A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR INDICATING SIGNALS IN MINES OR SHAFTS, OR IN OTHER PLACES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Musgrove, of Pelton Colliery, near Chester-
le-Street, in the County of Durham, Brakesman, for the Invention
of "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR INDICATING SIGNALS IN MINES OR
SHAFTS, OR IN OTHER PLACES."
Sealed the 22nd December 1869, and dated the 22nd June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Musgrove at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 22nd June 1869.
I, GEORGE MUSGROVE, of Pelton Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, in
the County of Durham, Brakesman, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR INDICATING
SIGNALS IN MINES OR SHAFTS, OR IN OTHER PLACES," to be as follows:-
The object of my apparatus, which is chiefly intended for indicating
signals passing between the top and bottom of pits and shafts, but which

page_text: also applies to indicating signals in other places, is to indicate by means
of two or three separate contrivances the signal in so distinct a form that
it is impossible for the engineman or other attendant to mistake the
signal given.
I proceed to describe my apparatus as applied for indicating signals
between the top and bottom of a pit shaft or other place. The apparatus
has a face similar to a clock face, which is numbered according to the
number of signals from the top or bottom of the pit or other place. The
apparatus has also a hammer which falls upon a plate; also, a bell
in the interior which gives one stroke for each signal. To the ordinary
signal wire or cord is attached by a lever, spring, crank, or other suitable
contrivance a wire, on which are two knobs or tappets. When the
signal wire is raised the tappets lift a double eye, and thereby release a
catch or spring in the hammer, allowing the hammer to fall on the
plate; in falling the hammer by means of a slotted rod or otherwise
raises a paul or catch from a ratchet wheel, on the spindle of which the
pointer of the clock face is fitted; this wheel is then moved by a spring
the distance of one tooth together with the pointer, when it is again held
by the paul; in this movement one of a series of pins on the ratchet
wheel presses upon an arm or paul, which through the intermediation of
a rod and spring causes the bell to strike; this striking of the bell takes
place once for every time the wire attached to the signal wire is raised.
When this wire resumes its normal position on the completion of each
signal the double eye falls back to its former place, where it remains
until the wire is again raised by the sending of another signal. The
hammer which falls on the plate is raised by a weight or block or catch
connected to the engine, and as it regains its place the pointer springs
back to its normal position. When the hammer is up it cannot be
lowered except by the raising of the signal wire, and the pointer cannot
be made to point to any number on the clock face until the hammer
is lowered. Either the hammer or the bell may be dispensed with,
and the details of my apparatus are in other respects capable of
modification.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Musgrove in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd December 1.869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
MUSGROVE, of Pelton Colliery, near Chester-le-Street, in the County of
Durham, Brakesman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said George Musgrove, Her special licence
that I, the said George Musgrove, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said George Musgrove, my executors,
administrators, and assigus, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR INDICATING SIGNALS IN MINES OR SHAFTS, OR IN OTHER PLACES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Musgrove,
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 George Musgrove, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say :-
The object of my apparatus, which is chiefly intended for indicating
signals passing between the top and bottom of pits and shafts, but which
also applies to indicating signals in other places, is to indicate by means
of two or three separate contrivances the signal in so distinct a form that

page_text: it is impossible for the engineman or other attendant to mistake the
signal given.
I proceed to describe by the aid of the annexed Drawings my appa-
ratus as applied for indicating signals between the top and bottom of a
pit shaft or other place. The apparatus has a face A similar to a clock
face, which is numbered according to the number of signals from the
top or bottom of the pit or other place. The apparatus has also a
hammer B which falls upon a plate or bell C (or if required the bell in
the interior), and gives one stroke for each signal. To the ordinary
signal wire or cord is attached by a lever, spring, crank, or other suitable
contrivance, a wire D, on which are one or two knobs or tappets E, E.
When the wire is raised the lower tappet pushes forward the ratchet
wheel K, tightening the spring M until the paul or catch H drops into
a tooth of the ratchet wheel, at the same time the tappet raises a crank or
double eye F, which allows the hammer B to fall on the bell C.
Attached to the spindle L of the ratchet wheel is a pointer P, which is
moved forward on the clock face along with the wheel once for each
signal or raising of the wire. On the bottom end of the wire D a weight
W is suspended, which brings back the wire and its tappets to their
original position after each raising. The pointer remains at the number
which indicates the number of signals or raisings of the wire which have
been given, and only falls back to its first position on the hammer being
raised (by any mechanical contrivance affixed to the engine) past the
catch F, in doing which it raises the paul II sufficiently to clear all the
teeth of the ratchet wheel (except the last T which is higher than the
others). The ratchet wheel being no longer kept fast against the
spring M by the paul II falls back by the action of the spring until the
last and longest tooth T is arrested by the paul, and in falling back takes
with it the pointer to its original position. The hammer cannot be
lowered (owing to the catch F) until the wire D is raised, and the
pointer can only be made to indicate by the same means.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not limit
myself to the exact construction of my apparatus as herein-before
described with reference to the accompanying Drawings, as the details
of the same may be variously modified without departing from the
main features of my Invention; what I claim is, constructing apparatus

page_text: for indicating signals in mines or shafts, or in other places, substan-
tially as herein-before described with reference to the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Musgrove, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, Oue
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
GEORGE MUSGROVE. (L.S.)