A COM-" MUNICATING APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO RAILROAD CARRIAGES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PETTITT, of Bradwell, in the County of Bucks, Gentleman, send greeting:
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date.at
Westminister, the Thirtieth day of May, in the third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Pettitt, Her especial license, that I, the said William Pettitt, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Pettitt, my
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A COM-"
MUNICATING APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO RAILROAD CARRIAGES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Pettitt,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Pettitt, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist

page_text: in a rope or other communicating medium passing through tubes and connected
with a winding apparatus placed underneath the carriages, forming one con-
tinuous connection from the last carriage of the train to the engine, where it
communicates with the ordinary whistle or any other warning noise loud
enough, or with any signal visible enough to attract the notice of the
engine driver, and which apparatus may be acted upon at pleasure by the
guard or by any carriage of the train, which may accidentally become
detached from it, so as to produce the said noise or signal, and thus to give
warning that the carriage has become detached. And in further compliance
with the said proviso, I, the said William Pettitt, do hereby describe the
manner in which my said Invention is to be performed, by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the
figures and letters marked thereon, it being observed that similar letters are
used to denote similar parts in all the Figures.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a train of railroad carriages with its engine and tender.
It will be seen that underneath each carriage and the tender a copper tube is
fixed; through these tubes a rope leads from the last carriage of the train to
the carriage A, where the guard sits, and another similar rope from the
carriage A to the engine. At the lower end of a vertical shaft B, which comes
up to the guard's seat C with a crank handle D for him to turn it by, is (fixed
with bolts and nuts thro' a flange) a hollow box pulley E containing a helical
spring, shown in plan at Figure 2. The outer end of the spring is
fastened to the side of the box, and the inner end to a tube Y (better shown
and on a larger scale at Figure 13. This tube Y moves round the spindle
of the shaft B. The end of the rope which leads from the guard's car-
riage to the engine is fastened to this pulley and passed two or three.
times round it before it is passed through the tube F, and so on through the
tubes G and H to the engine. The object of this helical spring is to
take up the slack, in nautical phraseology, when any occurs, and to provide,
by its yielding, for the varying distances which the yielding of the draw bar
springs and buffers suffers the carriages to assume from time to time with
reference to each other, and to the engine. The other end of the rope which
leads from the guard's carriage is fixed to a lever handle shown at Figure 7,
which, if the engine whistle be used as the warning noise, and which I consider
by far the best, turns a slide valve J, and thus when the guard turns his crank
handle D opens a communication with the steam in the dome of the boiler

page_text: which rushes down the pipe K, shewn in dotted lines through the valve, and up
the external pipe L to the ordinary whistle of the engine, the counteracting
spring Z, Figure 7, shutting the slide again after every operation. As the parts
I am now describing will be shown more in detail and of a larger size in other
Figures hereafter to be described, I shall content myself here with this general
description, and shall now proceed to describe the fastenings of the rope, which
leads from the carriage A where the guard sits, to the hinder carriages of the
train, and which rope is always fixed firmly to the last carriage at one end. I
should state that what I have called a rope is in fact a number of picces of
rope one length to each carriage, connected together by swivel hooks or other-
wise, as shown at M; but to return to what I call the hinder rope, to dis-
tinguish it from that already described, and which I call the forward rope.
The hinder rope, as before said, is fixed firmly at one end to the last carriage,
and passes through the tubes of each carriage, between it and the guard's
carriage, where it is attached after making several turns round it to another
hollow box pulley N under that before described, and containing also a helical
spring fastened at the outer end to the side of the box, and at the inner end to
the same tube Y, that the inner end of the spring in the upper box pulley is
fastened to, but coiled in the opposite direction, as shown in plan, at Figure 2,
so that if any of the carriages behind the guard's carriage break off from the
train (a case of very common occurrence, and liable to be attended with very
serious consequences), the coils of rope round the lower pulley draw it round in
the direction of the arrow, and cause the box to wind up the spring until when
close wound it will turn the tube Y, and thus make the tube Y wind up the
spring in the upper box, and when both springs are by this means close wound
up, the effect will be to act upon the ropes and tighten them sufficiently to
open the slide valve and cause the whistle to sound, and the general effects of
the several arrangements herein-after described will be, that whenever by the
guard turning the handle by his side (which when the spring in the upper
pulley has been wound up thereby, will cause the tube Y to wind up the
spring in the lower pulley before sufficient tension can be given to the ropes to
open the slide valve), or whenever by the breaking off of one or more of the
binder carriages, or of any of the carriages behind the engine, the forward
rope will be acted upon with sufficient force, the slide valve at J will open and
cause the whistle to sound, and thereby communicate a warning to the engine
driver. that he must stop. But, though the rope must be made of sufficient
strength to open the valve, it should be weak enough to break with any strain
more than sufficient to perform this operation; and as it might be trouble-
some if the rope were allowed to break, in any part of its length (in the tubes,

page_text: for instance), I recommend strong pieces of rope to run through the tubes,
and a weak pièce, exactly calculated in point of strength, for the performance
of what is required in respect of the whistle to be introduced in some parts of
the line of rope between each carriage, so as to be easily got at to be replaced
after a fracture has occurred, as shown at Figure 12. Figure 3 is a plan of a
carriage frame, showing the position of the tube, rope, and pullies.. Figure 4
is a side view and longitudinal section of a carriage, on a larger scale than
Figure 1, showing the said apparatus with the two pullies in section, exhibiting
the helical springs. These pullies, and the tube Y, however, are best shown,
and on a larger scale, at Figure 13, to which I here refer. Figure 5 is an
end view of a carriage, with the said apparatus, on the same enlarged scale as
Figure 4, showing its position at one side of the carriage. Figure 6 is a
section of the valve J, and its connection with the pipes K and L, and with the
platform of the engine under which it is bolted. Figure 7 is a plan of the
slide and lever, showing the resisting spring Z in a box attached to the frame
of the engine, and Figure 8 a plan of the passages of the valve. Figures 9,
10, and 11 represent a mode of communicating to the eye, as the whistle does
to the car, when any accident of the kind before alluded to has occurred, and
this forms a part of the same communicating apparatus as that already
described, being brought into action in the same way and at the same time, by
the extra tension of the forward or hinder rope of the apparatus. These last-
mentioned, Figures 9 and 10, represent a hollow tube, open at the top and
closed at the bottom, with a spiral spring at the bottom, like that used in
carriage lamps to force up the candle; a small flag and staff is forced down into
this tube and held down by the spring catch P; when this spring is pulled out
the staff with its flag shoots up as far as the two shoulders at Q will allow it.
And now, to show its application to the carriages, I must refer again to
Figure 4, where a tube is represented in each compartment of the body,
because these tubes will serve to enable the passengers to communicate with
the guard when they require a train to be stopped. On any emergency it will
be enough, however, if one in each carriage only communicates with the rope
beneath; such a communication is shown in the end compartment T of this
carriage. R is a small crank acting so as to draw out the spring catch P,
when the crank is pulled, to effect which a small line is attached to the crank
and led through the bottom of the carriage, over a pulley to the rope of the
carriage next before it, where it is fastened. There is a stop on the line at V, so
that when the pull has let up the flag staff the line breaks, without injuring
the spring catch. Figure 11 is the same thing applied to a lantern for a night
communication.

page_text: Now, whereas I claim as my Invention a flexible and elastic communi-
cating apparatus, composed of ropes, pullies, and springs, as herein-before
described, passing underneath the bodies of the carriages, and acting by the
accidental separation of any of the carriages from the rest of the train, or at
the will of the guard upon the ordinary whistle of the engine, or any other
noise-making instrument or apparatus, when the ear of the guard or engine
driver is sought to be attracted, such noise being derived, directly or indirectly,
from the powers of the engine, or, acting upon a spring, to throw out a flag
and staff if by daylight, or a light if by night, when the eye of the guard
or engine-driver is sought to be attracted.
And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this, my
said Specification, doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; wherefore I hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and
privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Pettitt, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty.