IMPROVE- MENTS IN SEMAPHORIC SIGNALS APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Cardwell Robinson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
November 1864.
I, RICHARD CARDWELL ROBINSON, of No. 25, Cannon Street, in the City of
London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SEMAPHORIC SIGNALS APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY CARRIAGES," to be as
follows:-
My improvements consist in attaching a day and night. semaphoric signal
to the tops or sides of railway carriages. These day and night signals are so
constructed as to be acted on by a rod from the inside of each compartment,
so that when any passenger in the train desires to communicate with the
guard or driver, the rod is pulled down, which raises a semaphore made of
metal, wood, or any other suitable material, and is painted in such a manner
as to be easily recognised. The semaphore is hung with an hinge on the top
or side of the carriage. A system of levers is so arranged between the pulling
rod and semaphore signal that said signal will raise from the carriage, and
present itself to view, and when so elevated a catch is so contrived as to
prevent the possibility of its being passed down again out of sight of the
guard or driver until the guard has attended to the wants of the parties so
communicating. If for a night signal, I propose to have inserted through the
roof of the carriage a lamp similar to the present railway lamp, the light being
surrounded and protected by the ordinary inverted bell glass, which is inserted
into another bell glass fastened on to the top of the carriage, but projecting

page_text: down into the compartment, a space being between the lamp glass and fixed
carriage glass. This lamp is fastened by means of parallel links and fork to
the end of a lever, which lever is attached in the centre to a fulcrum pin, and
at the other end it is attached to the rod projecting down into the railway
carriage, and when any person in any compartment requires to communicate
with either guard or driver by night (or in a tunnel) they have merely to pull
the rod, the lamp then is lifted out of its place, and a catch is so contrived
as to stop it at a given height above the roof of the carriage until the guard
releases it. Or I take a lamp and fasten it on to the upper. end of the
semaphoric signal, which lamp is attached thereto by means of a set of parallel
links, so that when the occupants of any carriage require to communicate
with the driver or guard, they pull the rod, as before described, the signal and
lamp are raised at a height to be visible to guard or driver, and at the same
time a catch is so contrived as to hold them there until released by the guard,
as before described.
The principal novelty of this Invention is the combining of the semaphoric
signal herein described with a series of levers and rods either on the top or
sides of railway carriages, either singly for day semaphores, or in combination
with the lamp, as described for night signals.
Another novelty is in the construction of the signal lamp and its seating
into the head of the carriage, such lamp having a separato bell glass from the
one forming the chamber of the lamp, and for it to drop into, there being a
space between each glass, as before described.