IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLACING FOG SIGNALS UPON AND REMOVING THEM FROM RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Henry Robert Guttridgo
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st November 1882.
THOMAS HENRY ROBERT GUTTRIDGE, of Camberwell, in the County of Surrey
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLACING FOG SIGNALS UPON AND REMOVING
THEM FROM RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS"
My invention relates to fog signals as ordinarily used upon railways, which
consists of boxes or cases containing explosive material placed when necessary
upon the rail so that they are exploded by the passage over them of the wheel of a
locomotive or other carriage and by the sound of the explosion give the required
signal.
It has for its object improvements in the construction, arrangement, and
operation of apparatus by which one or more of such detonating signals can be
placed upon the rail or removed from it as required by a signalman or other person
situated at any distanco from the point at which the signal is to be given.
I take an endless chain of metal of the well known form of construction
consisting of hollow rectangular links jointed together, and at the place from
which the apparatus is to be operated I arrange a wheel of sufficient diameter
provided with teeth or projections upon which the links of the endless chain fit.
The wheel revolves in bearings and is provided with one or more handles so that it
can be readily turned round as desired actuating the chains with it.
Adjoining the rail of the railway or tramway at the point where it is desired
that the fog signals should be applied, I arrange wheels or pullies round which
the endless chain also passes, such wheels or pullies being also provided with teeth
or projections upon which the links of the chain fit and I arrange these wheels or
pullies in such positions that for a sufficient part of its length the endless chain is
brought into close proximity with the rail or train.
I also arrange a sufficient number of guiding or supporting pullies at different
points along the length of the chain.
Upon a sufficient number of the links of the endless chain at equal distances
apart, or upon the whole of such links, I form or attach projections to which the
detonating signals can be readily and quickly attached by means of leaden bands
in the usual way or in other convenient way, and I arrange the pullies or whee's

page_text: already described in such a position that if the links of the chain are made to travel
forward, in a position preferably vertical, they bring any signals which may be
attached to them over the surface of the rail in a proper position to be exploded
whilst as the movement of the chain is continued they are removed from such
position.
By suitably altering the position and arrangement of the intermediate pullies
round which the endless chain passes, its path may be altered either laterally or
vertically as required so as to bring it in the most convenient direction to the
desired point.
The action of the apparatus is as follows:-When it is required that one or more
fog signals shall be placed upon the rail or tram, the signal man at any distance
attaches such signals at proper intervals apart to the links of the endless chain, and
by turning the chain wheel first described he causes the chain together with the
signals carried by it to travel forward at any desired speed until one or more of
them has been brought to the proper position, where they are exploded by the
wheels of the next vehicle which passes over them. By continuing the movement
of the wheel the links of the chain are in succession brought back to the signal-
man, who can attach fresh fog signals to them to be used as required; or
unexploded signals can be removed from the rail, and brought back.
By my invention, fog signals can be easily and quickly placed upon or removed
from rails or trams as desired by a signal man or other person situated at any
distance, and the apparatus is very simple, cheap, and durable.