IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS WHEREBY PASSENGERS IN A RAILWAY TRAIN CAN COMMUNICATE A SIGNAL TO THE GUARD AND DRIVER
Year: 1872

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles O'Laughlin Lamb
Prendergast at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 22nd August 1872.
I, CHARLES O'LAUGHLIN LAMB PRENDERGAST, of Wokingham, in
the County of Berks, Captain in the Bengal Staff Corps, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS AND
APPARATUS WHEREBY PASSENGERS IN A RAILWAY TRAIN CAN COMMUNICATE A
SIGNAL TO THE GUARD AND DRIVER," to be as follows:―
My Invention relates to means and apparatus whereby passengers in
any compartment of a railway train can give an audible and visible
signal to the guard and driver of the train, calling the attention of both
to the signal, and indicating from which carriage or compartment it
has been given. For this purpose I fix on the top of each carriage a
box with a hinged lid which is pressed by a spring so as to open when it
is free; this lid is held down by a latch which is connected by rods,
cords, or wires, to pulls in the several compartments of the carriage.
When any one of theso is pulled the latch is withdrawn and the spring
causes the lid to open quite back. Within the box there is an arm or

page_text: lever pivotted and pressed upwards by a spring in such a manner that
when the lid of the box opens this arm or lever rises to a vertical
position; on this lever or arm I arrange a whistlo or reed, which is
caused to sound by its passage through the air, and thus apprises the guard
and driver that a signal is made. The position of the arm and box lid
at the same time indicates the carriage from which the signal is given.
Instead of fixing only one apparatus as above described on oach
carriage, one may be provided for each compartment; and instead of
providing only one pull for the latch in each compartment, two, four, or
more, but preferably four such pulls may be fitted in convenient
positions for the access of the passengers in each compartment.
In order to render the signal visible at night or in tunnels I prefer
to arrange it in such a manner that light from a hole in the lamp cover
shall fall upon it when it is in its vertical position.
It may be readily understood that signals such as I have described
above may be fixed without a box, the latch in that case holding down
the arm or lever instead of the box lid. Also instead of mounting such
signals on the tops of the carriages they may be mounted on the sides,
or in any convenient position where they may be properly exposed to
the current of air, and visible to the guard and driver of the train.
In place of using the before described whistle or reed, the said sounding
contrivance may be of the nature of a trumpet.
Also in addition to the said sounding apparatus there may be
contained in the box one or more rockets which would be fired by a
friction tube or other known contrivance, on the passenger within a
carriage pulling the aforesaid handle, whereby the said box is opened.
The rocket or rockets is or are so placed in the box that direction is
given to it or them so that the rocket fired towards the engine driver
shall hit a target placed for that purpose on the engine or tender; and
in like manner a rocket fired towards the guard, may if necessary be
made to hit another target fixed on or near the guard's van.