IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD AR A & MTTN HOD SIGNALLING TRAINS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Clough, of Bradford, in the County of
York, Manager, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
AR
A & MTTN HOD SIGNALLING TRAINS "
Sealed the 22nd January 1875, and dated the 28th November 1874.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said John Clough at the
•
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 28th November 1874, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CLOUGH, of Bradford, in the County of York, Manager, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR SIGNALING TRAINS," and have petitioned
Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declarą,
tion that I am the trục and first inventor thereof.

page_text: I will now proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed and
forming part of this Specification. Like Figures indicate like parts.
Fig. 1 shows the engine with the three wheels attached, travelling on
current rods or lines. Z is the engine placed upon the metals II and G;
(D, E, and F are three wheels which are intended to run upon the three
insulated rods or lines A, B, C).
Fig. 2 shews the rods or lines A, B, C, carried upon insulators between
the metals E and G, a distance of four miles, which is here represented
with batterics placed one mile apart from each other for the convenience of
better explaining the mode of working my improved method.
clectric batteries are laid outside line I or G, or in any other convenient
position. Arrows indicate direction of current.
The
Fig. 3 represents a box, which contains two soft iron magnets M and
N, with coil of wire round; K and L are two needles. This box is
fixed in any convenient position, either 'upon engine or tender.
The working of the apparatus is as follows:-Immediately a train
enters upon main line, the three wheels D, E, F, are running upon
the three insulated rods or lines A, B, C, and complete the current of
electricity from batteries 1 and 2 only. After passing battery Number 1,
train receives current of electricity from batterics 2 and 3, and after
passing battery Number 2 train receives current of electricity from
batteries 3 and 4, and so on for the whole distance. This current of
electricity passes up outside wheels D and F, and is transmitted by wires
up tube J to magnets M and N, fixed, say, on engine, which current
magnetizes the two soft iron magnets and attracts needles K and L to
magnets, shewing line clear (providing no other train is between
batteries Number 1 or 2). This current of electricity is transmitted
round coil of wire on magnets M and N, and back to batteries 1 and 2
upon the centre insulated rod B, thus completing the circuit of electricity
from batteries 1 and 2.
In the event of a second train, say at W, standing or running between
batteries 1 and 2, the said train W would receive the currents from
batteries 2 and 3, therefore the first train mentioned 3 would only
receive current of electricity from Number 1 battery, which would shew
needle K pointing "line clear" and needle L pointing "line blocked,"
and would thus indicate until train W passed battery Number 2, when
both needles would point "line clear on first-mentioned train 3.
"

page_text: As by means of contact broken alternately at each battery as beforo
explained, no train can receive currents of electricity from more than
two batteries in front of it at one time, and each train has notice a clear
mile, as per Fig. 2, of position of any other train in front wherever my
improved method is applied.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Clough, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of November, in the
year of our Lord 1874.
Signed, scaled, and delivered by
the above-named John Clough
in the presence of
JOHN WAUGH,
Engineer,
Bradford.
JOHN CLOUGH. (L.S.)