IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE GUARDS AND THE DRIVERS' OF RAILWAY TRAINS, AND BETWEEN THE GUARDS AND THE PASSENGERS IN THE SAID TRAINS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Walmsley at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
September 1868.
I, JOHN WALMSLEY, of Preston, in the County of Lancaster, Clerk
of Works, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE
GUARDS AND THE DRIVERS' OF RAILWAY TRAINS, AND BETWEEN THE GUARDS AND
THE PASSENGERS IN THE SAID TRAINS," to be as follows:-
My Invention is designed for the purpose of enabling the guard or
guards of a railway train to communicate vocally with the driver or
drivers of the engine or of the engines attached to the said train, and also
in the case of there being more than one guard in the said train to
enable the said guards to communicate each with the other, and further
to enable the passengers in the said train to communicate with the said
guard or guards, and consists in the employment therefor of "speaking
tubes" fitted and arranged substantially in manner as follows:-The
said speaking tubes or tubes for the conveyance of vocal sounds are
formed in sections, the section or sections fitted to one carriage being
formed preferably of a metal tube or of metal tubes, and is or are

page_text: connected to the sections of the adjoining carriages by means of flexible
tubes, the ends of the said metal tubes being fitted with portions of
unions or couplings, and the ends of the said flexible tubes with the
other portions of the said couplings, so that the various sections may be
coupled together throughout the whole of a train or of any portion of
a train. The guard's van at the tail of the train is fitted with a tube
communicating with the main tube and supplied with a suitable mouth
piece, and if desired with a whistle or with other suitable means for
attracting the attention of the guard, a corresponding tube and mouth
piece being fitted to the engine or the tender, the two mouth pieces
being in direct communication. one with the other, as above mentioned,
in order that the directions, instructions, or warnings of the guard may
be communicated by word of mouth direct to the driver, or otherwise
that the said driver may similarly communicate with the guard.
In the case of there being a second guard's van occupying an inter-
mediate position between the afore-mentioned guard and the driver, I
sometimes employ a second system or double system of tubes, one
portion of the system enabling the said intermediate guard to com-
municate with the driver, and the other portion enabling him to
communicate with the other guard at the tail of the train.
When it is desired to provide means to enable the passengers or a
portion of them to communicate with the guard or with the guards I
prefer to provide a seperate system of tubes, the said tubes being in.
connection with mouth pieces situated in the passenger carriages or in
a portion of them, and also with a mouth piece or with mouth pieces
in the guard's van or in each of the guard's vans, the said arrangement
not providing means for the passengers to communicate with the driver
of the engine, as I consider it to be desirable that the passengers should
communicate only with the guard or guards.
Should it be deemed advisable one system of tubes may be employed
in lieu of the seperate systems, as herein above described, but I prefer
to employ two or more seperate and distinct systems in order to prevent
confusion, and also to prevent the attention of the driver from being
unnecessarily withdrawn from his duties by the passengers.
A form of coupling which I have found suitable to the connection of
the tubes fitted to one carriage to the tubes fitted to another carriage is
a modification of the ordinary conical joint coupling, the end of the

page_text: flexible tube being inserted in the metal body of the coupling, and a
metal ferule, the outer end of which constitutes the male portion of
the joint being forced into the end of the flexible tube to retain the
same in the said coupling.