A DOUBLE-ACTING RAILWAY SIGNAL, FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS OR ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS.
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Banfield, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, for the Invention of "A DOUBLE-ACTING RAILWAY
SIGNAL, FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS OR ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Banfield at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th November 1853.
I, JOHN BANFIELD, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "A DOUBLE-ACTING RAILWAY SIGNAL, FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS
OR ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS," to be as follow, that is to say:-
My Invention may be described thus:-I place along the line, at
suitable distances, posts, on which I fix lamps with signal slides, so
arranged that by night a coloured light may be shown and, by day a
coloured mark; and the manner I bring these signals into action is by
means of connecting rods and levers attached to a double incline plain
placed on the side of the rail, so that as the train passes (depressing the
incline plain) the desired signals will be presented; and by means of a
catch and a wire extending from one incline to the other, I am enabled.

page_text: to retain the first signal until the train passes the second, when the
catch will be liberated by the depression of the incline plain, simulta-
neous with the presenting the proper signal, and so on to the end of
the journey, enabling all trains following one another to keep a safe
distance, thereby preventing collisions..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Banfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th May 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN BANFIELD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Banfield, Her special license that
I, the said John Banfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Banfield, my executors, administrators,
or 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 "A DOUBLE-ACTING RAILWAY SIGNAL,
FOR PREVENTING COLLISIONS OR ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS," upon the condi-
tion (amongst others) that I, the said John Banfield, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, 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 John Banfield, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be:

page_text: following statement (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists in placing along the side or sides of railways,
at suitable distances, a continuous row of posts, to which apparatus may
be fixed for giving the signal or signals that may be required, and such
signals may be produced from lamps at night, and a painted slide or
arm by day, such lamps and slides being fixed to the posts before
named, and made to produce the desired signál by the trains themselves
as they pass; for I have noticed that most of the fatal accidents that
occur on railways do not proceed from the first train that may be
brought to a stand by the accidental breaking or giving out of some
part of the engine, but by the following train or trains running into the
standing train or into each other; and my improvement in railway
signals is, to avoid this contingency and its fearful consequences, and
which I do in a most efficient and effectual manner, as will be under-
stood by the following description:-I fix the posts, with their lamps,
arms, or slides, along the side or sides of the railway, say about of
balf a mile distant from each other, increasing the distance when the
straightness of the line will admit, and contracting them at the curves,
tunnels, and stations.. The lamps may be provided with a round clear.
glass, and a slide with a round hole to correspond, as well as a red
glass or bull's eye, say of the same size, so that when the slide is up
the bull's eye will be brought before the light, exhibiting a red light,
and, per contrary, when down a white light will be shewn. A rod
is attached to the slide, working in suitable guides down the lamp
post, and connected at the bottom end to a lever, which lever is also
attached to a bar of iron forming its fulcrum, and which bar or fulcrum
is placed at right angles to the line of rails, having another lever fixed
at the other end, and placed parallel with and near the outer line of
rail, and which second lever may be fixed on the transverse bar or ful-.
crum in the same direction as the first lever, or in the opposite position,
as I will describe. On the outer side of the last carriage or guard's
van (usually sent with regular trains), there must be fixed a friction
roller, and which roller, as the train passes each signal post, will depress
the lever that is near the rail, and by so doing will elevate the other

page_text: lever, and thereby lift the slide shewing the red light or desired signal
And as it is desirable that this signal should be continued until the train
that gives it should have arrived at the next signal post, I have pro
vided a catch for retaining it in that position, and which catch will no
be released until the train passes the next signal post, when the train
performs the double action of releasing the one signal and setting the
other, and so on to the end of the line or journey, or at such places
when such signals may be required, the connection.being made from
one signal to the other by means of a wire or of any other suitable and
durable material. But fearing that this description will not give a
sufficient idea of the parts in detail, I have annexed a Drawing of my
Invention, which I will proceed to describe.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING.
Fig. 1, represents a guard's van, or. last carriage in a train, passing
the signal post, and Fig. 2, represents the signal post last passed, which
may be supposed to be an half mile from each other; and Figs. 3 and 4,
represent a top view of the same; and as the parts for working the
signals are alike, I have-marked each part with the same letter of
reference in each Figure. A, A, are the lamps fixed to the lamp
posts B, B; and C is the friction roller fixed to the van, which, as it
comes in contact with the levers D and D, being fixed to the iron
bar E, working in the journeys G, G, and the lever H being also fixed
to the same bar, it is evident that as the lever D is depressed the arm
or lever H will be elevated, lifting with it the rod J and slide L, only
partly shewn in Figures 1 and 2, but represented in a front detached
view with the lamp at Fig. 5. To the sleeper M is fixed the catch N,
which works on a hinge joint at O, and is provided with a stop marked
P, which stop abuts against the side of the sleeper, but has an extended
spindle that enters the sleeper, and is held by a strong helical spring
shewn in dotted lines, or a spring composed of india-rubber may be 3
used instead; and also attached to the sleeper by a hinge joint is the
bar R, to which is attached (by a screw and shackle) the wire shewn
by a red line, the use of the screw being to give it a greater range of
adjusting action.

page_text: S and T are two palls fixed to the bar or fulcrum E, as at Figure 2,
and which being turned by the depressing of the lever D, it is evident
that the bar R would be forced in the direction of the arrow by the
pall S, at the same time that the pall T will be pressed down on the
catch N, forcing it back until it passes the point of the pall, when the
catel will be pulled back by the spring, holding the pall T in the posi-
tion as shewn in Figure 1, which also represents how the catch N, in
Figure 2, has been pulled by the wire attached to the bar R, Figure 1,
liberating the pall T, Figure 2, and allowing the slide to descend,
exposing the signal of all right simultaneously with it, setting the
danger signal or red light at Figure 1, and which red and white lights
are best exhibited by the circles R and W, Figure 5, the W repre-
senting the white, while the R represents the red light, and thus as the
train advances it makes and corrects the signals as it proceeds, indi-
cating at all times its position or locality to the following train by
the exhibition of a red and danger signal by night and the slide
by day.
Having thus described my Invention, and the manner of 'carrying
the same into effect, I wish it understood that I do not confine myself
to the precise details as here represented, as it is capable of consider-
able modification without affecting the general character of the Inven-
tion, which is that of giving signals to an advancing train of the
distance it is from the preceding one, such signals being made and
given by the trains themselves as they pass the signal post, that in case
of derangement or accident to the preceding train the following one
may be duly apprized thereof, so as to be enabled to stay its progress
and prevent a collision, with its usual fearful consequences.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Banfield, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
my