NEW RAILWAY SIGNAL LIGHTS, TO BE CALLED 'REDGRAVE'S PATENT RAILWAY SIGNAL LIGHT
Year: 1854

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Redgrave and Thomas
Redgrave at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Peti-
tion, on the 28th January 1854.
We, WILLIAM REDGRAVE and THOMAS REDGRAVE, of 23, Bow Street,
Covent Garden, in the Parish of St. Paul and County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "NEW RAILWAY SIGNAL
LIGHTS, TO BE CALLED 'REDGRAVE'S PATENT RAILWAY SIGNAL LIGHT,'" to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is for the preservation of the lives of the
public when travelling by railroad, by preventing all accidents to which railway
travelling is liable, viz, a break down on the line between stations, collisions,
stoppages, &c.; in fact, all and every accident to which railroads are or can
be liable.
The principle of this Invention consists in a main gas pipe from one end
of the line to the other, even should it extend a thousand or more miles, from
which main small branch pipes do proceed, leading up to lamp posts placed
a quarter of a mile distant from each other, at the top of which lamp post a
lamp is to be fixed, in which the railway signal lights are to be. The lamp to
be made in any shape, but will consist of two compartments, an upper and
lower, the lower part to be perfectly dark, in the top of which lower or dark

page_text: part a small orifice is to be left, opening to the upper compartment. The
upper compartment will be dark before and behind, but at each side facing
up and down the line is to be fixed two red bull's eyes; in the lower or dark
compartment of the lamp a small jet of gas will be continually burning,
night and day, which will be quite invisible. At every second lamp a stop-
cock will be fixed in a box, with a lock and key, a duplicate key of which is
to be given to the driver or guard of every train, so that should any accident
occur, a break down, or carriages thrown across the line, &c., a guard or driver
has only to run-to the nearest stop-cock; which in no case can be so far as a
quarter of a mile, unlock the box, and, by turning the stop-cock, will turn on
the gas, and instantly throw a brilliant light one or two miles (at option) each
way from where he turns it on up and down the line; and so stopping all
trains up and down the line from coming near, at the very least, half a
mile, from the scene of accident, and thereby preventing the possibility of
collision, or one train running into another, and thus saving the sacrifice of
human life. Should a stoppage occur at any station up or down the line, the
signal lights can be used at the said station precisely in the same way, so pre-
venting danger of accident at all the stations.
The warning of the signal lights is accomplished when the stop-cock is
turned; the small jet of gas which is continually burning in the dark or lower
compartment of the lamp is thrown up in a most brilliant light through the
orifice that is left in the lower compartment into the upper compartment where
the red bull's eyes are fixed, whereby two or four miles (at option) of brilliant
light is instantly thrown down the line one or two miles each way from where
the stop-cock is turned. It cannot possibly fail in the action, and will prevent
the possibility of any accident on every railroad.