IMPROVEMENTS IN VACUUM AND OTHER RAILWAY BREAK AP- PARATUS.
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Thomas Haggard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th January 1877.
FREDERICK THOMAS HAGGARD, of No. 26, Austin Friars, in the City of London,
Stock Broker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN VACUUM AND OTHER RAILWAY BREAK AP-
PARATUS.
"
The object of the Invention is to enable vacuum and other railway breaks to be
readily worked by a single line of tubing passing from end to end of a train, and
yet ensure that the pipe on one carriage may readily be coupled to the pipes on the
carriages before and behind it in whatever manner these carriages may be turned;
that is, whether one end or the other is placed foremost.
Heretofore when vacuum break apparatus has been used there have ordinarily
been two pipes running from end to end of the train, the pipes on each carriage
have had short lengths of flexible pipe connected to their ends; one flexible pipe at
one end of a carriage has carried the male, and the other pipe the female sockets or
parts of a coupling joint. The pipe, which at one end of the carriage carries a
female socket, at the opposite end of the carriage carries a male one, so that which-
ever end of the carriage is placed foremost, there will always be a female socket on
the pipe of one carriage opposite to a male one on the carriage next to it, and
therefore the india-rubber junction pipes can always be linked together by the
sockets.
According to my Invention, I use one pipe only along the centre or sides of a
train, and to couple the ends of the pipe on one carriage to the ends of the pipes on
the carriages before and behind it, I connect to each end of the fixed pipe a short
length of flexible pipe, and at the end of this flexible pipe carry a bifurcated
coupling, the end of one limb of which is formed with a female socket, the other
with a male one. Thus if the male portion of the coupling on one carriage is not
opposite the female portion of the coupling on the next carriage, a quarter turn
given to each will bring them into the right position; the flexible pipe by which
the couplings are carried will readily allow of a quarter turn being thus given to the
couplings, but if the couplings are properly fixed at each end of the carriage, this
quarter turn will not be required. To close the sockets on the end of the pipe at the
tail end of a train, I employ a short hent bar or tube carrying at one end a male
and at the other end a female part of the coupling.
To hold together the two couplings, I attach to the centre of each a short spring,
and when the couplings have been placed together, I hook the end of one spring to

page_text: the end of the other. In place of the above arrangement, a short tube, formed with
two curved branches, may be screwed on to the ends of the fixed pipe on a carriage.
The end of each curved branch may have attached to it a short length of flexible
pipe; the flexible pipe on one branch carrying the male, and the other the female
part of a coupling, such as is now commonly in use. The two flexible pipes at the
end of one carriage will be coupled to the two flexible pipes at the end of the next
carriage, so that the india-rubber flexible tubes may be half the size of those now in
use.
To close the end of the pipe at the rear end of the last carriage, the ends of the
two flexible pipes at that end of the carriage have simply to be coupled together,
and this can be done as the two branches of the fixed tube are close together.
By the above means a great saving in the length of tubing required is effected,
which is of great importance, more especially with vacuum breaks.