IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY SIGNALS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Kenyon, James
Kenyon, and Ebenezer Entwistle, at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 4th January 1871.
We, JOHN HENRY KENYON and JAMES KENYON, of Blackburn, in the
County of Lancaster, Cotton Manufacturers, and EBENEZER ENTWISTLE,
of same Place, Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY SIGNALS," to be as follows:→
The object of our Invention is to save life and property on railways
it being a system of signals acted upon by the trains passing over the
apparatus, and in so passing moves certain fingers or levers at such
distances from cach other, giving motion to certain shafts and other
levers, whereby finger signals may be elevated, danger light signals
turned on, noise signals created, and the whistle of the engine or equi-
valent set going, and all before one train can possibly run into another
where these signals are used. Or these or other signals can be worked
by hand when required, in which case they will act as signals to stop
the train or engine at any time. On any part of a railway where
signals are required and men are posted to work such signals, we place

page_text: across the line or under and secure to the rails or other equivalents,
a shaft or equivalent to which is attached finger knuckled levers or
other equivalents at any angle so as to be easily acted upon by a
friction roller or equivalent fixed to the engine or guard's van, such
friction roller or equivalent on its passage over these knuckled levers
or equivalents presses such down; thus by means of our mechanical
arrangements will signal behind the train in any of the before-mentioned
ways. If at any required distance it is thought desirable we fix other
such knuckled levers or other equivalents. These knuckled levers or
equivalents are connected by means of levers, chains, or wire having
the effect of moving the before-mentioned signals, and so on to any
extent or distance by a repetition of the apparatus. On the engine
or guard's van (or both), we fix a frame in which is fitted a slide rack
lever or equivalent, at the lower end of which is a friction roller or
equivalent, the other or top end is connected by rods and levers; or wire,
or chain to the whistle of the engine or other equivalent. If a train
has passed the first-mentioned signal and not arrived at the second,
as before mentioned, if it be dark or foggy or any danger and the light
or finger signal not seen, such signals being up keeps up an incline
projection placed in the centre of the line over which the above-mentioned
friction roller or equivalent of the rack lever or equivalent passes, lifting
such and giving alarm by whistle or other equivalent. Thus it will
be seen that a collision, cannot take place without warning. We can
and may put up or down the signal by placing a rib alongside or
otherwise of the rail, so as to be acted upon by the engine or other
part of the train. We likewise place a bell or other equivalent at or
near the stations or place of danger, which we connect to the apparatus
at any convenient distance.