IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SIGNALLING ON RAILWAY TRAINS.
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Albert Westhead, of No. 17, St. Mary Axe, in the
City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR SIGNALLING ON RAILWAY TRAINS.
Sealed the 3rd October 1865, and dated the 13th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Albert Westhead at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
April 1865.
I, ALBERT WESTHEAD, of No. 17, St. Mary Axe, in the City of London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR SIGNALLING ON RAILWAY TRAINS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for signalling
on railway trains. For this purpose I employ a pipe running from end to end
of the train, each carriage carries its own section of pipe, and the connections
between the several sections are made by flexible junction pieces which are
conveniently made of vulcanized india-rubber. At a convenient place or
places on this pipe a whistle or whistles are mounted, and on each carriage
or on each compartment there is a stop-cock accessible to the passengers
in the carriage. One end of this pipe is connected with the locomotive,
and a current of steam is passed along the pipe therefrom, it may be
exhaust or waste steam or steam taken from the boiler direct; this steam so
long as all is right issues as a jet from the other end of the pipe at the rear
end of the train, but directly one of the stop-cocks on the pipe is turned by a

page_text: passenger or other person wishing to give an alarm, the free passage of the
steam through the pipe is checked, and it is forced to issue by the whistle or
whistles which it causes to sound. In place of whistles other instruments may
be employed which are capable of being sounded by a current of steam. Each
of the sections of the pipe before-mentioned may be fitted with a valve so
arranged that if the flexible junction which should connect it with the next
section becomes detached in consequence of a carriage going off the line or
from any other cause, the valve closes and the alarm is given.
I prefer also to employ on each of the carriages, it may conveniently be at
the end thereof, a signal arm or arms so arranged that when one of the stop-
cocks is turned, the arm or arms may be thrown out from the side of the
carriage into such a position as at once to catch the eye of the guard looking
along the train. The arms are each made with a hole which is glazed with
red glass, and when the arm falls, this glass is interposed between a lamp at
the front of the train and the guard's window, and then the light will appear
red to the guard.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Albert Westhead in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th
October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALBERT'
WESTHEAD, of No. 17, St. Mary Axe, in the City of London, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Albert Westhead, Her special licence that I, the said Albert
Westhead, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I
the said Albert Westhead, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SIGNALLING ON RAILWAY TRAINS," upon the condition.
(amongst others) that I, the said Albert Westhead, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the natu of the said

page_text: 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 Albert Westhead, 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 follow-
ing statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for signalling
on railway trains. For this purpose I employ a pipe, say three-quarters of an
inch in diameter, running from end to end of the train, each carriage carries
its own section of pipe, which is by preference attached to the bottom of the
carriage, and runs from one end of the carriage to the other. At each end
of each section of pipe is a half union joint (by preference the male half)
and the connections between the pipes of the several carriages are made by
flexible junction pieces, conveniently tubes of vulcanized india-rubber, and
each of these flexible junction pipes is furnished at both ends with the feinale
half of a union joint which couple up with the half union joints on the sections
of pipe fixed to the carriages. On the outside framework of the engine I fix
a pipe (which we may call the main or service pipe) which leads down under
the foot plate, terminating with a half union joint (male) to receive a flexible
junction pipe connecting it with the pipe running along the train. Into this
main pipe on the engine is led from the top of the boiler a smaller pipe
through which we take the feed of steam, at the other end of the main pipe
is fixed the whistle. On the section of pipe carried by each carriage there is
a stop cock, it may conveniently be an ordinary throttle valve, the stop-cock
is connected to suitable bell pulls in the interior of each compartment, so that
it may readily be closed by any of the passengers pulling one or other of the
bell pulls. Thus it will be seen that so long as all is right, steam will issue as a
jet from the end of the pipe at the rear end of the train, but directly one of
the stop-cocks on the pipe is turned by a passenger or other person wishing
to give an alarm, the free passage of the steam through the pipe is checked,
and it is forced to issue by the whistle or whistles which it causes to sound.
In order that the whistle may not sound simply in consequence of the
resistance caused by the friction in the pipe, the steam is impeded in its
passage to the whistle by a valve placed on the main pipe immediately
behind the whistle, and held down by a weight or spring sufficiently to
prevent steam passing through the whistle when the stop-cocks in the pipe
are all open, this valve however at once opens, when one or other of the
stop-cocks is closed, and so allows steam to pass to the whistle. In

page_text: place of whistles other instruments may be employed, which are capable of
being sounded by a current of steam, a whistle however is most convenient.
Thus a ready means is provided to enable the passengers to call the attention
of the engine driver, and he can if he desires signal to the guard with the
ordinary whistle, waste steam may be used in place of steam taken direct
from the boiler.
In witness whereof, I, the said Albert Westhead, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
ALBERT WESTHEAD. (L.S.)