IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR. PLACING FOG SIGNALS IN POSITION ON RAILWAYS."
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Natt of South Molton Street in the County of
Middlesex for an invention of "IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR.
PLACING FOG SIGNALS IN POSITION ON RAILWAYS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Natt at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th March 1882.
JAMES NATT of South Molton Street in the County of Middlesex,
MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR PLACING FOG SIGNALS IN POSITION ON RAILWAYS."
"IMPROVED
My Invention relates to apparatus for placing fog signals upon railway rails,
which apparatus may be connected with the ordinary semaphore signal apparatus
and operated by the same lever handle, or not, as may be preferred.
It
My apparatus consists in a suitable case with a guide or tube capable of holding
a number of fog signal cartridges and provided with a spring operated pusher for
feeding the cartridges successively to the point where they are removed from the
case and placed on the line, the said case being combined with a longitudinally
sliding push rod or cartridge carrier working through a guide or barrel transversely
to the direction in which the cartridges are fed, and provided with means of holding
the cartridge, whereby the cartridge is removed from the case and held upon the
rail whenever and for any length of time required. The case would be fixed in a
convenient position in proximity to the line and would be made damp proof and
would be locked to prevent unauthorised persons tampering with the contents.
is preferred that the cartridge should be of a half round form, but they may be of
other suitable shape, and one means of holding them on the rail is a pin or spike
fixed on the end of the push rod or carrier received in a wooden or other socket on
the base of the cartridge. After each cartridge has been placed on the line and
been either exploded by, or removed previous to, the passage of a train, the sliding
rod or cartridge carrier is withdrawn sufficiently to allow the next cartridge in
succession to be fed in front of it in readiness to be pushed out of the case and
placed on the rail as before. On the withdrawal of the push rod or carrier the
exploded cartridge case, or the unexploded cartridge, as the case may be, is knocked
off the end of the rod by a spring catch.

page_text: on
the
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Natt in the Great Seal Patent Office
16th September 1882.
JAMES NATT of South Molton Street in the County of Middlesex "IMPROVED
MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR PLACING FOG SIGNALS IN POSITION ON RAILWAYS
})
The object of this Invention is to provide means or apparatus for placing fog
signals or detonators in position on railways by the most simple and effective
means capable of being actuated by the usual signal levers or rods or by a special
arrangement of levers.
According to one modification of this invention I provide a rectangular box
parallel to the line of rails and a short distance therefrom. The cartridges or
detonators are contained in this box and are fed forward by a spring or by a weight
but in some cases it may be by their own weight. There is a tube extending from
each side of the box in which works a rod for feeding the detonators. After
a detonator has been exploded this rod is drawn back and another or successive
cartridge occupies the end space and is carried by the rod to the rail and so on.
section with a wooden or other
socket into which the pin on the feed rod would enter (or it may be a pin on the
detonator) but I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to this
particular shape as detonators of a circular or other form may just as conveniently
be employed by slight modification of my invention. The object of showing the
section is that they are more firmly held by the feed rod and are more
The cartridges I prefer should be made of a
compact.
The detonators instead of being of a segmental section may be circular or oval.
The feed rod on receding with the discharged detonator allows of the latter being
released from the end of the said feed rod.
In order that my Invention may be more fully understood I will proceed to
describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Similar letters of reference refer to like parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 is a plan partly in section and Figure 2 a sectional elevation of one
modification.
A A. is the box B B the sleeves projecting therefrom. a a a are the cartridges
or detonators and a' a¹ blocks of wood to receive the end or point c of the rod d,
bb are guides to retain the detonators in position. E Figure 1 shows in dotted
lines that the detonator box A may be double or it may be treble so that several
rounds may be contained therein and that after the contents of one box have been
exploded the detonators in the adjoining box are released and allowed to be fed
forward.
In Figure 1 a detonator is shown upon one of the lines of rails c, D is a spring
barrel around which passes a cord e. This cord e runs around a small pulley f the
other end of the cord being connected to a feeding block g so that immediately the
feed rod d has been drawn back the spring barrel will partially rotate and cause
the next cartridge or detonator to occupy the end position. It will be readily
understood that instead of a spring a weight may be employed with the same
results, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig 2 i being the pulley and k the
weight on the end of the cord e or it may be a chain or wire.
Figure 3 shows another modification where the cartridges or detonators are
arranged in a vertical case and it will be seen that they fall into position automa-
tically without the aid of any mechanical contrivance; in this figure a spring his
shown which, on the return of the discharged cartridge removes the same from the

page_text: feed rod d. This spring or catch can be advantageously used in the examples shown
at Figures 1 and 2.
According to this modification circular detonators could be easily employed.
At Figure 4 I have shewn a diagram plan of one method of working or actuating
such fog signals. It is necessary to give according to circumstances one, two or
three or more explosions and this can be most advantageously effected by this
arrangement as shown, or it may be by the arrangement of levers shown in dotted
lines or by other suitable means which may be actuated in conjunction with the
operation of the usual signalling apparatus.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my invention and in what
manner the same may be performed I would have it understood that I claim
First. The employment of springs or weights to feed the detonators forward
and in the use of a projecting rod actuated as described for delivering cartridges or
detonators on to the lines of railways for fog signalling the feed rod working trans-
versely through the case containing the detonators and at each forward stroke
serving to project the successive one substantially in the manner as shown with
reference to Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings.
Second. The mounting of cartridges or detonators in a vertical box thereby
dispensing with the necessity of springs or weights to cause them to occupy the
space in front of the feed rod the said cartridges or detonators being fed as before
described on to the line of rails by a feed rod for holding and delivering the
detonators successively thereon substantially as described and illustrated.
Third. The section of cartridge or detonator as described and illustrated with
an end socket of wood or other suitable material to allow of its being carried by
the feed rod and delivered on to the rail.
Fourth. The employment of a spring or catch for releasing the discharged
detonator from the end of the feed rod in its return stroke substantially as herein
set forth.
In witness whereof I the said James Natt have hereunto set my hand and
seal this fourteenth day of September in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
Witness
H. H. LEIGH
of the firm of Phillips & Leigh
Engineers & Patent Agents
7 Southampton Buildings
W.C.
JAMES NATT. (L.S.)