IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SECURING THE PROPER RELATIVE WORKING OF SWITCHES, CROSSINGS, AND SIGNALS, AND THE MORE CERTAIN AND EFFECTIVE WORKING OF THE SIGNALING DEVICES ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Stokes Williams at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th June 1880.
JOSEPH STOKES WILLIAMS, of Riverton, New Jersey, in the United States of
America, but at present residing at Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SECURING THE PROPER RELATIVE
WORKING OF SWITCHES, CROSSINGS, AND SIGNALS, AND THE MORE CERTAIN AND
EFFECTIVE WORKING OF THE SIGNALING DEVICES ON RAILWAYS."
This Invention, which relates to improvements in apparatus for securing the
proper relative working of switches, crossings, and signals, and the more certain
and effective working of the signalling devices on railways, consists partly in
improved compensating arrangements whereby the chains or wires by which the
signals and parts connected there with are kept at a constant length by being
subject to constant tension by means of a weight attached thereto, and passed over
one or more chain or sprocket-wheels, quadrants, lovers, or the equivalents
thereof.
Under one arrangement the constant tension of the wire or chain is maintained
independently of the operating lever, and the operating lever is so connected or
combined with the said connecting chain, or wire, or parts in connection therewith,
that the connection or continuation of the lever clamps or acts upon the connecting
wire, or chain, or the part over which it moves, so that when the said lever shall
have commenced to be moved the connection to the signal practically becomes
made with the said lever, thereby securing the effective working of the signal at the
other end of the connecting chain or wire.
The lever so constructed or arranged which is, practically, independent of the
signalling device when the said lever in its normal position, may be combined
with other levers of a series by means of moveable bars or plates, such as are
ordinarily used to secure the proper relative working of the parts.
In order to provide a cheap and efficient apparatus for securing the proper
relative working of railway signals and parts connected or combined therewith, I
employ a weighted lever, to which the chain or wire is attached, and which chain
or wire when the lever is in its normal or nearly vertical position is not in a state
of tension. When the lever is drawn over to operate the signal, and when the said
signal shall thereby have been completely moved, the said weighted lever retains
the signal in the safety position by continuing to maintain the tension of the
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page_text: chain or wire, which it is free to do by sufficient space being presented for it to
move through, in order to compensate at all times any variations in the length of
the chain or wire. These levers are so formed or provided with extensions which
engage with some part connected or combined with other levers or parts as to
secure the desired relative working, but in all cases allowing for the excess of
movement, so as to provide for the possible variation in the length of the chain or
wire connected with the signal, and only when the signal lever is in such position
as to allow the signal to be at danger is it possible to move any conflicting part, or
vice versa.