AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PASSENGERS IN RAILWAY TRAINS AND THE PERSONS IN CHARGE OF SUCH TRAINS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Smith at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
April 1869.
I, JOHN SMITH, of 2, Stanley Terrace, Rathgar, in the County of
Dublin, Timber Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PASSENGERS
IN RAILWAY TRAINS AND THE PERSONS IN CHARGE OF SUCH TRAINS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved method of communication
between passengers in railway trains and the persons in charge of such
trains, and consists in having a water pipe or water pipes attached
to each carriage with a convenient means of uniting them by means
of a hose and union joint, so as to make a water-tight or nearly water-
tight coupling. When such pipes are so joined a free communication
will be effected along the whole length of the train. Attached to each
compartment, and in communication with the before-mentioned pipes,
are one or more short cylinders, in each of which works a water-tight
or nearly water-tight piston, the rod of such piston being connected

page_text: by any convenient mechanism with the handle or handles by which
passengers may give a signal. Attached to the engine or guard's van,
and in connection with the before-mentioned pipes, is a similar cylinder
and piston, the rod of the latter being connected by any convenient
mechanism with the whistle of the engine or with a bell, so as to attract
attention. It is also connected with an index which indicates the
different signals meant to be conveyed. Attached also to the engine or
guard's van is a tank kept full of water, and sufficiently elevated above
the before-mentioned pipes and cylinders to keep them constantly full,
taking into consideration the different gradients in which the train may
pass,
also the leakage which must more or less take place. By means
of a valve opening outwards this tank will admit water into the pipes
and cylinders, but will not be capable of receiving it should force be
applied to drive it back.
Now supposing that all the pistons attached to the different com-
partments be kept at one end of the cylinders, those cylinders being all
kept full of water by means of the before-mentioned tank and incapable
of receiving more, supposing also that the piston of the cylinder in
connection with the engine or guard's van be in a state of equilibrium,
but capable of moving in one direction in obedience to any force applied,
then should the water be driven out of any of the cylinders in connection
with the compartments by the action of the handle and before-mentioned
convenient mechanism it must move the piston of the cylinder in
connection with the engine or guard's van, and by the arrangement
before mentioned will therefore indicate the signal desired.
Attached to the mechanism in connection with the before-mentioned
handles is an indicator, by which the guard may discover the compart-
ment from which the signal proceeds, such indicator being only capable
of being restored to its original position by the guard himself.
By a similar arrangement signals can be given by the guard to the
driver of any train, the meaning of such signals being indicated by the
fact of the index in connection with the cylinder at the engine being
moved to different positions owing to a greater or less quantity of water
being forced into such cylinder.