IMPROVED MEANS FOR EFFECTING COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND DRIVERS OF TRAINS, AND FOR PROMOTING SAFETY AND COMFORT IN TRAVELLING ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Bell Galloway at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd January 1872.
I, GEORGE BEll Galloway, of West Ferry Road, Millwall, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS FOR EFFECTING COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN
PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND DRIVERS OF TRAINS, AND FOR PROMOTING SAFETY AND
COMFORT IN TRAVELLING ON RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
Intercommunication as between railway passengers and passengers
and guards of railway trains from the many robberies, insults, and even
murders which so frequently occur while travelling, and the recent
Act of Parliament by which all railway companies are called upon to
adopt means of safety, has induced me to turn my attention to invent
plans to meet such requirements.
My Invention to meet this case consists in fixing within each
compartment in each carriage upon railways a flexible or metallic
tube having a mouthpiece and a valve in connection therewith. The
use of the valve is that when any person wishes to communicate with
the guard he has simply to press the nob of the valve, which acts upon

page_text: a counter spring connected with a signal arm, and speaks into the
mouthpiece which is connected with the branch pipe, and by these
means and the connection of the principal air tube being made by
union joints, as gas pipes, from carriage to carriage communication can
be had with the guards.
The communication to be affixed between the guard's van and the
engine driver may be made by a separate connection, and as the means
for passengers to protect each other I may cut out a doorway in the
centre part of each partition, and also at the end of each carriage for
the purpose of the guard being able to pass from carriage to carriage,
by which the tickets can also be collected while the train is in motion.
The part cut out for the doorway may be made to serve for the door, and
be so fitted as to slide in a groove upon rollers either inserted in the
bottom part of the carriage over which the door slides, or the sliding
motion may be effected by sheaves let into the bottom of the door, or
the door may slide upon a smooth brass' surface. The upper portion of
this door may have the top panel fitted with wire gauze or perforated
zinc, or I may affix wire gauze or perforated zinc in a frame within
existing partitions of railway carriages. The use of the wire gauze or
perforated zinc will be that any alarm or cry for help in any adjoining
compartment will attract attention, and the means of obscrvation thus
afforded by looking closely through the gauze will have the tendency to
prevent insult, robbery, or crime, while the door communication might
prevent even murder. And as it respects the seat parts through which
the door is accessible, I may in some cases cause the scats to lift up and
back separately like seats in church pews, or I may affix such seat
parts, which may be cut similar to the tops of counters, which are affixed
upon the parts by which passage way is required, and in this case the
seats could be affixed to cach side of the door, and the door made to
open and shut each way; the seats would thus move with the door. Or I
may connect the end of each seat part to each other by a cross piece
of wood to lay upon a rest, and in this case the doors would slide as
between the two seat parts, and this plan of affixing would be attended
with less inconvenience than where the seats either lift up separately
or are affixed on each side of the door and so caused to move with it.
And as a further means for protecting railway passengers I shall
affix suitable connections to the buffer springs on each carriage as by
which when the steam or other motive agent is shut off the engine and

page_text: the break applied, the power of the momentum will act simultaneously
in placing a suitable break to each wheel of each carriage, and when
the train stops the power of the reaction of the buffer springs draws off
the break by the angular connections, and this plan will bring trains to a
standstill within much shorter distances and less time. The break is
thus made self-acting, and will tend to prevent collisions on railways.
And to promote the comfort of passengers I shall fit some of the
existing or construct fresh railway carriages with the following im-
provements:-I construct them in suitable compartments upon the
composite principle, that is by wood and iron, so that sleeping and
other conveniences, lavatories, &c., may be arranged. The bed frame,
hammock, or sofa I shall construct either by the aid of vulcanized
india-rubber rings, or steel wire in the form of hoops, or of wove material,
so as to form a bed, sofa, or couch bottom, which frame, bottom, or
kind of bed may be either suspended or made to rest upon the frame
across the scats or be affixed to the partitions and ends of railway
carriages by clastic belts or other fastenings. Such sleeping compart-
ments I propose to have labelled and placed under the special protection
of the guard not to be opened or in any way interfered with before the
termination of the journey or which the occupant is booked.
I also propose that refreshment carriages form part of the train, so
that passengers may have the privilege of taking refreshment either
while the train is in motion or at a standstill without the chance of
losing the train, and I propose that the attendants be provided with the
requisite carriage and door partition keys the same as the railway
guards, the object being thus to give travellers in the United Kingdom
in connection with the existing railway carriages all the privileges,
social protection, comforts, and advantages which travellers on the
American and Continental railways enjoy.
And to enable me fully to develop this my Invention for the inter-
communication and protection of passengers while travelling upon
railways I most respectfully apply for Her Majesty's Royal Letters
Patent.