IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING COMMUNICATION BY SIGNALS BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF A RAILWAY TRAIN
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Moss Defries at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th May
1865.
I, Moss DEFRIES, of the Firm of Jonas Defries and Sons, of Houndsditch,
in the City of London, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING COMMUNICATION BY
SIGNALS BETWEEN DIFFERENT PARTS OF A RAILWAY TRAIN," to be as follows:-
I propose to give facility of communication between the passengers and
guard, and between guard and engine driver in railway trains, but not
(although my signal apparatus would answer such purpose) between passenger
and engine driver.
I propose to accomplish the first part of my Invention by placing in the
compartments of carriages composing a railway train a pulley, (either sus-
pended from the roof of, or affixed to any part of the interior or framing of
the carriage,) which being pulled will cause a signal placed on the roof and
over the doorway to drop outwards, and at the same time pull the trigger or
spring of an alarm gong placed in the guard's van. The dropping of the
signal over the doorway indicates to the guard the spot or compartment to
which his attention is sought to be drawn. This signal may be in the form
of a quadrant, the point of the angle of which works on a pivot or pin; this
quadrant is retained in its normal or suspensive position by a spring or catch,
and on this the pulley before mentioned acts. This signal may either be a
plane surface, (numbered with a number of reference for the instruction of the

page_text: guard) or it may be a frame surrounding strong glass or a lens, and this latter
I prefer, as it would give him better information at night, if one or more
strong reflected lights (according to the position of the guard's van) be placed
on each side of the train. If the guard's van be the last vehicle in a train,
then a reflected light placed on each side of the first carriage of the train
would be sufficient; but should the guard's van be in any other part of the
train, then a reflector should also be placed on each side of the last carriage
in such train. A receiver for the reflector (which would be an ordinary
socket) should be placed on each side of every vehicle.
The second portion of my Invention refers to the means of communication
by signal from guard to driver, and this I propose to effect by the former
striking an alarm gong (similar to that mentioned in regard to communication
from passenger to guard). This alarm on being started runs down with great
noise, and for some time, but can be stopped when the requisite attention has
been paid to it, and wound up again by the guard, driver, or stoker.
Having called the attention of the driver, the guard makes known bis
wishes by means of signals. These signals may be made of colored lenses,
or of glass in frames varying in color. In the daylight the color exhibited is
sufficient order for the driver to go slower, faster, to stop, or to reverse the
engine. At night the same signals answer the same purpose if worked before
a strong light.
The operation of communicating from passenger to guard is as follows:-
The passenger lays hold of and jerks the pulley, the signal falls over the
doorway of the compartment in which such passenger is travelling, the same
jerk starts the alarm in the guard's van, the guard orders the driver to stop,
and ascertains the cause of alarm. The guard pushes the signal back into
its first position before resuming his place in bis van. From guard to driver
the former calls the attention of the latter by the alarm gong, and then by
means of the colored signals informs him what he requires to be done.