IM- PROVED MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS TO BE ADAPTED TO THE RAILS OF LINES OF RAILWAYS AND USED IN COMBINATION WITH FIXED RAILWAY SIGNALS FOR PRE- VENTING SUCH SIGNALS BEING PASSED IN DARK OR FOGGY WEATHER OR OTHERWISE WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGINE DRIVER OR GUARD IN CHARGE OF THE TRAIN
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederic Prince at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
February 1870.
"
I, FREDERIC PRINCE, the younger, of Plumstead, in the County of
Kent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVED MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS TO BE ADAPTED TO THE RAILS OF LINES OF
RAILWAYS AND USED IN COMBINATION WITH FIXED RAILWAY SIGNALS FOR PRE-
VENTING SUCH SIGNALS BEING PASSED IN DARK OR FOGGY WEATHER OR OTHERWISE
WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ENGINE DRIVER OR GUARD IN CHARGE OF THE
TRAIN," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in causing one of the front wheels of a loco-
motive engine running on a line of railway to depress a lever, connected
with which is a large bell or gong fixed near to each signal post or
signal station on the line of railway; or there may be a bell or gong fixed
on the locomotive engine or tender, which said bell as the wheel of the
engine depresses the aforesaid-lever shall cause the bell on the engine to
be struck or sounded, the intention of this Invention being to inform
the engine driver when he cannot see a signal that he has passed a signal
post or station, and thus prevent accident to the train. It is proposed

page_text: to so place the aforesaid lever at the side of a line of rails that the flange
of the wheel of the engine when it comes into contact therewith shall
depress the said lever, and by so doing cause a bell or gong to be struck
loud enough for the engine driver or stoker to hear. It is also proposed
to so connect the aforesaid lever with the signal post as that when a
signal of danger or other caution is raised or presented to view the
raising of such said signal shall operate upon the said lever so as to put
it in position for being acted upon by the wheel of the engine so as to
cause the aforesaid bell or gong in connection therewith to be sounded,
but when such signal is lowered it shall have the effect of forcing the
aforesaid lever out of the way of the running wheel of the engine so as
not to be acted upon thereby.
In order to prevent all of the wheels of a train from sounding the bell
or gong it is proposed after the aforesaid lever has been depressed as
before stated to hold the lever down by a self-acting catch suitably
placed, and to connect this lever with another lever placed at a distance
therefrom exceeding the longest train that is run. The effect of this second
lever as the wheel of the engine passes over it is to disengage the
catch that held down the first lever and lift it up ready to be again acted
upon as before stated; or the aforesaid first-mentioned lever may be :
employed to make contact between an electric battery and a bell or gong
for sounding the same on a train passing a signal post or station.
It is also proposed to form the outer ends of the aforesaid levers curved
or bent to enable the flange of the running wheel of the engine to act
thereon whichever direction the train is moving on the line of rails: 1
For railways having two lines of rails the above arrangements must be
employed for each separate line.