Improvements in Apparatus for Securing Safety of Traffo on Single Lines of Railway.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Oct., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 12th July, 1892-Accepted, 13th Aug, 1892 ..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Securing Safety of Traffo on
Single Lines of Railway.
I, EDWARD TYER, of Ashwin Street, Dalston, in the County of London,
Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In my previous Specifications particularly No. 6928 of 1890 I have described
apparatus for securing safety on single lines of railway by electrically controlling
from pre station the issue of a tablet at another station, this tablet- taking the
place of the staff usually carried by a train.
4.
In my later Specification No. 1904 of 1891 I have described improved apparatus
this purpose, a principal feature of this improved apparatus being a disc having
numerolis radial slots to receive tablets inserted edgeways. This disc can be
turned by hand to a position where a tablet can be taken out, but electrical
apparatus is applied to control the movement of the disc, so that, unless the
signalman at a distant station electrically releases the disc, a tablet cannot be
taken from it. My present invention relates to mechanism of a like character
but so modified as to be suited for delivery of a staff instead of a tablet, and
consequently adapted for use on many existing lines of railway in which the staff
is used. As in the apparatus described in the Specification No. 1904 of 1891 I
employ a disc having holes each suited to receive a staff, this disc being provided
with ratchets and pawls which normally prevent it from being turned so as to
bring a staff to an opening whence it can be removed. When however one of the
pawls is released by the action of an electrical current transmitted from another
station, a staff can be taken out and given to a train proceeding towards that
station. The movement of the disc for taking out a staff or for introducing a staff
affects contacts whereby the electrical communications between the stations are
controlled in such a manner, that there can be no more than one staff issued at a
time for trains travelling on one section of the 'line.
Dated this 28th day of October 1891.
ABEL & IMRAY
Agents for the Applicant:: ..
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Securing Safety of Traffic on
Single Lines of Railway.
L, EDWARD TYER, of Ashwin Street, Dalston, in the County of London,
Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described. and. ascertained
in and by the following statement
In my previous Specifications particularly No. 5928 of 1890 I have described
apparatus for securing safety on single lines of railway by electrically, controlling
from one station the issues of a tablet at another station; this tablet taking the
place of the staff usually carried by a train.
In my later Specification No. 1904 of 1891 I have described improved apparatus
for this purpose a ptincipal feature of this improved apparatus being a disc harug
numérons radial slots to receive tablets inserted edgeways. This dise can be fururd
by hand to a position where a tablet can be taken out, but electrical apparatuš ir
applied to control the movement of the disc to the anless the signalin

page_text: distant station electrically releases the disc, a tablet cannot be taken from it. My
present invention relates to mechanism of a like character but so modified as to be
suited for telivery of a staff instead of a tablet, and consequently adapted for use
on many existing lines of railway in which the staff is used. As in the apparatus
described in the Specification No. 1904 of 1891 I employ a disc having holes each
suited to receive a staff, this disc being provided with ratchets and pawls which
normally prevent it from being turned so as to bring a staff to an opening whence
it can be removed. When, however, one of the pawls is released by the action of
an electrical current transniitted from another station, a staff can be taken out and
given to a train proceeding towards that station. The movement of the disc for
taking out a staff, or for introducing a staff, affects contacts whereby the electrical
communications between the stations are controlled in such a manner, that there
can be no more than one staff issued at a time for trains travelling on one section
of the line.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a perspective shewing the cased in
apparatus A for receiving a staff and controlling its issue, with the plunger B for
electrically signalling to the next station, the plunger S for moving a switch to
receive a signal, and the signalling bell or gong apparatus E.
Fig. 2 is an elevation of the apparatus which is mostly enclosed within the
casing A, and Fig. 3 is a plan of this apparatus on the line of Fig. 2.
The electrical connections are shewn diagrammatically in Fig. 4.
On a vertical axis a which can be turned by an external knob K are fixed an
upper disc d¹ a lower disc d and a wheel w having ratchet teeth projecting
outwards and crown ratchet teeth projecting upwards. Also under the wheel w
is fixed a cam c presenting hollows alternating with circular parts c³. The
discs d'd have through them holes through which can be passed a staff 8, the end
of the staff resting in one of a number of recesses » formed in the wheel w. There
is also fixed on aa wheel & having as many teeth as there are holes through each
of the discs' d' d, recesses in 1, teeth teeth and hollows with the inter-
mediate circular parts c. An index i also fixed on a points on a stationary graduated
gauge G (Fig. 1) to show how far the axis a is turned. The staff s is usually
made with a projection shewn in side view at s' and in front view at, which may
serve two purposes, that is to say; first these projections being variously shaped
for different lines or districts, only the staff appropriate to a certain line or district
can be introduced into any control apparatus belonging to that line or district, and
secondly the projection renders the staff capable of acting as a key to open point
locks or like appliances. The teeth r' of the wheel to are engaged by a pawl pl
which is one arm of a lever, another arm p² of which extends partly over the
wheel, the third arm phas on it a piece of insulating material nearly bearing
against a contact lever pt. A spring holds these arms in the positions shewn in
Fig. 3 but when a staff's is thrust down, its somewhat tapered end in entering the
recess at pushes aside the arm p' whereby the electrical contact of 7 is broken
and the pawl is withdrawn so that by turning the knob K the wheel w can be
turned one tooth thus retracting the staff at from the front of the lever p³, and
thus allowing the pawl p¹ to engage the next ratchet tooth, and restoring the
con act effected by p. The crown teeth are engaged by a pawl m forming the
horizontal arın of a bell crank lever the vertical arm m' of which has a stud m³
projecting in front of the armature m³ of an electro-magnet M. This mechanism
is substantially the same as that shewu at Fig. 5 on Sheet 2 of the drawings
accompanying my previous Specification No. 1904 of 1891, and operates in the
same way, that is to say, when the magnet M is excited by an electric current, it
attracts its armature so raising the pawl m whereupon by turning the knob K, the
wheel w can be turned backwards. The cam teeth and hollow care engaged by
a roller on a pawl lever n which is strained by springs n' and is connected by a
link n' to three contact springs n'n' n³ which make contact with a set of contacts
on the one side, when the roller is in a hollow c as shewn in Fig. 3, and with a
set on the other side when the roller is on the circular edge.
The upper

page_text: The
cylindrical part A¹ of the casing A has a cover A' with a hole through it closed
by a hinged lid C on lifting which a staff can be introduced or taken out.
lid C has a tongue which when the lid is raised, engages in one of the notches of
the wheel (Fig. 2) and prevents the axis a from turning until the lid C is
closed down again. This part of the mechanism is substantially the same as that
described in my previous Specification No. 1904 of 1891, with reference to the
lid Ts and wheel D' shewn in Fig. 2 of the drawings accompanying that Specifica-
tion. The electrical connections being arranged as shewn in Fig. 4 with a local
battery L with the line communicating with the next station, and with earth e,
the operation of the apparatus is carried on in the same manner for the issue and
reception of a staff as for the issue and reception of a tablet as described in my
former Specification No. 1904 of 1891, that is to say, assuming the stations of two
signalmen Y and Z connected by a line wire l, and each having a set of the
apparatus described, the operation is as follows:
Y desiring to send a train towards Z, calls Z by working the plunger B and
thereby causing Z's bell or gong E to sound as prearranged for signal. If Z knows
the section to be clear, he transmits a current by which Y's magnet M is brought
into action, the pawl m is thus raised so that Y can turn his wheel m backwards
and so bring a staff immediately under the lid C; he can then raise the lid and
take out a staff which is conveyed by the train to Z.
In a
The movement of Y's wheel wo for taking out the staff by moving the lever n
so affects the electrical contacts that Z cannot again transmit an unlocking current
until the staff issued by Y is lodged in Z's apparatus. For lodging the staff
Z raises the lid C and pushes the staff down, thus releasing the pawl p and per-
mitting him to turn his wheel w one tooth forward and thus to restore the electrical
connections to condition for again transmitting an unlocking current to Y.
similar manner Y can unlock Z's apparatus, permitting him to issue a staff, but not
until Z has put into his apparatus the staff previously issued by Y. Thus safety
of traffic is ensured by the condition that Y cannot issue a second staff until Z
has received the first, so that two trains cannot be on the section running in the
same direction, and by the farther condition that Z cannot issue a staff until he has
received the staff previously issued by Y, so that two trains cannot be on the
section running in opposite directions.
When either Y or Z, after having issued a staff by which he has prevented
another staff from being issued at either station, returns the staff into his apparatus,
he thus restores the connections to condition for unlocking.
:-
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim,
in respect of apparatus for securing safety of traffic on single lines of railway, is :-
1. The modification of the apparatus described in my former Specification
No. 1904 of 1891, adapting it for operation with staves instead of tablets, by
substituting for the disc radially slotted to receive tablets a pair of discз pro-
vided with round holes to receive staves, and recessing the ratchet wheel to receive
the ends of the staves, substantially as described.
2. The combination of the modified apparatus with the electrical connections
for signalling and for locking and unlocking the apparatus, substantially as
described.
Dated this 19th dox of Inle 1902
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.