entirely if a light of the colour of the other slide is required, or partially
if it is desired to show a light of the colour of the bull's-eye, whereby
the inclined surface lor & formed lower down on the stop is caused to
push out the catch M thereby releasing the other stop, which together
with its slide is consequently at once raised by the spring into its
original position. Instead of effecting the raising of the slides by means
of springs as described, these may be dispensed with and the operation
be effected by means of the finger; the slides would be held in their
raised position by the spring catch or detent. In some cases the stops
or push pieces may be made to project from the side of the lamp, as, for
instance, when the lamp has a side handle.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that
we do not limit ourselves to the precise arrangement of our improved
signal lamp as herein-before described with reference to the accompany-
ing Sheet of Drawings, as the number, form, and arrangement of
the slides and mode of actuating them, may be variously modified, as
before mentioned, without departing from the nature of our Invention,
but what we claim under the hereiu-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,
First. Constructing and using hand signal lamps in which slides or
equivalent appliances for showing different colours are so arranged as
to be actuated by the same hand that holds the lamp unassisted by
any other part of the body or other object.
Second. Providing hand signal lamps with coloured slides caused
to move in front of the light by means of levers actuated by stops
or push pieces passing through the top or side of the lamp, substantially
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Armitage Brown and
Richard Lionel Jones, have horeunto set our hands and seals,
this Thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
W. A. DROWN
RICHP. L. JONES. (L.S.)