A NOVEL METHOD OF ENABLING PASSENGERS TO WARN RAILWAY SERVANTS IN CHARGE AND DURING THE RUNNING OF A TRAIN OF ANY- THING DANGEROUS TO THEIR LIVES AND WELFARE, AND TO INDICATE TO THE GUARD PROMPTLY THE CARRIAGE AND COMPARTMENT FROM WHICH SUCH WARNING SHALL HAVE BEEN CAUSED; ALSO TO ENABLE THE DRIVER TO KNOW IMMEDIATELY IF ANY PORTION OF HIS TRAIN OF CARRIAGES HAS BROKEN AWAY OR BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM ANY CAUSE
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James John Myers at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
February 1869.
I, JAMES JOHN MYERS, Engineer and Machinist, of the Caxton Iron
Works, Spa Road, and Twenty-one Bedford Place, both in the Town of
the Town and County of Southampton, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "A NOVEL METHOD OF ENABLING PASSENGERS TO WARN
RAILWAY SERVANTS IN CHARGE AND DURING THE RUNNING OF A TRAIN OF ANY-
THING DANGEROUS TO THEIR LIVES AND WELFARE, AND TO INDICATE TO THE GUARD
PROMPTLY THE CARRIAGE AND COMPARTMENT FROM WHICH SUCH WARNING SHALL
HAVE BEEN CAUSED; ALSO TO ENABLE THE DRIVER TO KNOW IMMEDIATELY IF ANY
PORTION OF HIS TRAIN OF CARRIAGES HAS BROKEN AWAY OR BEEN DISCONNECTED
FROM ANY CAUSE," to be as follows:-
Inside and longitudinally with the ceiling of each carriage I use a
cord, rope, or chain connected with a screw and nut or hook and eye in
each compartment, so as to form a continuous line capable of being
disconnected at will in each division of the carriage; one end of this

page_text: cord, rope, or chain is fastened inside to one end of the carriage, and
the other end is connected with a weighted lever (with or without a
spring) fixed and working a moveable shaft or spindle in suitable
bearings on brackets projecting from and fixed to one end of each
carriage outside. The shaft or spindle at one of its ends has a projection
at a right angle, similar to a half crank or fork, with or without a wheel
or roller to diminish friction connected thereto; the under side of the
cranked part or fork is bevelled sharply off to form a steep incline. I
also use a cord, rope, or chain similar to that now used on railways
passing beneath the carriages from the guard's van to the locomotive
engine, and fix friction wheels or pullies at each end of each carriage,
under and over which I conduct the cord, rope, or chain, and between
cach carriage I hang up the cord, rope, or chain in the guide rest formed
by the cranked part or fork on the spindle or shaft before-mentioned, and
continue it down again to the underneath part of the next carriage, and
so on throughout the whole train of carriages. In the guard's van the
cord, rope, or chain is connected with a lever with or without a weight
and spring, or both, arranged to sound a bell or gong when slackened,
and on the engine the cord, rope, or chain is attached to a lever with a
spring connected with the handle of a steam whistle. When the
passenger requires to warn the servants in charge of the train he simply
unhooks or unscrews and lets go the cord or chain along the ceiling of
his compartment of the carriage, and this allows the weighted lever
outside the end of the carriage to fall, and makes the shaft with the
cranked part or fork on its end (with the cord, rope, or chain resting
thereon) to reverse, the bevelled or inclined side being thus brought
uppermost the cord, rope, or chain cannot remain thereon and becomes dis-
lodged, thus slackening the cord, rope, or chain underneath the carriages
and causes the lever in the guard's van to fall and a bell or gong to be
struck, also on the engine depresses the handle of the steam whistle and
causes the steam to sound it; thus guard and driver are simultaneously
warned. The guard can also by merely slackening the rope, cord, or
chain in his van sound the steam whistle on the engine. If the train
during its transit be disconnected at any part the same result occurs as
if the passenger had warned from his carriage. The information whence
the warning originated is betrayed by the reversed cranked part or fork
and dislodged cord, and the compartment by the unhooked or uncrewed
cord, rope, or chain. As the warning must be presumed to have arisen
from urgent necessity, and the the driver and guard cannot ascertain

page_text: without stopping, the use of signals between them must be exceptional,
and may be conducted by an arranged code with the ordinary flags now
in use in the daytime, and by the usual lamps with shifting colored
slides of glass at night.