A NEW OR IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING SIGNALS OR INTELLIGENCE TO OR FROM RAILWAY TRAINS, OR OTHER SIMILAR CONVEYANCES, WHETHER THEY BE STATIONARY OR IN MOTION
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Vernon at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th March
1863.
I, WILLIAM VERNON, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
Lace Manufacturer, do hereby declare, the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW OR IMPROVED MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING SIGNALS OR
INTELLIGENCE TO OR FROM RAILWAY TRAINS, OR OTHER SIMILAR CONVEYANCES,
WHETHER THEY BE STATIONARY OR IN MOTION," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of a new or improved means or apparatus for enabling
guards, engine drivers, or other persons in a railway train or other similar
conveyance, whether stationary or in motion, to communicate with each other
or with another train, whether stationary or in motion, and whether on the same
line or not, or with the station whence the train has come, or whither it is
going, or to any other station or place on the line of railway, and further to
enable the station master or other person at any station or place on the line of
railway to communicate with the guard, engine driver, or other person of any
train, whether stationary or in motion, towards or from any station or place by
means of electricity, mechanism, or otherwise.
I will premise that the rails on the line of railway are secured to chairs
which are spiked to sleepers, in which case I screw or otherwise fasten to such
sleepers a number of non-conductors of glass, earthernware, or other material
which forms supports for or to which are attached a line or lines of conductors
or conducting materials composed of iron wires galvanized or other metal wires

page_text: or rods or bars of metal or other conducting substance, such conducting lines
extend the whole length of the railway and they may be outside the rails of
each line of railway or between the lines of railway, and I provide telegraphic
apparatus in connection with the conducting line to each station on the line
of railway, and to each break van and engine, and to one or more carriages, or
to either or any of them, and in addition to the telegraphic apparatus furnished
to and in connection with the train I provide each carriage, van, or engine or
either or any of them with a vertical or other rod or rods passing through
a non-conducting substance, each rod having at its lower end a truck or pulley
somewhat broader than the conducting line. Above the truck is a spring
which presses down the truck on the conducting line so that while the carriage
is in motion, or as it remains stationary, it can receive a message or signal
from the station it has left or the one towards. which it is proceeding, or the
guard or other person may send a message or signal to either of such stations,
or may receive or send a message or signal from or to any signal man having
in his signal box a telegraphic apparatus in connection with the conducting
lines. And in order to. prevent the electric or other current from passing
through or proceeding beyond the train, I provide one or more rods in con-
nection with the apparatus in each carriage, such rod or rods being in connec-
tion with the axles of the wheels or other parts of the carriages to conduct
the current to earth. The guard or other person may send forward or back-
ward the message he receives or the answer thereto from his apparatus.
Instead of the conducting lines above described I sometimes use a wire cord
or a single wire or wires lying upon insulators, such connecting line or lines
being confined by insulated friction pulleys, in which case instead of a
truck or pulley to bear upon the conducting line I employ a loop or loops
passed round such line or wire. Sometimes I use guiding arms in front and
bebind to insure the laying of the conducting line between the insulated
bearings or instead of passing a loop round the conducting lines I sometimes
use a pulley or pulleys over or under which the line is passed.
The electrical connection of the railway carriages one with another for the
passage of the electric or other current may be effected by means of conductors
attached to each carriage and connected with each other either under the
carriage, by the side thereof, or elsewhere as convenient.