Improvements in Fog Signalling Apparatus for Railways,
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 13th June, 1898
Complete Specification Left, 28th Sept., 1898-Accepted, 29th Oct., 1898
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Fog Signalling Apparatus for Railways,
We, GEORGE WOOD, of Bold Street, Moss Side, Joiner, and WILLIAM MILLS, of
12, New Brown Street, Manufacturer, both in Manchester, in the County of Lan-
caster, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to that type of fog signalling apparatus for use on
railways in which the detonators are, when required, automatically fed under
a punch or the like which is depressed by the wheels of the engine or train.
Such an apparatus is described in the Specification to Letters Patent No. 4078
dated the 22nd February 1896, and the object of the present improvements is to
simplify its construction.
The magazine which contains the detonators consists of a sliding block or box
formed with two or more compartments or pockets each of which contains a suit-
able number of detonators. It is capable of being fed forward by means of a
spring or counterweight but is normally held with one of its compartments in
the path of the feeding slide by means of a detent or the like.
Arranged alongside the running rail is a depresser rail which is depressed upon
the approach or passage of a train. A bell crank or other lever has one of its
ends in communication with the depresser rail, and its other end attached by a
coupling rod or the like to an arm secured to a shaft. Angular motion is thus
imparted to the shaft upon the movement of the depresser rail. The feeding slide
is also connected to the shaft and is thereby reciprocated in such a manner as
to push a detonator from the magazine to a position under the punch each time
the depresser rail is depressed.
It will of course be understood that other equivalent means of communicating
the motion of the rail to the slide may be adopted.
Geared with or connected to any suitable moving part of the apparatus is a
wheel or the like which has a step by step motion imparted to it and effects a
complete revolution by the time the detonators in one pocket of the magazine
have been extracted or nearly extracted. At a suitable point it is provided with
a cam or projection which, once in each revolution, comes into contact with the
detent or its equivalent which is holding the magazine in place, and, disengaging
it, allows the forward movement of the magazine so as to bring the next compart-
ment into the path of the feeding slide where it is again held until the detonators
in that magazine have been exhausted or the required number extracted.
The apparatus may be thrown out of gear at any time when required by connect-
ing any suitable part of it, such as the coupling rod from the bell crank lever,
to the signal wire, so that when the signal is at safety the rod is withdrawn
and the movement of the depresser rail is not communicated to the feeding slide.
Dated this 11th day of June A.D. 1898.
W. E. HEYS & SON,
Agents for the Applicants

page_text: Improvements in Fog Signalling Apparatus for Railways.
We, GEORGE WOOD, of Bold Street, Moss Side, Joiner, and WILLIAM MILLS, of
12, New Brown Street, Manufacturer, both in the County of Lancaster, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention relates to that type of fog signalling apparatus for use on rail-
ways in which the detonators are, when required, automatically fed under a
punch or the like which is depressed by the wheels of a passing engine or train.
Such an apparatus is described in the Specification of Letters Patent No. 4078
of A.1. 1896 granted to George Wood one of the present applicants, and the object
of these improvements is to simplify its construction.
In the former apparatus the detonators were contained in a rotary magazine
having a plurality of compartments. According to the present invention they are
contained in a magazine capable of being moved longitudinally parallel with the
rails, so that as one compartment becomes emptied, a full one may be brought to
the feeding point. The number of compartments in the magazine will be con-
trolled by the local conditions of use among other things. Thus, in the event
of the apparatus being located over a bridge or elsewhere where there is no suffi-
cient depth available, there may be four six or more compartments according to
the amount of traffic. Again, on an embankment, or other similar position where
there is not a large amount of traffic, a single compartment may be used. The
depth of the compartments will in like manner be governed by local conditions,
but generally it is more convenient to arrange them for ten or twelve detonators
each.
We will describe our present improvements with reference to the accompanying
drawings in which Figure 1 represents a plan; Figure 2, a side elevation;
Figure 3, a cross section along the line y-y; Figure 4, a partial plan; Figure 5,
partial sectional end elevations; Figure 6, a longitudinal section through part of
the magazine, and Figure 7, an elevation and section shewing means for transla-
ting the motion of the depresser rail.
R, is one of the rails of the permanent way and D, the depresser rail. There
is bolted upon the outer side of the rail R, a block A, in a vertical opening through
which the punch P can move freely upwards and downwards. This punch is
shaped and actuated in the same manner as described in the Specification of
Letters Patent hereinbefore referred to. M, is the body of the magazine in which
the detonators B are contained, as shewn by Figures 3 and 6. Beneath the
depresser rail is arranged the upper limb of the counter-weighted cranked
lever C Cu, upon which is pinned one end of the arm E, in the other end of which
there is an L-shaped slot. In the vertical member of this slot there is a pin F,
fixed in a sliding bar G, Figure 5. At the opposite end of this sliding bar there
is a downward projection which engages with a cam, friction roller, or projec-
tion H, fixed upon the rocking shaft I, parallel with: R. When the depresser
rail Dis moved downwards upon the passage of a train, the sliding bar G is moved
to the left as shewn in the figure, and the rocking shaft I is partly rotated. On
this same shaft I, there is also fixed a counterweighted lever J Jw, Figure 3, to
the upper member of which is pinned the feeder plate K, which works through a
passage contrived in the underside of the cover plate L, from which there projects

page_text: a stop N, immediately over the detonator chamber. The motion of the shaft I
compels motion of the feeder synchronous with and in the same direction as that
of the sliding bar and it follows that a motion forward of the feeder is made
upon motion downward of the depresser rail. The detonators are contained in a
tubular chamber O, and are forced upwards into contact with the stop N and to
the front of the feeder K either by means of the bottom plate a and the weighted
chains running over pulleys d, Figure 6, or of an equivalent spring. For every
depression of the rail 1) therefore, a detonator is inserted under the punch. But
it is desired to insert a detonator only when the line is blocked and the signal
stands at danger. To secure this result, a transverse weighted lever Q Qu is
fulcrumed at and bent horizontally towards the magazine under the arm E,
through which motion is communicated from the depresser rail to the feeder plate.
On that side of the fulcrum q upon which the lever Q is bent, and near to the
fulcrum, there is arranged above it a longitudinal cranked weighted lever S Sw,
to whose upper limb S, a wire T connected with the signal, is attached. When
the line is clear and the wire T is pulled in the act of setting the signal to indicate
safety, the limb Sw of the lever is lifted out of contact with the lever Q, where-
upon, by the action of the weight Q Qu, the bent end of Q is lifted and lifts the
arm E into the position indicated in the lower part of Figure 5, in which position
the pin is in the horizontal member of the L-shaped slot and consequently the
motion of the arm E is no longer communicated to the sliding bar G and the feeder
plate.
Two or more of the apparatus are usually employed in conjunction with each
other. As represented by Figures 1 and 2, it is supposed that two of the apparatus
are employed to place two detonators under their respective punches simuly
taneously. It is important therefore that the depresser rail should move uniformly
throughout its length. For this purpose, a plurality of transverse shafts Y Y
are employed and are securely connected together in such a manner that the motion
of any one of them shall be participated in by all. On the rail end of each
shaft Y there is fixed an arm U, which is pinned to the depresser rail as shewn by
Figure 7. On the opposite end of each of the shafts there is fixed another arm V
which is pinned to the longitudinal rod W. The counterweights Vec tend to main-
tain the depresser rail in its higher position. Thus the system consisting of the
depresser rail, the rod W and the arms U U, V V, must have simultaneous and
similar motion throughout..
The lower limb Sw of the cranked lever with which the signal wire is con-
nected, has a stud me fixed in it immediately below the member Vw of the cranked
lever V, forming part of the depresser rail system. When, as herein before
described, the signal wire is pulled and thus puts the apparatus out of action, the
stud m comes into contact with the member V which is thereby lifted and this
motion is translated through the shaft Y to the depresser rail which is lowered out
of contact with the flanges of the wheels of passing vehicles until the apparatus
is again put into action by the motion of the signal wire in the reverse direction.
In the drawings we have shewn, for convenience, a magazine with only one
compartment. When it contains a plurality of compartments, we may employ
means for removing an empty compartment and for bringing a full one forward,
equivalent to the means described in the former Specification of Letters Patent
hereinbefore referred to, the difference in this case being that rectilinear motion
instead of rotary motion is required. In that specification it was described how,
after a definite number of detonators had been fed from a compartment of the
magazine, the latter was rotated so as to bring the next compartment into position.
Practically the same mechanism may be employed in connection with the present
improvements. A detent holds the sliding magazine against a pull exerted by
a chain and weight or by a spring. When the desired number of detonators has
been fed, this detent is released and the magazine moves forward to be again
caught and held by the detent at the moment when the next compartment arrives
at the feed point.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:
1
1. In fog signalling apparatus for railways, a detonator magazine containing a
plurality of compartments arranged parallel with the permanent way rail and
contiguous thereto and capable of being moved longitudinally in such a manner
that an empty compartment at the feeding point may be substituted by a full one,
substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
2. In fog signalling apparatus for railways, the combination and arrangement
with a punch actuated by the wheels of a passing vehicle or engine, a detonator
magazine close thereto and a depresser rail, of a lever actuated by the depresser
rail, a rocking shaft, connecting rods or links and devices for translating the
motion of the lever to the rocking shaft, a weighted lever on the rocking shaft
and a feeder pinned to the cranked lever, substantially as herein before described
and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
3. In fog signalling apparatus, the hereinbefore described means and appliances
for putting the apparatus out of action from the signal box, substantially as set
forth and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
W. E. HEYS & SON,
Agents for the Applicants.