US233101A - Time-signal - Google Patents

Description

(N0 Model.)

Fig. 0.

I m v A Mu;- m

5.46? Jaco Jbiumron ".FETHS. FNOTO-LITHOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON. D. Q

J. JOHNSON. Time Signal.

No. 233,101. Patented Oct. 12, 1880.

H w w 1 Lid I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB JOHNSON, OF NEWBURYPORT, MASSACHUSETTS.

TIME-SIGNAL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 233,101, dated October 12, 1880.

Application filed July 17, 1880. (N model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAcoB JOHNSON, of

Newburyport, of the county of Essex and State nalizer, of the period of time that may have intcrvened between the arrival of the car or train or engine at such station and the departure thereof of another car or train or engine in advance, the object being to prevent the rear car, train, or engine from colliding with the advanced one.

Collisions of trains have frequently occurred by reason of the engineer or conductor of one supposing a train in advance to be at a required distance ahead, or as having passed or departed from a station in time for the arrival of the train in rear. I

With my signalizer the time that may have elapsed since the departure of a train from the signalizer-station will be indicated by the column of colored fluid of one of the glass tubes of the instrument, it being supposed that such time is to be less than a given periodas five minutes, for instance. Thus by the distance the top of the column of fluid may have fallen since the departure of an advance train the conductor or engineer of a rear train can judge of the time that may have elapsed since the station was left by the advance train.

In the drawings, A and B represent two cylindrical receivers closed at their ends and arranged parallel to eachother and at a suitable distance apart, and connected at their middles by a bar, 0, having at its middle a hub, D, like that of a wheel, the same being to support the signalizeron a journal and admit of the signalizer being revolved thereon. The

receivers are also connected near their ends by rods E E, arranged as shown; and there is also a pipe, F, leading from one to the other of the receivers near the bar 0 and opening into both of them.

Furthermore, there are between the two receivers, and on opposite sides of the said bar 0, two transparent or glass tubes, G H, connected with the receivers by stuffing-boxes a, arranged as shown. The upper end of one of these tubes opens fully into the receiver above it, but the lower end of such glass tube opens into the receiver below it by a small hole, I).

.So with the other glass tube-its lower end opens fully into the receiver below it, while the tube at its upper end communicates with the receiver above it by a small hole, b. Each receiver should have an internal capacity double, or more than double, that of each of the glass tubes.

If we suppose one of the receivers to be charged with colored alcohol and each small hole I) or Z) to be gaged or of a size sufficient to discharge from its glass tube in five minutes a column of the fluid equal in length to the distance between the two stuffing-boxes of the said glass tube, we shall have the apparatus fitted for approximately, it not accurately, showing the period of time less than five minutes that may have elapsed after the departure of a train from the signalizer-station.

Immediately on the starting of the train from the station the signalizer is to be revolved one hundred and eighty degrees of a circle, in order to bring uppermost the receiver that may contain the fluid. This will cause half the fluid in such receiver to instantly flow therefrom into one of the glass tubes and to fill it. Should there be any fluid in the other tube such fiuid will instantaneously escape from it into the lower receiver. The fluid in the glass tube first named will gradually escape from it into the lower receiver, taking five minutes to fall to the level of the top of the lower stuffing-box, the extentof the fall at any time within that period indicating the time that may have elapsed since the station was left by the departed train.

The apparatus is to be placed or set up in view of a conductor or engineer while at 01' passing a station of a railway, and it may be properly revolved by a person at the station, or automatically by mechanism to be set in motion by the passing car, engine, or train, and at the exact time of its starting from or passing the station.

The pipe F is to rapidly discharge from the upper receiver into the lower one the surplus liquid in the first one beyond what maybe required to fill the glass tube from which the liquid is to steadilyescape, the connecting-tube being of a diameter suflicient to allow said surplus escaping from the upper tube to get out of it before the top of the column in the filled glass tube may have fallen to a level with thelower part of its upper smiling-box.

The rapidity of escape of the fluid from the charged glass tube will gradually decrease as the column ot'fluid may decrease in height, in consequence of which there should be marks on the tube, or a scale or divisional points, to

0 indicate the fall of the fluid for each minute of time.

As alcohol can be colored blue or red and cannot be frozen under ordinary low temperatures, I prefer it to mercury or other fluid for use in the instrument.

I claim as my invention- A train-signalizer, substantiallyas described, consisting of the two receivers and their surplus fluid-discharger and the two glass tubes, arranged, combined, and constructed so as, when charged with a fluid and partially revolved, as explained, to operate essentially in manner and for the purpose set forth.

JACOB JOHNSON. Witnesses:

1:. II. EDDY, WM. W. LUNT.

Images