AN IMPROVED METHOD OF BREAKING THE SPEED OF AND STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS OR OTHER LOCOMOTIVE WHEELED CARRIAGE OR CARRIAGES, AT THE SAME TIME SIGNALLING TO THE DRIVER, OR FOR USING THE SIGNAL AND BREAK SZPARATELY
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Lawson Barnes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
July 1863.
I, WILLIAM LAWSON BARNES, M.A., Clerk, Rector of Knapton, in the
County of Norfolk, at present residing at Chippenham, in the County of
Cambridge, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF BREAKING THE SPEED OF AND STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS
OR OTHER LOCOMOTIVE WHEELED CARRIAGE OR CARRIAGES, AT THE SAME TIME
SIGNALLING TO THE DRIVER, OR FOR USING THE SIGNAL AND BREAK SZPARATELY,"
to be as follows:-
As applied to a railway engine carriage, truck, van, or any other locomotive
wheeled carriage. On each side of the carriage or break there is a rod attached
at one end to a pin on an eccentric in the wheel, the other end being attached to
a piston working air-tight in a cylinder. When the carriage is put in motion,
the wheel moves the piston in the cylinder, the length of cylinder and stroke of
piston being twice the eccentricity of the wheel. The cylinder is placed in a
horizontal position, or at a small angle to the horizon, and attached to the
framework of the carriage, but always in such a position that the eccentric
pin of the wheel, the rod and piston shall move in or nearly in the same
plane as the axis of the cylinder. The end of the piston attached to the rod
must be kept in position with the centre or axis of the cylinder, by slides or
slide rods, similar to the steam piston working in the cylinder of a steam
engine. The cylinder being open at each end, the piston will move freely
from end to end in the cylinder without impeding the speed of the carriage.

page_text: But when it is necessary to apply the break, close the end of the cylinder
which is furthest from the wheel by a valve, and the air in the cylinder being
condensed, will prevent the piston moving up the whole length, and so re-
acting on the rod and eccentric will prevent the wheel from revolving, and
make it skid or slide; should the piston be near the further end of the
cylinder, when the valve is closed and there be not sufficient condenced air in
the cylinder to prevent the wheel turning round, the returning piston will
cause a drag upon the wheel by the process of exhaustion in the cylinder, and
having returned to the primitive position or entrance of the cylinder the
cylinder will be filled with air through an aperture provided for that purpose
immediately beyond the end of the withdrawn piston, and at the next stroke
the condenced air will prevent the wheel from revolving. If at great speed it
be not desirable suddenly to bring the wheel to a slide, a receiver is provided
at the further end of the cylinder, communicating with it by means of a valve
opening up into the receiver. A railway whistle is fitted to the receiver
having a stop-cock in the neck between the bell and receiver. By this
provision the condenced air at each stroke of the piston will be forced into
the receiver, the back action of the piston will cause a drag on the wheel, and
thus the wheels of the carriage be brought to a slide either suddenly, or at any
given number of revolutions. The signal will be sounded by opening the
stop-cock below the whistle. The valve free or fixed at pleasure. For the
sake of signalling, whistles having different sounds are fixed to the two
receivers, and the receivers kept replenished when necessary with condenced
air by a subsiding air pump worked by the breaksman. Thus a code of
signals would be established. The valves at the end of each cylinder are
opened or closed simultaneously by the breaksman in his van, by means of
wheel and lever. As applied to a break van in a railway train, it is desirable
to use a van running on six wheels, the wheels having similar eccentrics, and
coupled together as the wheels in a steam engine, thus alleviating and
equallizing the pressure on the axles. The break van would best be divided
into two compartments, the first part being used for luggago would by its
weight prevent the van from jumping when suddenly brought on to the slide,
the hinder part being for the use of the breaksman.