AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR INDICATING THE NAMES OF RAILWAY STATIONS TO PASSENGERS
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henris Réda de St. Martin, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st March 1861.
I, HENRI REDA DE ST. MARTIN, of No. 44, Frith Street, Soho, in the
County of Middlesex, Photographer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR INDICATING THE NAMES OF
RAILWAY STATIONS TO PASSENGERS," to be as follows:-
At a distance of about two or three hundred yards in advance of every
station between the termini of any given railway, I propose to fix a small
block, either of wood, stone, or other material, on which I place a lever or cog
wheel of convenient dimensions, which is made to operate in that direction
only in which the carriages move. Or the upper part of the block may be
shaped prismatically, having its inclined planes at right angles to the line of
rails. This block is to be fixed midway between the two rails on which the
carriages run. It will be understood that a block is to be thus placed between
both what are termed the up and down lines of rails, and, therefore, there
will be two blocks appropriated to each station. This will also be the case
where there is but one line of rails. To the under side of the framing on
which every carriage is built, I propose to adjust a lever, cog, or ratchet
wheel; or in the same place may be fixed a short iron tube, in which a rod
projecting some distance below the under side of the framing may work freely.
This lever, cog, or ratchet wheel, or the upper end of the rod which works in
the iron tube will be in connection with certain well-known mechanical

page_text: apparatus that will communicate movement to an indicator or a hand placed
on the interior of the roof, or on one side of every carriage, and when a
carriage is divided into separate compartments, on the roof or side of each
compartment. At equal and convenient distances round the centre on which
this indicator or hand revolves, are to be printed or written in legible characters
the names of all the stations that are situated between the termini of any par-
ticular railway. If it be a railway having one of its termini in London, for
instance, the indicator will once for all be so adjusted as to point to the name
London. At two or three hundred yards before the carriage arrives at the
first station from London, the aforesaid lever, cog, or ratchet wheel on its
under side will come in contact with the lever, or cog wheel attached to the
above mentioned fixed block. Or the projecting rod at its lower end will come
in contact with the inclined plane, which will force it up the tube. The result
that will follow according to accurate arrangement and adjustment will he to
move the indicator in the interior of the carriage to the first of the divisions
into which the circle presenting the names of the various stations on the line has
been divided. This first division is occupied by the name of the first station at
which the train arrives after leaving London. At the next station there will
take place a similar and equal movement of the indicator, which advances to
the second compartment on which is printed the name of the second station,
and so on at every station to the end of the line.