AN INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Armitage Brown, of 3, Victoria Terrace,
Hawks Lane, in the City of Canterbury, in the County-of Kent, Civil
Engineer, for the Invention of "AN INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY TRAINS."
Sealed the 4th December 1863, and dated the 8th June 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Armitage Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th June 1863.
I, WILLIAM ARMITAGE BROWN, of 8, Victoria Terrace, Hawks Lane, in the
City of Canterbury, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY TRAINS," to
be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to obtain a diagram drawn on a sheet of
paper or other material to show the speed of a railway train when in motion,
and the position and duration of its stoppages at any part of its journey. To
this end I propose to construct an apparatus either to be attached to the
locomotive or to one or more of the carriages forming the train, which will,
by means of clockwork or other suitable machinery, advance the sheet of
paper on which the diagram is to be inscribed at a regular and uniform rate,
and then by means of motion derived from the train cause a screw to
advance a pencil across its surface. Thus there will be drawn upon the sheet
of paper a continuous line, the direction of which will vary as the pencil
moves more or less quickly across the advancing paper, which line will form a
diagram from which the speed and stoppages of the train can be read off by

page_text: means of a suitable scale. In combination with this, and forming part of the
apparatus, a dial may also be used, properly graduated, to show time as an
ordinary timekeeper, and also graduated to show the speed of the train.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Armitage Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th December 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ARMITAGE BROWN, of 3, Victoria Terrace, Hawks Lane, in the City of Can-
terbury, in the County of Kent, but now of 90, Warwick Street, in the Parish
of St. George's, Hanover Square, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Armitage Brown, Her special licence that I, the said William
Armitage Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Armitage Brown, my executors, administrators, and
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 "AN INDICATOR FOR RAILWAY TRAINS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Armitage Brown, my executors or administrators; by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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' William Armitage Brown, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to obtain a diagram. drawn on a sheet of
paper or other material to show the speed of a railway train when in motion,

page_text: and the position and duration of its stoppages at any part of its journey. To
this end I propose to construct an apparatus either to be attached to the
locomotive or to one or more of the carriages forming the train, which will, by
means of clockwork or other suitable machinery, advance the sheet of paper
or other material on which the diagram is to be described at a regular and
uniform rate of speed, and then by means of motion derived from the train,
cause a screw to advance a marker across its surface, which will describe on
it a continuous line, the direction of which will vary as 'the marker moves more
or less quickly across the advancing paper. There will thus be formed a
diagram, from which the speed and stoppages of the train can be read off by
means of suitable scales.
In the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 shows a side elevation, and Fig. 2
an end elevation of a railway carriage with my Invention adapted thereto;
Fig. 3 is a sectional end view, and Fig. 4 a sectional front view of the indicator
drawn to an enlarged scale, the end of the box in Fig. 3, and the front and
top in Fig. 4 being removed in order to show more distinctly the arrangement
of the several parts.
In Figs. 1 and 2, the machine A is shown fixed by means of screws and
nuts a, a, a, a, to a frame b, securely attached to the carriage; B is a pulley,
by means of which the motion derived from the train is communicated to the
apparatus. In the present arrangement this motion is obtained from the
pulley E fixed on to one of the axles of the carriage, and transmitted to
the pulley B through the intermediate pulleys C and D. Or instead of this
arrangement the motion may be obtained from some other convenient moving
part of the carriage or train, and may then be communicated to the machine by
toothed gear or other convenient means, either with or without an intermediate
shaft.
In Figs. 3 and 4, a, a, are two side frames, attached to the box containing
the apparatus, between which, and revolving in suitable bearings, a cylinder b
(herein-after called the paper cylinder) works, driven at a regular rate of
speed by a train of clockwork fixed to one of the side frames at e, e. To avoid
unnecessary complication of the Drawings, this train of clockwork is not
shown on them, it being of simple and ordinary construction. Fixed on the
spindle of the paper cylinder is a toothed wheel f, which drives, by means of
pinions g, g', two rollers h, h¹, called the pressure rollers, which revolve
together with the paper cylinder with the same speed of periphery, but in an
opposite direction, as shown by the arrows. In Fig. 3 the paper cylinder b
and the pressure rollers h, h¹, do not appear, but their relative positions and
arrangement are denoted by the pitch lines of the wheel f and the pinions g, g'.

page_text: The sheet of paper or other material on which the diagram is to be described
is wound round a roller k, mounted between the side frames a, a, in proper
bearings, and is drawn forward between the paper cylinder and pressure
rollers at a regular rate of speed. At first starting this diagram sheet has to
be introduced between the paper cylinder and pressure rollers, which is
accomplished in the following manner :-The pressure rollers h, h', work in
bearings p, p', in separate side frames 1, 1, which are mounted at one end on
the pin m, round which they can move for a small distance, thus allowing the
pressure rollers to be separated from the paper cylinder, in order to permit of
the introduction of the paper. Attached to the side frames a, a, are two
sliding bolts n, n, which serve to secure the side frames 1, 1, and with them
the pressure rollers h, h¹, in proper working position after the paper has been
introduced. The bearings p, p¹, in which the pressure rollers work move in
slots in the side frames 1, 1, and are fitted with springs to give the pressure
rollers an equable pressure on the paper.
Motion is communicated to the marker in the following manner :-The
pulley B (Figs. 1, 2, & 4) receives motion, as before described, and com-
municates it by means of toothed pinion r (Figs. 3 & 4) to wheels, and then
by worm and worm wheel t and u, through the mitre gearing v¹, v², ³, to the
traversing screw x, which propels the holder y carrying the marker y¹ between
the two guide wires z, z'. The action of the machine is as follows:-The
diagram sheet is advanced regularly forward, and when the carriage is in
motion, the marker y¹ is moved across its advancing surface, and describes on
it a diagonal line, the angle of which, relatively to the direction of the motion
of the paper, will indicate the speed at which the train has been running.
When the carriage is stationary the marker is stationary also, but the regular
motion of the diagram sheet still continuing, a straight line will be described
on it in the direction of that motion, the length and position on the diagram
of which line will determine the point of the stoppage and its duration.
The mitre wheels v2, v3, are not keyed or fastened on to the screw spindle x,
but transmit the motion to it through the clutch w, which slides on a feather,
and can be put into gear with either of them, by which means the marker
may be made to traverse in either direction at pleasure. In long journeys it
may be found necessary to reverse the motion of the screw when it has worked
the holder to the end of its traverse, and thus cause the marker to traverse
the paper in an opposite direction. For this purpose the clutch w may be
fitted with suitable levers, so arranged that when the holder y arrives at the
end of its traverse, or at any other convenient place, it will cause the clutch
to be moved from one mitre wheel to the other by means of springs attached

page_text: to these levers, or by motion derived from some other part of the apparatus.
The apparatus will by this means be rendered self-acting.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and having ex-
plained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I claim as the Invention
secured to me by Letters Patent, as aforesaid, the arrangement and com-
bination of machinery similar or analogous to that herein-before described, by
which motion derived from the axle of one of the carriages or from any other
convenient part of the railway train, is used in combination with a uniform
motion derived from clock work for the purpose of registering the speed of the
train at all points of its course, and the position and duration of its
stoppages.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Armitage Brown, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
WILLIAM ARMITAGE BROWN. (L.S.)
10
5
Witness,
GEO. PARKYNS KNOCKER,
of 3, St. Barnabas Villas;
Lansdowne Circus,
South Kennington.