IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING BETWEEN THE GUARDS AND ENGINE DRIVERS, AND BETWEEN THE PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND ENGINE DRIVERS OF RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Hallen, of Cornwall Road, Lambeth, in the
County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, and William Holland Kingston, of
Bandon, in the County of Cork, Ireland, A.B.T.C., Dublin, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING BETWEEN THE GUARDS AND
ENGINE DRIVERS, AND BETWEEN THE PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND ENGINE DRIVERS
OF RAILWAY TRAINS."
Sealed the 4th July 1856, and dated the 9th January 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Hallen and
William Holland Kingston at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 9th January 1856.
We, EDWARD HALLEN, of Cornwall Road, Lambeth, in the County of
Surrey, Civil Engineer, and WILLIAM HOLLAND KINGSTON, of Bandon, in
the County of Cork, Ireland, A.B.T.C., Dublin, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN COMMUNICATING BETWEEN THE GUARDS
AND ENGINE DRIVERS, AND BETWEEN THE PASSENGERS, GUARDS AND ENGINE DRIVERS
OF RAILWAY TRAINS, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of a chest or reservoir fixed in the guard's van or
carriage, to which one or more whistles or pipes, which may be sounded when
required, are added or connected. This chest or reservoir is so contrived as to
be supplied with air forced into it at high pressure by means of bellows, with
single or double feeders, worked by levers or windlasses moved by mechanical

page_text: contrivances connected with the axletree of the van or carriage, or by the
hands or feet of the guards.
The same means, with a smaller chest or reservoir, and only one whistle or
pipe, can be used in the passengers' carriages, with which signals suited for
observation by night and day may be used, to indicate to the guards and
engine drivers from which carriage the alarm was sounded, or the signals
alone may be exhibited.
The guards would be able by our Invention, by proarranged signals from
the whistles or pipes, to give the drivers the requisite directions, such as "stop,"
"reverse," "increase speed," "slacken speed," "go on," &c.
These communications can be made at any time, whether the trains are
in progress or not, even if the carriages of the trains are disconnected from the
engines or from each other, as well as from one train to another, whether on
the same or different lines of rail.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edward Hallen and William Holland Kingston in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 5th July 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, EDWARD
HALLEN, of Cornwall Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer,
and WILLIAM HOLLAND KINGSTON, of Bandon, in the County of Cork, Ireland,
A.B.T.C., Dublin, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six,-in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Edward Hallen and William Holland Kingston, Her special licence that we,
the said Edward Hallen and William Holland Kingston, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Edward Hallen and
William Holland Kingston, our 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 IMPROVE
MENTS IN COMMUNICATING BETWEEN THE GUARDS AND ENGINE DRIVERS, AND
. BETWEEN THE PASSENGERS, GUARDS, AND ENGINE DRIVERS OF RAILWAY TRAINS,

page_text: upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Edward Hallen and
William Holland Kingston, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
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 we, the said Edward Hallen and William Holland
Kingston, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement (that is to say):-
Our said Invention for improvements consists of a chest or reservoir, in or
on some suitable or convenient place of the guard's van or carriage, to which
one or more, whistles or pipes (reed as well as plain, of any form,) which can
be sounded when required, are added or connected. This chest or reservoir
is supplied with air forced into it at a high pressure by means of bellows, with
single or double feeders, worked by levers or windlasses moved by mechanical
contrivances connected with the axletree, the wheel, or the break of the van
or carriage, or by the hands or feet of the guard. This pressure is obtained
by means of a weight, springs formed of steel, india-rubber, or other suitable
material, or other means acting on the top-board of the bellows. This air is
admitted to or cut off from the whistle or whistles, pipe or pipes, at will, by
means of cocks, valves, slides, or other mechanical contrivances for permitting
or cutting off the flow of fluids.
The whistle or whistles, pipe or pipes, are covered by or conveyed into a
tube or pipe, fixed to the top or some other suitable or convenient part of the
guard's van or carriage, the fore part of which tube or pipe fits loosely into
the after end of a tube or pipe fixed to the next preceding carriage, and which
extends along its top, or other suitable or convenient place, the fore part of
which tube or pipe also fits loosely into the after part of another tube or pipe
of the same description fixed to the carriage preceding it, and so along all.
the carriages of the train, till the foremost tube or pipe arrives near the
engine driver, where (to prevent the air in front of the train entering it, and
causing a current from front to rear through these tubes or pipes, so as.
to materially check or impede the sound proceeding from the guard's van to:
the driver,) it is curved or bent round, or covered by a conical or other,
shaped shield, as shewn in the Drawing at A, or by other means. By making.
these tubes or pipes which run along from one carriage to another to fit.
loosely the one into the other, and the after part of each conical, trumpet, or

page_text: bell-shaped, or flattened conical; trumpet, or bell-shaped, or of other suitable
form, they are not effected by the curves which may occur on either side of the
train, as the conical, trumpet, or bell-shaped part may be made to suit the
⚫quickest curve; and these tubes or pipes, not being connected or attached to
each other by mechanical joinings or couplings, will allow any carriage of
the train to be disconnected, or others added, without effecting, when the train
is in motion, the means of communication between the guard's van and tho
¡driver, as, on linking the carriages, the fore part of each tube or pipe will
always run into the after part of the tube or pipo fixed to the carriago
.immediately preceding it, and thus the means of communication will be
complete.
'
These tubes or pipes may be formed into one, by union joints or other
mechanical means of casy connection or disconnection, requiring however
additional attention and time (whereas the unconnected tubes or pipes requiro
neither) to complete the means of communication. And it is subject to be
ineffectual through negligence or accident, as to join or couple them, our
improved conical, trumpet, or bell-shaped ends must bo dispensed with.
As the external air has a current from the front to the rear when the train
is in progress, which current may prevent or impede the guard's signal being
heard by or conveyed to the driver through the surrounding atmosphere,
we deem it requisite to convey it to the latter through the tubes or pipes
herein-before described, and thus counteract any. such effect.
The backward current of the external air (when the train is in motion)
may, if desired, be made available to cause a current of air to pass from the
guard's van towards the driver, through the before-mentioned tubes or pipes,
by presenting to it one or more trumpet or bell-mouthed tubes, curved or bent
as shewn in the Drawing at B.
To enable the passengers to communicate an alarm or signal, when requisite,
-similar_aparatus, with bellows, whistle, or pipe, are fitted under the seat; or in
any other convenient place of their carriages, and brought into action by tho
same mechanical means (except the break), or by the passengers themselves,
in place of the guard, as herein-before described.
As in this case the alarm or signal would not be required to be so long or so
frequent as those from the guard to the driver, a portable feeder, of a descrip-
tion similar to that shown in the Drawing at C, may be used to fill the bellows
previous to the starting of the train; or the top-board of the bellows may be
raised by mechanical means; in this latter case admitting the air through the
feeding valves, which open as the top-board is raised, and close when it begins
to descend. In these cases the top-board of the bellows, wlien raised to its.

page_text: height, must be retained in that position by bolts, keys, catches, or other
mechanical contrivances, which on being disengaged by pulling a handle,
lever, or other mechanical contrivance inside the carriage, will cause the
top-board of the bellows (acted on by weights or springs as herein-before
mentioned) to descend, and sound the whistle or pipe.
It can be so arranged that the top-board in descending should raise at tho
same time an arm as a day signal, to indicate from which of the carriages tho
signal or alarm is sounded. This arm may be made available as a night
signal, by adding a bell-shaped cap or cup at one end, to cover the lamp of
the carriage, from which, when the arm is raised, a stream of light will proceed,
shewing from what carriage the signal or alarm is made.
If it be considered desirable for the passengers to communicate with the
driver without the intervention of the guard, their whistlo or pipe, its, or
other sound from their carriage, may be covered by or conveyed into the
before-mentioned tude or pipe fixed to their carriage.
In goods trains the communication from tho guard's van to the driver can
be maintained by the aparatus herein-before described, fixing similar tubes or
pipes to some suitablo or convenient part of the trucks or other carriages
forming the train.
Having thus "particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo performed," and illustrated
the same by the accompanying Drawings, it must be clearly understood that we
do not claim as our Invention all the parts we have described in this Specifi-
cation, nor do we confine ourselves to the forms, dimensions, proportions, or
relative positions of the different parts, so long as the peculiar character of
the Invention is retained, and we therefore include all such variations as the
principle of our said Invention (as herein-before described) permits; and that
what we do claim as our "Invention for Improvements in Communicating
between the Guards and Engine Drivers, and between the Passengers and
Guards, and Engine Drivers of Railway Trains," are the combinations of tho
several parts to make the communications described, that is to say :-
First, the conveyance, from the guard's van or carriage to the engine driver,
of the sound of a whistle or whistles, pipe or pipes, produced there by a
bellows, or other sound or sounds, signal or signals, made there through tubes,
or pipes, with conical, trumpet, or bell-shaped ends, or other suitable form,
unconnected by mechanical joinings or couplings, or through tubes or pipes,
coupled or joined together, running from the guard's van or carriage along the
carriages of the train (passengers as well as goods), as herein-before more
particularly described.

page_text: Second, the curving or bending round the end of the tube or pipe next to
the driver, or covering it with a conical or other shaped shield, as herein-
before more particularly described, or other means to prevent the air in front
of the train entering it, so as materially to check or impede the sound passing
from the guard's van or carriage to the driver.
Third, the making the external air which rushes backwards (to fill the
vacuum caused by the train when in progress) available, by means of one
or more curved or bent tubes or pipes, as herein-beforo more particularly
described, to convey the sound through the tubes or pipes before mentioned.
from the guard's. van or carriage towards the driver.
Fourth, the supplying the passengers' carriages with the aparatus herein-
before more particularly described, the sound from which, or sound produced
there by other means, may be made available to communicate with the
guard or with the driver through these tubes or pipes, as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Edward Hallen and William Holland
Kingston, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Fifth day of
July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
Signed and sealed in the presence of
SAMUEL HALLEN.
EDWARD HALLEN. (L.S.)
W. H. KINGSTON. (L.S.)