IMPROVED SIGNALLING APPARATUS FOR USE ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Denton, Joseph Whitaker,
and Edward Brooke at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 25th October 1866.
We, WILLIAM DENTON, JOSEPH WHITAKEB, EDWARD BROOKE, all of Leeds,
in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED SIGNALLING APPARATUS FOR USE ON RAILWAYS," to be as
follows:-
The object of our Invention is to prevent accidents on railways. For this
purpose to the side of an engine and tender we connect by jointed brackets
strong bars of iron at a height from the level of the rail of about four inches
by preference. These bars on either side are fixed at an oblique angle to
each other, their extremities, say, nine inches from the rail, whilst at a given
point in one of those rails attached to the tender and engine they project, say,
fourteen inches from the rail, also such, bars on the tender must be placed
right and left handed to each other to meet the exigency of the engine
running tender first. At two given points on the side of the railway vertical
frameworks of wood or iron, having cross beams capable of receiving a portion
of our apparatus, are placed. Upon a-vertical stud passing through the cross
beam of a set of tackle we place a friction or supporting washer, resting upon.
which is a flat arm furnished with a spring and connected at the outer
extremity by means of a shackle and chain with a circular pulley keyed on to
an ordinary vertical signal shaft. Upon the vertical stud before named is.
also placed an arm (within a quadrant guide) nearly at right angles to the flat

page_text: arm, but free to move independently of the same, baving upon its outer
extremity a drum of, say, six inches face. Correspondingly upon the second
framework we have almost a similar arrangement, with the exception that
what we may term the connecting or chain end of the first-described apparatus
is in this case the fulcrum, the chain being connected to a projection from the
quadrant, and the drum in the latter case is away from what we term the slide
line when the other is upon it. To ensure the slide bar attached to the engine
and tender running in its proper line we place a check rail inside the outer
line at each point where the engine has to turn the signal on and off.
The action is as follows:-When the engine and tender pass the first
drum the fixed bar upon the tender strikes in its most projecting part upon
the surface of the drum, and in so doing causes the flat arm carrying the
drum to move in an arc of a circle, and by means of the other flat arm on the
same stud, which is connected to the signal circular pulley, to pull such a
quarter part of a circle, altering the signal thereby.. The motion has, however,
the effect of pulling the second drum, which is connected by wire rope to the
signal quadrant on to the slide line, so that when the engine arrives at the
second apparatus it has to push it away, and that through the connecting wire
pulls the first drum on to the slide line, so that the signal is again reversed and
ready for the next engine. Should the engine, however, return backwards
way, so to speak, it will pass the second drum as it is not on the slide line,
and on reaching the first, which is ready for action, being on the slide line it
will push this drum the reverse way, and bring into play the spring on the
Aat arm before named being pressed upon by a toe upon the drum arm. The
engine having passed the spring restores the drum to its original position,
the signal meantime not having been affected. To the outer extremity of the
outer arm of the first set of tackle we connect a wire to the circular pulley of
a signal placed back from the second one at any desired distance as a safety
guard for the second signal, leaving which signal the wire is then carried over
a vertical pulley and attached to a tension weight which works in a box let
into the ground. Between this last signal and the tension weight the wire
is connected to an arm working upon a pivot fixed to a suitable framework.
Another arm on the same pivot extends nearly to the line of rail and is acted
upon by a swinging bell-cranked lever (working on a stud fixed to the engine)
when the signals are in operation. The bell-crank being connected by a
chain with a lever on the whistle shaft causes the whistle to operate when
such signals are on. At the other end of the signalling apparatus to a con-
venient part of the quadrant guide we attach a wire which is passed over a
vertical pulley and connected to another tension weight. This tension weight,

page_text: like the previous one, is sufficiently heavy in case of the breakage of the wire
to change the signal. The object of this latter arrangement of signals is to
prevent collisions at side road stations; tunnels and junctions, sidings, or other
places where obstructions are liable to occur in the following manner :-
Where an engine runs past the first signal and it shews all right it passes
without disturbing the above arrangements, but on arriving at the second
signal it turns on both first and second signals, also the whistle apparatus thereof,
a second engine following previous to the first one arriving at the points where
it turns the signals off, the second cannot pass the first or second signals without
the whistle coming into operation, thus preventing a collision. The signal
apparatus can also be worked from any desired point by a winch by hand.