IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF WORKING SIGNALS ON RAILWAYS AND IN APPARATUS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Enrico Belli at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st May
1874.
I, ENRICO BELLI, of 172, Hampstead Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Artist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF WORKING SIGNALS ON RAILWAYS AND IN
APPARATUS FOR THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the working of the signals by the
passing of the trains without the ordinary human agency for the
purpose, and consists in adapting and applying to the locomotive engine
a bell to be sounded at a given distance from the disc or other suitable
signal in order to call the attention of the driver to the signal, and also
in applying to the railway and the train respectively the mechanism
herein-after described, by means of which the signal is worked by the
passing of the train. The said bell is placed at the front part of the
locomotive engine at one side (by preference the left-hand side); and at
a given distance from the signal there is fixed to the corresponding side
of the line of railway a projecting bar or piece of metal, which as the

page_text: engine passes along is brought in contact with a lever and spring which
causes the bell to be struck by the hammer and give warning to the
engine driver to look at the signal.
The apparatus for working the signal consists of a transverse signal
carrier supported by posts or standards, one at each side of the line of
railway, and furnished with mechanism for working the signals by a
train passing in either direction along the line. The mechanism is by
preference arranged so as to work the signal always from the right-hand
side of the passing train. At the lower part of the right-hand post or
standard is mounted a wheel with teeth on a portion of its circumference
and provided with a stop to prevent its being turned too far. On the
axis of this wheel is a drum or enlarged axle, on which is wound a chain
which is passed upwards and conveyed by suitable guides or rollers to a
disc or wheel mounted at the upper part of the said signal carrier, to
the right-hand side of which disc or wheel the said chain is secured, a
corresponding connection being formed between the chain on the
opposite side of the line of railway and the opposite side of the disc or
wheel. By this arrangement when the right-hand side of the said wheel
or disc is drawn downwards by the pull on its chain the opposite sido
thereof and its chain are drawn upwards. On the face of the said disc
or wheel are formed a set of bevil teeth on each side with a plain surface
between each set. Each set of teeth are made to gear with a bevil
wheel fixed on a vertical spindle which carries the signal, which wheel
and spindle are turned by the action of the chain on the right-hand side
of the said disc or wheel so as to work the signal. The chain is drawn
downwards by the action of a rack fixed to the passing train on the
wheel and drum carrying the lower end of the chain, thereby working
the signal connected to the wheel and toothed disc at the upper end of
the said chain.