CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CON- VEYING INTELLIGENCE FROM ONE PART OF A RAILWAY TRAIN TO ANOTHER
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
IIILL DUTTON, of Dutton Street, in the County of Middlesex, Brewer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eleventh day of November, in the ninth year of Her reign,
did, for ITerself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Hill Dutton, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said George Hill Dutton, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said George Hill Dutton, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CON-
VEYING INTELLIGENCE FROM ONE PART OF A RAILWAY TRAIN TO ANOTHER;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said George
Hill Dutton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what

page_text: manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Hill Dutton, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, (that is to say):
It has long been a desideratum, that when an accident occurs to any part
of a railway train unknown to the engine driver immediate notice thereof
should be given to him in order that he may arrest the progress of the train
as speedily as possible. The want of some means of speedy communication
between the guard or passengers and the engine driver has often occasioned
an accident of little primary importance to result in very disastrous conse-
quences, and which might have been avoided if the train had been arrested
without loss of time.. Various means of giving notice to the engine driver
of the occurrence of accidents to the hinder part of the train have been
proposed; but, as far as I know, none of these plans have succeeded in all
cases in effecting the intended object. The object of my Invention is to make
signals and communicate intelligence in such a manner that the engine driver's
attention cannot fail of being arrested instantaneously, and consists in the
employment of an apparatus whereby the passengers inside a carriage, or the
guard on the outside, may be enabled with facility, speed, and certainty, to
communicate any intelligence to the engine driver. The apparatus consists of
a series of metal or other tubes connected together, and extending the whole
Jength of the train, and furnished not only at each end but at convenient and
suitable places throughout their whole length with valves or covered apertures,
through which either the passengers or guard may communicate intelligence
to the engine driver, or vice versa. In addition to these apertures or
valves, the continuous pipe is also furnished with whistles of great shrillness,
or other loud signals, which should be sounded previous to any oral communi-
.cation made, in order to attract the notice of the driver. I prefer to use thin
brass or galvanized iron tubing of about one inch or an inch and a half
diameter; but tubing of any other convenient size and suitable material may
be employed. This tubing may also be placed either inside the carriage along
the roof, or along the bottom under the flooring; which latter plan is, perhaps,

page_text: more preferable, as it is more conveniently situated for connecting and
disconnecting; but wherever it is situated it will be necessary to have short
pipes branching upwards or downwards, with mouth pieces, so that intelligence
may be communicated from any part of the train with facility either to the
guard or engine driver. The main pipes which extend along the top or
bottom of the carriages as aforesaid are of course rigid and straight, and are
furnished at their ends with sockets, into which the ends of flexible connecting
pipes are inserted, for the purpose of connecting the pipe of one carriage to
the pipe of the adjoining carriage. These connecting pipes are made flexible
in order that they may yield to the action of the buffer springs, and allow for
the varying distances between the carriages as they approach and recede from
each other, as it is important that the connection of the flexible connecting
pipes between the carriages to the rigid pipes in the carriages should not only
be secure, but simple, and easy of application and disconnection, and not liable
to derangement. I apply a spring catch to each end of the flexible con-
necting pipe, which, by taking into a hasp or box made on or attached to the
end of the rigid carriage tubes, will securely hold the two tubes in connection.
In order, however, that my Invention may be more clearly understood I have
shewn in the accompanying Drawing various views of different parts of the
apparatus.
Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of part of a tube, with the speaking and
whistling apparatus attached thereto. Fig. 2 is a plan view and Fig. 8
an end view of the same. a, a, is part of the rigid metal tube, which,
in order to prevent the loss of sound, should be covered over with leather
or any other material which is a bad conductor of sound. b, b, is the
mouth piece, which is made spherical in order to enclose a proper quantity
of air, which will be required to enable the sound of the whistle to
be conveyed along the tubes. c is the whistle at the end of the tube,
and d is the valve which closes the mouth piece, as will be necessary
when sounding the whistle. The sound from the whistle enters directly into
the spherical chamber b, b, and acts against the volume of air contained therein,
and as the valve or door d is made to close accurately and prevent the sound
from escaping, the sound is made to proceed along the tube. The face of the
valve d is ground and accurately fitted to its seat, and it is closed by means
of a spring catch e, which is easily drawn back and released when it is
required to speak through the tube. In order to prevent the vibration or
noise in the carriages from interfering with the sound in the tube, this latter
is carefully prevented from coming into contact with either the metal or
woodwork of the carriages, and the holes made on the ends and partitions of

page_text: the carriages for the purpose of allowing the said tube to pass through are
lined with leather or some other suitable material. f, f, Figs. 1 and 2,
represent portions of the flexible tube, with the spring catch g, and conical
metal end piece h, which is inserted into the socket i, at the end of the rigid
tube a, a, of the carriage. The spring catch g is fastened on or affixed to the
metal end piece of the flexible tube, as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2, and when the
two tubes are brought together the spring catch enters the hasp or eye piece
j, on the end of the tube a, a, and securely holds the two tubes in connection.
It should be observed, that both ends of the flexible connecting tube are
furnished with spring catches 9, and conical end pieces h, and the ends of the
tube a, a, are also furnished with corresponding sockets i, and hasps or eye
pieces j, which being all made of the same size, and placed in the same relative
situations in all the carriages, they may easily be connected or disconnected,
when required; and further, that a mouth piece and signal such as that above
described, and placed at the end of a branch pipe, should be placed in any
convenient situation inside every carriage of the train, or, if required, in every
separate compartment of the carriage, so that the passengers may be enabled
to communicate direct with the engine driver or the guard. Fig. 4 represents
portions of the two tubes in connection.
Having now described my Invention, and the means of carrying the same
into effect, I would observe, that although I have described the best means
with which I am acquainted of carrying out my Invention, I do not intend to
confine myself rigidly to the precise arrangement and construction of parts
herein shewn and described, as they may doubtless be varied, and without
departing from the nature and principle of my Invention. But I claim,
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent, communicating intelligence from one part of a railway train to
another, that is to say, from the guard or passengers to the engine driver, and
vice versa, by means of tubes placed in the carriages, and connected together
by means of flexible tubes situated between the carriages, so as to form one
continuous tube throughout the whole train, and which tube is furnished with
signals and mouth pieces at suitable places throughout its whole length, for
the purpose of enabling either the guard or passengers first to arrest the
attention of the engine driver, and then to communicate any intelligence to
him.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Hill Dutton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-six
G. H. (L.s.) DUTTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eleventh day of May,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid George Hill Dutton came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Eleventh day of May, in the year above written.