ciency was to be obtained from the persons in charge of the several instruments, and from the managers who had the supervision of them; and in his own case, Mr. Tyer felt convinced the unanimous verdict would be, that during the ten years the instruments he had described had been in operation, they had worked well, and that experience had proved his system of signalling to be one of the most efficient, simple, and economical yet brought under the notice of the railway world.

Mr. C. V. WALKER said, as the extensive system of telegraph signalling in operation on the South-Eastern railway had been only slightly mentioned in the Paper, he deemed it incumbent upon him to make a few remarks, so that the Members of the Institution and the telegraph world generally might be made better acquainted with it. In doing this, he should, unavoidably, have occasion to refer to it in plain terms, as his own system. It was his own, inasmuch as he originated it, and it had been perfected under his care; he therefore felt a strong interest in it. It was not, however, the subject of a patent, so that he had no pecuniary interest in it.

From the remarks made by a previous speaker, it would have been gathered, that sound upon bells' was the basis of the system of train-signalling he was about to describe; without this, a leading feature would be gone. It would be right to place this matter historically correct before the Institution, in order that the origin of the bell-signal system, for which 'Honourable Mention' had been awarded at the International Exhibition, 1862, might remain on record. In the autumn of the year 1851, a want was communicated to him by the then Manager of the South-Eastern line. In his reply, of which the following was a copy, Mr. Walker described the system proposed to be introduced; and he had not since seen any reason to alter his opinion of its efficiency for train-signalling.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"SOUTH-EASTERN RAILWAY.

"Electric Telegraph. Tunbridge, Oct. 29th, 1851.

"In respect to the signalman at the Spa Road indicating the character of the up trains to the switchman at the entrance of the SouthEastern and Brighton terminus at London, and to the latter having power to order either train to be stopped at the Spa Road,

"The distance is 820 yards. It would require two wires, which could easily be erected.

"I should construct two bells of a totally different character to those used for the telegraph, and should use a different kind of battery.?

The second wire was not found to be necessary, the viaduct-earth being sufficiently good.

This was the graphite battery (since platinized), for which a prize medal was awarded at the Great Exhibition, 1851.

One blow on the bell would indicate a Croydon train, two a Brighton, and three a South-Eastern. I would so construct the apparatus, that it could be relied upon. The expense would be very little, and it could not easily be deranged. “Yours very truly, "(Signed) CHARLES V. WALKER,

"To CAPTAIN BARLOW,

66

Superintendent."

That letter described the foundation of the bell-system as now in operation throughout the South-Eastern Railway. The first pair of bells were fixed and used January 22-31, 1852. The specification of Mr. Tyer's first patent was dated July 20th of the same year. At the present time, the South-Eastern line was protected in every possible manner by bells of the kind described; there were three hundred and thirty bells in operation,-some being connected merely in pairs, some with intermediate bells, and in other ways. Of these, eighty-four were provided with counting indexes, which indicated the number of blows sounded, and the remainder were plain. The total length of the SouthEastern line, thus protected, was 275 miles; and 11 other miles of the line were furnished with Mr. Tyer's instruments. Signalbells were in course of erection1 on the Caterham branch of nearly 5 miles in length. The Angerstein branch of half a mile, which was without bells, was not used for passenger traffic. The Whitstable branch of 6 miles was provided with a pair of telegraph instruments, which were little used for speaking purposes, but served for signalling trains. From Ash to Shalford, upwards of 8 miles, belonging to the South-Western Railway Company, but over which South-Eastern trains ran, electric signalling was not employed.

With respect to the cost of the telegraph signal-bell system, and the amount that had been expended by the South-Eastern Company upon it, in order to promote the safety of the traffic, he might state that the total cost on the 275 miles had been nearly £3,650, or at the rate of £13. 58. 3d. per mile, including wires, bells, and batteries complete. There was at the rate of one bell and a fifth for every mile, or one bell to every 1,466 yards; and the total cost on each 1,466 yards was £11. 08. 11d. The average cost per bell, including the pecker' or ringing-key, taking the bells one with the other, plain and index, had been £4. 68. 6d.; and the cost complete, including batteries, had been £5. 108. 3d. The train signal-bells were in charge of the stationmasters and the ordinary signalmen, so that the working expenses were not thereby increased to any appreciable extent. Loudsounding bells, at least 4 or 5 inches wide across the mouth,

1 Since these remarks were made, the Caterham branch has been fitted with bells.-C. V. W. Feb. 2, 1863.

were employed. The principle to which he had referred in his letter to Captain Barlow was, to wind the coils with No. 16 or No. 18 wire gauge, which was at that time an unusual size for an actual working telegraph instrument. The hammer which was attached to the keeper of the electro-magnet was the only moveable part of the bell apparatus. The signals were given by the number of blows struck; the code for all ordinary purposes, called in practice the General Code,' being one blow for an up train out, two blows for a down train out, and three blows for a train in. For blocking the line, the bell signal was five blows; clearing the line after a block, three blows, or the in signal given and taken twice. One fundamental and essential condition was, that every signal made by one man should be correctly repeated by the other man. If A made a signal to B, and the repetition was not given, it was an indication either of misunderstanding, or of something being wrong. No signal was allowed to be complete, until it was recognized by the return of the same number of blows that had been sent.

6

Independently of the above application, which was the simple and ordinary process of train-signalling from station to station, these bells were used in many ways and in a great variety of places; in fact, they were almost universally applicable. At the London platform, bells were the effective instruments for supplying a certain want. It now and then occurred that a SouthEastern tidal-train and a Brighton train were due to start from the respective London platforms at about the same time. Should the South-Eastern tidal-train be unable to start to the minute, the inspector on duty had access to a pecker,' which enabled him to strike a certain number of blows, three, on a bell in the box of the signalman who had the control of the entrance to both stations. This was an intimation that the South-Eastern train was not quite ready, and that the Brighton train might be allowed to go out.-Again, at every level crossing, without exception, on the South-Eastern line, bells were placed in circuit in the gatehouse, to be heard, but not to be answered. In this way indication was given that a train was approaching, either from A or from B, according to the number of blows; and the gatekeeper, hearing the sound of the bell, was made aware when the gates must be closed, till the approaching train had passed. In cases where the gate-house was close to a station, the bell was so connected that every signal, sent to the station to which the gate belonged, from the station either to the right, or to the left, was heard at the gate-house. Then again, on the London Viaduct, there were two up lines to protect, and three different kinds of up trains to be distinguished. Between London and Redhill, one blow was given on the bells for a South-Eastern train, and two blows for a

Brighton train. On the Bricklayers' Arms branch, a still greater distinction had to be made. There were four kinds of up trains and two kinds of down trains; and blows on the bells were arranged to meet these various circumstances. It was not desirable that bells should be required to express so many different things; but on that branch it was impossible to avoid it. The up distinctions were, South-Eastern Engines, Empties, and Goods, and Brighton Goods; the down, North Kent and main line.-Again, at Hastings, Canterbury, and Paddock Wood, moving trains were indicated to the porters, by a bell placed on the platform of the several stations. The men right and left of the stations did the signalling, a platform bell being placed on a continuation of the wire; so that, all that was taking place at the signal-box, and required to be known by the station-master, was communicated by the bell. If a train was signalled as coming from St. Leonards or Winchelsea, the station-master at the Hastings platform knew what train to expect. At Ashford, there were two junctions, which was another cause of complication, and several different signals had to be given by the bells. They were arranged in different groups, and spoke by the number of blows given. At Beckenham there was another extension of the same kind; and although the signalman was somewhat removed from the station, the station-master heard by a platform-bell the signalling that was going on in the signal-box, and had all the information he required of the various kinds of trains. At Margate the signals sent from Ramsgate were taken at the signalman's box, some distance from the platform, but these were heard also at the station. At Folkestone and Dover there were similar arrangements. Then there were small stations which were closed at night, when the communication with the bells ceased. In such cases the signalling was done by the stations right and left, which were switched into connection before closing. Repairs were now going on in the Bletchingly Tunnel, during which a bell was placed in circuit, in a hut at the tunnel mouth, within hearing of the men; and they were by its means made aware of the approach of a train.

One peculiarity about these instruments was, that they appeared to be the only kind of telegraph instrument that could be actually used, and that had been experimentally and successfully tried, with balanced currents. He communicated to the Royal Society, in 1857, a short notice of the mode of working these bells with balanced currents. He subsequently found that a patent, of which he had not before heard, had been taken out by a Mr. Walker, of Glasgow; on looking to the specification, he could not, however, discover that any instrument had been conceived,

1 Vide " Proceedings of the Royal Society," vol. viii.,

p. 418.

by which the system could be worked; nor could he ascertain that any use had been made of the patent. When the bells were arranged with balanced currents, the guard of a train, which might have become disabled between two stations, had merely to fasten a wire to the bell line-wire, and each time he touched the rail with the other end of the wire, the bells at the stations on each side were rung. No batteries or apparatus of any kind had to be carried with the train.

Fig. 13 showed the nature of the arrangements. A A were the two stations; B B, the respective bells; Z C, C Z, the station Fig. 13.

batteries; E E, the earth-wire; SS, the contact-springs of the peckers; the horizontal arrows, the direction in which the currents tended to move; but, as the currents were equal, and in opposite directions, the whole of the system was in a Rheo-electrostatic state. For ordinary signalling, the pecker-spring at either station was merely depressed into contact with the point beneath; the battery at that station was thus thrown out of circuit, and the current of the distant battery flowed through the distant bell and rang it. If, on the other hand, the guard in charge of a train required to ring the station-bells on either side, he had only to twist one end of a wire on the line-wire, and with the other end to touch the rail, when the currents from both batteries would flow along that wire, as shown by the vertical arrows, and both bells would be rung; or contact-springs might be fitted to some of the telegraph poles.

The system of signalling was so efficiently carried out on the South-Eastern line, that such a use of the bells as he had just described was hardly to be looked for. If a train did not arrive within