IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH WITH LEVERS FOR RAILWAY SWITCHES AND SIGNALS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Deas, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
Company, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH
Sealed the 8th September 1865, and dated the 14th March 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Deas at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
March 1865.
I, JAMES DEAS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND CONNECTED
WITH LEVERS FOR RAILWAY SWITCHES AND SIGNALS," to be as follows, that is to
say:
This Invention has for its object the constructing and arranging of levers
for railway switches and signals, and the parts immediately connected with
such levers, in a simple and economical manner, and so as not easily to get
out of order. In place of a deep rectangular box, such as is commonly used

page_text: for a switch lever, and which being embedded in the ballast is apt to get full
of water that when frozen prevents the parts from working, there is used
according to this Invention a tubular piece which may be said to lie at or on
the surface of the ballast. This tubular piece is cast in one with strong
longitudinal and transverse vertical flanges extending downwards, and having
at or near the bottom a strong horizontal plate or flange, which flanges being
embedded in the ballast keep the tubular piece rigid and steady. The horizontal
tubular piece is closed at one end, and the switch bar or rod is entered at the
other end, the inner end of the bar being formed with a simple hook for the
purpose of connecting it to the lever in place of using for that purpose the
usual complication of fork eyes and pins. The lever has its fulcrum on a pin
entered through cheeks formed on the upper side of the tubular piece and on
each side of an opening, down through which the lever projects. The lever is
formed with a short arm below its fulcrum, and with an eye in the end of the
arm for the hook of the switch bar to be entered into. The top of the tubular
piece is formed with an enlargement of the opening for the lever, such enlarge-
ment permitting of the lever being turned to get it on the switch bar hook
before inserting the fulcrum pin; but when the lever is held in its place by
the fulcrum pin the switch bar cannot be disengaged from it. A cover may
be provided for the enlargement of the opening, but this is not essential. The
handing end of the lever has a part of it near the fulcrum shaped so as to lie
nearly in a horizontal position when at rest, and the remainder of it is bent
upwards into a.convenient position for handing. At the angle or bend in the
lever a weight is fixed by simply casting it upon the lever or otherwise, and
this weight recovers the lever and keeps the switch in the proper position, as
will be well understood. By simply entering the lever in its place with the
weight turned towards the open or towards the closed end of the tubular
piece it is made to hold the switch bar either in or out when at rest as may be
required.
The same arrangement of lever and tubular bed piece will serve very well for
actuating the wires or rods for working signals, the wire or rod being connected
to the lower short arm of the lever instead of the switch bar, whilst the parts
may be modified to suit the travel and direction in which the wire may be
required to proceed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Deas in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DEAS, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer to the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me
the said James Deas, Her special licence that I, the said James Deas,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Deas, my executors, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN AND CONNECTED WITH LEVERS FOR RAILWAY SWITCHES AND SIGNALS,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Deas, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Deas, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
that is to say:―
My said Invention has for its object the constructing and arranging of
levers for railway switches and signals, and the parts immediately connected
with such levers, in a simple and economical manner, and so as not easily to
get out of order.
And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of performing the
same, may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing modifi-
cations of switch and signal apparatus embodying my improvements. The
"

page_text: same reference numerals mark the same or corresponding parts in all the
Figures.
The ordinary switch box with handle comprises about eighteen separate
parts, and requires a timber frame on which to fix the box; in my improved
arrangement, however, of which one modification is shown in Figures 1, 2,
and 3, there are only about five separate parts, and no fixing is required
beyond sinking the bed plate into the ballast, and ramming the ballast firmly
above it:
Figure 1 is a plan; Figure 2, a back end elevation; and Figure 3, a
side elevation. In place of the deep rectangular box commonly used for a
switch lever, and which being embedded in the ballast is apt to get full of
water that when frozen prevents the parts from working, I employ a tubular
piece 1, which may be said to lie at or on the surface 2 of the ballast. This
tubular piece 1 is cast in one with a bed frame 3, consisting of strong longi-
tudinal and transverse vertical flanges 4, 5, extending downwards, and having
at the bottom a strong horizontal plate or flange 6, and this bed frame being
embedded in the ballast keeps the tubular piece 1 rigid and steady. The
horizontal tubular piece 1 is closed at one end, and the switch bar or rod 7
is entered at the other end, the inner end of the switch bar 7 being formed
with a simple hook for the purpose of connecting it to the lever 8, in place of
using for that purpose the usual complication of fork eyes and pins. The
lever 8, supposed to be removed in Figure 1, has its fulcrum on a pin 9
entered through cheeks 10 formed on the upper side of the tubular piece 1,
and on each side of an opening 11, down through which the lever 8 projects.
The lever 8 is formed with a short arm 12, indicated by dotted lines in
Figure 3, which projects below its fulcrum, and with an eye in the end of the
arm for the hook of the switch bar 7 to be entered into. The top of the
tubular piece 1 is formed with an enlargement of the opening 11 for the
lever 8, such enlargement permitting of the lever being turned to get it on the
switch bar hook before inserting the fulcrum pin 9; but when the lever 8 is
held in its place by the fulcrum pin 9 the switch bar 7 cannot be disengaged
from it. A cover 13 is shown in Figure 3 as provided for the opening 11,
but this is not essential. The handing end of the lever 8 has a part of it near
the fulcrum shaped so as to lie nearly in a horizontal position when at rest,
and the remainder of it is bent upwards into a convenient position for handing.
At the angle or bend in the lever 8 a weight 14 is fixed by simply casting it
upon the lever or otherwise, and this weight recovers the lever and keeps the
switch in the proper position, as will be well understood. By simply entering
the lever 8 into its place, with the weight 14 turned towards the open or

page_text: towards the closed end of the tubular piece 1, it is made to hold the switch
bar 7 either in or out when at rest, as may be required. The two positions
are given in Figure 3, one of them in dotted lines. When required the
lever 8 can be locked in its raised position or in its normal position by
inserting a pin in a hole 15, formed for the purpose through the sides below
the fulcrum, and such pin can be fixed by a padlock.
The apparatus is obviously susceptible of modification as regards minor
details of form and the like without departing from its essential characteristics,
of which one of the most important is the providing of the flanged bed frame 3
for embedment and fixture in the ballast, and to carry the other parts. An
example of such modification is shown in plan in Figure 4, and in back end
and side elevation in Figures 5 and 6, this differing from that already
described simply in having the tubular part (1) partly cut away at both ends,
and in having the lever arm 12 formed with a hook instead of an eye, whilst the
switch bar 7 is formed with an eye instead of a hook. Other equivalent modes
of forming the connection between the lever and the switch bar are shown,
one in Figures 7 and 8, and one in Figures 9 and 10, and the construction
and action of each rendered sufficiently obvious by these Figures. I
however prefer the sin le hook and eye connections shown in Figures
1 to 6.
The same arrangement of lever and bed piece will serve very well for
actuating the wires or rods for working signals at a distance or otherwise, the
wire or rod being connected to the lower short arm (12) of the lever (8)
instead of the switch bar (7), whilst the parts may be modified to suit the
travel and the direction in which the wire or rod may be required to proceed.
An example of this application of my improved arrangements is shown in
sectional plan in Figure 11, in side elevation in Figure 12, and in front end
elevation in Figure 13; and in this example the switch and signal actions
are combined in such a way that the condition of the switch is always shown
by the signal, the advantage of which arrangement is well understood. The
signal apparatus 16, comprising a lamp, colored glasses, a semaphore arm, and
accompanying frame, is mounted upon a standard 17, comprising two flanged
side plates, which are bolted down to flanges 18, formed for the purpose on
the bed frame 3 of the lever apparatus. The lever 8 works between the sides
of the standard 17, and its lower arm 12 is connected by a link 19 to a bell-
crank lever 20, from which a rod or link 21 passes up to the signal
apparatus 16.
Having thus particularly described my said Inventior, and the mauner in
which the same is or may be performed, I have to state that 1 do not restrict

page_text: myself to the precise details herein described or delineated; but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the constructing and
combining together of the parts of lever apparatus for working railway
switches and signals, substantially in the improved manner herein described
and delineated.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Deas, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAMES DEAS. (L.B.)