IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH SPEAKING TUBES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Reith, of Aberdeen, in the County of
Aberdeen, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR
CONNECTED WITH SPEAKING TUBES."
Sealed the 14th September 1875, and dated the 17th March 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Reith at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th March 1875.
I, ALEXANDER REITH, of Aberdeen, in the County of Aberdeen,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH SPEAKING TUBES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object to render speaking tubes more simplo
and convenient in use and less liable to get out of order, or to be
tampered with, or improperly used, than such tubes as hitherto con-
structed or arranged.
In carrying out the Invention, a tube of as small a bore as one-
quarter inch may be satisfactorily used for ordinary distances, such as

page_text: those occurring in a dwelling-house, but tubes of larger size may be used
if preferred, and the tubes may be of metal, gutta percha, rubber, or
other impervious material. Each end of the tube is by preference
enlarged to at least double its area for a length of three or four inches
inwards from the mouth-piece.
For the purpose of calling attention when a person wishes to speak
through the tube a whistle is used, but instead of being of the kind
hitherto applied to speaking tubes and which requires to be removed
from the mouth-piece to allow of speaking through the tube a whistle is
permanently fixed in the tube, and is of such a kind as to allow of
speaking and even whispering being distinctly heard through the tube.
A whistle constructed like the well-known "bird call" is found to
answer the purpose, and each speaking tube may have two such
whistles, one at each end, or a single one only fitted at any part of the
tube.
When two or more speaking tubes from different parts terminate at
one place each is there provided with an indicator, which on the whistle
being sounded shows the particular tube made use of.
According to one modification the indicator is a light flap of thin
metal or other material which covers the outer hole of the whistle or
tube, but is blown away from it on the whistle being sounded. This
flap may be replaced by hand when the signal is attended to, it is
however by preference fitted in connection with a spring key which has
to be pressed to allow a person to speak conveniently into the tube, the
spring in connection with the key restoring the flap to its closing
position on the pressure being removed.
A single tube may be joined to a pair of branch tubes, the latter
forming an acute angle at the junction where a flap is fitted, so as on
air being blown down either branch tube to cause the junction flap to
close the other branch tube. In a similar way any branch tube may be
joined to a further pair of branch tubes, so that blowing through any
one of a number of branch tubes will close all the others.

page_text: filed by the said Alexander Reith in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 15th September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
REITH, of Aberdeen, in the County of Aberdeen, North Britain,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of March, 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 successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Reith, Her special
licence, that I, the said Alexander Reith, my executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Reith,
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 OR CONNECTED WITH SPEAKING TUBES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Reith, 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 Alexander Reith, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
-
My said Invention has for its object to render speaking tubes more
simple and convenient in use, and less liable to get out of order, or to
be tampered with, or improperly used, than such tubes as hitherto con-
structed or arranged.

page_text: In carrying out my Invention a tube of as small a bore as one-
quarter inch may be satisfactorily used for ordinary distances, such as
those occurring in a dwelling-house; but tubes of larger size may be
used if preferred, and the tubes may be of metal, gutta percha, rubber,
or other impervious material.
When indicators are not used I consider that for lengths up to 50 feet
inch tube is sufficient; for 80 feet, inch; for 120 feet, inch; for
200 feet, inch, and so on; but when indicators are fitted, each size of
tube must be used for somewhat shorter lengths.
For the purpose of calling attention when a person wishes to speak
through the tube I use a whistle, but instead of being of the kind
hitherto generally applied to speaking tubes and arranged so as to be
removed from the mouth-piece or turned out of the way to allow of
speaking through the tube, my whistle is permanently fixed in the tube
or mouth-piece, and is of such a kind as to allow of speaking and even
whispering being distinctly heard through the tube. A whistle con-
structed like the well-known “bird call" answers the purpose, and
each speaking tube may have two such whistles, one at each end;
or a single one fitted at any part of the tube may be used for a short
length.
When two or more speaking tubes from different parts terminate in a
set of mouth-pieces placed near together, each of such mouth-pieces is
provided with an indicator, which on the whistle being sounded shows
which tube has been used.
The indicator is contrived so as to be replaced on the tube being
blown or spoken through in reply by a movement which the operator
requires to make to open the aperture to enable him to reply.
A single tube may be joined to a pair of branch tubes, a flap at the
junction closing one branch when an operator blows along the other
branch; and in a similar way any branch tube may be joined to a
further pair of branch tubes, so that blowing through any one of the
number will close all the others.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to and representing
my improvements. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are
used to mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.

page_text: Figure 1 is a front view of my improved mouth-piece without an
indicator; and Figure 2 is a sectional side view of the same as attached
to a length of flexible tubing secured to a wall.
Figures 3 and 4, are a front view and vertical section of a modified form
of mouth-piece with an indicator; and details of the indicator are shown
separately in Figure 5.
Figure 6 is a diagram explanatory of my plan of combining together
two or more branch speaking tubes.
The mouth-piece is shown as made in two parts, 7, 8, fitted to screw
together and to retain the internal parts at the screw joint. The
whistle 9 consists of two metal plates, one flat and the other concave,
(or both might be made concave, being in that case fitted with the con-
cavities facing each other) and cach plate is perforated by a central hole
forming the well-known "bird call." A comparatively enlarged space 10.
is formed immediately behind the whistle 9, as the apparatus would not
act properly if the communicating tube 11 were brought without
enlargement close up to the whistle. This enlargement may be conical
as in Figure 2, cylindrical as in Figure 4, or of any other convenient
form; I also prefer to have a few inches of the tubing 11 of an
enlarged size near the mouth-piece, as shown in Figure 4.
The indicator details comprise an additional plate 12 held in the screw
joint of the mouth-piece 7, 8, and formed with a pair of vertical
flanges 13 cut at their upper parts to form guides for a wire loop 14, on
which a small flap 15 is loosely jointed. In the normal position the
flap 15 covers the hole of the whistle 9, but is easily blown outwards”
therefrom by a person wishing to speak from the other end of the tube,
the whistle being sounded at the same time. An indicator wire 16 is
jointed to the lower parts of the flanges 13, and in its normal position is
turned up against the flap 15, as shown in Figure 3, but is thrown out-
wards into the position indicated by dotted lines in Figure 4 by the
flap when it is blown outwards. The looped wire 14 is made with a
projecting part 17, which passes down through a hole in the bottom of
the outer mouth-piece 7, and when a person wishes to blow or speak
through the tube by the mouth-piece he raises the flap 15 so as to
uncover the hole in the whistle by pressing up the projecting part 17 of
the looped wire 14, and this wire 14 in rising turns back the indicator
wire 16 to its normal position.

page_text: In the diagram, Figure 6, five branch speaking tubes 21, 22, 23, 24,
25, arc shown as combined into a single tube 26. Each tube 21, 22,
24, 25, forms a separate junction with the central one 23, 26, and at
each junction, which is made with an acute angle, there is fitted a flap
or valve, indicated by red lines. When any of the five branch tubes, 21
to 25, is blown through towards 26, the action opens the appropriate
junction or switch flap and closes any others between that one and the
tube 26.
In using the tubes in the opposite direction the operator by
blowing into the tube 26 will cause the whistle to sound at the other
end of whichever of the five branch tubes, 21 to 25, was last used; and
if the person who has to attend to the message or to reply is not near the
mouth-piece, the whistle of which sounded, he will blow into the
mouth-piece nearest to him, and by so doing establish communication
between it and the tube 26.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, —
1. The application to speaking tubes of "bird call" or other suitable
whistles, such whistles being permanently fixed and used for speaking
through, as herein-before described.
2. The combining of mouth-pieces provided with permanently fixed
"bird call" whistles with tubing of the comparatively small sizes,
herein-before specified.
3. The fitting of the mouth-pieces of speaking tubes with indicators
of the improved kind and action herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Reith, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.