AN INDICATOR ALARUM, APPLICABLE TO RAILWAYS AND RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Greaves at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd November 1853.
I, WILLIAM GREAVES, of Leeds, in the County of York, Chemist, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN INDICATOR
ALARUM, APPLICABLE TO RAILWAYS AND RAILWAY TRAINS," to be as
follows:-
My said Invention consists, firstly, of a novel danger signal, which
being self-acting will give warning by a steam whistle to a train at full
speed; and, secondly, of a distance indicator, which in connexion with
my improved signal will show on a suitable dial the name of the place
where the alarm whistle was sounded.
And for the better understanding of my said Invention I shall now
proceed to detail the particulars thereof.
My plan for a danger signal is to have placed upon all locomotive
engines a separate steam whistle, the kind I prefer being what is called
the "screw whistle," to act as an alarm or danger whistle, independent

page_text: of the whistle in general use. Connected with the danger whistle is an
iron rod or shaft forming an axis, having a small toothed pinion on its
outermost end, working into a vertical rack terminating in a lever
hanging by the side of the locomotive to within a short fixed distance
of touching the level of the line of railroad; this rack and lever are
attached by any of the ordinary means to the side framing in such a
manner as readily to slide up and down, and it is obvious, therefore,
that anything causing the foot of the lever to be pushed upwards will,
by actuating the rack, operate on the handle of the screw or other steam
alarm whistle by the rotation of a small toothed pinion or an endless
screw. Now I effect this movement of the side hanging lever by
means of an inclined plane or moveable tappets placed at certain
distances on the line of railway, which can be raised at pleasure when-
ever required to give warning, but when not so raised will remain
inoperative, and consequently the lever connected with the steam
whistle on the engine then passes over unaffected. I recommend that
these moveable tappets should be placed at various distances on both
the up and down lines, to be ready when raised to operate on the lever,
and thereby on the alarm steam whistle.
My method of indicating the distance travelled over, and the names
of certain stations, is by means of a peculiarly arranged dial, on the
face of which is an index finger, and around the circular dial the
names of the several stations that will be indicated in rotation as
the train travels along the line of railway. The hand or pointer is fixed
to the axis of a cog wheel which which goes through the middle of the
dial, and connected to the back of the cog wheel is a hanging lever and
spring, which comes in contact with fixed tappets fixed upon the side
of the rail out of the way of anything else on the line; on the moving
of one cog a catch falls into it, and so on, one cog for each fixed tappet
the lever strikes in passing along.
.
Having thus described my Invention, I would here remark, that
when the alarm whistle sounds, by the lever rising on coming in contact
with a tappet on the line raised for that purpose, the engineer can tell
by the distance and place indicator where such alarm was given, how-
ever dense the fog or dark the night may happen to be. My indicator

page_text: is also equally applicable to the carriages, to inform passengers of the
stations passed, arrived at, or in advance. I do not claim any of the
parts of my several apparatus separately, neither do I confine myself to
any particular steam whistles nor forms of levers for actuating them,
nor the form, dimensions, number, or precise situation of the indicator,
or of the inclined planes or tappets on the lines of railway, so long as
the principle of my said Invention is adhered to in any method which
is self acting in indicating distance and places, and sounding an alarm
steam whistle; and I do declare that what I claim as my Invention is,
namely,
The peculiar arrangement of a danger signal, and station and distance