IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY SIGNAL APPARATUSES
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Joseph Baranowski at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
October 1859.
I, JEAN JOSEPH BARANOWSKI, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Gentle,
man, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN RAILWAY SIGNAL APPARATUSES," to be as follows:-―
My Invention relates to what are known as "distant signals," worked by
the passing of an engine carriage or train. The signal is set at "danger" at
the signal post by the first passing wheels, and is maintained there until the
engine or train has passed the displacing or distance post placed at, say 1,200
yards from the signal post. On passing the displacing post, the wheels act
upon certain apparatus which shifts the signal from "danger" to "all clear."
Now, my Invention consists in the arrangement and employment of certain
agents which are similar at both the signal and displacing posts, and in the
employment of an intermediate post and apparatus equidistant, or nearly so,
from both signal and displacing posts. In describing the arrangement of
apparatus for the signal post, I shall be also describing that for the displacing
post, as it is similar. To a switch or movable rail opened or moved inwards.
by the wheels of a passing engine or train I fix one end of a connecting rod;
through a slot near the other end of this rod a lever passes; one end of this

page_text: is connected to the piston of a mercury pump, which is described in the
Specification of former Letters Patent granted to me the 23rd day of March,
1857, No. 816, and near the opposite end of this pump lever is a pulley, over
which a wire or chain passes, one end of which is connected to the inter-
mediate post and apparatus, while the other end of the wire or chain has
attached to it a weight for maintaining the wire or chain in a state of
tension. The chain is first carried over a pulley, and then over two studs or
pins before passing over the pump lever pulley. The switch rail connecting
rod terminates in a caoutchouc or other roller capable of coming down upon,
but of not passing between the two studs over which the chain is passed. The
extreme end of the pump lever acts upon the signal discs in the ordinary
mauner; there are no signal discs fitted to the displacing post. At the inter-
mediate post the wire is connected to a sliding bar, in which there is a groove
or notch; this sliding bar is connected through a chain to a weight much less
than that first named, and a cross lever, free to rise and fall, rests upon the
bar. The wire from the displacing post is connected to a weighted cranked
lever, one end of which protrudes under the cross lever. Upon a train passing
the signal post it will move aside the switch rail, whereby the pump lever will
be brought into play, and that arm carrying the pulley lowered, while at the
same time the roller at the end of the connecting switch bar will be brought
down upon the chain and between the fixed studs or pins before mentioned,
and thus the fall of the weight to keep the wire in tension will be arrested, or,
in other words, its action is neutralized, while slack will be afforded between
the last of the two pins and the sliding bar at the intermediate apparatus.
The sliding bar will be moved by the weight connected to it, and will be held
by the cross lever entering the notch or groove formed therein for its reception;
thus the signal will be maintained at "danger" until the train reaches the
switch rail at the displacing post, when slack will be afforded between the
intermediate apparatus and the last fixed stud or pin at the displacing post,
whereupon the weighted end of the cranked lever will fall, while its opposite
end will be raised, and push up or raise the cross lever from the groove or
notch in the sliding bar, when the signal will return to "all clear," and the
whole of the parts of the apparatuses will return to their original positions to be
acted upon by the next passing train. The play of the sliding bar is regulated
by stops capable of being shifted; the amount of slack, and the time it is
maintained are regulated and determined by the mercury pumps, and through
their action also are the switch rails, after being once moved inwards, kept
there until at least the last wheel in the train bas passed them. It will be

page_text: observed, that one of the main features of my Invention consists in the means
of arresting the descent of the tension weights, and neutralizing their action
during the play of the apparatus, while all necessary slack is imparted to the
connecting wires, consequently no power is required to raise these weights,
and the whole working of the apparatuses becomes automatic after being once
set in play by the passing train.