AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COUPLING AND UNCOUPLING RAILWAY, TRAMWAY, AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WAGGONS, LORRIES, TRUCKS, AND OTHER VEHICLES
Year: 1857

page_text: Sealed the 8th June 1858, and dated the 22nd December 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Rodgett and
Daniel Rodgett at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 22nd December 1857.
We, SAMUEL RODGETT and DANIEL RODGETT, both of Blackburn, in the
County of Lancaster, Blacksmiths, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COUPLING AND UNCOUPLING RAILWAY,
TRAMWAY, AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WAGGONS, LORRIES, TRUCKS, AND OTHER
VEHICLES," (reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and in
which said Drawings similar parts are marked and referred to by similar
letters,) to be as follows:-
A is a catch or hook connected with a carriage; B is a coupling link
attached to another carriage by the shaft of the catch C; C is a spare catch
to be used on occasion of any accident to the other catch or to the coupling
link; D is a pin through and extending on each side of the catch C for the
purpose of supporting the coupling link at the proper level; E is a shaft
forming the pivot upon which works the coupling link, and to be connected
at the end with the handle or lever F fixed outside the carriage for the
purpose of uncoupling. When it is desired to couple two carriages together

page_text: they aro pushed against each other, and before coming in contact with tho
coupling link B meets the bevel face of the catch A, up which it slides until
it hooks itself. When it is desired to uncouple the carriages they are pressed
together, and the coupling link is raised by the shaft and lever E and F, and
both operations are performed without the necessity of a man getting between 5
the carriages.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel Rodgett in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 15th June 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, SAMUEL
RODGETT and DANIEL RODGETT, both of Blackburn, in the County of Lancaster,
Blacksmiths, send groeting,
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel Rodgett, Her special licence, that we,
the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel Rodgett, or exceutors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel
Rodgett, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF COUPLING
AND UNCOUPLING RAILWAY, TRAMWAY, AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WAGGONS, LORRIES,
TRUCKS, AND OTHER VEHICLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel Rodgett, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel Rodgett,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, that is to say :-

page_text: The Invention entirely obviates the necessity for a person going between
railway, tramway, and other carriages, waggons, lorries, trucks, or other
vehicles, according to the present dangerous and clumsy system, for the
purpose of coupling or uncoupling them, and effects the object in a much
shorter time than it has hitherto been done.
The Invention will be clearly understood by referring to the accompanying
two Sheets of Drawings with the figures and letters of reference thereon, the
same letters referring to similar parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 is a plan of the apparatus complete, so far as relates to passenger
carriages which require to be tightened or screwed up, so as to prevent
concussions. Figure 2 is a side elevation of the catches or hooks and
coupling links, and is merely given the better to explain the shape and
working of those articles when describing Figure 1. Figure 3 is a plan of
the apparatus complete, so far as relates to carriages which do not require to
be tightened or screwed up so as to prevent concussions; and Figure 4 is a
side elevation of the catches or hooks and coupling links, which are similar to
those in Figure 2.
In Figures 1 and 2, A, A, represent the ends of two carriages which it is
desired to couple or fasten together; B, B, are catches or hooks, each con-
nected with a carriage by a drawbar, and made somewhat in the shape of a
door latch, as shewn in Figures 2 and 4; C is a coupling link attached to the
neck of one of the catches or hooks B by and working on the shaft or rod D.
A spare coupling link C 2 is similarly attached to the other catch or hook, but
is suffered to hang down when not in use. This spare link is shewn in
Figures 1 and 3 by dotted lines. The link actually in use is kept in a
horizontal position by a pin, as shewn in Figures 2 and 4, or by a ledge or
increased thickness in the catch or hook to which it is attached, or by any
other convenient means. The shaft or rod D, D, passes through the eyes in
the
eye bolts E, E, (which eye bolts slide in a socket let into the front beam
of the carriage,) and is fastened at each end to the handles or levers F, F.
Referring now particularly to Figure 1, the shaft or draw bar of each of the
catches or hooks B, B, passes under the end of the carriage to which it
belongs, and there receives the male screw G, upon which is fastened the
bevil cog wheel H working into the corresponding cog J, which is fastened
to a shaft turned outside the carriage by the handle K. The shaft to which
is fastened the cog wheel H passes on (as a male screw) through the swivel
L, which works upon the spiral spring M. Referring now particularly to
Figure 3, the shaft or drawbar of each of the catches or hooks B, B, passes
under the end of the carriage to which it belongs, and is there attached to the

page_text: spiral spring M without the intervention of the tightening or screwing-up
process described in Figure 1.
When we desire to couple or link together two or more carriages fitted up
with the above-described apparatus we push them with a moderate degree of
force against each other. The coupling link C being held, as before men-
tioned, in a horizontal position, slides up the bevil face of the opposite catch
or hook B, and hooks itself fast, as shown in Figures 2 and 4. Should the
force used be too great, and the noses of the two catches B, B, come in
contact, no damage can ensue, as such catches project very little beyond the
buffers of the carriages, and each of the drawbars, and with them the eye
bolts E, E, recede, and the pressure is divided between the spiral screw M
and the screws attached to the buffers.
In carriages to which it is necessary to attach the tightening or screwing-
up process, described in Figure 1, by turning the handle K the desired object
may easily be attained with greater case and less danger than the process at
present in use affords.
When it is desired to uncouple the carriages they are again pushed against
cach other as in coupling, and the foot or hand is pressed upon the bandle or
lever F, thereby raising the coupling link C out of the catch or hook B. All
the above operations, coupling, screwing-up, or uncoupling, are thus performed
in a much quicker and easier mode than by any now in use, and without tho
necessity of a person getting between or under the carriages.
We also claim for the application of the coupling link C, and the shafts,
eye bolts, and levers D, E, and F, for the purpose of coupling and uncoupling
by hand carriages, &c., fitted with hooks now ordinarily in use, and we carry
out this part of our Invention by lengthening the drawbars of such ordinary
shaped hooks and attaching coupling links, shafts, eye bolts, and levers, as
shewn in the Drawings, and herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Samuel Rodgett and Daniel Rodgett,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.