A NEW OR AN IMPROVED
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
BAIRD, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, Scotland, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-second day
of December last, in the eleventh year of Her said Majesty's reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard
Baird, my executors, administrators, and assigns, the especial license, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Richard Baird, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, and such
others as I, the said Richard Baird, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times hereafter during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her
Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Her Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "A NEW OR AN IMPROVED

page_text: METHOD OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE GUARDS, ENGINE-DRIVERS, AND OTHER
SERVANTS IN CHARGE OF TRAINS OF CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS ON RAILWAYS, AND
ALSO BETWEEN THE PASSENGERS AND ENGINE-DRIVERS, AND OTHER SERVANTS IN
CHARGE OF SUCH TRAINS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso that I, the said Richard Baird, shall particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be enrolled in Her said 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 from the same, reference being thereto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Richard Baird, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
two Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say:
The said Invention consists of certain arrangements for communicating
between different parts of a train, and is to be carried into effect in the
following manner :-
The apparatus or machinery for carrying on the said communications is to
be attached to and carried by each separate carriage, waggon, or engine used
in a railway train. A tube A, a, Figures 1 and 2, made of iron, or other hard
suitable material, is to be fixed to each carriage in the railway train by placing
the tube along the top or the side or the lower framing of the carriage, or by
inserting the tube through the framework or body of the carriage. The
tube will be of the same length as the body of the carriage, and the
ends of the tube will be made in the form of a bell mouth A, Figure 1. A
cord, chain, or wire B, b, Figures 1 and 2, of flexible construction and suitablo
material, is then passed through the tubes A, a, Figures 1 and 2, affixed to
each carriage, each end of the cord, chain, or wire having secured or fastened
to each end a spring, hook, or other suitable jointed connection, as represented
by C, c, Figures 1 and 2. The length of the said cord, chain, or wire
passing through each tube will be made the same as (or as I would recom-
mend a few inches shorter than) the length from end to end of the buffers on
cach carriage before the said buffers are screwed up or pressed inwards by the
coupling screws joining the carriages in the train. The cord, chain, or wire
will always remain in the tube where it is first placed; and when the appa-
ratus is not in use, the spring hooks or joints at the two ends of the cord,

page_text: chain, or wire will be suspended upon small circular eyes of brass, or other
suitable material D, d, Figures 3 and 2, screwed into the body of the carriage.
at a distance of one or two feet from each end of the tube. Similar tubes and
cords, chains, or wires will be applied to the tenders attached to the engines
drawing the train. Before the railway train is to be put in motion, the cords,
chains, or wires described are to be detached from the eyes on which they are
suspended, and the spring hooks or joints at each end of the different cords,
chains, or wires will be joined or inserted into each other, as represented at C,
Figure 1. The cords, chains, or wires, will then form one connected line or
chain of communication along the whole train of waggons and carriages to be.
dragged by the engine. This cord, chain, or wire, stretching along the whole
train of carriages, will then be continued on from the carriage immediately
behind the tender, and be fastened or attached so as to act upon or move the
steam whistle E, Figure 2, bell, or other method of signalizing which may be
selected, in order to attract the notice of the engine-drivers and guards on the
train. A stout and thin flexible cord F, F, Figure 2, wire, or line of other suitable
material, will be attached (either through a tube G, G, Figure 2, running
down the end of the carriage, or without such tube) to one of the spring hooks
or joints connecting the said cord, chain, or wire, and the guards riding on the
last or hindmost and intermediate carriages of the train can then act upon or
sound the said steam whistle, or other signal to be adopted and used, by
drawing or pulling the last-mentioned flexible cord (F, F, Figure 2) or line,
either by his hands, or by turning a winding apparatus H, Figure 2, to be
contained in a suitable box affixed to the carriage close to his seat. The tubes
a, a, can be fastened on the sides or tops, or passed through the framework of
the carriages, and when that is the case, the cord, wire or chain B, b, Figures
1 and 2, will be continued on from the carriage immediately behind the tender
to the whistle placed on the engine by means of a tube or rings so supported
on the tender and engine as to guide the cord to the crank or lever I, Figure 2,
by which the steam whistle is opened. The cord, wire, or chain b, b,
stretching along the train, as shewn on Figure 2, is represented as passing
through tubes fastened to the lower framework of the carriages and tender,
and carried through another tube K, K, Figure 2, fixed on the engine, at the
upper end of which last tube the cord, wire, or chain is fastened to a crank or
lever I, Figure 2, which opens, when required, the steam whistle. The
passengers riding in the different carriages will also act upon or sound the said
steam whistle, or other signal to be adopted and used, by drawing or pulling
a strong and thin flexible cord of wire or line of other suitable material L, L,

page_text: Figure 2, passing from the inside of the separate carriages, and fastened to the
said spring hooks or joints .C, c, Figures 1 and 2. In regard to the materials
to be used for the preceding apparatus or machinery, the tubes will be made
of iron, steel, brass, copper, tin, or other suitable material: The dimensions
or diameters of the tubes will be made suitable to the thickness of the cord,
chain, or wire to be adopted and used, and of such a size as to allow the spring
hooks or joints, and the fastenings thereto, before described, to pass freely back-
wards and forwards through the said tubes. The cord, chain, or wire forming
the means of communication, as already explained, will be made of hemp, iron,
steel, brass, copper, or other suitable flexible materials. The signals of alarm
for attracting the attention of the engine-drivers, guards, and other servants in
charge of the railway train, may be placed on the tender or engine, and the
cord, chain, or wire before described will be continued from the. tube placed
on the carriage immediately. bebind .the tender either through other tubes or
rings so placed as to lead the said cord, chain, or wire that it may be fastened
to the alarm signal to be acted upon by the guards and passengers.
signals of alarm may be made by a steam whistle, a bell sounded by machinery,
by the explosion of a detonating substance, or by other suitable means which
will attract the attention of the drivers, guards, and other servants in charge
of the trains by the loud noise created.
The
In regard to the method or plan of attaching the tubes to the carriages and
tender, I would recommend that a double set of the tubes a, a, Figure 4, be
used, and that the same be fastened to and underneath the lower frames of
each carriage and tender, as represented on Figure 4. The cord, chain, or
wire is represented on Figure 2 as passing below the lower frames of the
carriages, and continued under the tender, and running up a tube K, K,
Figure 2, fixed on the engine, and then the end of the cord, chain, or wire
passing along the whole train of carriages is fixed to a crank or lever I,
Figure 2, acting upon a steam whistle.
Having described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I, the said. Richard Baird, do hereby declare that I.
do not claim as new, or the exclusive use of, the several parts and things
herein-before mentioned or referred to, when taken separately, and not adapted
and arranged in the manner and for the purposés herein-before described;
but I do claim as new and as of my Invention the fixing of the tubes A, a,
Figures 1 and 2, to each carriage, and the combining with such tubes and
carriages cords or wires arranged and connected with each other and with the
different parts of the carriages and train in the manner above described, so as

page_text: ord a certain means of communication between the guards or servants or
ngers and the engine-drivers on railway trains of whatever length.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Baird, have subscribed this
Specification, written upon this and the two preceding pages of stamped
paper by James David Grant, Clerk to John Sturrock, junior, Writer,
in Dundee, and I have also bereunto set my hand and seal, at Dundee,
the Fifteenth day of June, in the year Eighteen hundred and forty-
eight, before these witnesses, the said John Sturrock, junior, and the
said James David Grant, the word "which" on the twenty-eighth line of
page second, counting from the top thereof, having been deleted before
signing.