IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING BETWEEN THE ENGINE DRIVER AND THE GUARD OF RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1853

page_text: with the application for Letters Patent was not given within the
time prescribed by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Seaville Truss at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 16th December 1853.
I, THOMAS SEAVILLE TRUES, of Cannon Street, in the City of London,
Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING BETWEEN THE
ENGINE DRIVER AND THE GUARD OF RAILWAY TRAINS" to be as follows:-
My improvements consist in the following arrangements :-A frame
being attached on the tender of the engine, and a like one in the goods
van, this frame having a shaft working in bearings on the top of the
frame, which shaft has three bells attached in the centre at right angles
to one end of the shaft which carries a small fly wheel; the other being
a crank end, working with a connecting rod to a pair of double acting
bellows, these being fastened to the frame. On the outside of the
framing a coil spring on the flat surface is attached by means of a
washer, or a weight may be used; the other end of the spring being

page_text: bolted to the frame, a small pulley being also on the shaft, an india-
rubber or flexible pipe from the bellows passes along the rim of the
tender to the edge of the foot plate close to the engineer, that end of
the pipe having one or more whistles, and being of sufficient length to
be strapped to the engineer.
One of these apparatus on the tender and another on the guard's van
will be all required for a train.
In the interior of the carriages, there is attached to the roof, about
the centre, a detective lock of a peculiar construction, having a handle
placed in it above, the handle being hollow, with a small pulley working
in it, under which pulley a wire or cord passes, the end of the handle
inside the lock being taper, say, from three quarters to half inch
diameter; the end of the lock is round, so that when the handle is
pulled out of the lock the lock unlocks, and by a suitable spring
immediately locks itself. The interior of this lock is composed of three
links, one acting with a lever, having a hole in the end of it, to which a
wire or wires are attached, working with a pin on the extremity of a
circular face plate; at each quarter there is a pin, and at the two opposite
quarters a wire is affixed, working a catch lineable with the outside of
the carriage, to which is attached a red or other coloured board as a sig-
nal by day, and having lamp irons to carry lamps at night, and to show
a red light both ways; all which is effected by pulling the handle the
requisite distance, which operates the before described communications,
whether passing over or through the carriages. But when passing over
the carriages a different form of lock is required: first, a spindle with
a pulley at one end, and having four small rollers in the pulley, the
wire passing through them; this spindle going through the roof, the
lock is attached thereto second, the lock has a curved handle in it.
with a squareend working a knife-blade spring, & detective of any
use made thereof. My couplings for the wires are small double links,
a part of each end opening with a knife-blade spring to receive and
lock the wire.