US626903A - Signal - Google Patents

Description

No. 626,903. Patented lune l3, I899. 6. W. GUMBES, 1B. SIGNAL (Application filed Apr. 15, 1897.)

(No Model.)

FIG

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WITNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT EFIcE.

CHARLES V. GUMBES, .IR., OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

SIGNAL.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 626,908, dated June 13, 1899.

Application filed April 15,1897- Serial No. 632,254. \No model.)

1'0 all, whom 211; may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES W. GUMBES, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Signals; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to railway-signals; and the object in view is to provide a simple and effective audible signal adapted to be used adjacent to tunnels and bridges over the road-bed for the purpose of warning the brakemen and others upon the tops of cars of the near approach of the train to said tunnel or bridge, thus avoiding serious accident, which might otherwise result. The improved safety device is intended to be used either in connection with the ordinary pending ropes or wires in common use or independently thereof, as may be desired.

To this end the invention consists in certain novel features and details of construction and arrangements of parts, as hereinafter fully described, illustrated in the drawings, and incorporated in the claims hereto appended.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a section of the railway, showing the improved signal and the operating mechanism therefor located adjacent to a bridge. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view showing the trip for sounding the signal and the means for retracting said trip. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the audible signal. Fig. 4 is a similar View of the signal, showing modified means for actuating the hammer or clapper. Fig. 5 is a detail side elevation of the shaft and trip-arm and spring. Fig. 6 is a detail cross-section through the same.

Similar numerals designate corresponding parts in the several figures of the drawings.

Referring to the drawings, 1 designates a section of the railway, and 2 a bridge constructed thereover. For the purpose of carrying out the present invention a post or standard 3 is erected at one side of the roadbed and preferably of a height sufficient to brin an audible alarm in the sha e of a "on D O b 4 upon the approximately horizontal plane of the tops of the cars, thus enabling said gong to be readily heard by persons thereon. This gong is shown to consist of a bell 5, secured upon a post 6, projecting laterally from the main post or standard 3.

7 designates the clapper or hammer, which is mounted on the free end of a spring or resilient arm 8, which is attached at its opposite end to the post or standard 3. Connected to the hammer '7 or arm 8 is a cord, wire, or other flexible connection 9, which runs around a pulley 10 on the standard 3, thence downward in parallel relation to said standard, and upon reaching the ground passes around another pulley 11, whence said connection extends transversely of the road-bed and beneath one of the rails. At a suitable point between the rails is arranged a third pulley 12, beneath which the connection 9 runs. The connection 9 then extends upward and is attached fixedly at the point 13 to a triparm let on a shaft 15.

The shaft 15 is located between the rails of the track and is mounted in suitable bearings 16 at its ends, the trip-arm 14 being located intermediate the ends of the rock-shaft. Surrounding the shaft is a coiled spring 17, which is so arranged as to exert its tension or torsional action upon the trip-arm 14 for restoring said arm to a substantially vertical position, such being the normal position of said arm. The arm 14:, which is a continuation or extension of the spring, extends upward-sufficiently to contact with and be thrown downwardly by the various axles of the train passing thereover, so that said trip-arm will be thrown downward and the gong will be sounded at least twice for every car that passes over the trip mechanism, thus warning persons on the top of each car of approaching danger. The heel end 18 of the spring is bent at an angle and extended through a transversely-flared mortise 19 in the shaft 15, so that as the train backs away from a tunnel or bridge the arm 14 may not only spring or yield backward, but the spring 17 itself may turn backward around the shaft 15, thus allowing the axles to pass over the arm without sounding the alarm.

Instead of mounting the hammer 7 on a resilient arm or spring 8 said hammer may be arranged on one end of aplunger 18, mounted to slide in suitable bearings 20 on the standard 3, the said plunger being actuated by means of a spring 21, coiled around the same. In this construction the connection?) may be attached to the heel end of the plunger and the plunger will be drawn backward against the tension of the spring when the trip-arm 14 is thrown downward. Under either construction as the axle passes ofi the trip-arm 14 the spring 17 by its torsional action will quickly restore said arm to its normal position, thus allowing the spring 8 or 21, as the case may be, to throw the bell-hammer forcibly and quickly against the hell 5.

Having thus described the invention,-What is claimed as new, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is

1. A railway-signal comprising an audible alarm mounted on a support near the roadbed, a shaft mounted in bearings between the rails, a spring surrounding and movable bodily on said shaft, a trip-arm on said spring extending up within the path of the car-axles and a fiexibleconnection between said arm and the alarm, substantially as described.

2. A railway-signal comprising a gong, a hammer, a shaft mounted in bearings between the rails, a spring surrounding and bodily movable on said shaft, a trip-arm forming an integral extension of said spring and extending up within the path of the car-axles,

and afiexible connection between the arm and the hammer, substantially as described. 3. A railway-signal comprising a gong, a

hammer, a shaft mounted between the rails Witnesses:

F. M. GUMBEs, ELEANOR R. NORTON.

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