IMPROVE- MENTS IN HAND SIGNAL AND OTHER LAMPS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Brown, of 35, Hindon Street, in the
County of Middlesex, and Benjamin Brown, of 39, Charlotte Street,
Southwark, in the County of Surry, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN HAND SIGNAL AND OTHER LAMPS."
Sealed the 20th June 1873, and dated the 23rd December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Brown and
Benjamin Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 23rd December 1872.
We, JOHN BROWN, of 35, Hindon Street, in the County of Middlesex,
and BENJAMIN BROWN, of 39, Charlotte Street, Southwark, in the
County of Surry, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HAND SIGNAL AND OTHER LAMPS," to be as follows:
Our Invention relates to hand signal and other lamps, and the object
of our improvements is to construct such lamps upon a principle for
more conveniently changing colours than hitherto, and also for more
simply securing the colored glass or.glasses.
To carry out the first part of our Invention the frame of each piece of
colored glass is provided with a short arm jointed to the lower end of a

page_text: vertical rod working in a tube fixed to the top or other suitable part of
the lamp. Each rod is provided at any convenient part thereof with a
pin working in a suitably shaped cam or in a worm,
Each rod is pro-
vided at its upper part with a handle.
The rods, instead of being provided with pins working in cams or
worms, may be screw threaded, and work in screw nuts.
By these arrangements if any one of the rods be turned by means of
its handle, the glass to which it is connected will be raised or lowered
according to the direction in which the rod is turned.
To carry out the second part of our Invention we form the frames of 1
the colored glasses of coiled tempered metal springs, grooved on the
inner side. One end of each spring is fixed to the arm herein-before
described, and the other end is free.
By the employment of these improved frames the glasses may be very
easily placed in or removed from the frames; and as the frames are 1
flexible, they will allow of the contraction and expansion of the glasses
without danger of breakage to the glasses.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Brown and Benjamin Brown in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 23rd June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BROWN, of 35, Hindon Street, in the County of Middlesex, and BEN-
JAMIN BROWN, of 39, Charlotte Street, Southwark, in the County of
Surry, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her:
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in
the thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Brown and Benjamin
Brown, Her special licence that we, the said John Brown and Benjamin
Brown, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said John Brown and Benjamin Brown, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN HAnd Signal and,
OTHER LAMPS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Brown and Benjamin Brown, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters.
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Brown and Benjamin
Brown, 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, reference being had to
the Drawing hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
Our Invention relates to hand signal and other lamps, and the object
of our improvements is to construct such lamps upon a principle for.
more conveniently changing colours than hitherto, and also for more
simply securing the colored glass or glasses..
To carry out the first part of our Invention the frame of each piece of
colored glass is provided with a short arm jointed to the lower end of a
vertical rod working in a tube or tubes fixed to the top or other suitable
part of the lamp. Each rod is provided at any convenient part thereof
with a pin working in a suitably shaped slot or worm or on a cam. Each
rod is provided at its upper part with a handle or finger piece.
The rods, instead of being provided with pins working in slots or
worms, may be screw threaded, and work in screw nuts.
By these arrangements if one of the rods be turned by means of its
handle, the glass to which it is connected will be raised or lowered
according to the direction in which the rod is turned.
•
In a modification of this part of our Invention one rod only is
employed to work both the coloured glasses by means of a cam.

page_text: To carry out the second part of our Invention we form the frames of
the colored glasses of coiled tempered metal springs, grooved on the
inner side. Each spring is fixed to the arm herein-before described, and
the ends are free.
By the employment of these improved frames the glasses may be very
easily placed in or removed from the frames; and as the frames are
flexible, they will allow of the contraction and expansion of the glasses
without danger of breakage to the glasses.
To make our Invention better understood we will now proceed to
describe the same by reference to the accompanying Drawing, in which
Figure 1 is a vertical section, and Figure 2 a plan of a hand signal lamp
with our improvements applied thereto; Figure 3, a vertical section of a
similar lamp, shewing the method of working the signal glasses by
means of one rod; Figure 4, detached front view of the cam motion;
Figure 5, plan of the finger piece of the rod.
In Figures 1 and 2, a, a³, are the vertical rods moving in the tubes b, b,
fixed to the lamp; each rod is jointed at its lower end, as shewn at c, to
a short arm d; each arm centres at c on a support f, fixed to the top of
the lamp, as scen in Figure 1; the other end of the arm is soldered or
otherwise suitably fixed to the frame g of one of the signal glasses g¹;
h is a pin fixed in the rod a and working in the slot i in the top of the
tube b, and by which means a rotary rising motion is obtained; j, j¹, are
the handles or finger pieces of the rods a, a¹.
It will be understood that only the front coloured signal glass with the
mechanism for working the same is shewn in Figure 1, the other glass
and its mechanism, being exactly behind the first, cannot be seen.
The frame g of the colored glass is made of tempered steel, as herein-
before described, and forms a spring so as to firmly hold the glass. The
ends of the spring, as shewn at k, k, do not touch one another, which
allows of the free expansion and contraction of the frame from heat and
cold, and also allows of the glass being easily placed in and removed from
the frame without risk of breakage.
-
In the Drawing the colored glasses are. both down or in their normal
position between the light of the lamp and the bull's eye. If the front
glass is of a red color and the back glass of a green color, and it is
desired to shew a green light, then the handle or finger piece ; must be

page_text: turned in the direction of the arrow into the position shewn in dotted
lines, and the rod a turning with its handle will be raised by the action
of the pin h, guided by the slot i. The rod in rising will move the
arm & on its centre e, and thereby raise the front frame and glass into
the position shewn in dotted lines, Figure 1, leaving the back or green
colored glass between the light and the bull's eye, and consequently
shewing a green light. The glass being thus raised is held in this
position by the pin h, resting on the top of the tube. If a red light is to
be sliewn the handle or finger piece j is turned into the position shewn
in dotted lines, Figure 2, by which the green glass is raised, and the
handle being then turned back to its normal position the front or red
glass will fall by its own weight between the light and the bull's eye,
and the lamp will shew a red light. If a white light is to be shewn
both the glasses must be raised by turning the handles or finger pieces
into the position shewn in dotted lines at Figure 2, as herein-before
described.
Instead of the rods a, a¹, having pins working in slots in the tubes b,
as herein-before described, this part of the tubes may be screw threaded
internally, and the rods be screw threaded to correspond thereto.
In the lamp shewn in Figure 3 only one rod is employed to actuate
the two glasses, which aro raised by the action of the cam 1, as hercin-
after described. a is the rod placed in the tubes b, and having a double
finger piece at the top and the cam 7 at the lower end; d, d, are the
arms carrying at their inner ends the frames g, g³, of the colored glasses,
5 the other ends centering at e, e¹, on the frame f, fixed to the top of the
lamp; m, m³, are links jointed to the arms d, d¹, the upper ends of the
said links carrying studs or pins n, n³, passing through the guide slots o,
and bearing against the cam 7.
In the Drawing the front colored glass is shewn down and the back
O colored glass up. If it is desired to raise the front glass the finger piece j
must be turned a quarter of a revolution in the direction of the arrow
and into the position shewn in dotted lines at x, Figure 5, and the cam
in turning will act on the stud n and will raise it, and consequently the
frame g of the front glass will be raised, and the lamp will shew a white
5 light; then by turning the finger piece j another quarter of a revolution
into the position shewn at ³, the cam 7 will allow the frame g¹ of the
back glass to fall by its own weight between the light and the bull's cyc.
p is a pin on the rod a which acts as a stop to the turning of the rod.
•

page_text: 'Witness,
W. A. GILBEE,
4, South St.,
Finsbury.
JOHN BROWN.
BENJAMIN BROWN.
(L.B.)
(L.S.)