IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Draper, of Lenton, near Nottingham, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING
RAILWAY TRAINS."
Sealed the 12th October 1855, and dated the 25th April 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Draper at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
April 1855.
I, SAMUEL DRAPER, of Lenton, near Nottingham, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND
STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of employing fluid to uphold railway carriages when
in motion in such manner, that, on any requirement for use of the breaks or
apparatus for offering friction to the wheels or to the surface of the rails to
retard or stop the carriages of a railway train, they will be called into action
on the fluid being allowed to flow out of the vessels containing it, by reason of
the weight of each of the carriages pressing on the breaks or apparatus used
for offering friction. For this purpose, cylinders or vessels, each having a ram
therein, are applied to each carriage; the several rams are applied to uphold
the body of the carriage, and the cylinders or vessels to contain the fluid are
applied to- the framing of the carriage. Water (by preference is forced into

page_text: the vessels, which, acting on the rams, will uphold the body of the carriage till
the fluid is allowed to flow out of the vessels, when by the descent of the body
of the carriage the weight thereof will immediately press on and move the
breaks or apparatus used to retard the carriage, and cause them to act
instantaneously; and by having two sets of cylinders or vessels with their rams,
the breaks or apparatus may be as instantaneously relieved.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Draper in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
25th October 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
DRAPER, of Lenton, near Nottingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Samuel Draper, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel Draper, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Draper, my 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
1'OR RETARDING AND STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Samuel Draper, by an instrument in writing' under
my hand and seal, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Draper, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say) :-
This Invention consists of employing fluid to uphold railway carriages when
in motion in such manner, that, on any requirement for use of the breaks or

page_text: a ran
apparatus for offering friction to the wheels or to the surface of the rails
to retard or stop the carriage of a railway train, they will be called into action
on the fluid being allowed to flow out of the vessels containing it, by reason of
the weight of each of the carriages pressing on the breaks or apparatus used
for offering friction. For this purpose, cylinders or vessels, each having
therein, are applied to each carriage. The several rams are applied to
uphold the body of the carriage, and the cylinders or vessels to contain the
fluid are applied to the framing of the carriage. Water (by preference) iş
forced into the vessels, which, acting on the rams, will uphold the body of
the carriage till the fluid is allowed to flow out of the vessels, when by the
descent of the body of the carriage the weight thereof will immediately press
on and move the breaks or apparatus used to retard the carriage, and cause
them to act instantaneously; and by having two sets of cylinders or vessels with
their rams, the breaks or apparatus may be as instantaneously relieved.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and the means whereby the
same was to be performed, I will now proceed more fully to describe the same,
and refer to the Drawings hereunto annexed, in all the Figures of which the
same letters denote like parts wheresoever they occur.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS..
Figure 1 is a side elevation; Figure 2, a longitudinal section; Figure 3, a
plan.; Figure 4, a transverse section through 1, 1, in Figure 3; Figure 5, a
transverse section through 2, 2, in Figure 3; and the other Figures show
some of the parts separately of so much of a railway carriage having my
Invention applied thereto as will enable me by the aid of the following
description to render it fully intelligible-a, a, is the framing to which the
apparatus is attached; b, b, are the wheels; c, c, are friction surfaces or breaks,
which in this case.are arranged to press upon the rails; but I do not confine
myself thereto, as my Invention may readily be applied so as to offer friction
to the wheels in lieu thereof. The breaks or friction surfaces c, c, are attached
to bars d, d, one on either side of the carriage, as shewn by means of standards
e, e, thus forming frames which are capable of being lowered on to the rails
and raised therefrom in the manner herein-after described. ff. f. f, is a
rectangular frame, supported on rollers or pulleys g, g; formed on or affixed
to the rectangular frame ff. are affixed inclines ff, which,. when the frame
ff, is caused to move towards the pullies g, g, carried by the standards e, e, the
inclines f, f, by coming against the pullies g, g, will cause the frame f, f, and
parts carried thereby, to be raised horizontally, and being immediately below the
rollers or pullies-i, i, attached to the framing a, a, of the carriage, the carriage

page_text: becomes also raised, so that the whole of the weight of the carriage, the frame
ff, and standards e, e, to which the breaks or friction surfaces are attached,
will thereby be caused to press upon the surfaces of the rails. j,j, are bars,
one on either side of the carriage, to which are attached the axle boxes; k, k,
are standards, carried by the framing a, a, of the carriage, as usual, to the
lower ends of which are attached the bars or rods 1, 1, one on either side, in the
usual manner, with this exception, that the standards k, k, extend lower down
than usual, and the bars or rods 1, 1, being attached to their extremities, as
shown, become also nearer to the rails.. The object which I attain by thus
bringing the bars or rods 1, 1, so low is to obtain a suitable guide for each of
the standards e, e, which carry the, friction surfaces c, c; and 1,, are friction
rollers, carried by the bars or rods 1, 1, between which the standards e, e, are
free to rise and fall, as required. The friction surfaces c, c, I. prefer to be of
oak, the direction of its grain being placed so as to press end on to the rails:
The friction surfaces are when not in use sustained by balance weights or by
springs, in the following manner:―m, m, are levers working on centres m³, m²;
carried by the bars j,j; their outer or shorter ends m², m², support the standards
e, e, and parts carried thereby, while the longer ends of those levers have
weights n, n, attached to them. To the inner side of one of the wheels of each
of the carriages is formed or affixed a cam o, which every revolution it makes
presses against the vibrating lever o!.
The vibrating lever o is carried by the framing a, and is pressed up to its
cam surface by a spring. The vibrating lever o works a small force pump o,
which pumps water in very minute quantities from the cistern through the
pipes o into each of the chambers or hydraulic cylinders. o,.formed on or
attached to the axle or grease boxes, by which the hydraulic rams of contained
therein will be very gradually forced upwards to the requisite height, and the
pumping then ceases in consequence of the rising of the carriage frame a, by
which that part of the lever,o' against which the cam acts will also be raised.
out of the way of the working of the cam until again required.....
:
A branch pipe p from the force pump of the locomotive engine. extends
along one side of the entire length of the train, and returns, along the other
side in a similar manner, passing through the guard's carriage, there being:
suitable joints to allow of the oscillation of the carriages taking place without
injury to the pipes. The object. of this pipe p is, that when it, is desired-to
retard the train the attendant of the locomotive engine turns on a cock,
by which a communication. is. opened from the pump of the engine to the
hydraulic cylinders 9 (one in each carriage), which, by acting upon the rams q¹.
attached to the rectangular frames f, f, by which the inclines f', f', affixed:

page_text: thereto, as herein-before described, will be caused to come against the pullies
g, g, on the standards e, e, and lower the friction breaks c, c, on to the rails.
ff, are guide rods, attached to the frame f; f; they work on pullies f³, f;
carried by the framing a in the pipe p near to the hydraulic chambers or
cylinders 9; valves are placed so as to prevent the return of the water which
has been caused to flow therein by the engine pump. This much having been
performed, the friction surfaces are lowered on to the rails, but have not as yet
received any amount of pressure, which is derived in the following manner :-
The water, after having given the requisite motion to the frames f, f, flows
on by the return pipe p, in consequence of the guard turning a stop-cock in the
return pipe p, by which the water is caused to flow into the small hydraulic
cylinder, by which the ram will be raised; and it being forked at its
upper end causes the lever to turn upon its centre, carried by the arm
attached to the bydraulic cylinder r, and the lever being connected at r* to
the lever handles of the cock s¹, thereby opens a way for the escape of the
water contained in the hydraulic cylinders of into the cistern o³, which allows
the carriages to descend and impart their entire weight upon the friction sur-
faces or breaks c, c. The lever
connected with the lever handle of a stop-cock 0, causes it to open and allow
the water to pass through the hydraulic cylinder r to act in a similar manner
upon the next carriage, and so on, throughout the entire length of the train,
commencing with the last or guard's carriage of a train first, and then each
carriage in rotation, until they have all been retarded. The train having been
brought to a stand, the next thing to be done is to remove the pressure from
the friction surfaces or breaks, and this is effected as follows:-The attendant
of the engine turns off the cock which connects the pipe p with the force
pump of the engine, and opens a way from the pipe p into the reservoir of the
tender, to allow of the escape of the water which was caused to flow in, as
already described. The water then returns by the pipe p into the chamber
below the hydraulic cylinder r, and lifts the valve 78 from its seat, and escapes
by the pipe p into the reservoir of the tender. The lever then descends,
and the stop-cock rª closes in consequence of a weight attached to its lever. Its
further descent also closes the cock s', and its still further descent acts upon
a cock t in a manner I will now describe. Upon the lever is fixed a step or
catch t', which is hinged, and capable of moving thereon in one direction only;
and by the descent of the lever, the catch or step t¹ comes upon the lever
handle of the cock t, and opens a passage for the escape of water from the
hydraulic cylinder q, and thus allows of the inclines f¹, f¹, of the frames f, f,
to leave the pullies g, g, sufficiently for the friction surfaces or breaks c, c, to
still rises a slight distance further, and being

page_text: rise by their balance, weights n, n, in the manner herein-before described, the
cock t afterwards closing by means of a balance weight. It will be obvious,
that, owing to the very slight amount of descent to obtain the requisite pres-
sure to retard. and stop the train, the operation may be performed many
times with very short rams in the hydraulic cylinders o*.
Having thus described my Invention, and also the means of performing the
same, I desire it to be understood, that I do not confine myself to the details
given, as they may be varied without departing from my Invention; but what
I claim is, the means of retarding and stopping. railway carriages as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Draper, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
FRED HARRIS.
j
SAMUEL DRAPER. (L.S.)