An Apparatus for Providing Against the Faulty Working of Signals, when the same is Due to Error in Adjustment of the Length of the Signal Operating Wires and Rods.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Feb., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 21st Nov., 1893-Accepted, 13th Jan., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Apparatus for Providing Against the Faulty Working of Signals,
when the same is Due to Error in Adjustment of the Length of
the Signal Operating Wires and Rods.
I, EDWARD HAROLD MORRIS of Tottington, near Bury, in the County of
Lancaster, Civil Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
An apparatus or appliance for making provision for expansion & contraction in
signal wires and rods; such expansion or contraction being due to the temperature
or to want of due supervision & attention; and so insuring an accurate and uniform
working of the signal to its required position, and that with a very small amount
of care and attention.
I bring this result about as follows; I provide a certain amount of inert play in
some part of the operating mechanism of the signal, whether it be semaphore, disc,
or lamp, either upon or adjacent to the post or support of the said signal and F
make this play equal to the whole or some part of the total expansion of the wire,
or rod. This play is provided by means of a rotating slot or slide, to which I
attach the operating rod, or some bar or rods which is in its turn actuated by the
operating rod, by means of a stud or pin, or some other suitable sliding connection,
and I coustrain the said pin or sliding connection by one or more guides either
acting directly on the said pin, or on some adjacent part of the operating rod or bar,
so that the said pin is able to travel in only one direction, whether that same
direction be straight or a curve. The slot or slide may be part of or affixed to the
said signal arm disc or lamp, or may be connected therewith either by a spindle or
by one or more rods.
The action is that the operating rod or bar through a certain fractional part of
the whole stroke turns the slot or slide through a certain angle, thereby operating
the signal arm disc or lamp, while for the rest of the stroke the rod merely
keeps the said signal arm disc or lamp in the position that it has already attained.
Dated this 25th day of February 1893.
EDWARD HAROLD MORRIS.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Apparatus for Providing Against the Faulty Working of Signals,
when the same is Due to Error in Adjustment of the Length of
the Signal Operating Wires and Rods.
I, EDWARD HAROLD MORRIS of Tottington near Bury in the County of
Lancaster Civil Engineer, 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 :-
My invention is an apparatus or appliance for making provision for expansion and
contraction of signal wires and rods, such expansion or contraction being due to the
temperature or to want of due supervision and attention; and so insuring an
accurate and uniform working of the signal to its required position and that with a
very small amount of care and attention.

page_text: 1 bring this result about as follows.
I provide a certain amount of inert play in some part of the operating mechanism
of the signal, whether it be semaphore, disc, or lamp, either upon or adjacent to the
post or support of the said signal, and I make such play equal to the whole or some
part of the total expansion of the wire or rod.
This play is provided by means of a rotating slot or slide to which I attach the
operating rod or some bar or rod which in its turn is actuated by the operating rod,
by means of a stud or pin or other suitable sliding connection, and I constrain the
said pin or sliding connection by one or more guides either acting directly on the
said pin, or on some adjacent part of the operating rod or bar, so that the said pin
is able to travel in only one direction, whether that same be straight or a curve.
The slot or slide may be part of or affixed to the said signal arm disc or lamp, or
may be connected therewith by one or more rods.
The action is that the operating rod or bar through a certain fractional part of
the whole stroke turns the slot or slide through a certain angle, thereby operating
the signal arm, disc or lamp, while for the rest of the stroke the rod merely
keeps the said signal arm disc or lamp in the position that it has already attained.
I will now proceed to describe my invention by aid of the following drawings.
Fig. 1. shows my invention applied to a stop arni and controlled distant arm on
one post. The form or method of controlling or slotting is the counterbalance-
weight system but may equally well be of any other known pattern. A pin P is
attached to a portion of the vertical rod R which is constrained to travel in one
only direction by guide pin G G. Attached to the spindle of the arm, or to the
arm itself, is a slot or slide S, in which the pin P works. When the operating wire
is drawn and the rod R raised, the pin P travels without effect until it reaches the
shoulder or face of the slot or slide S which is raised until the arm is deflected
to the proper angle, at which time the slot S has attained a vertical position
allowing the pin P to travel freely for the rest of its stroke without further action
than that merely of sustaining the arm in the required position. The lower tail
portion of the slot may be dispensed with, (as in Fig. 2) in which case the deflection
of the arm commences as soon as the balance-lever leaves the normal position.
Fig. 2 shews elevation of a signal post with my invention placed in an inter-
mediate position between the balance-lever and the arm. A rotating slot or slide S
is placed by means of suitable fittings upon the post above the balance-lever. A
pin P attached to the balance lever B by a rod R, which is constrained by the
guide-pins GG, travels in the slot, and the action is precisely as described above.
A pin is fixed in the slide S to which is attached the vertical rod which operates
the signal. In this figure the slot is shewn without a lower tail portion, in which
case the arm is not locked when the balance-lever is in the normal position as are the
arms in Figs. 1 & 3, and the first travel of the balance lever from the normal
position deflects the arm.
Fig. 3. shows my invention in which a guide link L takes the place of a fixed
guide G as in Figs. 1 & 2. This figure also shews the slot S cut in the arm, which
is of steel. The same pattern of slot however may equally well be made in a
separate piece and attached to an arm of any material or pattern. The pin P'is
fixed upon the link L which serves to constrain it and the action is the same as in
the previous examples. The link L may be carried back to bear balance weight and
the balance-lever and plate at the base of the post and the vertical rod may be
dispensed with.
Fig. 4 shews a revolving disc signal, to which my invention is applied. The
slot S is fixed upon the rotating spindle of the lamp, and the spherical roller P is
The action is
attached to the link L which forms part of the balance lever.
precisely the same as in the previous examples.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is.
1. In railway signalling apparatus, whether semaphore or a revolving disc, an

page_text: apparatus or appliance by means of which the signal is operated by a fractional
part of the travel of the wire, whereby a high ratio of effective working and
adjustment may be obtained, substantially as described, and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
2. In railway signalling apparatus a slot, or slide S, substantially as described.
and illustrated and for the purposes set forth herein.
Dated this 20th day of November 1893.
EDWARD HAROLD MORRIS,
Tottington, Bury, Lancashire.