Improvements in RaILWAY FACING POINTS, AND IN WORKING AND SECURING THE SAME
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Telford Dutton, of Worcester, in the
County of Worcester, for the Invention of "Improvements in RaILWAY
FACING POINTS, AND IN WORKING AND SECURING THE SAME."
"
Scaled the 2nd April 1874, and dated the 17th January 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Telford Dutton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th January 1874.
I, SAMUEL TELFORD DUTTON, of Worcester, in the County of
Worcester, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY FACING POINTS, AND IN WORKING AND SECURING
THE SAME," to be as follows:-
1
The intention and purpose of this Invention is to improve the safety
of railway travelling by providing efficient means for ensuring a more
certain and effectual movement, and securing of facing points on
railways before a train is signalled to pass and during the time any

page_text: the slides from being moved and the switches being unsecured or
altered. This however being a supplemental part is susceptible of being
adapted in arrangement (for the object above stated according to cir-
cumstances and position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Telford. Dutton in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
send
TELFORD DUTTON, of Worcester, in the County of Worcester,
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Telford Dutton, Her special
licence that I, the said Samuel Telford Dutton, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel Telford
Dutton, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY FACING POINTS, AND IN WORKING AND SECURING
THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Telford Dutton, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Samuel Telford Dutton, do hereby

page_text: .
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
The intention and purpose of this Invention is to improve the safety
of railway travelling by providing efficient means for ensuring a more
certain and effectual movement, and securing of railway facing points on
railways before a train is signalled to pass and during the time any
portion of the train may be on or passing through them, and to give a
more gradual divergence from one line to another than has been usual,
and for the better securing and moving of switches; also to prevent the
possibility of the points being foul in respect of both tongues being
open, even the slightest, at any one time, and to indicate whether the
facing point is properly closed or not. To accomplish this I purpose to
make the switches from say twenty to twenty-two feet in length, and
instead of connecting them and moving the switch tongues together as
at present I connect them and move them separately either by the
separate motion of two levers or the successive action of one lever, but
in such manner that only one tongue can be moved at a time; and
also instead of connecting the rod moving them at one point to the
switch as at present I connect the switch to the single rod by cranks at
two or more places in its length, thereby holding the switch firmly and
equally against the stock rail at different points in its length.
To secure the facing tongue close up to the rail and keep it there, I
fix or place at the point of each tongue, by preference, a cam moving
on a stud or centre on the point chair, each of the said cams being con-
nected to and moved by the opposite switch. It will follow that when
either of the switch tongues is opened it will cause the other tongue which
then becomes the facing switch (if close up to the rail) to be secured in
its place, and as the open or free switch cannot be closed while a train
is passing or standing in them the facing switch thereby remains
.secured.
In case anything should by design or accident prevent the proper
closing of the facing point it would at once be detected, for it would
be impossible for the pointsman to move the other switch until the
complete closing of the first.
In cases where the existing switches are not of sufficient length, and
also in cases where it may be of advantage to prevent the closing of the
open switch either independently or in combination with the foregoing

page_text: arrangements, I purpose to fix a lengthening blade to one or both of
the switch tongues, as circumstances may require, and at several points
in the length of the switch and lengthening blades I fix to them or the
connecting rods suitable transverse slides moving upon chairs under and
supporting the stock rail so that a train upon the rails would prevent
the slides from being moved and the switches being unsecured or altered.
This however being a supplemental part is susceptible of being adapted
in arrangement (for the object above stated) according to circumstances

page_text: It being understood that the details of the construction herein described
with reference to the accompanying Drawings may be varied without
departing from the principle of my said Invention, as the same is herein.
before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Telford Dutton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of July, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
0 Witness,
SAMUEL TELFORD DUTTON. (L.S.)
FRA. WOODWARD,
Justice of the Peace for the City of Worcester.