PREVENTING COLLISIONS BETWEEN TRAINS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Luigi Isidoro Guano, fu Giovanni Battista, of
Genoa, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "PREVENTING COLLISIONS
BETWEEN TRAINS ON RAILWAYS," termed "APPARATO AUTOMATICO ELETTRO-
MECCANICO DI SICUREZZA PER EVITARE GLI SCONTRI SULLE FERROVIE,"
Sealed the 17th May 1878, and dated the 28th November 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Luigi Isidoro Guano at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th November 1877.
"
LUIGI ISIDORO GUANO, fu GIOVANNI BATTISTA, of Genoa, Mechanical
Engineer. PREVENTING COLLISIONS BETWEEN TRAINS ON RAILWAYS," termed
APPARATO AUTOMATICO ELETTRO-MECCANICO DI SICUREZZA PER EVITARE GLI
SCONTRI SULLE FERROVIE."
"
This apparatus for preventing the collision of trains is composed of a motor (A)
placed behind the switches or points of a station on the travelling line of a railway,
and under the level of the sleepers of the same; it is composed of a vertical cogged
rod (e) kept uplifted by two balancing weights (e, e,) superposed by two jointed bars
at their extremity (,), this rod or rack gearing in a cogged wheel (g), the teeth of
which work in a jointed chain (i, i, i, i,), which in its turn gears in two smaller
wheels (c, c,), furnished also with teeth and parallel to each other, and connected by
a metallic wire of from 6 to 7 millimeters in diameter, supported by glass pulleys,
vertical in the straight lines, horizontal and vertical in the curved lines, attaining at
a distance of four kilometres a mechanism (B) consisting in two cogged wheels
(n, n,) parallel on the same axle, which, owing to a simple play of levers and the
tension of the above-named wire, raises from 18 to 20 centimetres above the level of
the iron rods a lever (X), which the muscular force of man could not remove.
All the tenders of the trains will carry on the axle of their central wheels a special
wheel (d), which is placed so that the train passing on a line upon which the
machinery (A) is adapted will exert a pressure on the two jointed bars (f. f.), super-
posed on the vertical rod (2) in such a manner that this latter will be obliged to
lower, and therefore to cause the cogged wheel (g) to undergo a displacement equal
to the seventh part of its circumference.

page_text: · Such a displacement is enough to put in tension the metallic wire, which by that
evolution lifts up the lever (X) of the machinery (B) placed at the distance of four
kilometres.
And in order that this metallic wire may have for its function only to lift up the
lever of the mechanism (B) in order to eliminate the causes of friction and resistance,
every motor (A) and every mechanism (B) is connected by an electric rubbing con-
tact (g), by means of which all the signalmen's houses and the stations of arrival and
departure may be advised of the passage of trains.
Now by these electro-mechanical combinations I obtain the result that every
train travelling either slowly or at a great speed will always have at a distance of
four kilometres before it the iron lever (X) moved automatically as its forerunner,
which it will lower by the special wheel (d) added to the axle of the tender when-
ever there is no other train on the same line.
The steam engines of every train will be provided with a jointed rod (8) commu-
nicating by means of small levers (t) connected by wire to a whistle (j) and to
several alarm bells (o) in the part of the machine occupied by the engine driver.
The guard's and brake vans will also be furnished with jointed rods, which, by
means of small levers (t) connected by wire, may cause an alarm or bell to sound or
ring either in the guard's or the brake vans.
Every passing train acting on the motor (A) by its special wheel (d), adapted to
the axle of the tender (T), lifts instantaneously at four kilometres the metallic
lever (X) of the mechanism (B), and warns likewise the signalmen's stations (g, g,)
and the stations of arrival and departure (N, S,), owing to their conjunction with
the motor (A) by the electric wire (R).
If, for instance, by an unfortunate mischance one train should come against
another, every engine being furnished with the rod (S), this will run against the
lever (X) of the machinery (B), lifted up by the mechanism (A), and both the whistle
and alarm bells will announce to the engine driver, the guard, and the signalmen
that another train comes against them.
This advertisement. being simultaneous, since both trains pass upon similar
mechanisms, as much for the up train as for the down train, this cannot succeed but
at a distance of four kilometres, since a train at the highest speed can in theory
stop in a kilometre, and in practice in only six or seven hundred metres, therefore
two trains running against each other, by that simultaneous advertisement have a
good deal of time and space to check the train, to reverse steam on the machine,
and in case of need to return to the station of departure; and in this manner the
lives of passengers, merchandise, and railway material will be saved.
This apparatus not only prevents the collision of trains, but warns the station
masters of the progressive advance of the same, because, there being given for every
four kilometres of road a stroke of the bell by means of the electric wire, warning
the signalmen as well as the stations, this automatic advertisement will be reported
by electric dials of my Invention (K), which will chronologically point out the
number of motors on which the travelling train has already passed, and which
complete the distance from the station (N) to the station (S).
Let us assume, for instance, that from the station (N) to the station (S) there be
a distance of twenty-four kilometres, considering that the mechanisms (A and B)
will be interpolated between them, namely, that another motor (A) must be applied
at least a kilometre before attaining the first mechanism (B), and so on, it follows
as a logical consequence that from motor to motor there will always be a distance of
three kilometres, and on the dials the whole distance will be pointed eight times.
Should it happen that, after having pointed out three times the passage of motors,
the dial did not mark other evolutions, this would be an unerring sign of some
deviation or accident of the locomotive, and therefore the station master nearest to
the place of the disaster will be able to make the necessary verifications, and inform
the superior authorities in order to prepare the special help which circumstances
may require.

page_text: "
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Luigi Isidoro Guano in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
May 1878.
LUIGI ISIDORO GUANO, fu GIOVANNI BATTISTA, of Genoa, Mechanical
Engineer. "PREVENTING COLLISIONS BETWEEN TRAINS ON RAILWAYS," termed
APPARATO AUTOMATICO ELETTRO-MECANICO DI SICUREZZA PER EVITARE GLI
SCONTRI SULLE FERROVIE."
Many eminent engineers both in America and in Europe have directed their
attention to the important matter of finding an efficient means of avoiding collisions
of trains upon railways; some have sought to accomplish this useful and humane
task by means of electricity, others by mechanical means, but hitherto they have
failed to discover a means which, reduced to practice, has been esteemed worthy of
adoption, either by reason of its being easily adapted to the existing permanent
ways and railway rolling stock, or of its limited cost.
It has been proposed by some to stop a train immediately by increasing the
brake power, and applying the brakes or shoes at the same time upon the wheels of
all the vehicles of a train going at full speed; others have proposed to lift a train
running at the highest rate of speed upon a number of levers; and others again
have proposed to fit the locomotive with powerful springs projecting outward to
receive and lessen the shock when collision is unavoidable; but none of these
Inventors, with their ingenious contrivances, set forth formula giving the rate of
velocity in accordance with the instantaneous shock and its inertia, for had they
done so they could never obtain a co-efficient putting in equilibrium the speed and
the inert state, so as to render their projects worthy of being put into practice.
There are two modes of calculating the action of a machine; firstly, by con-
sidering it in the abstract by way of geometrical principles ruling the proportions
in which every element of an engine tends to move, and the different rates at which
the efforts of the power and of the resistance must work in order to obtain the
equilibrium; secondly, by considering the engine, as it really is, a combination of
parts, which, being put in motion by a motor of a given force and speed, commu-
nicates its movement to machinery to obtain any kind of action.
Once these preliminaries admitted, it cannot be denied that machines in general
are a varied combination of the most simple mechanisms, and since these resolve at
the last reduction into the lever, it is an assumed certainty that any machine, how-
ever compound it may be, is but a combination of many levers.
Fully convinced of this principle, I set myself to study the most simple combina-
tions in mechanics in order if possible to solve the question of preventing the
collision of trains, and I have at length succeeded in composing the electro-
mechanical apparatus, the subject of this Invention, which I believe will meet all
requirements, both of practical and theoretical men.
This apparatus for preventing the collision of trains is composed of a motor (A)
placed behind the switches or points of a station on the travelling line of a railway,
and under the level of the sleepers of the same; it is composed of a vertical cogged
rod (2) kept uplifted by two balancing weights (e, e,) superposed by two jointed bars
at their extremity (f, f), this rod or rack gearing in a cogged wheel (g), the teeth
of which work in a jointed chain (i, i, i, i,), which in its turn gears in two smaller
wheels (c, c,), furnished also with teeth and parallel to each other, and connected by
a metallic wire of from 6 to 7 millimeters in diameter, supported by glass pulleys,
vertical in the straight lines, horizontal and vertical in the curved lines, attaining
at a distance of four kilometres a mechanism (B) consisting in two cogged wheels
(n, n,) parallel on the same axis, which, owing to a simple play of levers and the
tension of the above-named wire, raises from 18 to 20 centimetres above the level of
the iron rods a lever (X), which the muscular force of man could not remove.
All the tenders of the trains will carry on the axle of their central wheels a special
wheel. (d), which is placed so that the train passing on the line. upon. which the

page_text: machinery (A) is adapted will exert a pressure on the two jointed bars (f. f) super-
posed on the vertical rod (2) in such a manner that this latter will be obliged to
lower, and therefore to cause the cogged wheel (g) to undergo a displacement equal
to the seventh part of its circumference.
Such a displacement is enough to put in tension the metallic wire, which by that
evolution lifts up the lever (X) of the machinery (B), placed at the distance of four
kilometres.
And in order that this metallic wire may have for its function only to lift up the
lever of the mechanism (B) in order to eliminate the causes of friction and resistance,
every motor (A) and every mechanism (B) is connected by an electric contact (9), by
means of which all the signalmen's houses and the stations of arrival and departure
may be advised of the passage of trains.
Now by these electro-mechanical combinations I obtain the result that every
train travelling either slowly or at a great speed will always have at a distance of
four kilometres before it the iron lever (X) moved automatically as its forerunner,
which it will lower by the special wheel (d) added to the axle of the tender when-
ever there is no other train on the same line.
The steam engines of every train will be provided with a jointed rod (S) com-
municating by means of small levers (t) connected by wire to a whistle (2) and to
several alarm bells (o) in the part of the machine occupied by the engine driver.
"
The guard's and brake vans will also be furnished with jointed rods, which, by
means of small levers (t) connected by wire, may cause an alarm or bell to sound or
ring either in the guard's or the brake vans.
Every passing train acting on the motor (A) by its special wheel (d), adapted to
the axle of the tender (T), lifts instantaneously at four kilometres the metallic
lever (X) of the mechanism (B), and warns likewise the signalmen's stations (g, g,)
and the stations of arrival and departure (N, S,), owing to their conjunction with
the motor (A) by the electric wire (R).
If, for instance, by an unfortunate mischance one train should come against
another, every engine being furnished with the rod (S), this will run against the
lever (X) of the machinery (B), lifted up by the mechanism (A), and both the whistle
and alarm bells will announce to the engine driver, the guard and the signalmen
that another train comes against them.
This advertisement being simultaneous, since both trains pass upon similar
mechanisms, as much for the up train as for the down train, this cannot succeed but
at a distance of four kilometres, since a train at the highest speed can in theory
stop in a kilometre, and in practice in only six or seven hundred metres, therefore
two trains running against each other, by that simultaneous advertisement have a
good deal of time and space to check the train, to reverse steam on the machine,
and in case of need to return to the station of departure; and in this manner the
lives of passengers, merchandise, and railway material will be saved.
This apparatus not only prevents the collision of trains, but warns the station
master of the progressive advance of the same, because, there being given for every
four kilometres of road a stroke of the bell by means of the electric wire, warning
the signalmen as well as the stations, this automatic advertisement will be reported
by electric dials of my Invention (K), which will chronologically point out the
number of motors on which the travelling train has already passed, and which
complete the distance from the station (N) to the station (S).
Let us assume, for instance, that from the station (N) to the station (S) there be
a distance of twenty-four kilometres, considering that the mechanisms (A) and (B)
are interpolated between them, namely, that another motor (A) must be applied
at least a kilometre before attaining the first mechanism (B), and so on, it follows,
as a logical consequence, that from motor to motor there will always be a distance
of three kilometres, and on the dials the whole distance will be pointed eight times.
Should it happen that after having pointed out three times the passage of motors,
the dial marks no other evolutions, this would be an unerring sign of some devia-
tion or accident of the locomotive, and therefore the station master nearest, to the

page_text: place of the disaster will be able to make the necessary verifications, and inform the
superior authorities in order to prepare the special help which circumstances may
require.
To lessen the cost of applying my improved automatic electro-mechanical safety
apparatus for preventing collision of trains on railways, I may do away with the
toothed gearing and the special wheel of the tender, which I have above described.
The apparatus thus modified will work as follows:-A piece placed at the back of.
the engine composed of two solid bars of iron, and which carries a pinion r, butts or
strikes against a lever arm z¹ kept raised by means of a counterweight; the lever 21
in lowering sets in motion a combination of levers 7, 1, which cross each other and
slide between guides g,g; at the end c of this combination of levers is attached
the metal wire, upon which they exercise a powerful traction during their journey
between the guides; this instantaneous traction sets in motion the lever m, which
in its turn moves the lever x, the object of which is the same in this modified
apparatus as in that previously described.
This modification also permits, without the addition of supplementary apparatuses,
the correction of the effects due to the dilatation caused by the heat, for during the
heats of summer the wire may be fixed to the end e of the levers, and as the season
gradually grows colder it may be fixed, according to requirement, at the points e¹,
ell, ell, and so on.
I have now set forth and described, not only the machinery constituting my auto-
matic apparatus, but also the results obtainable therefrom; there remains only the
question of cost, and this cannot be considered discouraging, as, from an estimate
based upon an average of the principal commercial places of Europe, the kilometrical
cost results in about 800 Italian life, or, say, £32, per 1,093 yards, which is not at
all a high rate if we only calculate the diminution of the labour now employed and
of other charges, and compare it with the high cost per kilometre of any other
project submitted or tried.'
The cost of putting my Invention into practice upon existing railways might be
easily recouped by the adoption of a financial expedient which I have devised, and
will now proceed to explain.
As soon as a railway company shall have ascertained the cost of applying my
Invention upon their lines, I propose that they shall slightly increase the price of
the season tickets, and thus there will be collected in a few years, not only the cost
of applying the apparatus, but also the necessary capital for working it, and it can
scarcely be doubted that this slight increase in the price of the ticket will be
cheerfully paid when the ticket holder considers that this small additional cost
secures him from liability to the dreadful results of a railway collision.
Having now described and ascertained the nature of my Invention, and the means
by which it is or may be performed, I would observe that in order to arrive at the
most suitable dimensions for the metallic wire to effect the tension at a distance of
four thousand metres without fear of inertia or break, I have made use of Newton,
Adorlayeff, and Morin's formula of resistance, keeping in the development and
application of the same as a fundamental basis the power of cohesion which in
mechanics is ascribed to the cubic millimetre of iron for the reciprocating attinence
to the force of pressure obtained by the special wheel added to the tender, and
marked by the letter (d).
Assuming the tender to have a weight of about sixteen tons, by spreading this volume
on the four wheels and adding the special wheel (d), the said weight will be divided
into five parts, and every wheel must support one-fifth; if, then, the the tender has six
wheels, with the special wheel (d) the said volume will be divided in seven equal
parts, and in this case the special wheel (d) will exert a pressure of 1,500 kilo-
gramines, a co-efficient resulting from kilogrammes 2,285 70, less kilogrammes 775 70,
which weight is eliminated with the calculation emerging from the pressure of the
special wheel (d) upon the non-rigid passage of the jointed bars (f.), which as
they gravitate upon the vertical rod (z), compel it to make the downward movement,

page_text: which by means of the wire of six and a half millimetres in diameter operates the
lifting of the lever (X) of the machinery (B).
Further, to remove every kind of scruple from the minds of theorists, I will add
that I have also calculated the tension and relaxation of the wire on account of the
aggregation of the aerial fluids either in summer or winter seasons, and I have
verified to my entire satisfaction that in four thousand metres it is very slight, and
as it causes the wheel (9), gearing in the rack, to execute the displacement of the
seventh of its circumference, I shall have at my disposal in the heats of summer a
third more of displacement, and if needful I may reduce the traverse of the rack
when the conditions of the weather in winter bring the metallic wire to a strong
tension.
In conclusion I will observe that should it be found necessary my metallic wire
may be removed from wooden sleepers and otherwise arranged without altering my
apparatus in any way; it must always however be placed parallel to the rails.
In witness whereof, I, the said Luigi Isidoro Guano, fu Giovanni Battista,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.