IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING APPARATUS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Chutter and George Frederick
Chutter at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th October
1876.
THOMAS CHUTTER and GEORGE FREDERICK CHUTTER, of Brixton, in the County
of Surrey. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING APPARATUS."
Our Invention relates more especially to apparatus employed in connexion with
the block system of signalling on railways, but is also. applicable to signalling
apparatus employed for other systems or purposes, and consists of apparatus adapted
to be worked automatically or by electricity, or by electric and mechanical means
combined, or by mechanical means alone. For this purpose we propose to effect
the movements of the semaphore arm, lamp, or chor signalling medium at each
signal post by means of an actuating weight, such weight causing a spindle or shaft
to make a partial or semi-revolution each time a detent or trigger on the said
spindle or shaft is liberated by an escapement arranged for that purpose. Each
partial or semi-revolution of the said spindle or shaft causes the semaphore arm to
be raised or lowered or the lamp or other signal to be rotated or otherwise moved
to indicate "danger" or "line clear," as the case may be, preferably by means of a
crank, eccentric, or cam on the said spindle or shaft, and a suitable connecting rod
or rods.
One method we propose to employ to operate the aforesaid escapement, in order
to liberate the detent or trigger and its spindle or shaft so as to effect a movement
of the signalling medium, is by adapting it to be moved to one side or the other by
suitably disposed electro-magnets, which are magnetised by a current from a battery,
the circuit of which is closed by suitable conductors and contact makers by the train
as it passes.
We propose to employ when working the block system on a line of railway to
place a pair of insulated conductors on the line together with a battery at each
signal post or section of the line, so connecting the insulated conductors with their
respective batteries and with the electro-magnets that when a train passes a signal
post and closes the circuit of the battery by means of the pair of insulated
conductors, the electro-magnet adapted to give "danger" at that post is put in
action and moves the escapement so as to allow the actuating weight to move the
signal into that position, at the same instant the electro-magnet at the signal post
last passed, which is adapted to give "line clear," is also put in action and moves
the escapement at that post so as to allow the weight to move its signal into the

page_text: position indicating "line clear," and so on from section to section, the arrangement
being such that whenever a train enters a new section of the line, the apparatus
placed at its commencement sets the signal which protects that section to "danger,"
which signal is maintained in that position so long as the train is in that section,
but when it passes on to the next section the apparatus placed at the commence-
ment of the latter sets the first-named signal to "line clear," at the same time
setting its own signal to "danger," the whole of the operations being automatic.
The insulated conductors inay be united when the train passes over them by any
convenient or suitable incans, as for example, a metallic roller or wheel or a pair of
such rollers or wheels pendant from some part of the train coming against and
rolling along upon the said conductors; or instead of the circuit being closed by the
train itself, it may be effected by the signalman, who will thereby be able to operate
the signal at his own cabin as well as that at the next cabin behind him or a
distance signal without having to exercise the force necessary for that purpose
according to the present arrangement, as the actuating weight effects the desired
movement by the self-acting means before referred to.
'
In some cases, as for example, where the sections are very short, instead of
employing electricity to effect the movement of the escapements, we may employ
mechanical means, such as rods, wires, or chains, and cranks or levers, actuated
either automatically by the trains themselves or by the signalmen.
In order to prevent the actuating weight from running down and thus becoming
inoperative when the signal is set to "line clear," we propose to employ a locking
instrument, so contrived that when the said actuating weight reaches a certain
point, the escapement is secured by the said locking instrument in the position in
which the signal is held at "danger," and cannot be moved to "line clear" until the
actuating weight is again wound up.