IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING IN RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Adolphus Ellissen, of Throgmorton Street, in the
City of London, Merchant,. for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SIGNALLING IN RAILWAY TRAINS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adolphus Ellissen at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
May 1858.'
I, ADOLPHUS ELLISSEN, of Throgmorton Street, in the City of London,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SIGNALLING IN RAILWAY TRAINS," to be as follows:-
My said Invention relates to certain mechanical arrangements for establish-
ing means of communicating between the guards, drivers, and passengers of
railway trains.
I supply each carriage or vehicle with one or more metal or other suitable
tubes, and arrange them so that the tube or tubes of each vehicle may be
connected by a flexible or other suitable tube, thereby forming a continuous
tube or tubes from end to end of the train. I prefer to use two tubes, and
fix an air pump at opposite ends of each, and attach to their other ends suitable
alarums operated by the action of a piston. Within one compartment of each
carriage an air pump may be also connected with each tube by branch pipes.

page_text: and along the roof of the carriage may be a bell wire to enable passengers in
the other compartments to require the air pump to be used for signalling; and
such signal will be thereby communicated to the engine driver and the guard
simultaneously.
I do not limit myself to any particular kind of alarum, nor to the signalling
by exhaustion or compression of the air; and my Invention may be used
without the air pumps, by having a vessel attached in place of the pump
barrels to provide a vacuum or compressed air, or be provided with materials
generating gaseous currents.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Adolphus Ellissen in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd November 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ADOLPHUS
ELLISSEN, of Throgmorton Street, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Пer Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Adolphus Ellissen, Her special licence that I, the said Adolphus Ellissen,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Adolphus
Ellissen, 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 SIGNALLING IN
RAILWAY TRAINS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Adolphus Ellissen, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Adolphus Ellissen, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My said Invention relates to certain mechanical arrangements for establish-
ing means of communicating between the guards, drivers, and, if required,
the passengers also of railway trains.
And for the better understanding of my said improvements, I will now
proceed to detail the particulars thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, in which the same letters refer to like parts throughout.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side sectional view of my pneumatical apparatus, as applied
to railway carriages; Figure 2 is a plan of the tubular arrangement; and
Figure 3 is a cross section through the air pump.
A, A', are metal tubes forming two tubular lines of connexion from end to
end of the train, and are fastened together, in suitable lengths, at their ends
to flexible tubes by the rings or bands a, a; these tubular lines are formed by
two tubes being laid along the floor of each vehicle throughout the train, and
their ends protruding two inches, or thereabouts, at the back and the front of
every carriage; these ends are to be connected, one with another, by two
india-rubber, gutta percha, or other suitably flexible tubes A", A, properly
protected by being lapped over with wire, or by like means, and lined with
the same to prevent collapse when employing a vacuum. A good air-tight
joint may be made by the tubes being fitted into metal rings, having internal
and external screws which can be quickly attached by a suitable handled
collar a to each joint, or the tube ends may be fitted into short brass tubes,
which are fastened together by the one having a stud sliding into a slot in the
other, and retained by the nipping action of two spring levers affixed to each
joint. In one compartment, as at B, of a carriage, an air pump C is fixed,
communicating with one or both tubes for exhausting or compressing the air of
both at the same time. Atmospheric pressure on the pistons 6 or c at one end of
cach tube, causes their being pushed back as far as permitted by d and c, thus
causing the alarum bells D and E to operate, one of which may be placed in
the guard's van, and one near the engine driver. All the other compartments
of the carriages communicate with the one containing the air pump by means
of the signal bell D¹; C, C", are the pumps for the guard and the driver.
It will be thus observed that I supply each carriage or vehicle with one or
more metal or other suitable tubes, and arrange them so that the tube or
tubes of each vehicle may be connected by a flexible or other suitable tube

page_text: constructed so as not to be subject to collapse from external pressure during
a vacuum within, thereby forming a continuous tube or tubes from end to end
of the train. I prefer to use two tubes, fixing an air pump at opposite ends
of each, attaching to their other ends suitable alarums set in motion by the action
of a piston in compressing or exhausting the air. The tube A is intended for
the driver, and the tube A¹ for the guard to use respectively. The air pump
in each carriage compartment may be connected with one or both tubes by a
branch pipe or pipes f, f'; and along the roof of each carriage may run a bell
wire g, g, when desired, to enable passengers in other compartments not so
provided to require the air pump to be set in action for signalling; and such
signal will be communicated, according as arranged, either to one end or to
both the engine driver and the guard simultaneously.
In order to prevent the signals being misused, I recommend an indicator to
show the compartment in which the signal has been made; this indicator may
consist of a white pannel on the outside pannels of the carriage covered by a
moveable tin disc, the removal of which exposing the white spot, gives the re-
quired indication. To the axis of the disc I attach a bell crank on the inside
of the carriage, and connect it with a rod attached at its other end to either
the bell or pump apparatus.
As my said improvements are capable of being variously modified without
substantially affecting the principle of my said Invention, I therefore neither
limit myself to any particular kind of alarum, nor to the signalling by ex-
haustion or compression of the air; and it is obvious my Invention may be
used without the air pump by having a pneumatic vessel attached to provide a
vacuum or compressed air; or to be provided with materials generating gaseous
currents; and I do declare that what I claim as my Invention is, the peculiar
construction, arrangement, and adaptation of tubes for operating pistons, bells,
and other signals for signalling in railway trains, as described. .
In witness whereof, I, the said Adolphus Ellissen, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of November, in the year
of our Lord 1858.
ADOLPHUS ELLISSEN. (L.S.)