The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-07 00:00:00

VOICES FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION.

Being preeluded from attending personally to afford ex-
planatory information respecting my model., and lest the
object aimed ut may be misunderstood, surrounded as they
arc by articles of greater merit in workmanship and artistic
finish, it is no more, perhaps, than justice to myself and the
objects which they represent that I should render some ex-
planation ; and I beg, therefore, respectfully to submit the
subjoined remarks; at the same time I may be permitted
to suggest that it would be very interesting, no doubt, to
the public, atter so serious a collision on the elie,ter
railway, attended with much loss of life and injuries, were
it possible to test the practical utility of the various methods
proposed for preventing damage by railway collisions. and
for which purpose the different railway companies could
hardly object to give up a couple of old carriages each, and
lay down a few hundred yards of rails, just sufficient to
give a momentum to a train, in the vicinity of the Exhibi-
tion, since it would be a saving to the companies it this
seeming irresistible momentum could be overcome, and we
should at least realise one great benefit from the stupen-
dous work now before all nations. It might net be impos-
sible, also, to witness a trial of the methods for extingaish-
ing fires, by erecting some building for the purpose.—
William Machay, Quartermaster Sergeant, Royal Artillery.
let Invention—An atmospheric buffer, or air-tight 1,101..
pertinent of vulcanized rubber, or other air-tight cloth, to
prevent damage by collisions. This is fitted into the exact
space between the carriages, thus to interpose an elastic
body of about 2.50 cubic feet (of air), so that when a collision
takes place, it must be displaced before the carriages can
come into contact with each other. The method of convey-
ing the air into these rubber compartments, is by two tubes,
carried longitudinally on the top and near the edge--the
front apertures for admitting the air being bell-sham a, to
admit a larger quantity of air—these tubes conduct the air
into the compartments at the back, lifting up two valets
placed on a small projection, or box, with an inclincil sur-
face of I} feet deep. On any compression of the air c im-
partment these valves shut by the reaction of air, and are
forced tight on the back apertures; a valve acting
in a contrary direction, gives then immediate ise ape
to a portion of the compressed air; the more rapidly the
concussion, the greater elasticity will it present, air' the
momentum thus expends itself on the air. If the compart-
ment bursts, the injury will have passed off with no tither
damage, and this would be soon repaired. The India
rubber compartment will, however, resist a great pressure,
being itself so very elastic; and if there should be any doubt
about that, a continuous collateral vulcanised rubber piping,
of about three feet diameter, could be substituted, thus di-
viding the same pressure to a greater surface of resistance.
The application of this invention is not intended to displace
the ordinary' buffers, which are still useful as secondary
agents and for general purposes.
The 2nd invention is n self-acting collision break, in-
tended to be applied to the front and rear of every train—
on the luggage van at the one end, and the engine or trotter
on the other. The ordinary breaks break on the wheels,
and cannot, therefore, be instantly applied, they must be
only gradually applied, and then even danger must be fore-
seen. My break, on the contrary, is intended to act only
by the violence of the collision, and against the rails, by
which means a greater and more instantaneous amount of
friction is applied. 13y means of two wedges the breaks are
forced down, the momentum to a great extent checked and
driven vertically instead of horisontidly. The greater
the weight of the van, the greater will be the resistance
and efficiency of the breaks, for by means of the wedges. the
fweelliegtehingt is bro
is ughtmodeeto bearfagepaipnliseet tthieeefo—reTe
the inside of the frame being projected beyond the point
her bPuloiet.dr rodsima
where they are connected to the plate springs about a foot
and a half, they terminate with a buffer head, nearly simi-
lar to the one outside; when, from the violence of a colli-
sion, the springs are forced beyond their ordinary point of
action, the inside buffers then come in contact with the two
powerful wedges, as stated before, placed on each side of the
centre of the frames, in the direction of the buffers ; these
wedges force down a shaft, which acts as a break, on both
rails; so that the tendency is to wedge down the van, and it
is thus prevented from coming into violent collision with
the next carriage. The momentum becoming vertical
renders it necessary that additional security should be
given to the break van, for which purpose it is strength-
ened by a strong band of iron passing over the frame and
down each side, forming a box for the axletree of the shaft,
which rests in it on a spiral spring. so that when the writers
are released the shaft recovers its original position. Con-
tusions may be guarded against inside by a lining of hair
felt of an inch in thickness. The above plan is equally
applicable to spiral buffer sprint's, the only difference being
that a buffer rod is inserted in the inside of the spring with
buffer heads to strike the wedges.
The next is simply a design for applying railway locomo-
denser from an increasing traffic, must ere long force this
subject on public attention. The sectional skeleton model
lion
rtzemetrQoir metropolitan
omTnihbeusesthreaardnedvans,
of Loaders merely represents the method of
of
at!aut,
blockadean d t
the
denser
111001 Tll4llOl over pathways, up one Rd° of • long