John Saxby, born August 17, 1821 in Brighton and died April 22, 1913 in Hassocks1,2, is an English inventor and industrialist, specialist in railway interlockings and signaling during the development of railway networks around the world3. He became an apprentice carpenter at the Brighton London and South Coast Railway Company. Saxby became interested in railway safety and filed his first patents for a system for locking switches and signals. In 1856, he invented and developed an interlocking system, improved compared to that of the Frenchman Pierre-Auguste Vignier (°1811-1891), invented around 1850. This innovation was designed to act at once on all points and signals at a railway junction. Not only on the switches, but all other signals in the system were locked against misuse (mechanical lockouts, see signal box). The first system was installed at the Bricklayers Arms junction, off the Old Kent Road in south London. It consisted of eight semaphore signals and six pairs of control points, the inner and outer routes of London Bridge station, with links to a signal box. From 1856, he invented and developed an interlocking system, improved compared to that of the Frenchman Pierre-Auguste Vignier, invented around 1850. Saxby started his own business in Haywards Heath manufacturing signaling equipment, and was joined in partnership by John Stinson Farmer in 1862. Like Saxby and Farmer, they were the leading railway signaling manufacturers and works company in Kilburn. In 1868 the company built the world's first road traffic signaling system in London's George Street, with the help of engineer John Knight Peake who was working on the design of the South Eastern Railway. In 1875, the company released its first mechanical brake, which gave more stopping power by connecting each vehicle's brakes together. In 1878, John Saxby built with Farmer in France, in Creil, at 139 to 175 rue Jean-Jaurès and rue de Finsterwal, the first factory for railway signaling and safety equipment. The Saxby-Farmer company created by John Saxby became Saxby in 1888. Saxby son James established a working signal at Creil near Paris in 1878. The partnership with Famer ended in 1888 and the French works became part of John Saxby Ltd in 1889. In 1901, the British company that founded Saxby merged with several rivals to create Westinghouse brake and Signal Company Ltd. John Saxby died at Hassocks, Sussex on 22 April 1913. A commemorative plaque is located at Brighton station.
Licences

    Patent filed on June 24, 1856 on safety interlocks.
    Patent No. 316,186 filed by his son James Saxby (Date of issue: April 21, 1885).
    Patent no. 1041 filed in Luxembourg on October 12, 1888 (Edited by the Mémorial du Grand Duché de Luxembourg of November 2, 1888 no. 61 page 578). Patent relating to performance