AN IMPROVED METHOD OF OR APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING INTELLIGENCE
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
OBADIAH NEWELL RUTTER, of Brighton, in the County of Sussex, Gas Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day of
June, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the eleventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Obadiah Newall Rutter, my exors, admors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
John Obadiah Newell Rutter, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said John Obadiah Newall Rutter, my exors, adñiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plan-
tations abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF OR APPARATUS
FOR CONVEYING INTELLIGENCE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso, that I, the said John Obadiah Newell Rutter, should cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court

page_text: of Chancery within six calendar: months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Obadiah Newell Rutter, hereby declare that my said Invention has for
its nature or object to furnish,-
First, the means of conveying from any part of a house, building, or other
premises to any other part of the same house, building, or other premises, or to
any required distance therefrom instant intelligence of a fire, or of the danger
of a fire breaking out, or of any burglarious or other trespass being committed
in or on any protected part or parts of such house, building, or other premises.
Secondly, the means of conveying, in a similar manner and by similar means,
from any part of a ship or vessel at sea or in port, or from any part of docks,
warehouses, mines, or other premises to any other part or parts of such ship,
vessel, docks, warehouses, mines, or other premises instant intelligence of fire
or trespass, as aforesaid, or of any encrease of temperature which may be
dangerous to such property, or any opening or shutting of doors, hatches,
windows, shutters, or other means of protection or security, without such being
known or permitted.
Thirdly, the means of conveying, to any required distance information which
it may be desirable or necessary to obtain respecting the specific or variable
temperatures of bodies, whether aeriform, fluid, or solid, as they occur in
ventilation, in. conducting many chemical and manufacturing processes, in
forcing houses and conservatories.
Fourthly, the means of conveying to any required distance intelligence of..
the temperature or pressure of steam in steam boilers, steam pipes, steam.
cylinders, &c.
Fifthly, the means of conveying intelligence upon railway trains, as, for
example, between the guard or other conductor and the engine driver of such.
train, or between the passengers in the carriages of such train and the guard
or conductor.
And I declare that the manner in which the said Invention is carried into effect
is as follows, reference being had to the illustrative Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say, the principal agent which I employ for the purposes aforesaid
is electricity in one or other of the forms or modifications in which this agent.
manifests itself, and which are commonly known by the names of magnetism,
electro-magnetism, magneto-electricity, and galvanic electricity. To obtain
the required current of galvanic electricity, I make use of batteries of any of
the forms or arrangements which are well known and in common use, it being

page_text: understood that though a constant and uniform supply of the galvanic electri-
city is required, yet its intensity need not be great. Thus, according to the
circumstances of the case, I employ the battery usually known as Smee's
arrangement, or one in which sand is interposed between the plates, or a
battery consisting of coke and plates of zinc buried in the earth, or properly
arranged in a cask or box; any one of these batteries, and a variety of others
which are well known are adapted for effecting the objects herein-before
specified; but I do not lay claim to any particular battery, as respects its form,'
size, materials, or power. The necessary arrangements for fitting up a house
or building, so as to communicate to any part or parts of it instant intelligence
of the breaking out of a fire, are as follows:-An alarm apparatus, such as is
herein-after described, is placed in some one apartment of the house or building,
such, for example, as the sleeping room of the master, overseer, or watchman,
ánd a galvanic battery is place, in some other convenient apartment of the same,
where it may be secure from interference; a thermometer is placed in every:
one of the apartments and passages of the house or building or other premises,
ánd a double series of copper wires are so laid throughout the premises that in
á given rise of any of the thermometers it shall immediately put the wires in
communication with the battery and alarm apparatus, and so bring the latter
into motion. The wires may be fastened like bell wires to the walls of the
passages, rooms, or other parts of the house, building, or other premises, but
must not be in contact with each other, nor with any other metallic substance
calculated to divert the current of electricity; they may be led along the walls
be
near the ceiling unless concealment be desirable, in which case they may
conveniently placed behind skirting boards or underneath the floors. One of
the wires must be continuous in its course from one pole of the battery to the
alarm apparatus, whilst the other wire must be separated or interrupted in its
course according to the number of apartments and passages to be protected.
At the separated or interrupted parts of the last-mentioned wire I fix thermo-
meters in the apartments or passages, as aforesaid, and the nearer to the
ceiling the better, which thermometers are either constant or differential, but
one or more of each kind is preferable. These thermometers (herein-after
more particularly described) are so constructed as that metallic contact is
formed by means of platinum wires with the separated parts of the copper
wire last above mentioned, but in such manner that until the thermometers are
acted upon by a certain amount of heat, so as to cause the expansion of air or
other elastic substance within them, a current of galvanic electricity cannot
pass from one part of the copper wire to the other; but as soon as a certain
amount of heat is applied, the mercury in the thermometers produces a con-

page_text: tinuons metallic circuit, and a current of galvanic electricity will pass through
them. The same arrangements which will serve for fitting up one thermometer
may be adapted to any required number, the conditions to be observed being
such only as are well known and understood by persons practically acquainted
with electrical agencies, that is to say, each thermometer in its ordinary con-
dition is to interrupt the electrical current; but whenever any one of the said
thermometers is acted upon by the required amount of heat, the electrical
currents shall instantly be transmitted from the battery to the alarm apparatus
before mentioned.
The alarm apparatus consists of three principal parts, namely, a vertical
galvanometer, an alarm bell, and a small electro-magnetic coil, with a magnet
and a bar or rod of iron connected therewith. The galvanometer is fitted up
in the usual manner with a vertical needle traversing the upper part of the
face of a dial, with stops on each side, provision being made for reversing the
galvanic current, and thus causing the needle to move to the right or left hand
of the observer, according to circumstances. The alarm bell may be a spring
alarum, commonly so called, to run for any definite period, or it may be a single
stroke bell, both of which are well-known instruments. The electro-magnetic
coil contains within it a tube of brass, in the upper part of which, above the coil,
is fixed a small permanent steel magnet, and in the lower part a rod of soft iron
of such size and weight that the magnet shall just sustain it in a vertical
position. Matters being thus arranged, the wires being connected with the
respective poles of the battery, the galvanometer and electro-magnetic coil
being made parts of the circuit, and the battery being in proper action, the
galvanic current is lying in ambush, as it were, ready at any moment to cause
an alarm to be given; and such alarm will to a certainty be given whenever
the electrical circuit is completed. For example, if from any cause the
mercury in any one of the thermometers should be raised a given number of
degrees above that indicated by it as the ordinary temperature of the air in
the room, it will by such rise be brought in contact with the platinum wire in
the tube, and by that means complete the circuit, the effect of which will be
the instant separation of the electro-magnet from the permanent magnet,
which in falling will disengage a stop or detent of the alarm bell, which is
thereby set ringing, whilst the needle or pointer of the galvanometer is
deflected to the right or left hand, according to the direction of the current,
and thereby points to a letter or word denoting the cause of alarm. By a
suitable arrangement of the wires with galvanometers, the exact locality of the
danger may be indicated, as well as the cause thereof.
The wire used may be of the ordinary size and kind usually employed by

page_text: bellhangers, but I prefer that more commonly employed for electro-magnetic
purposes, which is covered with cotton thread, and of various colors. Thus, for
the conducting wire of the fire alarm, I use wire covered with red cotton
thread, and for the return wire from the alarm apparatus to the battery a wire
covered with white cotton thread. The use of wires of different colors greatly
facilitates the arrangements, and they can be more easily traced in their
several junctions with the various parts of the apparatus.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the Drawings annexed represent the different sorts
of thermometers which I employ for breaking and renewing the electrical
circuit in all cases where temperature is concerned. Figures 1 and 2 are
differential thermometers, the bulbs a, a', b, b', being charged or filled with air,
and the quantity or elastic force of the air in the respective bulbs determines
the situation of the mercury and the change of temperature necessary to be
produced in one of the bulbs to elevate the mercury to the height in the stem
required to cause the transmission of an electric current through it. One of
the bulbs of each thermometer a and 6' must be enclosed in a case or covering
of wood or other non-conductor of heat, the differential thermometer being
applicable to all situations and all seasons, provided it be required to indicate
sudden changes of temperature only. Figure 3 is a constant thermometer,
which is to be so adjusted as that the electrical current shall pass at any
specific degree of temperature; a², a³, b³, b³, c, c', are conducting wires to be
connected with the copper wires herein-before mentioned, by means of
binding screws, by twisting the ends together, or by soldering, or in any other
way the most convenient or desirable for effecting perfect metallic contact.
Figure 4 represents the alarm apparatus; d, being the galvanometer; d, the
alarm bell; and d², the magnet and electro-magnet, with its coil and other
necessary appendages.
The arrangements necessary for fitting up a house so as to communicate to
any required part or parts of it instant intelligence of any burglarious or other
treespass being committed are precisely similar to those which I have just
described for giving notice of fire or of the danger of fire breaking out, except
only that in this latter case the doors and windows of the passages or apart-
ments of the house are made the direct instruments of protection. For
effecting the objects contemplated in this part of my Invention, an additional
wire must be fixed, communicating with the battery at one end of its extremities,
and with the self-acting alarm apparatus at the other, in the same manner as
for the fire alarm already described, it being observed that the connexion with
the galvanometer is so made as that by reversal of the current of electricity
passed through it, the needle shall be deflected in a direction the reverse of that

page_text: in the case of an alarm being given of fire or of the danger of fire breaking out.
For breaking and renewing the electrical circuit by the opening and shutting
of doors and windows at the separated or interrupted parts of the conducting
wires, tubes containing mercury similar to thermometer tubes, but open at the
top, must be secretly fixed in or near to the frame of each door and window
which is to be protected. In each tube at the bottom a platinum wire is fixed
in contact with the mercury, and another platinum wire, moving freely in the
upper part of the tube, is so connected with and influenced by the movement
of the door or window, as the case may be, that so long as it remains shut the
point of the wire shall be above the surface of the mercury in the tube, but
the instant it is opened the wire shall descend below the surface of mercury,
and by that means (as is hereafter more fully explained) the electrical current
is completed and an alarm given, in the same manner as herein-before
mentioned. I adopt occasionally other methods of completing the electrical
circuit; for example, for guarding sash windows, I fix an additional pulley
wheel in the boxing on one side of the sash frame, and thereby make the sash
line and pulley wheels as at present in use available for the purpose, the
necessary metallic contact being effected by a piece of fine copper or brass
wire being woven into or interlaced with or twisted around the said sash line;
or I fix a small disc or plate of brass or other metal, divided into two parts, in
the rabbit or other convenient part of the upper portion of a door or window
frame, each part of the said disc or plate being in metallic contact with the
conducting wires before described. And to break and renew the electric
circuit through or by means of such disc or plate, a ball or knob of brass or
other metal is so fixed and concealed in the door or window frame that as long
as the door or window remains shut, the ball or knob cannot come in contact
with either part of the disc or plate, but when opened it rolls or falls by its
own weight into an aperture formed for its reception, and thus causes the
electric circuit to be completed and an alarm to be given, as before-men-
tioned. Figure 5 of the Drawings annexed represents a mercurial tube, with
the wires connected therewith, for breaking and renewing the electric current
by the opening or shutting of a door or window; and Figure 6 represents a
plate or disc, of the description before-mentioned, for breaking or renewing the
electric current.
The letter F, on the dial of the galvanometer (Figure 4), is intended to
denote "fire," and "B" burglars.
From the exemplications which I have thus given it will be readily under-
stood how the same system of conveying intelligence may be applied to ships,
docks, mines, factories, conservatories, &c., with such modifications only as

page_text: difference of circumstances may render obviously necessary, and as will readily
suggest themselves to any practical man of ordinary intelligence. But some
further explanation is necessary to show how it may be adapted to the last of
the objects before stated in the outset of this Specification, namely, to the
establishing of a means of communication on railway trains between the guard
and engine driver or between them and the passengers. To accomplish this
object it is necessary that two conducting wires should be laid along the roof
or underneath the bottom or other convenient part of each carriage, luggage
van, tender, or other part of the train, which wires may be in metallic contact
with the coupling chains or be independent thereof, as may be deemed most
convenient; I prefer that the wires should be fixed independently of the
couplings, and insulated in every part, terminating at their extremities in
strong hooks of brass or other metal. The connection between the respective
carriages is effected by means of flexible wire cords terminating in rings of
brass or other metal, to be passed over the hooks before mentioned, so that
the wires may be connected quickly and easily at the same time and by the
same person that shackles the carriages. The flexible wires just mentioned
must be enclosed in bands of leather or other suitable material, and, with the
hooks before mentioned, protected from rain, dust, or contact with any part of
the carriage or train, by suitable coverings of caoutchouc, gutta percha, or
other waterproof material. From the tender the wires must be conducted in
an insulated state to the platform or foot-plate occupied by the engine driver,
and thence to a strap of leather (see Figure 7), gutta percha, or other insu-
lating substance affixed to the hand-rail at the left-hand side of such platform.
or foot-plate. Along the upper side of this strap (so affixed to the hand-rail)
must be two rows of studs or buttons of brass or other metal, one row being
in metallic communication with one conducting wire, and the other row with
the other wire. The studs or buttons may be arranged as follows:-
0
a
0
0
°
a¹
.0
0
0
0
0
0
at about the distoreas apart here represented
They must project their

page_text: other pole of the battery must be fitted up with a short length (according t
distance) of flexible wire cord, covered, excepting to within about an inc
of its extremity, with leather or other flexible and waterproof material. Thes
arrangements being completed, and the battery in proper action, and the wire
throughout the whole train being connected, and the driver and guard being
in their respective places, if the driver place his hand upon the rail (which he
usually holds on by when the train is in motion), and in contact with any two
of the studs or buttons, as shewn in the opposite rows a, a¹, be is in a situation
to receive at any moment a signal from the guard, and which may consist in
communicating one, two, or more gentle shocks to the hand of the driver, the
electrical circuit being completed by means of the flexible wire attached to
one pole of the battery, and which is placed for an instant in contact with the
corresponding pole of the electro-magnetic coil, and then suddenly withdrawn.
The number of times in succession or the order in which the shocks are com
municated will constitute signs or signals, as may previously be determined
upon. In addition to the studs or buttons fixed in the strap before mentioned,
flexible wires, properly protected, may be connected with the conducting wires,
and terminate in a ball or handle of convenient size to be held by the engine
driver in his hand, or fastened by a strap or spring to his wrist; by this means
he will be always in actual contact with the apparatus, so that if the guard
exercise suitable vigilance he may signal the driver in a moment with unerring
certainty and without causing any alarm to passengers. By arrangements
similar to those just described, the passengers in each carriage may be provided
with the means of communicating a sign or signal to the guard or other con-
ductor of railway trains. The intensity of the shock may be modified. by the
adjustments in the reel; it is perfectly perceptible, without causing any sensa
tion of pain. By means similar to those which have been described, the guards,
when there is more than one to a train, may communicate signs or signals from
one to the other.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and given
various exemplifications of the manner in which the same is to be performed, I
declare that I lay no claim to the employment, in a general sense of electricity,
in any of the forms in which it manifests itself as a means of conveying intelli-
gence, the same being already extensively used for that purpose, and that
neither do I claim as an essential part of my Invention a galvanic battery of
any particular form, arrangement, dimensions, materials, or capacity; but
that what I claim as the improvements constituting my said Invention are as
follows:-
First, I claim the conveying intelligence of fire, danger of fire, trespass, and

page_text: the other casualties and events herein-before specifically enumerated under the
first four beads of the objects of my said Invention, by arranging and combining
galvanic batteries, copper wires, thermometers, mercurial tubes, connecting
plates, and alaraums, in manner herein-before exemplified and described.
Second, I claim the constant and differential thermometers (Figures 1, 2, 3);
the combination of the magnet, electro-magnet, galvanometer, and alarum
(Figure 4); the door and window mercurial tube (Figure 5); the window.
sash lines twisted round or interwoven with copper wire, and the connecting
plate or disc (Figure 6); each and every one of them individually and sepa-
rately, when employed in combination with electric agency, to convey intelligence
of the particular casualties and events aforesaid, whether as forming a part of
the general arrangement and combination first herein-before claimed, or of any
other electric arrangement and combination.
And, third, I claim the employment of an electro-magnetic primary and
secondary reel or coil in conjunction with a battery and other apparatus for
the purpose of transmitting shocks of electricity on railway trains as signs or
signals, as also before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Obadiah Newell Rutter, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.