IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY SIGNAL APPARATUS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Hovenden at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
September 1864.
I, FREDERICK HOVENDEN, of 93 & 95, City Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Perfumer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY SIGNAL APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in railway signal apparatus.
In constructing railway signal apparatus according to this Invention a horn
or whistle is attached to the side or other convenient part of each locomotive
engine; this horn or whistle is put in connection with the drawing cylinder
of the engine by a pipe having a stop-cock upon it. The stop-cock is fur-
nished with a lever handle, which when the cock is closed hangs down in a
vertical position, and its lower end is arranged to come into such a position
that it may be acted on by lever arms or catches placed on the railway near
the side of the rails. The lever handle of the stop-cock may have fixed upon
it a toothed wheel or curved rack that is concentric with the centre of the
stop-cock, in order that when the lever has been turned so as to open the
cock a spring catch may enter the rack, and prevent the lever moving back
into its original position until the catch has been released, or the lever may
be otherwise prevented from moving buck. The lever arms or catches are
placed at distances along the railway near to the rails, and are each arranged
so as to be capable of being moved into such a position that the lever handle
carried by the locomotive shall come against it, or into such a position that

page_text: the lever handle may pass without coming in contact therewith. The lever
catch may also either be arranged to be set at danger by the passing of a
train, and at the proper time altered to safety by means of wires and levers
from a station, or be set both to danger and safety by wires and levers, or
they may be otherwise acted on; any of the ordinary systems of semaphore
signals may also be used in connection with them.
When a locomotive is passing one of the stops or catches that has been
moved to danger or into a position for the lever handle to strike against it,
the handle will be moved so as to open the stop-cock and allow steam from
the cylinder to pass at cach stroke of the piston to the whistle or horn, which
will so be caused to give an intermittent sound that can readily be distinguished
from the ordinary railway whistle, and the whistle or horn will continue to
sound until the engine driver has shut off steam from the engine; a
fainter sound will then be produced by air passing in and out of the cylinder
until the engine is stopped or until the stop-cock is shut, either by moving
back the lever handle by hand or by releasing the catch which retains the
lever bandle, and allowing the lever handle to be moved back to its original
position either by a weight on its lower end or by a spring. The horn or
whistle on the locomotive engine may also be made the means of commu-
nication between the guard and the driver, by enabling the guard to raise the
lever handle of the stop-cock by means of cords and pullies.