IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF PLATFORMS, COUPLINGS AND BUFFERS FOR RAILROAD CARS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edmund Edwards, of the Firm of Edwards and
Co., 38, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineers and Patent Agents, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF PLATFORMS,
COUPLINGS AND BUFFERS FOR RAILROAD CARS." —A communication from
abroad by Ezra Miller, of the City and State of New York, United
States of America.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Edmund Edwards at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 18th August 1878, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.

page_text: Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Engineers and Patent
Agents, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION AND ARRANGEMENT OF PLATFORMS, COUPLINGS, AND BUFFERS
FOR RAILROAD CARS," and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent
for the same, and have made solemn Declaration that the said Invention
has been communicated to me from abroad by Ezra Miller, of the City
and State of New York, United States of America.
5
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Edwards, do hereby 10
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand
and seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the
following statement, and accompanying Drawing (that is to say) :-
The First part of my Invention has for its object,―
•
1
First. Preventing the crushing of car platforms in the event of
collision between trains, by arranging the buffer beam and its supporting
timbers in or nearly in a horizontal plane with the sill beams or bed of
a car body, and employing in conjunction with such elevated platform a
system of trussed braces which are so applied as to tie the platform 20
timbers firmly to the car bed, and also sustain them against upward or
downward strain.
Second. Preventing injurious jerks and concussions of cars in starting
and stopping them, by the employment of centrally arranged spring
compression buffers and couplers in such manner that these parts are 2
under constant tension and compression when the cars are coupled
together and the heads of the buffers are forcibly brought in contact
with each other, thus establishing a constant compression of all the cars
in a train, as will be herein-after explained.
The second part of my Invention relates,—
30
First. To a novel construction and arrangement of two horizontal
coupling hooks having bevilled coupling ends, acute angle coupling
faces, and vertical sides, one hook being arranged at each end of each
car in·such relation to the other that the hook on one end of any car
will couple with corresponding hooks on any other car, and while they 3
'

page_text: wwwwww
prevent to a great degree lateral vibration of cars in motion, they also
form a safe and positive connection as long as the cars remain up-
right.
Second. To the employment of side stops or abutments in connection
with the laterally vibrating coupling hooks, which stops are so arranged
as to allow a free automatic coupling of the hooks, but to prevent their
casual detachment, as will be herein-after explained.
.
Third. To constructing the rear end of each coupling hook so as to
receive a spring box, and to allow the hook to receive all the required
lateral vibration, as will be herein-after explained..
Figure 1 is a bottom view of the ends of two cars coupled together,
and having my improvements applied to them.
Figure 2 is an elevation of one end of a car with my improvements
applied to it.
Figure 8 is a longitudinal section taken vertically through one end of
a car. Figure 4 is a top view of Figure 8 with certain parts removed.
Figure 5 is a longitudinal section in detail shewing a spring buffer, a
spring coupling hook, and one of the downward truss braces.
Figures 6, 7, and 8, are views shewing the construction of the
coupling hooks.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several
Figures.
In the accompanying Drawing A represents the bed of a car which is
made up of longitudinal sill beams properly framed together, the central
ones D, D, of which are extended out at both ends of the car beyond the
said beams thereof, and form in connection with short longitudinal
beams the sills of the platform A². The platforms A' are thus brought
in- or nearly in a horizontal plane with the car bed, so that the shocks
against the transverse buffer beams H are in a direct line with the heavy
sill beams of the car bed, thereby strengthening the platforms against
endways strain. These elevated platforms I still further strengthen by
means of -brace rods I, I, and L, L. The rods I, I, are arranged. on
opposite sides of the central sill beams D, D, and pass through the ends
of a truss beam J, thence upward and through the cross beam J¹ of the

page_text: car bed, thence downward and backward to the bolster D¹, to which they
are bolted. These rods I, I, are the upward trusses. The downward
trusses L, L, pass through the buffer beam H and are carried backward
and downward longitudinally, and bolted to the bolster D¹ outside of the
rods I, I. By this system of truss bracing the platforms cannot be 5
broken by any ordinary accident, and with coupling hooks arranged as I
will herein-after describe what is ordinarily known as "telescoping," or
crushing of one car into another is effectually prevented. O, C,
represents long shanked hooks, the shanks of which are preferably
made rectangular in cross section, as shewn in the Drawing. Each 1
hook C has double-bevilled sides k, k³, and an acute angle hooking
surface c, which latter may be chill faced to prevent its rapid wear.
The surfaces k, k¹, and c³, are perpendicular to the car bed, and the upper
and lower surfaces are flat from one end to the other of each hook.
'
The rear end of the shank of each hook is connected by a vertical 1
pivot to a cylindrical extension c which passes through two spring caps
a, a, and through a convolute or other suitable spring a¹, which latter
with its caps are confined between cheek pieces O¹, 0', and transverso
bolts b, b.
The shank of cach hook is bent laterally as shewn in Figures 1, 6, 2
and 7, so that when two hooks are coupled together the line of draft
will exactly coincide with the centres of the springs a¹, which latter are
at the middle of the width of the car beds between the beams D, D, and
the said line of draft will also intersect the hooks at the middle of the
length of their hooking surfaces c³, c². The hooks protrude beyond the 2
ends of their respective car platforms such a distance that when cars aro
coupled together a space is left between the platforms sufficient to
prevent them from rubbing against each other when the cars are in
motion, which spaco may be, say, four inches. The ends of the hooks
are thus extended beneath the ends of their opposite cars, which 3
prevents the cars from rising in the event of collision, consoquently the
hooks prevent one car telescoping" with another. The acute angle
hooking surfaces c³ of the coupling hooks are oblique to the line of draft,
so that there will be a constant tendency of the hooks to keep together,
aided in part by the springs S, S, which are arranged so as to bear &
against their shanks, as shewn in Figure 1. The hooks have horizontal
slots n and vertical holes or perforations c³ made through their hooking
66

page_text: ends. The slots n are for the purpose of receiving coupling links of the
ordinary well known kind, and the holes creceive coupling pins p which
are attached to the platforms by chains and which couple the links to
the hooks. By these means cars which are not provided with hooks con-
structed according to my Invention can be coupled to the hooks. c, d,
are stirrups which are bolted to the bottom of each car bed and receive
through them the hook O for the purpose of supporting such hook, and
also allowing it the required vibration laterally, and holding the hook in
proper position for coupling with another hook. It will thus be seen
that each hook is allowed to receive longitudinal elástic motion resisted
only by the strength of the spring a'. It is also allowed to receive
lateral elastic motion in the act of forming a coupling, resisted by the
strength of the spring S.
The longitudinal elasticity allowed the coupling hooks forms a very
5 important part of my system of compression herein-after explained,
On the inner or hooking side of each hook O and at a proper distance
from it, I secure a stop E rigidly to the bottom side of the platform A¹,
the braces e, e, or other equivalent means being employed for giving
rigidity and strength of attachment of the stop. That side of the stop E
) next the hooking side of the hook on the same platform with it is
bevilled as shewn in Figure 1, and receives against it in the act of
making a coupling the rounded back edge of a hook on another car,
and when the coupling is effected the stops on the adjacent platforms of
the two coupled cars prevent a casual uncoupling of the hooks while
5 turning, curves or from any other cause. To. uncouple the hooks I
connect each hook to a lever F or to a rotary rod F¹ by means of a
chain d. If a lever F is used I employ on the guard rail F³, a rack F³,
for holding the hooks out of coupling position, and if the rotary rod F
be used I adopt the well known ratohet wheel and foot "dog” for
holding the hooks out of coupling position. A wedge finserted into the
platform in front of this lever F when this lever is thrown back will hold
it securely back, and such a wedge will be always in a convenient position
for use if it is attached to the platform by means of a thain. Above
such coupling hook O is a spring buffer head J*, the shank J" of which
5 is square and passes through the buffer beam H at the middle of its
length, and also through the framework of the platform. Part of the
shank Jis rounded and passed through a convolute or other suitable

page_text: Eighth. The arrangement of an elastic buffer in the ends of the
buffer beam H of a platform which is in or nearly in a horizontal plane
with the bed of the car body, and which is trussed, substantially as
described and shewn in the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edmund Edwards, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.