IMPROVED MEANS FOR OPERATING RAILWAY SWITCHES, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Walter Samuel Oxborrow, of Stowmarket, in the County
of Suffolk, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR OPERATING RAILWAY
SWITCHES, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 10th September 1878, and dated the 30th April 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Walter Samuel Oxborrow
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th April 1878.
WALTER SAMUEL OXBORROW, of Stowmarket, in the County of Suffolk. "IM-
PROVED MEANS FOR OPERATING RAILWAY SWITCHES, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR OTHER
PURPOSES."
The object of my Invention as applied to railway switches is to dispense with
bell cranks, and connect the switch rod directly to the switch lever handle, and
otherwise to simplify the apparatus, and render it more durable and less liable to
derangement than those at present in use.
My Invention consists in the employment of a switch box of cylindrical form
having spiral or oblique cam grooves diametrically opposite one another, through
which the switch handle passes, the length of the slots being such as to allow the
handle to make a half or a quarter revolution, according as it is intended for a
turnover or a rigid kind. Through the centre of the switch box passes a horizontal
sliding rod, which is connected directly with the switch rod and to the switch
handle by passing through an eye in the handle with a nut upon it behind the
latter, so that on raising or throwing over the handle it turns on the sliding rod as
a centre, and the inclination of the cam slots acting thereon will cause the sliding
rod to be moved longitudinally in the one direction or the other for setting the
switch.
The switch handle is weighted as usual, and provided with friction rollers to run
in the cam slots; and in the case of a rigid switch a double set of cam slots may be
provided, so that by merely shifting the lever handle from the one to the other

page_text: it can be set for the main road or branch line without removing the position of
the box.
As applied to a door latch, window fastener, or for other similar purpose, the
cylindrical box, cam slots, lever, and sliding bar are the same as before, except that
the sliding bar terminates in a latch bolt, and is acted on by a spiral spring upon
it fitted in a suitable casing attached to the cylindrical box.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Walter Samuel Oxborrow in the Great Scal Patent Office on the
30th October 1878.
WALTER SAMUEL OXBORROW, of Stowmarket, in the County of Suffolk.
" IM-
PROVED MEANS FOR OPERATING RAILWAY SWITCHES, APPLICABLE ALSO FOR OTHER
PURPOSES."
The object of my Invention as applied to railway switches is to dispense with
bell cranks, and connect the switch rod directly to the switch lever handle, and
otherwise to simplify the apparatus, and render it more durable and less liable to
derangement than those at present in use.
"
<
My Invention consists in the employment of a lever box of cylindrical form
having a helical or oblique cam slots diametrically opposite one another, through
which the switch handle passes, the length of the slots being such as to allow the
handle to make a half or a quarter revolution, according as it is intended for a
" turnover or a rigid" kind. Through the centre of the switch box passes a
horizontal sliding rod in line with and connected directly to the switch rod.
The sliding rod passes through an eye in the switch lever handle, which stands
parallel with the road, and when raised or thrown over turns on the sliding rod as
a centre, and being confined between collars or nuts on the sliding rod, the inclination
of the cam slots acting upon the lever, will cause the sliding rod to be moved longi-
tudinally in the one direction or the other for setting the switch.
The switch handle is weighted as usual, and may be provided with friction
rollers to run in the can slots; and, in the case of a rigid handle lever box, a
double set of cam slots may be provided, so that by merely shifting the lever handle
from the one to the other it can be set for the main road or branch line without
altering the position of the box.

page_text: Figure 3 is a vertical longitudinal section, the lever handle being supposed up-
right, or at the middle of its turnover movement.
Figure 4 is the lever separately, and Figure 5 represents the circumference of the
lever box projected in a plane to show the slots.
A is the lever box to be fixed on a sleeper or otherwise. It is of cylindrical
form cast with tubular guides a, a, in which a rod B is fitted to slide axially
through the cylindrical box A; C is the switch lever handle weighted at C¹, and
formed with an eye c for the rod B to pass through. The rod B is formed with a
shoulder b, and is screw-threaded at b¹ to receive a nut B¹, between which and the
shoulder b the lever C is confined with perfect freedom, however, to turn on rod B
as a centre. Said lever C extends diametrically across the box A, and works in
opposite cam slots D, D', in the circumference thereof.
The parts of lever C that work in slots D, D¹, may or may not have friction
rollers on them as desired.
The slots are belical, and are similar in pitch and direction, and they extend, in
the case of a turnover switch handle, each around one-half the circumference of the
box A. The rod B is in line with and is connected at E directly to the switch
connecting rod, as shown, or otherwise.
It will be seen that the lever handle C stands parallel to, and the rod B at right
angles to, the line.
It will also be seen, by reference to the different Figures, that when the lever
handle is thrown over from one side to the other the obliquity of the slots D, D',
imparts a longitudinal motion to rod B, and the switch is thus set as required.
Figure 6 is a plan, and Figure 7, an end view of a rigid handle lever box, that
is to say, a lever handle which remains always in one position, except when held
up in another position by hand; Figures 8 and 9 are similar views, the lever being
in the upright position.
Figure 10 is a plan, showing the lever arranged to work in the other set of
slots.
Figure 11 represents the periphery of the box projected in a plane.
Figure 12 shows a slight alteration made when the lever box is used for working
signals.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts as in the former Figures, so
that it will be unnecessary to describe them again.
In the arrangement shown in Figures 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 the slots each extend
around only one-fourth of the circumference of box A, and they are therefore of
more rapid pitch if it is intended to give the same extent of motion to rod B.
The lever handle C works as before in two opposite slots D, D', or it may be
arranged to work in the other two opposite slots D³, D³, according as it is to be set
for the main road or branch line. In this case the pitch of the slots being quicker
it is more necessary to provide friction rollers on the lever C where it works in
said slots.
It will be seen that the lever when raised from the horizontal to the vertical
position is, by the obliquity of the slots, caused to traverse the rod B, as before.
When released it falls and returns rod B, and consequently the switch to which it
is connected, to its normal position.
It will be seen that when the lever is arranged in the other slots D2, D³, as in
Figure 10, that the normal position of the rod B, and therefore of the switch, is
the reverse of that in Figure 6.
In Figure 12 G is a screw coupling for tightening up the wires when the lever
box is used to work signals.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is, a cylindrical lever box provided with
oblique cam slots in its circumference in combination with a lever working therein,

page_text: and connected to a sliding rod passing axially through the box, substantially as
shown and described for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Walter Samuel Oxborrow, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
WALTER SAMUEL OXBORROW. (L.S.)