IMPROVE- MENTS IN WORKING RAILWAY POINTS, SWITCHES, AND SIGNALS, AND IN APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Archibald Hewison Perry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
. 28th March 1868.
'I, ARCHIBALD HEWISON PERRY, of Guildford Road, Brighton, Railway
Inspector, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WORKING RAILWAY POINTS, SWITCHES, AND SIGNALS, AND IN
APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR THAT PURPOSE," to be as follows:-
The points, switches, and signals of railways worked by means of a lever or
levers from a box or station at a distance therefrom have to be connected
therewith by means of rods, bars, or wires, as the case may be, and as such
means of transmitting motion are liable to vary in their length and become.
strained, thereby imperfectly or inefficiently performing the functions assigned
to them. In the case of points and switches where the connecting rods or
bars become elongated or strained, the lever handle at the station or points-
man's box may be "put right over" or "pulled right over" for the purpose
of opening or closing the points, but the points may, in reality, be only
partially opened or closed, and the distance at which they are situated from
the pointsman prevents his discovering their actual condition; also in the case
of distant signals, whilst the signal lever or bandle may be "right over" in
either direction to put the signal."off" or "on," the signal may not have
moved through the entire distance, and so be imperfectly or insufficiently set.
Now the object of this Invention is to ensure to the pointsman or signal-
man a correct knowledge of the condition of the points or the signals (or both
together where they are connected and worked simultaneously) when either.

page_text: are worked or operated in one direction or the other, by which he will be
enabled to work the traffic with safety over lines or junctions however
complicated.
For the purpose of insuring the points or the signals being in the position
intended or due to the movement of the lever handle by the pointsman,
although he may be at a considerable distance from such signals and from
the points, I apply to each pair of points, and to the face or edge of the rail
into which it is intended the point or tongue is to come in close contact, a
piece of copper or other suifable conducting metal, and by insulating each
piece of metallic conducting surface from the rail or rails and connecting it
by means of a wire with a battery and telegraph instrument and to tho earth,
the perfected contact is signalled on the opening or closing of each pair of
points or switches. Thus it will be understood that when the points are only
partially opened or closed from some defect in the apparatus, their actual
condition will become known, and the pointsman or signalman will become
aware of the unsafe condition of the points or the imperfect working of the
signalling apparatus.
Several signals may be combined together, and the condition of one pair of
points may be indicated at more than one place, and be employed to regulate
the working of other points and signals.
I apply a similar arrangement of apparatus between the distant or other
signals and the post or standard to which they are fitted, and scotch blocks
on sidings and level crossing gates may be similarly fitted and worked.