US71701A - Improvement in electro-automatic signal-boxes - Google Patents

Description

Y trolled by escapement.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIGE CHARLES T. CHESTER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT iN ELECTRO-AUTOMATIC SIGNAL-Boxes.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent N0. 71,701, dated December 3, 1867.

Beit known that I, CHARLEs T. CHESTER,

of the city, count-y, and State of New York,

have invented certain Improvements in Electro-Automatic Signal-Boxes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description of the same.

Electro-automatic signal-boxes are used. for transmitting signals by electricity with regularity and certainty-the mechanism used to effect this being called into actionthat is,

- Wound up and startedby the agency of any its work certainly and accurately.

My invention relates particularly to these two features of the complete machine.

Referring now to the drawings which accompany this specification, of which Figure l represents a perspective view of a box containing the mechanism and the hinged cover of the box, upon which is fastened the actuator of the mechanism; and Fig. 2, a section of this actuator, showing its appearance outside and inside of the box-cover; and the letters describing the different parts being the same in the different figures-- A represents a box, of iron or wood, with its hinged door B. It contains a train of wheels driven by weight or spring, and. con- One wheel of the train C is used as a circuit-wheel in any couvenient way. This wheel runs outside of the clock-frame, and has projecting from it a stopping-pin, D. The train is wound up, not by a key, but by a lever, E, screwed to the main shaft. The actuator F G is a flat bar, tted to slide up and down on the inner part of the door B. The actuator F G has, outside of the door,'a pulling-handle, H, and inside of the door a projectingpin, P. The relation of the lever E and .the pin P is such that when the door is closed the pin is ready, when H is pulled, to engage with E, and move it so as to wind up the wheel-train.

When the pull is made, and H is released, the actuator, with its pin P, is made to get out of the way by a spring or by its own weight, according as the pull may be upward or downward. The handle H must, of course, pass through a slot in the cover B; but as the actuator-bar is made iiat and la-rge it is evident that the slot is at all times covered, so that no instrument can be thrust into the box from without, nor can dust penetrate.

If the actuator-pin 0r equivalent were in permanent contact with the lever E it would be possible for a careless person to break the apparatus or falsify the signal by pulling in the wrong direction. A

The actuator here described has but amovement in one direction, and when released it places itself again in the right position.

K L M are screw-holes in the actuator-bar,

into either of which is screwed a pin, which, striking upon the support or guide, regulates the length of pull, and, in consequence, the number of signals given. A second lever, O, is attached to the winding-shaft. Its end I is arranged to engage with the projecting pin of the circuit-wheel "D, and the relation of these two is such that the lever end is brought up so as to present itself during the nal revolution of the circuit-Wheel, so as to be in the path of the pin D, and thus stop the train al ways at the same position of the circuit-wheel. This end of the lever O may be adjustable, as it is desirable to have the relation between this part of the lever and the circuit-Wheel pin very exact, and to compensate for wear or backlash in the apparatus.

To recapitulate the successive actions of my improvements: We suppose the cover B to be closed and locked. It is desired to send four electric signals corresponding with the circuitwheel of the inclosed train, which may be the numerical signal 28. Any one coming to the handle H and giving it a pull, and then liberating it, will have caused the pin P to strike the lever E and pull it a longer or shorter distance, according to the regulation, by means of the screw-holes K L M, of the play of the actuator F Gr. The lever E Winds up the train, and at the same moment the lever O moves and liberates the circuit-wheel, so that when the pin P ies away from the lever E the train moves on at the desired speed, the circuiti Wheel moves four revolutions; during the fourth revolution the adjustable end I of the lever O places itself so that the pin D strikes it and stops the train exactly on the completion of the fourth signal.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l.` The combination of a train of Wheels controlled by escapement and driving an electric circuit Wheel with a sliding actuator which is engaged with the Winding-lever of the train, or is disengaged from it at pleasure, substantially as described.

2. The combination of this sliding actuator CHARLES T. CHESTER.

Witnesses:

STEPHEN CHESTER, VAN ZANDT DAWEs.

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