IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING THE COLLISION OF RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Simon Cornelis Van der Mey at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 3rd June 1874.-A communication from abroad by Edzard
Willem Ansingh, of Amsterdam, Chemist.
I, SIMON CORNELIS VAN DER MEY, of Amsterdam, Holland, now of
8, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PREVENTING THE
COLLISION OF RAILWAY TRAINS," a communication, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to preventing the collision of railway trains by
means of apparatus of which part is carried by the locomotives and part
fixed upon the railway. Inside and outside vertical safety rods are
placed on the left side of the way from station to station, at distances of
half an hour or an hour. When the train is ready for departure a galvanic
current is produced in a magnet, all the inside rods will then rise.
Before a train leaves a station a stop spring must be adjusted by the
electro-magnet to permit the inside rods to rise. A spring attached to a
lever by means of a hoop or other connection presses the said lever on å
second lever; the short arm of the first lever rises thereby, and will be

page_text: .
pressed down by an iron bar attached to the frame of the locomotive
when the same is passing. By this pressure the long arm of the lever
rises and is seized by the stop, at the same time the spring will be raised
and extended. At this moment the inside rod falls and passes the
spring; then the balance touches a third lever and presses it down; the
short am of this lever on which rests a fourth lever rises and withdraws
the said stop. The long arm of the first lever being free falls on the
second lever and presses it back again through the spring.
After depressing the inside rod the mechanism assumes each time
such a position that when the spring stop is withdrawn by electro-
magnetism this rod rises.
•
The magnet is a wrought-iron tube closed at both ends by iron wads.
This tube is bent into the form of a horse-shoe, and is covered with
copper wire enveloped with silk. This iron tube is made magnetic by a
galvanic battery in the station. The said spring stop is made of a flat
iron plate or armature, provided with flat metal elevations in order to
prevent adhesion by continuous magnetism. To this armature is
attached a metal stop which is held on its place by a weak steel spring.
The outside rod is of metál, the inside rod of wood, covered on the under
side and fore side with iron; the conducting part of the inside rod is of
copper, the rod itself is provided with an iron cap; the conducting
chains are of metal; the balances are of iron and turn in and between
copper. The place where the balance touches the lever is provided with
a metal plate.
At the fire box end of the locomotive I mount an iron plate, turning
on a fulcrum pin and held up by a bolt; this plate is provided with a
weight. When the said bolt is withdrawn the plate and weight fall
down. A chain attached to the said plate cuts off the steam, whilst
another chain attached to the said weight opens the steam whistle. On
the buffer beam there is a tumbler which is attached to the said bolt by
a rod. This tumbler is held up by' levers, the first lever resting on the
other, and the said levers turning in two directions. The buffer beam
also carries a copper conductor and glass tube. One lever turns on a
fulcrum, at whose under side is a spring, which with the levers tends to
withdraw the tumbler, and by drawing back the aforesaid bolt will act
to cause the plate and weight to fall, but their falling is prevented by a
rope or chain extending from the lever to the under side of the glass

page_text: tube, the rope being provided at the end of the said tube with a knot so
that the spring can only press down the lever when the knot allows it
by the crushing of the glass tube. The said tube being crushed the bolt
will be withdrawn by the spring, the levers, the tumbler, and the rod.
In proportion as the locomotive advances the said rods are depressed in
succession. The locomotive carries the glass tube on the right side of
the buffer, and the said glass tube is higher than the cap of the rod
when the same is depressed, but this tube will be crushed when the
inside rod is raised.
It will be obvious that a locomotive running on a railway will depress
the safety rods without crushing the glass tube because this tube is
placed on the right side, but a locomotive running in an opposite
direction crushes the glass tube on the rod and thereby opens the
whistle and cuts off the steam by the mechanism above described.
In case of a double line wooden rods or piles may be used for crushing
the glass tube of a locomotive running in the wrong direction.
A modification of the said apparatus may be made by depressing the
vertical rods without the use of the iron bar attached to the frame and
directly by the driving wheel of the locomotive. For this purpose the
rods are placed higher and as near as possible to the rail; when the rod
is raised the short arm of the lever will rise above the rail, and is struck
by the driving wheel because this wheel has more breadth than the
rail.