IMPROVE- MENTS IN WORKING SIGNAL APPARATUS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Martin, of 87, Castle Street, Reading, in the
County of Berks, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Martin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th March 1857..
I, CHARLES MARTIN, of 87, Castle Street, Reading, in the County of Berks,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WORKING SIGNAL APPARATUS ON RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in working signal apparatus
on railways. For these purposes in arranging signal apparatus on railways
and at railway stations, whatever be the forms of apparatus used for signaling,
I apply an apparatus thereto which is peculiarly combined or arranged in
order that the passing trains may act on suitable instruments connected with
the signal apparatus in the following manner:-Along the lines of railways are
arranged pipes or tubes which contain fluid, and to each signal apparatus is
applied a pump or pumping apparatus which communicates with the two ends
of the two lengths of pipes or tubes, which respectively communicate forward

page_text: and backward to two signal stations at distances from such station. The pump
or pumping apparatus at each signal station has suitable apparatus in con-
nection therewith to enable the passing train to actuate the pump or pumping
apparatus. Each pump or pumping apparatus has two valves, one opening
into and the other opening outwards from the pump or pumping apparatus, by
which arrangement when a train is passing a signal station, by acting on the
piston of the pump, it moves it a distance, and the space through which it
moves is filled by fluid passing from the pipe or tube which is along the section
of the line of way which the train has just passed over, and the piston of the
pump will be prevented again moving by reason of the section of pipe or tube
along the next section of the line of way being full of fluid, and the piston
will be only allowed to move when the train acts on the next pump or pumping
apparatus, as by such action the pump or pumping apparatus, at the signal
station which the train has just passed, will withdraw a quantity of the fluid
from the quantity contained in the pipe or tube along the section of the way
last past over by the train, which will allow of the fluid in the previous pump
or pumping apparatus to pass away through the valve which opens outwards;
hence it will be seen that the engine man and guard of a train, on coming up
towards a signal station, will at once ascertain whether the preceding train has
passed the next distant signal station.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Martin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
.26th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, CHARLES
MARTIN, of 87, Castle Street, Reading, in the County of Berks, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Iler Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Martin, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Martin,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Martin, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agrec
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

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WORKING
SIGNAL APPARATUS ON RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the,
said Charles Martin, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should. particu-
larly 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 Charles Martin, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-.
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in working signal apparatus
on railways. For these purposes in arranging signal apparatus on railways
and at railway stations, whatever be the forms of apparatus used for signalling,
I apply an apparatus thereto which is peculiarly combined or arranged in order
that the passing trains may act on suitable instruments connected with the
signal apparatus in the following manner :-Along the lines of railways are
arranged pipes or tubes which contain fluid, and to each signal apparatus is
applied a pump or pumping apparatus which communicates with the two
ends of the two lengths of pipes or tubes, which respectively communicate
forward and backward to two signal stations at distances from such station.
The pump or pumping apparatus at each signal station has suitable apparatus
in connection therewith to enable the passing train to actuate the pump or
pumping apparatus. Each pump or pumping apparatus has two valves, one
opening into and the other opening outwards from the pump or pumping
apparatus, by which arrangement when a train is passing a signal station, by
acting on the piston of the pump, it moves it a distance, and the space through
which it moves is filled by fluid passing from the pipe or tube which is along
the section of the line of way which the train has just passed over, and the
piston of the pump will be prevented again moving by reason of the section of
pipe or tube along the next section of the line of way being full of fluid, and
the piston will be only allowed to move when the train acts on the next pump
or pumping apparatus, as by such action the pump or pumping apparatus, at
the signal station which the train has just passed, will withdraw a quantity of
the fluid from the quantity contained in the pipe or tube along the section
of the way last past over by the train, which will allow of the fluid in the
previous pump or pumping apparatus to pass away through the valve which
opens outwards; hence it will be seen that the engine man and guard of a train,

page_text: readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows the general arrangement of one of the signal stations which
are to be arranged in a continuous series along the whole or a portion of the
length of a line of railway. a is one of the rails of the line of railway; and b
is a lever placed by the side of this rail, and mounted on an axis at one of its
ends; a side view of this lever is shown at Figure 2. On the passage of a
train the flanges of the wheels press on the lever b, and thus cause the lever c
to rock on its centre d, and raise the piston rod e of the apparatus, shewn in
section on an enlarged scale at Figure 3. When the piston rode is thus
raised, the hook f connected with its upper end is removed from the end of the
lever g, and the signal arm is left free to be raised by the weight h into the
position shewn in the Drawing. At the lower end of the piston rod e is a
piston composed of two cupped leathers i, i; and k is a cylinder up which this
piston is drawn when the lever bis acted on by a passing train, as already
described. This movement of the piston causes the vulcanized india-rubber
valve to open, and the valve m formed of a ball of the same material to close
against its seat n, and at the same time fluid passes from the signal apparatus
behind through the pipe o into the chamber. p. When the piston is raised it
remains up until the train that raised it arrives at the next signal station, but
when the piston at that station is raised a vacuum is produced which draws
the fluid through the pipe 7 from under the piston of the first station into the
chamber p at the second station, and the piston at the first station therefore
descends, and the weight r at the end of the lever c pulls down the signal arm.
In a similar way the signal arm at the second station is lowered when the train
arrives at the third station, and so on thus throughout the whole length of the
line where this apparatus is applied, whenever a train passes a signal station
a signal will be raised at that station, and this signal will not be lowered until
the train arrives at the next signal station.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the exact details described; but what I claim is the method herein
described of arranging signal apparatus on railways, in which the signal
apparatus communicate by pipe containing fluid with other signal apparatus

page_text: before and behind them, so that as the pistons of the signal apparatus are in
succession raised, they in succession lower the signal at the station immediately
behind.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Martin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
CHARLES MARTIN. (L.S.)