IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNAL LANTERNS OR Lamps
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Solomon Elsner, of No. 46, Angel Road, and
No. 7, Holland Cottages, Millbrook Road, both in Brixton, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNAL
LANTERNS OR Lamps.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Solomon Elsner at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st May 1871.
I, SOLOMON ELSNER, of No. 46, Angel Road, and No. 7, Holland
Cottages, Millbrook Road, both in Brixton, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SIGNAL LANTERNS OR Lamps," to be as follows:-
.
Signal lamps for making signals through the medium of different
colored glasses as heretofore usually constructed require the use of both
hands, or at least of one hand and the arm of the other hand of the

page_text: operator, which in many instances causes great inconvenience, as, for
example, in the cases of railway guards and others who require the free
usé of one hand for closing the doors of carriages, shunting, and so forth.
To obviate this inconvenience is the object of my Invention, for which
purpose I arrange the lantern or lamp so that it may be held and its
slide or casing containing the colored glasses may be readily and simul-
taneously operated by the one hand of the operator, thereby leaving his
other hand and arm at perfect liberty for other purposes. The slide or
casing containing the colored glasses is rigidly suspended to a spindle
passing through a tubular guide or guides fixed above the slide or casing,
the spindle being formed or provided with a pin or projecting part which
works upon and is supported by the guide. The guide is formed or
provided with recesses to receive and hold or lock the pin or projecting
part of the spindle in the proper positions for making the required
signals, and the spindle is provided with a knob or finger plate or is
otherwise suitably formed to enable it to be slightly raised and turned
by the operator from one position into another so as to make the desired
signals with great facility, the slide or casing containing the coloured
glasses being prevented from being turned beyond a certain point in
either direction by a suitable projection or stop or stops provided for that
⚫purpose.
•
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Solomon Elsner in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th November 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SOLOMON 2
ELSNER, of No. 46, Angel Road, and No. 7, Holland Cottages, Millbrook
Road, both in Brixton, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Solomon Elsner, Her special licence that I;
the said Solomon. Elsner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Solomon Elsner, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to :

page_text: 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 SIGNAL LANTERNS OR
LAMPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Solomon
Elsner, 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 Solomon Elsner, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof (that is to say) :-
:-
Signal lamps for making signals through the medium of different
colored glasses as heretofore usually constructed require the use of both
hands, or at least of one hand and the arm of the other hand of the
operator, which in many instances causes great inconvenience, as, for
example, in the cases of railway guards and others who require the free
use of one hand for closing the doors of carriages, shunting, and so
forth. To obviate this inconvenience in a more simple manner than has
heretofore been done is the object of my Invention, for which purpose I
arrange the lantern or lamp so that it may be held and its slide frame
or casing containing the colored glasses may be readily and simul-
taneously operated by the one hand of the operator, thereby leaving the
other hand and arm at perfect liberty for other purposes. The slide
frame or casing containing the colored glasses is suspended to a spindle
passing through a tubular guide or guides fixed above the slide frame or
casing, the spindle being formed or provided with a pin or projecting
part which works upon and is supported by the guide. The guide is
formed or provided with recesses to receive and hold or lock the pin or
projecting part of the spindle in the proper positions for making the
required signals, and the spindle is provided with a knob or finger plate,
or is otherwise suitably formed to enable it to be slightly raised and
turned by the operator from one position into another, so as to make the
desired signals with great facility, the slide frame or casing containing
the colored glasses being prevented from being turned beyond a certain

page_text: point in either direction by a suitable projection or stop or stops
provided for that purpose.
Such being the nature of my Invention I now proceed to describe
more particularly the manner of performing the same, reference
being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Fig. 1
is a vertical section of my improved signal lamp through the line
A, B, of Fig. 4; Fig. 2, a front view of the spindle and tubular
guide attached to the lantern top; Fig. 3, a back view of the same;
Fig. 4, a section through the line C, D, of Fig. 1; Fig. 5, a plan of the
knob and spindle; and Fig. 6, a section through the line E, F, of
Fig. 1.
The lantern a is of ordinary construction, and is provided with. a
glass a¹, lamp b, and reflector c, as usual. The circular slide frame or
casing d is made with an unglazed opening d for showing a white light
and two colored glasses d², d³, one of which may be red and the other
green, but these colors may be varied, and more than two different colors
may in some instances be employed. The slide frame or casing dis
suspended by the cross piece e to the spindle f passing through the
tubular guide g fixed in the top of the lantern a, as shewn. The
spindle is provided with a knob f¹ and a screwed pin f, which works
upon the top of the guide g. This guide is formed with three recesses
g', g², g³, to receive and hold or lock the pin f in the proper positions
for making the required signals. The operator holds the. lamp by its
handle a, and makes the desired signals by slightly raising and turning
the knob f¹ so as to bring either the unglazed opening d² or the colored
glasses d² and d³, as the case may be, opposite to the glass a¹ of the
lantern. The projection or stop g* prevents the spindle from being
turned too far in either direction.
I do not confine myself to the precise construction shewn in the
Drawings, as it will be evident that the arrangement of the guide 9 and
other parts may be more or less varied to suit different lamps and
circumstances without departing from the peculiar character of my
Invention, according to which the slide frame or casing carrying the
colored glasses is suspended to a spindle passing through a tubular
guide, so that the suspended slide frame or casing with its glasses can
be turned from one position to another, thereby enabling the required
signals to be made with one hand only in a more convenient manner
than heretofore, such hand being the same that carries the lamp.

page_text: It will be observed that the lantern a with its glass a¹, lamp b, and
reflector c is of the ordinary construction, therefore I lay no claim to
novelty in respect thereof, nor do I claim as of my Invention or the
exclusive use of the several parts herein-before described and referred to
except when the same are employed in and for my said Invention,
which I hereby declare to consist,―
Firstly. In the combination with the lantern a of the internal slide
frame or casing suspended to the vertical rotating spindle, substantially
as and for the purpose specified.
Secondly. In the combination in a hand signal lamp with the
suspended internal rotating slide frame or casing and spindle of a tubular
guide or guides formed or provided with notches or recesses, substantially
as and for the purposes specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Solomon Elsner, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, A.D. One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
2
TT ARTD