IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SIGNALLING ON, RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Stokes, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Manufacturing Jeweller, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SIGNALLING ON, RAILWAY
TRAINS."
Sealed the 20th April 1875, and dated the 19th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Stokes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 19th February 1875.
.
I, WILLIAM HENRY STOKES, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturing Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APParatus for SIGNALLING ON RAILWAY
TRAINS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the arrangement or combination of parts of
apparatus herein-after described for signalling on railway trains, by
which arrangement or combination of parts signalling is effected from
one end of the train to the other, or from any part of the train to either

page_text: Various sounding or other signals may be brought into action by the
use of the apparatus. For example, the signal may be a bell or a
whistle sounded by steam or compressed air; or a semaphore or other
signal addressed to the eye.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Stokes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY STOKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturing Jeweller, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cossors, give and grant unto me, the said William Henry Stokes, Her
special license that I, the said William Henry Stokes, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Henry Stokes, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SIGNALLING ON RAILWAY
TRAINS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Henry Stokes, 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 Henry Stokes, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—

page_text: My Invention consists of the arrangement or combination of parts of
apparatus herein-after described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing for signalling on railway trains, by which arrangement or
combination of parts signalling is effected from one end of the train to
the other, or from any part of the train to either end with great facility
and certainty, the apparatus not requiring any junction to be effected
between the various parts of it carried by the different carriages.
To each carriage, and by preference within or immediately below the
arched or flat roof of the carriage, a metallic or other rod or tube is
suspended or supported horizontally and parallel with the sides of the
carriage. This rod is of a length somewhat greater than that of the
carriage, the length being adjusted as nearly as may be to the distance
between the buffers of a carriage when the carriages are made up
into a
train. The ends of the said rod pass freely through holes in and project
respectively from the ends of the carriage, and each end of the rod is
furnished with a disk or head on its outer surface.
I prefer to suspend the rods from the roofs of the carriages by means
of pendent arms or brackets jointed to the roofs and to the said rods, so
that the said rods when displaced longitudinally shall by their own
weight resume, when at liberty to move, their normal position. I do
not limit myself to the particular method described of supporting the
rods.
Handles may be attached to each rod whereby the occupants of the
carriage may directly urge the rod in one or other direction. Or by
means of a chain passed over a pulley and terminating in a pendent
handle, motion may be given to the rod in one direction.
As the signalling required on a railway train is principally between
the driver and guard, I fix a lever in the guard's van, and a similar lever
on the engine, by operating on which levers the guard or driver may
signal one another.
When a train is made up provided with apparatus of the kind
described the discs on the ends of the rods are in contact, so that a
pushing motion given to the rod at one extremity of the train is
transmitted through the whole series of rods to the other end of the
train. Similarly a motion in one or other direction given to one of the
rods in the middle or other part of the train is transmitted through that

page_text: series of rods towards which the motion is directed, and the guard or
driver, or both in succession, may be thus signalled from any carriage in
the train.
Various sounding or other signals may be brought into action by the
use of the apparatus. For example, the signal may be a bell or a
whistle sounded by steam or compressed air; or a semaphore or other
signal addressed to the eye.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents partly in section
and partly in side elevation portions of a pair of railway carriages, to
which signalling apparatus constructed according to my Invention is
applied. As each carriage of the train has applied to it like apparatus,
I have only thought it necessary to represent portions of two adjacent
carriages. a, a, are the suspended rods or tubes situated immediately
below the roofs of the carriages. That part of each rod a near the roof
lamp is cranked or looped, so that on the motion of the said rod it works
around or on one side of the said lamp. A portion of one of the rods a
is shown in plan in Figure 14. The said rods a, a, are suspended to the
roof by means of the pendent arms or brackets b, b, jointed at c to the
roof and at d to the said rods. When the rods a, a, are at liberty to move
they take by gravity the horizontal position represented in the Drawing.
The ends of each rod pass through slots in the ends of the carriage, the
parts external to the carriage having disks or heads a³, a², upon them.
The length of the said rods a, a, is such that when the several carriages
of the train are coupled together the heads or disks a², a², of the rods of
two adjacent carriages are situated a short distance apart, as represented.
The ends of the rods a, a, work freely in slots or holes in the ends of the
carriages, the said holes being provided on the outside of the carriage
with some flexible covering e, through which the rods pass for the
purpose of making the said holes or slots weather tight, but which at
the same time permits freedom of motion of the pendent rods. At the
ends of each rod will be a spiral spring G, G, strong enough to act
properly, but will yeild to the pressure of the carriages being forced
closer together.
By means of a handle (or handles) f in each compartment of the
carriage the pendent rod a may be pushed longitudinally in one or other
7°
11
7.

page_text: in the adjoining carriage. In this way the motion given to one pendent
rod may be transmitted to the several pendent rods of the train, and the
rod in the last or first carriage be made to signal the guard or engine
driver, the signalling being effected by preference by a bell situated in
the guard's van or on the tender or engine. The end rod may either
strike the bell directly or it may operate upon the bell through a lever
or series of levers, and connecting rods. Other signals may however be
employed. In a like manner the engine driver or guard may signal one
another by operating upon the rod in the carriage adjoining the engine
or guard's van respectively.
Various mechanical arrangements may be used for operating the
pendent rods by the guard, engine driver, and passengers, which I do
not think it necessary to describe.
When the pendent rod is in the act of signalling it takes the position
indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1.
In high roofed carriages, such as post office vans, the parts of the
pendent rod external to the carriage may be cranked, as represented in
Figure 2, so as to bring the disks or heads on its ends on a level with
the disks or heads on the rods applied to carriages of the ordinary
height.
Although I prefer to apply the pendent rods to the under side of the
roofs of the carriages, yet the said rods may be applied to the exterior of
the carriage with like effect. In this case pendent handles connected
with the external rods work in slots in the carriages to actuate the said
pendent rods for signalling.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated,
as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my
Invention; but I claim as my Invention of improvements in apparatus
for signalling on railway trains, suspending or otherwise supporting in
or on each carriage of the train a rigid rod or tube capable of a rectilinear
or nearly rectilinear motion, the ends of the said rods projecting such a
distance from the ends of the carriages that when the train is made up,
and the several carriages are drawn towards each other by the process of
coupling the ends of the rods are in contact, the said series of rods so

page_text: suspended or supported affording the means of transmitting an impulse
from one end of the train to the other, or from an intermediate portion
of the train to either end, and thereby ringing a bell or working other
signal, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I the said William Henry Stokes, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
Witness,
WILLIAM HENRY STOKES. (L.S.)
HENRY MELVIN MOLYNEUX,
of Liverpool.