CLEVER REVERSIBLE GEAR FOR DESTINATION INDICATORS
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Units of Considerable Promise which Meet a Variety of Needs ' FOR about a year the Whitlay Tool Co., Ltd., an engineering concern, of Lemuel Street, The Grove, London, S.W.18, has been giving attention -to the design and manufacture of destination indicators, and it has now evolved a variety of types that should suffice to meet the needs of all classes of coach and motorbus operator. Several wellknown bus-operating concerns use Whitley devices, one of which has 1,100 snob units in service.
The essential feature of all Whitlay destination-indicator gear. is a steel cam which causes a driving spindle to engage alternately with two dogs, according to the direction of rotation, independent operation of each roller being obtained. The gears are in constant mesh, and they are constructed from one-piece castings.
An interesting type is the chaindriven model, which is of particular use in cases where the conservation of the space allotted to the indichtor box is important. A short moving spindle engages through a pin with a dog clutch, • according to the direction of rotation, steel sleeve through which the spindle passes.
An adjustable friction plateworking on the sleeve affords a means for obviating the risk of the spindle failing to engage or disengage. The final drive is taken through bevel gears to sprockets and chains to the blind rollers.
The gear is made from aluminium alloy which, it is claimed, gives long life to the bearing surfaces. The gears and sprockets are of gunmetal, the use of ferrous materials being reduced to a minimum in order to avoid any undue rust or oxidization that is likely to cause stiffness by reason of exposure of the gear to moisture or the weather.
Incases in which the coach or bus operator desires to change an existing gear for one of Whitlay make, but wishes to retain the existing rollers, arrangements can be made for this modification to be carried out.
It might be mentioned that, at the present moment, the Whitley Tool Co., Ltd., has on paper a design of destination-indicator gear that can be operated from the dash through the medium of a flexible cable. The name of the destination shown on the sheet is revealed to the driver by means of a series of lights. The design provides for a four-way switch, which allows front and rear sheets to he adjusted by means Of one control.