IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES TO FACILITATE THE PASSAGE OF THE GUARD OR OTHER PERSON FROM END TO END OF THE TRAIN WHILST IT IS TRAVELLING
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Calvin Thompson and John James Malbourne
Green, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Engineers, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES TO FACILITATE
THE PASSAGE OF THE GUARD OR OTHER PERSON FROM END TO END OF THE
TRAIN WHILST IT IS TRAVELLING."
Sealed the 19th September 1865, and dated the 27th March 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Calvin Thompson
and John James Malbourne Green at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 27th March 1865.
We, JOHN CALVIN THOMPSON and. JOHN JAMES MALBOURNE GREEN, of
5. Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Engineers, do hereby declare, the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY
. CARRIAGES TO FACILITATE THE PASSAGE OF THE GUARD OR OTHER PERSON FROM
END TO END OF THE TRAIN WHILST IT IS TRAVELLING," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of railway
carriages to facilitate the passage of the guard or other person from end to
end of the train whilst it is travelling. For this purpose a gangway is formed
from end to end of each carriage on one side of it, and on the same level as
the floor or platform of the carriage. This gangway is just inside the ordinary
doors of the carriage, so that it is completely enclosed by the side, and roof
5 of the carriage; it is separated however from the compartments of the carriage

page_text: by a partition fitted with sliding doors, by which any of the compartments
may be entered from the gangway. At each end of the carriage the gangway
is continued to meet the gangway of the next carriage, and this continuation
is made by means of a slide forming a prolongation of the floor of the gang-
way, and this slide is by preference arranged to be pressed forward by springs,
so as to cause it to bear against the corresponding projecting slide of the next
carriage, and these may, if desired, be coupled together by a pin dropped into
eyes on the slides, but the coupling may be so effected as not to interfere
with the carriages inclining more or less the one to the other in passing round
The sliding portions of the platforms are enclosed at the sides and
top by means of canvas or suitable flexible material stretched on frames
to keep it in form, and these frames also are conveniently fitted with springs
to press them outwards to make a sufficiently wind-tight junction with the
sides and roof of the gangway of the next carriage, or a similar enclosed
passage. between carriage and carriage may be arranged at the centre, in place
of at one side of the carriages if preferred.
SPECIFICATION in 'pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Calvin Thompson and John James Malbourne Green
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
CALVIN THOMPSON and JOHN JAMES MALBOURNE GREEN, of Greenwich, in the
County of Kent, Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, 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 us,
the said John Calvin Thompson and John James Malbourne Green, Her
special licence that we, the said John Calvin Thompson and John James
Malbourne Green, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said John Calvin Thompson and John James Malbourne Green,
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES TO FACILITATE THE PASSAGE OF THE GUARD

page_text: OR OTHER PERSON FROM END TO END OF THE TRAIN WHILST IT IS TRAVELLING,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John Calvin Thompson
and John James Malbourne Green, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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.
i
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Calvin Thompson, on behalf of
myself and the said John James Malbourne Green, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
railway carriages to facilitate the passage of the guard or other person from
end to end of the train whilst it is travelling. For this purpose a gangway is
formed from end to end of each carriage on one side of it, and on the same
level as the floor or platform of the carriage. This gangway is just inside the
ordinary doors of the carriage, so that it is completely enclosed by the side
and roof of the carriage; it is separated however from the compartments of
the carriage by a partition fitted with sliding doors, by which any of the
compartments may be entered from the gangway. At each end of the carriage
the gangway is continued to meet the gangway of the next carriage, and this
continuation is made by means of a slide forming a prolongation of the floor
of the gangway, and these may, if desired, be coupled together by a pin dropped
into eyes on the slides, but the coupling must be so effected as not to interfere
with the carriages inclining more or less the one to the other in passing round
curves. The sliding portions of the platforms are enclosed at the sides and
top by means of canvas or suitable flexible material stretched on frames to
keep it in form.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect we will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows in plan so much of two railway carriages as is necessary to
illustrate our Invention; the roofs and upper parts of the carriages are
supposed to be removed, the better to show the arrangement of the interior.

page_text: The carriage as respects the general construction of the floor or platform a¹
the mounting of the wheels, buffers, couplings, and other parts is as heretofore,
the two sides b and c are also unaltered, being made with hinged doors b¹
and c, and with windows 6 and ; within the carriage however, and
running from end to end thereof a longitudinal partition d is fixed, so as to
'enclose a passage e between itself and the side c of the carriage; this partition
'is fitted with sliding doors d', and has in it windows d³. The seats are
arranged as the Drawing shows, or otherwise in any convenient manner,
between the partition d and the side 6 of the carriage. At each end of the
carriage an opening is formed through the end corresponding with the end
of the passage e. The floor of the passage is continued on from carriage to
carriage by the moveable boards f; the ends of the boards are secured' to the
carriages as is shown by pins dropping into suitable sockets in the platforms
of the carriages, and passing through the boards f; one of the pin holes in
each board is slotted so as to allow the boards to play freely with the buffers.
In order to enclose the passage f at the spaces between the carriages water-
proofed canvas or other similar flexible material is employed; it is fixed upon
vertical and horizontal frames f¹, f', which are connected the one to the
other and to the carriages by hinged connecting pieces f*, as is shown at
Figure 2, so that the frames f¹ can move freely towards and from each other
'to compensate for the varying distances between the carriages. It is preferred
to attach to each carriage, and at each end thereof, one half of this flexible
continuation of the passage f, and when the carriages are made up into a
train these portions are connected together by buckles and straps, or in other
similar manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Calvin Thompson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JOHN C. THOMPSON. (L.S.)