IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING, WATCHING, AND SIGNALLING THROUGHOUT RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Barber at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd September
1864.
I, JAMES BARBER, Engineer to the Cork, Blackrock, and Passage Railway
Company, of Cork, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING, WATCHING, AND SIGNALLING
THROUGHOUT RAILWAY TRAINS," to be as follows:-
The first part of my Invention consists in placing a looking-glass, mirror,
or other material capable of reflection, or any number of them, upon engines,
carriages, vans, or other vehicles composing trains or otherwise, either by the
side, on the top, or in any other part of them, in such manner that any
unusual motion taking place or object making its appearance outside any
part of a train, carriage, or vehicle, and being reflected in the glasses, mirrors,
or other reflecting materials, may attract the attention of the driver, fireman,
guard, or other officer in charge; a similar effect to be produced after dark
by the use of side lamps throwing the light from them upon the sides of
trains, and the reflection of the light itself in the glass or other reflecting
material, so that any object oscillating or being moved between it and the
side lamp can at once be detected as by day. For engine drivers and firemen
the arrangement is especially useful, as they can see by its aid when judiciously
placed upon the engine all the movements at the stations behind them without
looking round and while attending to the other duties. When the train is in
motion they can see all the carriage door handles and windows while looking

page_text: out ahead, so that any irrogularity taking place may be observed by ono or
other of them. The whistle boing at command the driver can at onco draw
the guard's attention to anything he sees wrong or to any signal made from
any of the carriago windows.
The next part of my Invention consists in placing steps or footboards across
carriages or other vehicles at their ends outside above tho buffer blocks, of
any suitable width and so constructed and and applied as to form a passago
across (without interfering with the hooking of couplings), and as a means of
stepping from one vehicle to anothor, by reducing the space between oach to
about 2 feet 2 inches, the ends of the cross front boards to be in line with the
outer edge of each top footboard, as seen on any ordinary railway carriage;
should the guard or any other man skilled in the running of trains desire to
pass from any particular carriage of a train to another, he can do so along the
ordinary top footboard on to the footboard, hand hold being provided ex-
tending round the ends, one at oach ond of each carriage or vehicle, stepping
over the space between the vehicles.
The third and last part of my Invention combines the introduction of
1, 2, 3, or more glass lights at the height of the quarter lights in cach
partition between the compartments of a carriage and at the ends of
carriages, so that the entire carriage may be looked through from end to end
and from one carriage into another. 3 lights across a carriage of about 8 feet
in the clear inside being so arranged give sufficient privacy to a portion of
the passengers while seated, and at the same time no violence could take
place without being observablo by other passengers in another compartment
or carriage.