IMPROVED SIGNALLING APPARATUS FOR USE IN PRIVATE OR PUBLIC BUILDINGS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hermann Schildberg, of Westminster Chambers,.
Victoria Street, in the County of Middlesex, Merchant, for the
Invention of "IMPROVED SIGNALLING APPARATUS FOR USE IN PRIVATE OR
PUBLIC BUILDINGS."-A communication from abroad by Hugo Becker,,
of Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia.
Sealed the 5th April 1870, and dated the 7th October 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hermann Schildberg.at.
the Office of the Commissioners. of Patents,, with his Petition, on
the 7th October 1869..
I, HERMANN SCHILDBERG, of Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street,
5. in the County of Middlesex, Merchant,. do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVED SIGNALLING APPARATUS FOR USE IN PRIVATE
OR PUBLIC BUILDINGS," to be as follows:-
The improved signalling apparatus which forms the subject of the
present Invention consists of a pneumatic arrangement whereby a detent

page_text: lever, or catch connected with clockwork mechanism can be raised so as
to release the clockwork which will then be made to sound a bell.
In carrying out the Invention a column of air contained in a close
pipe or tube is by the depression of a lever, the compression of an elastic
ball or cushion, or other equivalent contrivance propelled along the close
pipe or tube, and made to lift the top plate of a bellows on which rests
the tail of a lever or arm, which is keyed on to a horizontal rocking shaft.
Another lever is keyed on to this shaft and acts upon a vertical rod,
which when lifted up by the lever will release the detent of the clock-
work and allow the mechanism to act on the hammer, which by striking
a bell sounds the alarum. The horizontal shaft may be provided with
any number of arms or levers, acted upon by separate bellows which are
in connection with close air pipes or tubes extending to different parts of
the house or building. In order to indicate the rooms from which any
signal is made, a number, letter, or name is marked on a plate which is
held up by a catch lever provided with a stud which rests upon the bellows
connected with the corresponding room so that when the bellows is lifted
by the air which is pressed forward in the tube not only will the alarum bo
sounded but the plate with the number or name thereon will be released
and will drop down behind a hole in the front frame and be seen through
the same.
When the signal has been answered the numbered plate may
be lifted up again on to the catch by means of a vertical rod which may
also be connected by a rack and pinion motion to the clockwork
so as to cause it to wind up the same whenever it is raised.
By a modification of the clockwork mechanism the bellows when once
inflated may be made to release a detent and 'allow the alarum to keep
on sounding until the clockwork runs down unless the attendant by means
of a lever and handle replaces the detent and stops the clock mechanism.
This action of replacing the detent by the lever may be made to assist in
winding up the clock. A similar arrangement may be adapted to a street
door bell pull, and also to a shop or warehouse door, so that when the door
is opened it will act upon a trip lever and sound the alarum by compress-
ing the bellows, but the door will pass by the trip lever when closing and
will not act on the alarum.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hermann Schildberg in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th April 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HERMANN
SCHILDBERG, of Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, in the County
of Middlesex, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Hermann Schildberg, Her special licence
that I, the said Hermann Schildberg, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Hermann Schildberg, my 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 "IMPROVED SIGNALLING
APPARATUS FOR USE IN PRIVATE OR PUBLIC BUILDINGS," a communication to me
from abroad Hugo Becker, of Berlin, in Kingdom of Prussia, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Hermann Schildberg, my exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said Hermann Schildberg, 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:-
The improved signalling apparatus which forms the subject of this
Invention consists of one or more tubes or pipes the ends of which are
enlarged or which terminate at their respective extremities in elastic
balls, or in cups, cones, or cylinders, the ends of the latter being covered
and closed and made wholly or partially air-tight with discs of india-

page_text: rubber, leather, parchment, or any other suitable elastic material, or
other material supported or pressed outwards by an internal spring,
which material, as the case may be, is drawn tight over the enlarged
open ends of the said tubes or pipes, or mouths of the cups, cones, or
cylinders, and secured by a binder or ligature of wire or other band or
metal ring or collar, so that when the elastic ball is compressed or the
disc is pressed into the cup, cone, or cylinder at one end of such tube
the disc or other elastic expanding medium at the other end of the tube
is forced outwards by the pneumatic action of the air contained or
inclosed therein, and is made to release a detent, trigger, or pawl, or
actuate a lever connected with clockwork or other mechanism for ringing
a bell, moving a slide, number, letter, or signal, or other sonorous or
visual indicator, separately or simultaneously.
'
In carrying out the said Invention in practice the column of air in the
pipe or tube, fitted as before described, is made to lift a plate, upon
which rests the free end of a lever or arm fixed at its other end to a
horizontal shaft in a box or frame, which may be fixed in any convenient
place; to this shaft is also fixed another lever which acts upon a vertical
rod, and this rod when raised by the last-mentioned lever releases the
detent of clockwork or bell striking mechanism fixed above it, and
causes the bell to ring. The horizontal shaft may be fitted with any
number of arms or levers acted upon by separate pipes or tubes from
different parts or rooms of a house or building. In order to indicate the
room from which any signal is made, a number, letter, or name corre-
sponding with the number, letter, or name of such room is marked
upon a slide, which is held up by a catch lever provided with a stud;
this stud rests upon the plate of the terminal disc of the pipe in con-
nection with the particular room, so that when the disc plate is lifted by
the pneumatic action of the air in the said pipe the bell or alarum will
be sounded, and simultaneously the slide with the number, &c. of the S
room from which the signal is made will drop down behind a hole in the
front of the frame and be visible through the same. When the signal
has been answered the numbered or lettered slide may be lifted up again
into the catch by means of a vertical rod, which may be also be connected
by a rack and pinion to the bell mechanism, so as to cause the spring of 8
the latter to be wound up by the said rod whenever it is raised.
By a modification of the bell mechanism the bell may be made to
keep on sounding until the mechanism has run down, or until the

page_text: attendants stop it by moving the lever and handle before described, and
this action may also be made to assist in winding up the spring before
mentioned if required. A. similar arrangement may be adapted to a
street door bell pull, and also to a shop. or warehouse door, so that when
the door is open it will act upon the trip lever and sound the bell by
compressing the elastic or expanding media, at the same time causing
the door bell to ring, and by means of a pipe or tube in connection with
such elastic media cause a bell or alarum to sound in any inner room or
interior part-of the building, and thus indicate the opening of the outer
door in the night, or at any other time, while the closing of the said door
will not act on the alarum.
▾
I further propose to add in connection with the signal apparatus
before mentioned a central or control apparatus, to be fixed in the
apartment of the manager or other principal of an hotel or other
building, or in the porter's room, which control apparatus, and at any
other apparatus in any other part of the building, signals will be
simultaneously given, and by which simultaneous signals may also be
given in any number of directions where the signal apparatuses are
provided; thus the central apparatus being connected by two leading
pipes, for instance, with an apparatus placed upon the second floor, and
provided with slides for each room, numbered respectively with the
corresponding numbers of the said rooms, and also with a similar
apparatus in the porter's room, so that when a signal is given, say, from
room Number 9, plates with the number 9 fall down in front of the
frames, and rings the bells in all the apparatuses simultaneously, and at
the same time indicate the number of the floor in the porter's room.
When the attendant lifts the number up again at the apparatus on the
second floor, the number in the central apparatus disappears and
indicates that the room is being attended to. This is effected by placing
in the apparatus at the second floor two air expanders, one of which is
fixed so that when the attendant moves the lover in front of the frame
to replace the indicated number of the room the said vertical rod moves
a bell crank, one limb of which presses upon the cover of the air
expander, and thus forwards the air into an air expander in the control
apparatus, and makes the number disappear from the opening in the
frame. When the vertical rod at the second floor apparatus is going up
it lifts also a horizontal shaft fitted along the upper part of the frame,
and connected with another vertical rod at the right side of the frame in

page_text: order to bring a tooth on the latter rod into a catch thrown out of gear
when a signal is given, when the last-mentioned vertical rod falls down
and forces a horizontal rod which is fitted along the bottom of the frame
backwards towards the left, and causes its opposite end to press against
the elastic cover of the other air expander, and drives the air forward
through another pipe into the air expander of the control apparatus, and
causes the number of the floor to appear, releases the detent of the bell
mechanism, and causes the bell to ring for a few seconds.
The air expanders which form the terminals of the air pipes I prefer
to make of shallow cylindrical cups closed with discs of india-rubber tied
or otherwise fastened round their rims. By means of one such shallow
cups placed under the horizontal limb of two jointed rods, the vertical
rod having a notch in it, and being made to cant over as it ascends, I
propose to actuate a gravitating horizontal striker of a single stroke bell
or other sonorous signal to be used by or in connection with any
pneumatic apparatus in lieu of the continuous sounding or multiple
stroke bells, actuated by spring and wheel or the bell mechanism
herein-before described.
The accompanying Drawing is intended to illustrate the general form
and mode of fitting the indicating apparatus, the several parts and mode
of arranging the same can however be varied as circumstance may

page_text: actuate the striker of the bell by the power of the coil spring " till
the rod g falls. The upward motion of the lids c, which are each formed
with a lip or flange c', causes the said lips to come in contact with studs
in the tail of the catch levers c³, Fig. 3, in the catches or pawls of which
levers the studs fixed to the backs of the numbered or lettered slides
are held when up. j is a vertical rod or bar to which the horizontal
cross bar is fixed, and rises and falls therewith; the cross bar upon
which the studs c rest when down raises them into the catches of the
levers c. The top of the rod or bar ; when raised by the attendant
answering the signal comes in contact with the tail of the lever ³, which
is attached to the end of the spindle of the coil spring drum, and thus at
each lift of the rod ; the coil is wound up, so that the mechanism is
thereby kept in going order.
Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the apparatus for attendants, fitted for
signalling and indicating the numbers of the rooms of a floor, and at tho
same time indicating at the central or control apparatus the number,
name, or place of the attendant's apparatus where the signal is made,
and also when the attendant is answering the signal. When the
occupant of, say, room Number 1, requires the attendant, the bell a is
rung, and the number 1 falls down in front of the aperture, when it
remains visible till removed; at the same time a catch 6 which supports
the vertical rod or bar c is released, and the latter falls partly by its own
weight and partly by the weight of the horizontal bar d jointed thereto
at e; the pulley in the lower end of the bar c then strikes against the
end of the horizontal bar f which is jointed at f, and pushes it in the
direction of the arrow, and causes the button on the end to press into
the shallow cup g, and propel the air along the pipe g¹ to the central or
control apparatus, which is made to indicate as above described the
number, name, or place of the apparatus where the signal is mado; the
clastic force of the flexible disc of the cap g is sufficient to restore the
rod to its normal position, the bar c being at the same time down the
hinge fallows that end to slide up on to the pulley f; the attendant
having answered the signal raises the vertical bar h, and thereby raises
the number 1 out of sight, winds the bell mechanism by raising the end
5 of the lever i, and lifts a bell crank j, the horizontal limb of which works
in the jaws k of the bar h and presses the button into the shallow air
pressing cup m, which propels the air along a second pipe terminating
at the central or control apparatus in the manager's or porter's room; and

page_text: there causes the number, name, or place of the attendant's apparatus,
indicated when the signal was made to disappear at the control appa-
ratus, and thus shew that the occupant of the room Number 1 is being
attended to, the contrary being the case while the number, name, &c.,
remains in sight at the control apparatus.
The control apparatus is a box or frame which can be fitted with as
many double terminals as there are attendants' apparatuses to be controled
thereby. The action of each of one of these double terminals shews when
and at which attendant's apparatus the signal is given by sounding a bell,
and shewing the number, name, or place of such apparatus, and the 1
action of the other terminal shews when the signal has been attended to
by causing the number, name, &c. to disappear; when required the bell
mechanism of the control apparatus can be so arranged as to cause the
bell to continue ringing till the number, &c. disappears.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hermann Schildberg, have hereunto 1
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.