CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS FOR PRE- VENTING ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, of
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris,
Patent Agent, for the Invention of "CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS FOR PRE-
VENTING ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS."-A communication.
Sealed the 26th May 1854, and dated the 30th January 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine Moreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 30th January 1854.
I, PETER ARMAND LE COMTE DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS FOR
PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS" to be as follows:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in mechanical arrangements
for enabling trains while on the rails to transmit their own signals.
At each station I erect four posts with electric dials, two on each side of
the line, one in advance of the trains stopping, the other behind, so as to he
generally conspicuous.
Fig. 4, front view of the dial. Fig. 5, transverse section. Fig. 6, inside

page_text: Each dial has two faces, a bell, and on each side a moveable transparent disc
with colored compartments.
The several figures, inscriptions, and colors on the dial indicate the state of
the road.
The trains remove the signals as soon as their object is effected.
On the train leaving the station some one in it strikes the handle or lever
A, A, Fig. 3, for which purpose an inclined piece P is fixed to the sides of the
train.
This inclined piece touching the roller at the end of the lever A, A, forces it
to pivot on M, and take the position M, B, by which the hand is made to point
to the figures on the dial, Fig. 4. The hand advances at each successive
motion of the piece P on the handle, by which means the number of carriages
in the train is shown.
At each motion of the hand, the hammer H strikes the bell G, and a circular
plate X, T, B, rotates with it.
Another plate is fixed under the line V, N, in such a manner that the
portions of the colored and illuminated plate can only be visible when above
the line.
An angular or slanting piece I, fixed to the locomotive, Fig. 8, is met by the
friction roller E, Fig. 4, placed at the extremity of a pivoting lever having a
toothed segment at its shorter arm catching with wheel S, which cogs in a rack
on the upright rod K, Fig. 6.
The rod K is so placed as to raise the catch E, which prevents the ratchet
wheel V turning backwards by the uncoiling of the spiral spring. This wheel
being released turns and brings back the hand to its stationary point.
For stations which the trains pass rapidly without stopping, wheels may be
replaced by a handle similar to that shewn in 3, to be placed at the bottom of
the column Fig. 4, and made to communicate with another electro magnet e,
by two wires, the lever turning on p being set in motion by the current
transmitted through these wires. Thus the driver of a train seeing from the
dial at a station that another train was behind him, could have time to run his
train off' on to a.siding.