IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING FOR RAILWAY PURPOSES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Edward White, of Fulham, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, and Francis Robinson, of Putney, in the
County of Surrey, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SIGNALLING FOR RAILWAY PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Edward White
and Francis Robinson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 26th December 1854.
We, CHARLES EDWARD WHITE and FRANCIS ROBINSON, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SIGNALLING FOR RAILWAY
PURPOSES" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to arrangements of mechanism and working of same
for the purpose of supplying compressed air to whistles or sounding pipes for
signalling on railways from the guards to the engine drivers, or otherwise.
The means whereby we intend to carry the Invention into effect are these:
to an axle of a locomotive, tender, carriage, or van, we fit eccentric or other
suitable gearing, which actuates a piston in a cylinder (or pistons in cylinders),
compressing the air, which when compressed passes into a reservoir in or attached
to the locomotive, tender, carriage, or van, as the case may be, whence the com-
pressed air passes through a pipe or pipes to a whistles or whistles, sounding
pipe or sounding pipes, to which the compressed air can be admitted or shut

page_text: off from by a stop-cock or stop-cocks, as in the ordinary steam whistles; and
thus the guard or other attendant, or a passenger, if thought proper, may
signal the engine driver, station master, &c., it being evident that the rotation
of the axle will keep up the charge of compressed air ready for use.
For stations, &c., instead of connecting the air-compressing piston with the
axle of the wheels of a carriage, &c., a cylinder and piston, to be actuated
by weight, leverage, or pressure, or otherwise, may be employed to compress
the air and charge the whistle or whistles, sounding pipe or sounding pipes,
which may be operated with or worked upon by the station master or other
attendant.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Edward White and Francis Robinson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 25th June 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
EDWARD WHITE, of Fulham, in the County of Middlesex, _ Gentleman,
and FRANCIS ROBINSON, of Putney, in the County of Surrey, Gent", send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Charles Edward White and Francis Robinson, Her special licence that
we, the said Charles Edward White and Francis Robinson, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles Edward
White and Francis Robinson, our 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 SIGNALLING FOR RAILWAY PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Charles Edward White and Francis Robinson, by
an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and
seal of one of us, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Charles Edward White and Francis
Robinson, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereto annexed:-
Our improvements consist in producing signals by means of arrangements of
mechanism hereafter described, which we so employ or work as to keep up a
good supply of compressed air, in order therewith to sound a whistle or whistles,
sounding pipe or sounding pipes, for signalling on railways, whether from the
guard to the engine driver or at stations or otherwise, whereby we are enabled
to produce a complete system of railway signals readily available when required,
producing continuous sounds of various descriptions, which arrangements of
mechanism and mode of working the same will be readily understood by
referring to the Drawings accompanying this Specification, which we will now
proceed to describe.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
The Drawing shews at one view the mechanism aforesaid applied to a
railway (guard's) carriage.
In the said Drawing, the carriage (A) has the wheels thereof marked B,
and the axle thereof marked C; the eccentrics D being made in two parts, and
fitted on to the axle (C), and secured with bolts and nuts for tightening the
same on to the said axle. The rings E, termed the eccentric's rings, are also
made in two parts, like the eccentrics, and provided with flange joints with
nuts and screws for tightening the same on to the peripheries of of the said
eccentrics; said rings E being secured to the eccentrics' rods F, at the upper
part of which are the slings G, connected to the plungers or pistons H, which
work in the air-compressing pumps or cylinders J, from which the compressed
air is carried by the pipe and junctions K (such pipe and junctions proceeding
from one side of the pumps) to the reservoir L, whence the compressed air
passes by the pipe O to a smaller reservoir, situate close to the whistles or
sounding pipes P, P, P, to any or all of which the compressed air can be sup-
plied in order to sound the same by turning one or more of the stop-cocks of
the whistles.
The Drawing shews three whistles as applied, but in practice there may be
a greater or less number, and adapted to produce different signals. The
whistles may be of different tones, so that one tone may be appointed to signal
the occurrence of one kind of casualty, and another tone another kind of
casualty, and thus a complete system of signals be obtained.

page_text: We provide the mechanism with safety valves M, to allow the exit of air
from the reservoir when its pressure becomes too high. These valves act like
other well-known safety valves, by the pressure of a helical spring of given
resisting power, counterbalancing the opposed pressure until it exceeds that of
the spring. We also provide a pressure guage N, similar to those known as
Smith's or Bourdon's, and which are well understood among engineers.
The apparatus adopted for stationary purposes is the same as that just
described, as regards being constructed with a large reservoir, a pipe, and
small reservoir, with a whistle or whistles, sounding pipe or sounding pipes,
safety valves, and pressure guage, but differs from the mechanism shewn in the
Drawing, in not being worked by the axle of wheels; for the reservoir, &c.
is to be fixed with an air pump attached, which air pump may, by its piston,
be worked by a crank or lever in any known manner, pumping air into the
reservoir.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, we would here remark that we are aware that it
has heretofore been attempted to signal on railways by employing compressed
air in mechanism in connection with carriages; we do not, therefore, claim the
producing signals by the use of such air, except when the same is stored ready
for use in a reservoir or receptacles (ensuring larger capacity than the supply
pipe from the air pump or pumps can ensure), from which it may be imme-
diately discharged, so as to sound a whistle or whistles, sounding pipe or
sounding pipes, producing the same or different tones, as above described, for
the purposes of signaling on railways, same being exemplified by the Drawing
accompanying this Specification.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Edward White and Francis
Robinson, have hereunto set our hand and seal, this Nineteenth day
of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
CHARLES EDWARD WHITE. (L.S.)
FRAS ROBINSON.
(L.S.)
CHARLES EDWARD WHITE. (L.S.)
FRAS ROBINSON.
(L.S.)