IMPROVEMENTS FOR LOCKING AND INTERLOCKING QLANIR PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION POINTS AND SIGNALS, AND BETTER CONTROLING TRAFFIC ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Timmins, of Loveday Street, Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Exccutor of William Baines, of Oakfield
House, Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, Engineer (deceased),
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS FOR LOCKING AND INTERLOCKING
QLANIR
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Baines at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st November 1874.
I, WILLIAM BAINES, of Oakfield House, Handsworth, in the County
of Stafford, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS FOR LOCKING AND INTERLOCKING POINTS AND SIGNALS, AND
BETTER CONTROLING TRAFFIC ON RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object the locking and interlocking some one
or more of the levers that conflict, and freeing others that are required to
be worked.

page_text: upper surface is furnished with bevils or pulley wheels, and are caused
to work against fixed and corresponding bevils or pulley wheels, when
the ordinary catch bars are raised out of their notches, and by first move
of the hand levers the locking and interlocking of all conflicting levers
and the freeing of those that do not conflict and is required to work,
certain traffic instantaneously taking place with the freeing of the lever.
Before any movement of the signals or switches can take place the
locking bolt is caused to deflect and gives motion to and alters the
position of a rocking shaft, the locks being brought in a line with
the side of the levers, thereby effecting the locking and interlocking of
certain levers, and which position is maintained during the whole stroke
by certain arms projecting from the locks and rubbing against the flat
surface of the lever, one arm being lowered while the other is raised, the
latter arm being required to hold up the locking bar of some other lever
or levers, and the former to maintain it in its locking position. This
system can be continued with a large quantity of levers.
I also employ a time measurer_such as is described in the Specification
of a prior Patent granted to me, No. 779, in the year 1871, together with
the apparatus above described, so that if a wrong signal is sent by the
block it cannot do any harm, because the signals will be locked by the
time measurer.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters 2
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by Thomas Timmins,
of Loveday Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Executor of the late William Baines (deceased) in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 19th June 1875.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS 3
TIMMINS, of Loveday Street, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Executor of William Baines, of Oakfield House, Handsworth, in the
County of Stafford, Engineer, who departed this life on the 27th day
of March, One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her 'most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto him, the said William Baines, Her special
license that he, the said William Baines, his executors, administrators, and.
assigns, or such others as he, the said William Baines, his executors
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS FOR
LOCKING AND INTERLOCKING POINTS AND SIGNALS, AND BETTER CONTROLLING TRAFFIC
ON RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others) that he, the said
William Baines, his executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under his, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Timmins, as such Executor
as aforesaid, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to
say :—
This Invention has for its object the locking and interlocking some one
or more of the levers that conflict, and freeing others that are required
to be worked.
In constructing the levers in my machine each one is furnished with
a bar or rod carried by the hand lever and secured to it by guides. Its
upper surface is furnished with bevils, which are caused to work against
fixed and corresponding bevils when the ordinary catch bar is raised out
of its notch and by the first move of the hand lever.
Before any movement of the signals or switches can take place the
bar or rod (or locking bolt) is caused to deflect and give motion to and
alter the position of a rocking shaft or lock having projecting arms upon
it, which being brought in a line with the side of the levers effect the

page_text: locking and interlocking of the levers. The position of the lock is
maintained by the arms projecting from the lock rubbing or bearing
against the flat surface of the lever. When one arm of the locking
shaft is lowered the other is raised, the latter arm being required to hold
up the locking bolt of some other lever or levers, and the former to
maintain it in its locking position. This system can be continued with
a large quantity of levers.
DESCRIPTION
OF THE DRAWINGD
Figure 1 is a front view and Figure 2 an end view of a series of signal
and switch levers interlocked by means of apparatus constructed
according to this Invention.
Rocking shafts or locks are mounted between the levers. They are
provided with arms, which in certain positions of the levers bear against
their flat surfaces. The rocking shafts or locks when thus prevented
from moving in turn render immoveable any levers which they control,
arms upon the rocking shafts or locks sustaining the locking bolts of the
levers and preventing them from being withdrawn.
In the Drawings I have shown a series consisting of twelve inter-
locking levers, but the number and arrangement will in each case depend
on the plan of the railway lines which they are intended to work.
Figure 3 is a plan of the rocking shaft or locks. The twelve levers are
in this Figure shown in section.
a¹, a³, &c., are the levers; b, b, are the ordinary catch bars upon them;
c, c, are the locking bolts with bevils at their upper ends; they are
pressed upwards by springs against the fixed bevils d, d, so that the first
motion of the lever (supposing it to be free to move) causes the locking
.bolt to descend; e, e, are the rocking shafts or locks; they are mounted
on studs e*, and have arms e¹, e³, upon them. The arms c¹ are intended
to rest against the flat sides of the levers a', a³, &c., and the arms e² are
intended to rest beneath the fect of the locking bolts c and prevent the
descent of the bolt whenever it and its lever ought not to be moved.
Thus it will be seen that the lever a' cannot be moved whilst the other
levers are all in the back, as the Drawings show, because the side of the

page_text: lever a² is holding the rocking shaft or lock between the two levers in
such a position that the locking bolt c of the lever a¹ cannot descend,
and so the lever is held immoveable. Similarly the lever a² is held by
the next rocking shaft or lock, but the lever a³ is free to move. If the
lever as be moved from back to front it frees the lever a² and locks the
lever a. It locks the lever at as it commences to move from back to
front, and it is not until it is completing its motion that it unlocks the
lever a³. In a similar manner a² when brought to the front locks a³ and
unlocks a¹. It is unnecessary to follow thus in detail the action of each
lever in turn, as it can be clearly gathered from the Drawings.
In some cases one rocking shaft or lock may be made to control
another at a distance by means of a connecting rod coupling arms on
the two locks; the locks then always move simultaneously. The rocking
levers or locks between the levers a³, aª, and a, a, are thus connected;
again two rocking shafts or locks may be made partially to control each
other by means of arms, as in the case of the locks between the
levers a, a, and a¹, a". Sometimes additional locking apparatus may
be applied, as is shown in connection with the lovers at and aª. This
apparatus is marked f.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I claim
the construction of interlocking apparatus with rocking shafts or locks
turning about centres between the levers and having arms acting against
their sides, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Timmins, as such Executor
as aforesaid, have hereunto set my hand and scal, this Seventeenth
day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-five.