US879168A - Electric railway-signal. - Google Patents

Description

No. 879,188. PATLNTLD F118. 18, 1908. P. M. HILL 8 W. G. DAVIS.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY SIGNAL.

APPLIOATION FILED 1188.8, 1907.

. WITNESSES. INVENToRs lliure i.

FREDERIC M. HLL AND WILLIAM C. DAVIS, OF COLUMBUS, 01H0.

Speciiication of Letters Patent,

Patented rst. is, reos,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FREDERIC M. HILL and WILLIAM C] Davis, citizens of the United States, residing at Columbus, in the county of Franklin and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inElectric Railway-Signals, of which the following is a-speciication.

Qur' invention relates to improvements in electric railway si nals, and comprises a signal for use especiailly at a crossing of several tracks or at a point where a switch or passing traclr is provided along the line of a single traclrway; it further comprisesmeans'so located that an advancing car upon reaching a certain. point will cause a signal to be shown .by electric means actuated by said car; it

also comprises means whereby said car when it reachesl a certain other predetermined point will cause said signal to be dropped from the danger position; it also comprises means for positively maintaining said signal c, .in its danger position after the advent of the car into the predetermined region, until said car passes out of said region', andits exit releases said signal from its danger position.

rhe essential feature of our invention is that not only is the signal raised to danger position by electric connections actuated by the car, but it is positively held in said posin tion, and is then released tl'ierelrom by said car. lf means were not provided for positively maintaining said signal in its danger position during the whole period while the cari's in the region desired to be protected, if

the current should cease and the car should stop, then the signal would revert to the safe position, which might lead to accident;

i therefore with our construction, the danger signal is positively set by the car if it has ,in any manner' come into the prescribed region, being ro elled by the electric current.

With tliese and other objects in view which will be more fully hereinafter -de-. scribed and embodied in the claims, reference is made to the accompanying drawings lwhich are hereto attached and hereby made a part of this specification, in which Figurev b devices for controlling the same;V Fig.' 2 1s an end view of the devices shown in Fig. 1 Fig.

3 is a view of the` switch supported fromthe trolleyg guide wire; Fig. 4 1s an end view of 1 is a side view of the signal and thei said switch showing the trolley Wheel and wire in place therein; Fig. 5 shows a convenn tional. arrangement of electric wires for accomplishing the purposp abo ve noted.

ln the4 accompanying drawings, 1 is the long arm of the signal member, which is-pivoted at 2 on the shaft 3, the shorter arin 4 being provided with a colored trans arent disk 5,' behind which is suspended an e ectric bulb 6, the color of the disk being usually red to indicate danger. Said shaft 3 carries rigidly fixed thereon a pulley 7 having a chain or cable S-.attached thereto at any desired point of its circumference; the longer arm 1 of said signal member being heavier than the shorter arm will tend to drop, and inspection of the parts as shown in Fig. 1 shows that if said arms drops, the shaft will be rotated `thereby and the pulley 7 will be carried therewith, whiclrwil lift the chain 8. At the lower end of said chain is secured a rod 9 having at its lower end a hook 10; said rod 9 adjacent its upper end' is formed preferably of soft metal, and at its lower end may bev formed of brass or some other harder lrind of metal. At 11 is shown the outer'covering of a solenoid magnet, which when energized will draw the rod downwardly, thereby rotating the pulley 7 and lifting the arm 1 of the signal member. Whenthe signal member is lifted to its horizontal position, the hook 1U at the lower end thereof will engage the hook 12 at the upper end of the rod 13 piv otally mounted upon the bracket ,14 and provided with the extensions 15 and 16. At 1 7 is shown a magnet having the core 18; when magnet 17 is energized, the arm 16 is drawn downwardly against the core 18, thereby retracting the hook 12 out of engage-` ment with th hook 10, whereupon the long an 1 of the signal member is permitted to fall, thereby exhibiting a safe signal.

The meansby which the operation of the 4devices just described is attained will now be set forth. The trolley wire is shown at 19, suspended from the guide wire 20 in the usual manner; at theentrance to the por'- tion of track which must be'protected, or out of which cars moving in opposite directions must be-kept to avoid accident, is suspended from the guide wire 20, a h ood 21 shown espe# cially in Fig. Sfand also indicated in Fig. 5'a

at the various points noted at 22, 23, 24 sind 25; referring to Figa, the apex of hood 21 is seen to have a partial lining of metal, preferably brass to withstand usage. When the trolley wheel 2S passes into the hood, the iianges thereor` travel in contact with both sheets of lining 26 and 27, thereby establishing.r a circuit through the trolley wheel betwren said sheets; the current thus passing through the trolley wheel to the sheet 27 is conducted by the wire 28 into the solenoid 11, whence the circuit is completed to the earth at 29. The solenoid, being thus energized, will draw the rod 9 downwardly, thereby lifting the signal arm 1, whereby the red disk 5 is brought in frontl of the incandescent light 6, and when said arm reaches the horizontal position, the hook 10 on rod 9 will engage with the hook 12 on pivoted rod 124, thereby positively locking the rod 9 in its lower iosition, whereby the arm 1 is positively held at the danger position.

rl" he car being assumed to be traveling in the direction of the arrow along the trolley wire 1.9, a car coming from the opposite direction will observe the danger signal in time to stop luntil the first mentioned car may pass through and out ol' the danger region; the

1 car passing rmwardly, its trolley wheel will enter the hood shown at 24, whereby a current will be set up through a -trolley wheel from the trolley wire to the wire 30, said latter wire passing to the magnet 17, the circuit being then completed to the ground at 31. The cncrgizhig of the magnet 17 will retract the arm l (i, which will thereby disengage the hook 12 from the hook 10, whereupon the signal arm l is .free to drop and on account of its overbalancing weight will descend and a safe signal or white light will thereupon be presented. .t this instant the car coming from the opposite direction will be free to move forward in salet Assume that the car is moving in the direction indicated by arrow 32 g when the trolley wheel enters 'nood 25 a current will be set up in the 'wim 33 which passes to a solenoid (not shown) like that shown in Fig. l, whereupon the signal will he displayed and positively held in danger position in view of a car coming from the opposite direction. lt is not thought necessary to show the signaling arrangement at the latter mentioned place, inasmuch as it is constructed identically like the one shown in `Fig. 5, and operates in the same manner. [t is therefore seen that the region of track between the points 34 and 35 are protected by our device g it is further seen that an electrical ly driven car which has sufficient current to bring its trolley wheel into the hood 22 at one end or the hood 26 at the other end will cause adanger signal to be displayed, said danger signal being positively chanical devices described; and it is further clearly shown that said signal will remain in such position until the car passes out at the hood 24, whereupon the ositively engaged hooks will be released. t is apparent lthat no manual e'llort need be exercised to operate our signal nor need there vbe an attendant in connection therewith; the entire construction renders the operation of said signal automatic and also ,f ositively and highly effective. Without tlie positive arrangement of said hooks, the signal would be dropped while the car would be in the dan er region if the current driving said car shou d happen to fail, thereby leaving the danger section of track exposed at the o posite end. Further, the release of the hooks is automatically effected by the exit of the car from the danger l section of track. We therefore dispense with all need of an attendant in connection' with the operation of our danger signal device,

. and the construction. thereof is so simple that it can readily be adapted for use with electric railway lines as they are at present constructed, and it is so inexpensive that' it can easily be provided by electric railways at all possible danger points withoutbecoming a 'financial burden.

Having described our invention what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. An electric railway signal comprising a pivoted indicating device, a disk rotatable therewith, a hook member depending from said disk formed of harder material in its lower portion, a second hook member ivotally mounted and overbalanced, e ectric means for engaging said hook members, and electric means for disengaging said hook members.

2. An electric railway signal comprisin a pivoted indicating device, a disk rotata le4 therewith, a flexible element adapted to be wound upon said disk, a hook member de# pending from said flexible element formed of softer material in its upper portion and harder material in its lower portion, a second hook member pivotally mounted and overbalanced, said hook members adapted to be `engaged and disengaged by electric means under the control of a moving car.`

3. An electric railway signal com rising a shaft rotatably mounted, an over alanced indicating device mounted on said shaft, a disk carried by said shaft, a flexible member secured to said disk and adapted to be wound thereon, a hook member suspended from said flexible member and adapted to be elevated by rotation of sa'id disk and to be lowered by electric means, a secondhook member pivotally mounted and overbalanced adapted to maintain said signal in its indicating position,

Inaintained in the danger position by the mei and electric means adapted to disengage said hook members to permit the rotation of said In testimony whereof We aiiXvour signasignaimember away from its indicating os1- tures 1nv presence of two Witnesses.

tion, all said electric means being unde the 1 1 control of a moving car, and adapted to raise the indicating device to its4 signal position when the car is at one Eoint and to release Witnesses: said indicating device W en the car passes a GEO. W. BIGHTMIRE, second point. A. RAGER.

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