AN ELECTRIC CON- TROLLER FOR INDICATING THE RELATIVE POSITION OF TRAINS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa, of Bordeaux, in
the French Empire, Gentlemen, for the Invention of "AN ELECTRIC CON-
TROLLER FOR INDICATING THE RELATIVE POSITION OF TRAINS ON RAILWAYS."
Sealed the 8th March 1861, and dated the 11th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Dénéchaud and
Joseph Chapa at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition on the 11th September 1860.
We, JEAN DÉNÉCHAUD and JOSEPH CHAPA, of Bordeaux, in the French
Empire, Gentlemen, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN ELECTRIC CONTROLLER FOR INDICATING THE RELATIVE POSITION OF TRAINS ON
RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention is intended to prevent trains running into one another upon
railways. Each of the stations, as well as each of the trains, is furnished with
a similar electric controller. Supposing two trains to be approaching each
other in contrary directions, and to have a station between them, the controllers
are intended to indicate the distance run, and communicate mile by mile or
at any other stated distances the position of the trains to the station towards
which they are travelling. Thus, two trains travelling one towards another,
no matter what the distance which separates them, have the precise spots at
which they are indicated by the controller at the station. The station master
can follow at a glance all trains, whether from the right or from the left, travel-
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page_text: ling towards his station, and the persons in charge of the trains have their
exact positions indicated to them, and by looking at the controller can ascer-
tain the distance from the next station. While the two trains are separated
by the station they are only in communication with it, but should one overrun
it and the two trains be upon the same line of rails, then they immediately
communicate with one another, and the controllers exhibit to the person in
charge of each train the distance which separates them.
Each controller is composed of two electro-magnets, in front of which are
plates of soft iron held upon one end of a jointed lever, the other end is con-
nected to an anchor catch, which works into pegs upon a wheel keyed on the
end of a threaded shaft. Each electro-magnet has similar apparatuses connected
with it. A nut, free to travel by the turning of the shaft, is placed on each
shaft, and by means of a rod rising from each nut is joined to and made to
propel a small carriage upon rails supported at the upper part of the apparatus,
and behind the carriages is a scale divided into miles or other distances. One
carriage represents the train to which it is fitted, and the other that which is
following it or travelling towards it. A battery is carried upon the frame
carrying the apparatus. The negative pole is in contact with the rails through
the wheels of the carriage, and the positive with an insulated metal band
placed along the length of the railway through a conductor, which depends
from the frame and comes in contact every mile or other stated distance with
a tappet, and throws back its current into the controller at the station, which
is always in contact with the metal band and with the rails. The current
in the electro-magnets attracts the soft iron, and through the jointed lever
and anchor catch at each contact turns the peg wheel one peg, whereby the
nut and its carriage are advanced a degree, which represents one mile upon
the scale.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JEAN
DENÉCHAUD and JOSEPH CHAPA, of Bordeaux, in the French Empire, Gentle-
men, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,

page_text: did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa, Her special licence that we, the said
Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, 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 "AN ELECTRIC CONTROLLER FOR INDICATING THE.
RELATIVE POSITION OF TRAINS ON RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa, or one of us, our exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or
one of our or their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 we, the said Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa,
do hereby declare the nature of our 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 Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
Our Invention is intended to prevent trains running into one another upon
railways. Each of the stations, as well as each of the trains, is furnished with
a similar electric controller. Supposing two trains to be approaching each
other in contrary directions and to have a station between them the controllers
are intended to indicate the distance run, and communicate mile by mile or at
any other stated distances the position of the trains to the stations towards
which they are travelling. Thus, two trains travelling one towards another,
no matter what the distance which separates them, have the precise spots at
which they are indicated by the controller at the station. The station master
can follow at a glance all trains, whether from the right or from the left, travel-
ling towards his station, and the persons in charge of the trains have their
exact positions indicated to them, and by looking at the controller can ascer-
tain the distance from the next station. While the two trains are separated
by the station they are only in communication with it, but should one overrun
it and the two trains be upon the same line of rails, then they immediately
communicate with one another, and the controllers exhibit to the person in
charge of each train the distance which separates them.

page_text: Each controller is composed of two electro-magnets, in front of which are
plates of soft iron held upon one end of a jointed lever; the other end is con-
nected to an anchor catch, which works into pegs upon a wheel keyed on the
end of a threaded shaft. Each electro-magnet has similar apparatuses con-
nected with it. A nut, free to travel by the turning of the shaft, is placed on
each shaft, and by means of a rod rising from each nut is joined to and made
to propel a small carriage upon rails supported at the upper part of the appa-
ratus, and behind the carriages is a scale divided into miles or other distances.
One carriage represents the train to which it is fitted, and the other that which
is following it or travelling towards it. A battery is carried upon the frame
carrying the apparatus. The negative pole is in contact with the rails through
the wheels of the carriage, and the positive with an insulated metal band
placed along the length of the railway through a conductor, which depends
from the frame and comes in contact every mile or other stated distance with
a tappet, and throws back its current into the controller at the station, which
is always in contact with the metal band and with the rails. The current in
the electro-magnets attracts the soft iron, and through the jointed lever and
anchor catch at each contact turns the peg wheel one peg,whereby the nut and
its carriage are advanced a degree, which represents one mile upon the scale.
The accompanying Drawings are perspective views of the electric con-
troller before described, fitted to two carriages and to an apparatus at the
station, which clearly indicate the manner in which we carry our Invention
into effect.
A, A, are carriages each carrying two electro-magnets B, B; C, C, are
pieces of soft iron connected to the jointed levers D, D; E, E, are spiked
wheels mounted one on each end of the shaftG; F,F,are anchor catches taking
into the spiked wheels E, E; G, G, are two steel screw-threaded shafts carry-
ing the nuts H, H; I, I, are two small indicator carriages connected to the
nuts H, H, and receiving motion from the shafts G; one of these carriages is
meant to represent the train to which the apparatus is fixed, and the other the
train coming after it, each indicating on the scale J (which is divided into
miles) the relative positions of the two trains; K, K, K, are uprights fixed
vertically on the platform P, supporting a small railway L; M, M, are handles
for setting the apparatus; N is a box containing a battery with more or less
elements, according to the distance to be run over. The negative pole is in
contact with the rails through the wheels of the carriage,and the positive pole
is in communication with one of the conductors S through a metal rod R
which descends from the carriage, and which comes in contact with a tappet
at, say, every mile, and sends its current into the apparatus at the station

page_text: which is always in contact with the rails and the conductor S. The current
in the coil causes the magnets to attract the soft iron C, which, drawing with
it the lever D, transmits its motion to the anchor catch F, which at each con-
tact moves one tooth of the spiked wheel, and advances the carriage I along
the shaft one degree, signifying that the train has travelled a mile or other
distance. 0, 0, are thumb screws for establishing the communications; P is
the bed of the carriage on which the apparatus is fixed; Q is a spring for
keeping the anchor catch in gear with the wheel; R is a rod depending from
the apparatus communicating with the second conductor at each tappet; S is
a band of plate iron laid along the line which acts as a conductor; T is an iron
rod fixed beneath the carriage, which comes in contact with a tappet, where-
upon it is forced to make a movement, which makes the current pass from the
battery N into the second electro-magnet B, which acts for the train to which
it is fitted; U is a rod depending from the carriage and continually in contact
with one of the conductors.
As before mentioned, two conductors S, S, are placed along the line of rail
somewhat raised from the ground by blocks of wood inserted in the ground, at
the end of which there is a small piece of porcelain or other non-conducting
material, having a groove in it to receive the metal conductor; the latter
carries at, say, each mile, a metal tappet rivetted and bent backwards, in order
to allow of the rod U passing and of establishing an intermittent contact.
Each carriage or apparatus carries its battery, the negative poles of which
are always in contact with the rails through the wheels of the carriage. One
pole of the electro-magnet of each apparatus is also in contact with the rails
by the same means. The positive pole of the same batteries descends carry-
ing its current into each of the conductors, insulated from the earth and rail at
each tappet it comes in contact with, and thus sends back the current into the
other pole of the electro-magnets of the said apparatuses which are in con-
tinuous contact with the said conductors which opposed and insulated from
one another.
The arrangement of apparatus is described as applicable to the travelling
of two trains one towards the other, but it is evident that a train travelling
in advance of another can have its position as well as the relative position
of other trains indicated with equal facility.
Although not particularly referred to, the apparatus at the station is con-
structed in a similar manner to those on the carriages, and the same letters
of reference indicate like parts in each.
And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed; we declare that we do not limit ourselves

page_text: to the precise arrangement of the various parts of the apparatus before
described, or to their method of action, provided the essential features of our
Invention be retained; but what we claim as our electric controller for indi-
cating the relative position of trains on railways is,-
First, the employment of an electric controller or indicator on railway
carriages, in combination with or without a similar apparatus at the stations,
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein-before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
Second, the construction of an electric controller,substantially in the manner
herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, we, the said Jean Dénéchaud and Joseph Chapa,
have hereunto set our hands and seais, this Sixth day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
J DENECHAUD.
(L.S.)
JH CHAPA.
(L.S.)