US443692A - Station indioatoe - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2. J N WINN STATION INDIGATOR.

Patented Dec. 30, 1890.

INVENZ'OH 7. JV 7767771 M M J 0 I NW W/TNE SSE S (No Model.) -3 Sheets-Sheet 3. J N WINN STATION INDICATOR.

No. 443,692. Patented Dec. 80, 1890.

INVENTOH.

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Jnnns N. wins, or DARIEN, GEORGIA.

STATION-rlNDlCAT OR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 443,692, dated December 30, 1890.

Application filed March 10, 1890- Serial No. 343,340. (No model.)

T0 (1, whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES N. \VINN, of 'Darien, in the county of McIntosh and State of Georgia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Station-Indicators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention is in the nature of an improvement upon the patentwhich was granted me December 24, 1889, No. 417,895; and it consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of parts of an indicator designed to be placed upon the cars of a steam-railroad to indicate the stations along the route, the said indicator being operated by the engineer from the cab by means of compressed air from the air-brakes or by steam, whose influence is transmitted to an indicator in each car through flexible couplings between the cars.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the indicator with its glazed door removed. Fig. 2 is an end View, on an enlarged scale, lookingin the direction of the arrow 1. Fig. 3 is avertical cross-section through the line 3 3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is an end view looking in the direction of the arrow 2 in Fig. 1, and Figs. 5 and 6 are details. I

In the drawings, A represents the inclosing-case for the indicator, which is designed to be set in an elevated position in one end of the car, and is provided with a front door with a glass panel in the same. In this case there is secured to its back portion a metal frame composed of two end plates 13 B, the bottom portions of which are connected by two tie-rods C O, and the tops of which are connected by tie-rod O. The two end frames are substantially alike, and each has at its lower portion an offset with short slotted vertical standards b b, in the slots of which are carried the journals of the two rolls D D. These rolls have wound upon them the ends of the flexible curtain or apron E, which has painted or printed upon it in conspicuous letters the names of the stations in the order in which they occur. This apron passes from one of these lower rolls D up to an actuatingroller F at the top, and then down to the other lower roller D, and as the apron is paid out from one roller D it is wound upon or taken up by the other, both these rollers D D being under arotary springtension, which causes them to hold the apron taut.

Atthe upper ends of the side frame B B are formed ears or offsets e e, in which are supported the journals of the actuating roller F. This roller is serrated near its ends, and the apron is held firmly against the same by a pressure-roller G, which is serrated at its ends and rests upon the apron on the upper surface of roller F, the journals of this pressure-roller being held in slots 5, formed in the offsets of frames B B, anda downward tension given to the same by means of the spiral springs H. The apron is thus held in. close frictional contact with the actuatingroller F, and is positively actuated thereby to show successively the different stations without any slip or displacement.

For rotating the roller F this is effected in a manner similar to that shown in my previous patent, as follows: I is a cylinder,which is connected to the air or steam pipes leading from the cab. This cylinder has a piston within it, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1, and the piston-rod J slides in guides g g and is formed with rack teeth that engage a toothed wheel K, hung loosely upon the journal of the actuating-roller F. This piston is moved in a manner similar to that described in my previous patent and rotates the loose wheel K. Beside this loose wheel is a smaller toothed wheel L, Fig. 2, that is fixed rigidly upon the journal of the rollers F and is rotated by means of a double-acting pawl f,pivoted to the loose wheel. This pawl is hung in the middle and has a tooth ateach end. When one tooth is in engagement with wheel L, the roller F is rotated in one direction to cause the station-indicator belt to move in one direction, and when the other tooth is thrown into engagement with this wheel L the roller F is rotated in the oppositedirection to carry the indicator-belt in the opposite direction for the return of the cars over the same route. This double-acting pawl is held to either of its two positions by means of a stem 6, that passes through the toothed wheel, and is provided upon the opposite side with a cam 7b, with two flat sides, (see Fig. 5,) either of which may be made to rest flat against a spring i, to hold the pawl in either of its two positions.

To cause the rollers l) l) to exercise a rotary spring-tension upon the belt or apron, each roller has at its end a special set of devices, and as the devices at one end of one roller are precisely the same as the devices at the opposite end of the other roller, it will be sufficient to describe one set of them.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2,31 is a bar whose lower end embraces and presses downwardly upon the journal of the roller 1), and whose upper end 1s pressed downx 'ardly by a spring N, projecting outwardly from the f rame-work.

On thejournal of roller D, outside its bearing, is fixed rigidlya pinion O, which is engaged by a toothed wheel P, arranged loosely upon a short axle Q, sustained in bar M at right angles thereto. On the outside of bar M is disposed at coil-spriu g R, the outer end of which is attached to bar M and the inner end of which spring is attached to the short axle Q. Outside the coil-spring is adisk S, to hold the spring in place, and this disk is retained by a pin passing through the axle, the outer end of the axle being left square to receive a winding-key for winding up the spring. On the inner end of this short axle there is rigidly attached a ratchet-wheel T, which imparts the strain of the coil-springto the wheel Pby means of a spring-pawl With this construction it will be seen that the tension of the coil-spring will be imparted to its axle and ratchet-wheel and thence to wheel P through the pawl, and from wheel P to the pinion on the roller-journal, which causes the roller to always have a tendency to roll up the belt or apron. run down, it is wound up bya key-applied to the squared end of its shaft, the ratchetand pawl permitting this to take place without disturbing the set of the rollerorthe position of the indicator-belt.

One roller D is held undera tension to wind up the belt at one end by the spring devices at one end, and the other roller D is similarly held by the spring devices at the other end, so that when the belt or apron is moved by the actuating-roller at the top from an impulse of compressed air or steam the apron is pulled off one roller below, and at the same time is wound up automatically upon the other roller.

To cause theactuating-roller and the belt 5 to have definite stopping-points the journal of the actuatingroller is ext-ended at one end of the device, and is provided (see Fig. 4) with a disk U, with four (more or less) notches in it, and a locking-barV is connected to aspring W, and its end is allowed to drop into the notches as the roller revolves to determine the throw of the roller and the properregistration of the names on the belt with the window through which they appear.

To prevent the belt E and roller 1? from When the coil-spring becomes slipping accidentally out ofposition after one of its movements, I attach to the lower end of the toothed rack J an arm J which extends inside the frame and beneath the roller 15, where it terminates in a presser-foot J faced with soft rubber preferably. On the downward motion of rack-bar F this press er-foot is removed from contact with roller F, (see dotted lines, Fig. 3,) leavingsaid roller free to be rotated, and when the rack-bar rises again from the tension of the spring in cylinder 1(see dotted lines, Fig. 1) this resser-foot presses like a brake against the bottom of roller F and holds it and the belt firmly to its adjustment.

I am aware that it is not broadly new in station-indicators to arrange the belt bearing the names of the stations upon an actuating roller and wind the ends of this belt upon separate take up spring-rollers below, as shown in Patent No.166,510, and I do not claim such arrangement broadly.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new is- 1. In a station-indicator, the combination, with the two spring-actuated take-up rollers and the belt havingits ends wound thereupon, of an actuating-roller for the belt, arranged within the bend of the same above the takeup rollers, and having serrated ends, and a spring-pressure roller having serrated ends, arranged upon the belt above the actuatingi roller, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination, with the take-up roller D, having an extended journal, and a gearwheel 0, of a bar M, mounted upon the said journal and provided with a spring N for forcing the same down, the short axle Q, extending through said bar and having on one side coil-spring R and upon the other ratchetwheel '1, and loose wheel I, meshing with gear-wheel O and connected with the ratchetwheel by a pawl, substantially as described.

3. The combination, with the belt of a stabrake or presser-foot arranged to press thereagainst, and mechanism for turning the said roller, arranged to release the brake by the same movement that rotates the said roller, substantially as shown and described.

at. The combination of the side frames B i B, having offsets at the bottom, with two slotted standards 12 b and ears c c at the top, tie-rods O C, the spring take-up rollers D D, journaled in the said standards, the actuating-roller F, journaled in ears cc, and the belt E, distended about the roller F and having its ends wound upon the take-up roller, substantially as shown and described. JAM N. WINN.

tlOll-llldlOfl-tOl and its actuating-roller, of a

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