Improvements relating to Apparatus for Indicating the Names of Stations in Railway Carriages.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Apr., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 18th Jan., 1892-Accepted, 16th Apr., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Apparatus for Indicating the Names of
Stations in Railway Carriages.
I, JOHN EBENEZER BOUSFIELD, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., The
General Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, (a communication
to me by Messieurs Wirth & Co., of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in the Empire of
Germany, Patent Agents, acting as agents for Wilhelm Schlösser, of No. 17',
Kirchgasse, Wiesbaden, in the Empire of Germany, Engineer,) to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to apparatus for indicating to the passengers in railway
carriages the name of the station which the train is approaching, and it consists
mainly in connecting the apparatus to the compressed air-pipe of the brakes in such
a manner that the indicator will only act when the air in the pipe is compressed to
a higher degree than is necessary to operate the brakes.
.
According to my invention I provide a valve-chest or chamber connected by
means of a tube to the compressed air-pipe of the brakes. Valves are arranged
to open towards the chamber and to close when the pressure in the said chamber
rises above a certain degree, and a weighted valve allows the air to pass from the
chamber into a second or upper chamber only when the pressure in the former
chamber is higher than is necessary to operate the brakes. The upper chamber is
connected to the underside of a cylinder by means of a pipe, the said cylinder being
provided with a piston having a hollow piston-rod, which rod is guided by means
of a guide-plate screwed to the cylinder and provided with perforations. The
guide-plate and piston-rod are of such a form as to prevent the piston from
turning.
The piston-rod is closed at its upper end by a valve opening upwards and at the
lower end by a valve which opens downwards. The guide-plate is provided with
pins on which the upper piston-rod valve rests when the piston is in a certain
position.
The cylinder is closed by means of a cover forming a kind of cock in which is
placed a plug; it has also an outlet closed by a small cock which serves for
lubricating the apparatus and, in a certain position, opens communication with
the air.
The cock of the cover has an axial passage and radial passages and terminates
in a shaft at the top, while at the lower end it is rigidly connected to a cylinder,
the inner surface of which is provided with zigzag grooves in which work pius
fixed to the piston-rod. By this arrangement the cylinder together with the plug
of the cover cock and the shaft are at each stroke caused to turn one eighth of a
revolution. The cylinder is provided with two vertical passages, one of which
communicates with the valve chamber while the other communicates with the upper
chamber. Both these passages extend through the sides of the cylinder and into
other passages. The shaft is provided at the upper end with a bevel-wheel
engaging with a similar wheel on a roller, so that, at each quarter of a revolution,
it partially turns the roller and thereby causes an endless band, stretched over the
roller and having the names of the stations marked thereon, to exhibit through a
suitable opening the names of the stations as the train approaches them.
Instead of an endless band a disc could be used with the names of the stations
marked radially thereon, the disc being rotated to the required degree at each
operation of the apparatus.

page_text: .
In some cases I communicate directly to the indicating apparatus the movement
imparted to the weighted valve when the air-pipe of the brake is filled with air
under greater pressure than is required for the brake, the revolving mechanism
being omitted. For this purpose a piston or a diaphragm is so loaded by means of
a lever that the valve connected with the piston or with the diaphragm is only
raised when air under pressure is admitted into the space under the piston or
diaphragm at a greater tension than that which is necessary to operate the brakes,
provided that air at a certain pressure is not present behind the valve. The
diaphragm only needs to rise a little way since the movement magnified by the
lever is transmitted to the driving mechanism of the actual indicating apparatus.
For this reason, in some cases, the piston is also not fitted to a cylinder but is
connected with the seating of the valve by a somewhat elastic tube. The valve
closes a hollow space contained within the seating of the valve, which is connected
with the air-pipe of the brake by a channel, with the atmosphere by another
channel and with the space beneath the valve by a third channel, and with the air-
pipe of the brake as well when the valve is raised.
The last named opening is covered by the valve which furnishes a pressure
surface for the air which is present in a lower chamber which is about as large as
the pressure surface of the piston or inembrane upon which it acts.
The first named
channel is closed by a valve which opens outwards and the second channel by a
valve which opens inwards.
Another tube running parallel to the lever may also open into the space beneath
the valve, the said tube carrying at its end a valve opening inwards which is
pressed up by means of a rod of sufficient length applied to the lever at a right
angle. The said space then empties itself of air independently of the valve of the
second channel. A cock is placed on the tube, which cock, when closed, will
prevent the valve of the said tube from acting.
Dated the 16th day of April 1891.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Apparatus for Indicating the Names of
Stations in Railway Carriages.
1, JOHN EBENEZER BOUSFIELD, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., The
General Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, (a communication
to me by Messieurs Wirth & Co., of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in the Empire of
Germany, Patent Agents, acting as agents for Wilhelm Schlösser, of No. 17',
Kirchgasse, Wiesbaden, in the Empire of Germany, Engineer,) and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in an by the following statement :-
This invention relates to that kind of apparatus for indicating to the passengers
in railway carriages the name of the station which the train is approaching, forming
the subject of my former Letters Patent No. 19048 of 1890, in which the apparatus
is connected to the compressed air-pipe of the brakes in such a manner that the
indicator will only act when the air in the pipe is compressed to a higher degree
than is necessary to operate the brakes.
In the accompanying drawings
Figure 1 is a vertical section partly in elevation of my simplest arrangement of
apparatus for indicating the names of stations in railway carriages embodying my
improvements, and
Figures 2 and 3 are similar views of other arrangements of my apparatus.

page_text: Referring first to Figure 1, 10 is the branch from the air conducting system of
the brakes, which branch is connected with the interior of an elastic bellows B.
This bellows is so loaded by means of weights and an adjustable spring F, that it
only rises sufficiently to put a ratchet gear in action when air at a higher tension
than is necessary to operate the brakes is present in the air conducting system of
the brakes. The bellows then raises the rod which is connected to a lever H fitted
to the frame of the apparatus. This lever to which also the load of the bellows
can be applied moves a ratchet wheel S to the extent of one touth, and by this
rotation an indicating apparatus which may be of any suitable construction is set in
action. This action may also be effected directly by the rod s.
In the arrangement shewn in Figure 2 an elastic diaphragm S is employed in
place of the bellows, a valve being connected therewith. This diaphragm is so
loaded by means of weights or springs that it only rises when air is admitted under
pressure, into the space 12 through the passage 10, such pressure being higher than
is necessary for the operating of the brakes, it being presupposed that air of a
certain pressure is not present below the valve e. The valve e closes the outlet c
of the space C and covers it with a proportionately large surface, so that as long
as the valve rests upon its seating only that excess of pressure which is exerted
upon the surface of the diaphragm independently of the surface covered by the
valve is to be reckoned as force necessary for the raising of the latter from its
seating.
If however the valve rises from its seating the hollow space C is at once filled
with compressed air. In this way a force proportionate to the surface covered by
the diaphragm, and greater than that which was available for lifting the valve
from its seating, is exerted on the diaphragm for the purpose of lifting the
lever H.
The space C is connected with the air conducting system of the brake by a
channel. This channel is connected with the space 12 and is closed by a valve o
which opens towards the space 12 and prevents any greater pressure in the space C
than in the air conducting system of the brakes. A weighted valve o³ closes a
channel which communicates with the atmosphere.
There may also open into the space C a tube k which carries an inwardly acting
valve, so arranged that it is opened by a rod when the lever I descends, in
order that the space C may empty itself independently of the valve o³.
The apparatus acts in the following way :-
If
Supposing the space 12, as well as the space C to be filled with atmospheric air,
every time the brakes nct the compressed air will reach the space 12 through the
passage 10, and the valve will be closed. The lever H will not then he raised,
because the valve by virtue of its weight has its point n resting upon the adjust-
able seat B and therefore only atmospheric air is present below the valve v.
however more highly compressed air be admitted through the passage 10, the
valverises, compressed air is admitted to the space C and closes the valve ³
which is only a small distance away from its seating, so that (as the cock k³ is
turned off) the whole surface of the diaphragm as well as the surface of the valve v
is utilized for lifting the lever H.
If the valve vis tightly pressing upon its seating the lever H can only be lifted
by the pressure that acts against the surface of the diaphragm minus the surface of
the valve v, if however the lever H is lifted by this power only a very small
distance, so that compressed air can enter the space C it will be lifted by the
pressure against the whole diaphragm. The lever H is connected by suitable inter-
mediate levers or the like, with the ratchet gear of the indicating apparatus, and
moves the latter one division farther on.
If all the air be allowed to escape through the passage 10, the space C will
also empty itself through the opening &, and the valve will also open. If how-
ever all the air be not allowed to escape through the passage the valve will
remain closed, a certain amount of compressed air will be enclosed in the space C

page_text: by the falling of the valve c and a smaller access of pressure to the space 12 nas
then the effect of lifting the lever H.
The apparatus shewn in Figure 2 is only a modified form of the invention; it
would work sufficiently well if the valves r, ², and ' and chamber C were
omitted. The object of these parts is to provide a greater force for lifting the
lever H; it works when the higher pressure is employed, and it works also when
the air of the brakes is admitted, but only in this case, when the space C is still
filled with compressed air; in this case the more compressed air can be spared
therefor.
Figure 3 shews an arrangement which allows a large number of ordinary
apparatus driven by compressed air to be set in action by the apparatus previously
described.
In this case again the valve is so londed that it only rises when a pressure
higher than that necessary for working the brakes is admitted. When this happens
the valve rises and allows compressed air to flow into the space C and thence into
the tube k, which air can be conducted to several apparatuses.
The spring F need then only be strong enough to compress the bellows B again
as soon as the air is let out of the space C.
The air from C however rushes out as soon as the air in the conducting system
of the brakes reaches its ordinary tension, since thereupon the valve v closes again
and the lever H falls, which lever through the medium of the rod opens the valve u*
so that all the air escapes from the whole apparatus.
This arrangement, shewn in Figure 3, may advantageously be employed in every
carriage which has separate compartments, so that the portion drawn upon the left
hand side, might very possibly be arranged under the carriage and through the
tube kas many apparatuses as there are compartments might branch off, or as there
are indicating apparatuses in use in one carriage.
In this combination only one apparatus needed, the spring or the weight of
which is exactly adjusted so that the diaphragm is lifted only by the air compressed
to a higher degree. The springs of the other apparatuses only need to be strong
enough to drive the air out of the bellows when the apparatus has done its work.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed. I declare that what I
claim is
1. An apparatus for indicating the names of stations in railway carriages com-
prising a bellows or a diaphragm so loaded as only to rise when it is acted upon by
air at a higher pressure than that provided for the operation of the brakes, the
resulting movement of the diaphragm of the bellows being employed directly or
through the medium of levers to work an indicating apparatus substantially as
herein before described.
2. In the apparatus claimed in Claim 1, the employment of a chamber C closed
by the valve which chamber is connected with the air conducting system by the
channel, and with the atmosphere by the channel c, and having the valve o
closing the opening e, and the valve eclosing the opening the latter valve being
50 arranged that in opening it only rises slightly from its seating substantially as
set forth and illustrated in Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.
3. In combination with the apparatus described in Claims I and 2 the tube k
adapted to be closed if required by the cock k' and in which a valve v' is so situated
that it is opened by the fall of the lever H whereby the chamber C can be emptied
independently of the valve e, substantially as set forth and illustrated in Figure 2
of the accompanying drawings.
4. The modification of the apparatus claimed in Claim 1 in which when the
diaphragm or bellows rises, a valve is opened, which valve transmits the compressed
air to apparatus of ordinary construction, and in which the lever H is provided
with a rod h which when it descends opens the pipe k, and so allows the whole of

page_text: the air to escape from each and every apparatus substantially as set forth and mus
trated in Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.
5. The improved apparatus for indicating the names of stations in railway
carriages hereinbefore described and illustrated respectively in Figures 1, 2 and 3
5 of the accompanying drawings.
11 1 day of Tanware 1892
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.