IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR TIME SIGNALS
Year: 1847

page_text: TORROP'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
SMITH TORROP, Newspaper Proprietor, of the City of Edinburgh, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighth day of December, in the eleventh year of Her reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said James Smith Torrop, my exors, admors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said James Smith Torrop, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such
others as I, the said James Smith Torrop, my exors, admors, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times hereafter during the term of years therein mentioned, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR
TIME SIGNALS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that I, the said James Smith Torrop, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Smith Torrop, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had

page_text: to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
The principle on which this machinery is constructed is as follows:-B, C,
is a hollow pole or pillar of a definate length (fifteen feet is a very suitable
length). A is a ball of a size sufficiently large to be conspicuous at the
distance of at least half a mile (this will be about 18 inches in diameter),
constructed with an opening through its centre to permit the pole or pillar
B, C, to pass through, and the ball should be fitted with friction pullies, so
as to obviate friction when the ball is in operation.
These two objects are the means which I employ for giving a consecutive
and continuous series of time signals. The mode of operation is as follows:-
The ball which is made to move freely along the pole or pillar is elevated
to the top thereof by the clockwork after described, and, being then allowed
to exert its own gravity, descends to the bottom at a certain and regulated
speed. The time in which it performs this entire distance being fixed and
understood, it follows that as it drops, the ball will indicate, with reference to
its position on the pole or pillar, the relative space of time which has elapsed
since it left the top, and that which will elapse until it reaches the bottom;
as thus, if the ball is set to indicate ten minutes when at the top, in the
middle of its descent it will indicate five minutes, and so on. The ball is
supported by two chains, passing over pullies at the upper part of the pole.
The chains descend down the interior of the pole, and are connected to a
single chain or cord, which is attached to the barrel of the clockwork referred
to. This barrel being wound up raises the ball to the altitude required,
whence, as already stated, it descends by its own gravity operating on the
clockwork. The clockwork which I use for this purpose consists of the
following parts, viz.:-Two wheels connected by a pinion wheel and a pen-
dulum. Attached to the one wheel is the barrel for the cord or chain, which
raises the ball, and which is fitted with a suitable wheel and ratchet for the
back movement when winding up. The other wheel is a crown or escapement
wheel for the pallettes of the pendulum to work in. The pendulum is fixed
dead to the pallettes to allow them to trip when they feel the weight of the
ball. By varying the diameters and pitch of these wheels, and the length of
the pendulum, the length of time for the drop of the ball can be modified at
pleasure. I do not, however, confine myself to this clockwork for regulating
the movement of the signal, as the same may be varied; but I believe the
above to be the most simple arrangement for the purpose of my Invention.
For use at night the bill can either by fitted up as a lamp, or a lamp or lamps
can be fixed on the outside, as found most convenient. Separate lights may

page_text: also be fixed at the bottom and top of the pole. The main purpose of the
Invention being to serve as a telegraphic instrument for apprising passengers
on railways of the approach, arrival, and expiry of the time when trains
depart from their stations, in lieu of bells or other imperfect means of warning
now in use, I would remark that should this Invention become "general
throughout the country, it is a point of the greatest consequence that no
diversity should exist in regard to the time represented by the signal, and
accordingly I have fixed on ten minutes as the most expedient space of time
which it should represent as a railway time signal. Where shorter periods of
warning are necessary the ball has only to be elevated to the relative portion
of the pole, and allowed to descend therefrom, and to do this with the more
exactness the pole may be marked off in divisions of its length.
From this description it will appear that my Invention combines the two
principal requisites of a time signal, applicable in the manner explained.
These are, first, an object which can be made visible and striking to a con-
siderable distance; and, second, by the graduated movement of the ball in
connection with the pole, a means of reckoning time comprehensible to any
ordinary understanding. The Drawing represents the signal in three supposed
positions. No. 1 exhibits it on a short pedestal, No. 2 (shewing interior
lights on three sides of the ball), on the summit of a station house, and No. 3,
on an erection to give it elevation. The signal apparatus can be put wherever
it is most convenient to have it, and the regulating movement be in the
booking office, or other place, as circumstances may dictate.
I would remark that although I have shewn a ball or globular instrument
for giving signals, I do not confine myself thereto, as other shapes may be
employed in place thereof. Neither do I confine myself to the arrangement
of parts by which the pillar or pole passes through the ball, as the ball may
be suspended in various other ways with reference to the pole. Nor is it
essential that the pole should be hollow, or that there should be only one pole
to one ball. It will be evident that this machinery would be equally useful
for indicating the starting of steam boats or other vessels, or stage or other
coaches, and also as an index of the state of the tide, or in other cases where
it may be desired to fire time signals at a distance.
What I claim is the mode of combining machinery for time signals, as
herein explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Smith Torrop, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
JAMES SMITH (L.S.) TORROP.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirty-first day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1848, the aforesaid James Smith Torrop came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.