IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC BRAKE APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Tyer, of No. 4, Old Street, Finsbury, in the
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC
BRAKE APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY TRAINS."
Sealed the 23rd June 1876, aud dated the 1st April 1876.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Tyer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st April 1876.
EDWARD TYER, of No. 4, Old Street, Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex.
IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC BRAKE APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY TRAINS."
My Invention relates to apparatus for applying brakes on railway trains by air
pressure, for generating or storing such pressure, and for communicating it through-
out the train.
I will first describe the mode which I adopt for applying compressed air, from
whatever source it may be derived, to force the brake blocks when desired against
the wheels. I mount each brake block between the periphery of a wheel and a
block or abutment fixed to the carriage framing, so hanging the brake block and
pressing it by a spring or counterweight that it is usually clear of the wheel unless
when forcibly pressed against it. Between the brake block and the fixed block I
introduce a bag of caoutchouc, leather, or other air-tight flexible material, and T
connect these bags, that is to say, those belonging to the several brakes of any
carriage, by suitable pipes to a reservoir or store of compressed air or to air-com-
pressing pumps, providing suitable cocks or valves by which compressed air can be
admitted to the bags or can be discharged therefrom. When it is desired to put on
the brakes the air supply cocks or valves are opened, and the bags being inflated by
the compressed air press the brake blocks against the wheels. When it is desired
to take off the brakes the air supply is stopped, and the discharge valves being
opened, the brake blocks are withdrawn from the wheels by their springs or counter-
weights, the bags collapsing to permit that movement. The air supply and discharge
cocks or valves may be worked directly by hand on each brake carriage, or they
may be worked by a cord communicating throughout the train, operated as described
in the Specification to a Patent granted to me on the 4th Sept. 1875, No. 3103.
The compressed air employed for working the brakes in the manner described
above may, as already stated, be derived from any store or reservoir or set of pumps
[Price 6d1

page_text: on the brake carriage itself, or on some other part of the train as on the locomotive,
pipes communicating throughout the train being in the latter case provided. When
the compressing pump is on the brake carriage itself, I work it by a cam or
eccentric on one of the running axles, collecting the air compressed by the pump in
a reservoir on the carriage. This reservoir is provided with a piston or diaphragın
loaded by a weight or spring to the maximum pressure desired, and connected to the
pump rod or lever so that when this pressure is attained the pump is automatically
thrown out of action. Instead of employing a pump on the carriage, compressing
pumps may be worked at stations to charge portable reservoirs, and several such
charged reservoirs may be placed on various carriages of the train, and connected to
the brake pipes thereon. When these reservoirs have been exhausted in working
the brakes they can be replaced by a fresh set of charged reservoirs obtained at a
station where the train is stopped. When the air for working the brakes has to be
led by communicating pipes throughout the train I provide means of coupling such
pipes from carriage to carriage in the following manner:-Each carriage being
provided with a fixed pipe extending its own length, I make each end of such pipe
at each end of the carriage with a face and packing suitable to receive a cap or a
pipe connection. On the carriage end 1 mount a loaded lever pressing a cap on the
pipe end and so closing its aperture. I provide pieces of flexible tube sufficiently
long to extend from the end of one carriage to the end of the next, and having at
each end a cap that can fit on the end of the fixed air pipe. When the carriages
are coupled I raise the loaded levers and place one of these flexible pipes with one
of its caps on each of the pipe faces, and then let the levers press on the caps so as
to hold them close down upon the pipe faces. A. communication is thus made from
the one air pipe to the next. In case of the carriages accidentally separating the
one or the other of the caps is pulled forcibly off the pipe face, the lever then
closing the orifice of the pipe. In order, however, to provide for the case where the
cap and flexible pipe remains on the end of the pipe through which the air is
supplied, and to effect the closure of that pipe in such case, 1 make in or near the
middle of the flexible pipe a hollow part or cavity of larger internal diameter than
the pipe itself with a valve seating at each end of the cavity, and in the cavity I place
a ball.
While the communicating pipe is connected to both carriages hanging
between them with its middle horizontal, or nearly so, the ball lies in the cavity
leaving the air passage clear through it; but should the pipe becoming detached at
one end hang vertically, then the ball will rest on the lower seating and so close the
passage.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edward Tyer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th September
1876.
EDWARD TYER, of No. 4, Old Street, Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC BRAKE APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY TRAINS."
My Invention relates to apparatus for applying brakes on railway trains by air
pressure, for generating or storing such pressure, and for communicating it throughout
the train.
I will first describe the mode which I adopt for applying compressed air, from
whatever source it may be derived, to force the brake blocks when desired against-
the wheels. I mount each brake block between the periphery of a wheel and a
block or abutinent fixed to the carriage framing, so hanging the brake block and
pressing it by a spring or counterweight that is usually clear of the wheel unless
when forcibly pressed against it. Between the brake block and the fixed block I
introduce a bag of caoutchouc, leather, or other air-tight flexible material, and I
connect these bags, that is to say, those belonging to the several brakes of any
carriage, by suitable pipes to a reservoir or store of compressed air or to air-com-
pressing pumps, providing suitable cocks or valves by which compressed air can be

page_text: admitted to the bags or can be discharged therefrom. When it is desired to put on
the brakes the air supply cocks or valves are opened, and the bags being inflated by
the compressed air press the brake blocks against the wheels. When it is desired
to take off the brakes the air supply is stopped, and the discharge valves being
opened, the brake blocks are withdrawn from the wheels by their springs or counter-
weights, the bags collapsing to permit that movement. The air supply and discharge
cocks or valves may be worked directly by hand on each brake carriage, or they
may be worked by a cord communicating throughout the train, operated as
described in the Specification to a Patent granted to me on the 4th September 1875,
No. 3103.
The compressed air employed for working the brakes in the manner described
above may, as already stated, be derived from any store or reservoir or set of pumps
on the brake carriage itself, or on some other part of the train as on the locomotive,
pipes communicating throughout the train being in the latter case provided. When
the compressing pump is on the brake carriage itself, I work it by a cam or eccentric
on one of the running axles, collecting the air compressed by the pump in a reser-
voir on the carriage. This reservoir may be provided with a piston or diaphragm
loaded by a weight or spring to the maximum pressure desired, and connected to
the pump rod or lever so that when this pressure is attained the pump is auto-
matically thrown out of action.
Instead of employing a pump on the carriage, compressing pumps may be worked
at stations to charge portable reservoirs, and several such charged reservoirs may be
placed in various carriages of the train, and connected to the brake pipes thereon.
When these reservoirs have been exhausted in working the brakes they can be replaced
by a fresh set of charged reservoirs obtained at a station where the train is stopped.
When the air for working the brakes has to be led by communicating pipes
throughout the train I provide means of coupling such pipes from carriage to
carriage in the following manuer:-Each carriage being provided with a fixed pipe
extending its own length, I make each end of such pipe at each end of the carriage
with a face and packing suitable to receive a cap or a pipe connection. On the
carriage end 1 mount a loaded lever pressing a cap on the pipe end and so closing
its aperture. I provide pieces of flexible tube sufficiently long to extend from the
end of one carriage to the end of the next, and having at each end a cap that can
fit on the end of the fixed air pipe. When the carriages are coupled I raise the
loaded levers and place one of these flexible pipes with one of its caps on each of
the pipe faces, and then let the levers press on the caps so as to hold them close
down upon the pipe faces. A communication is thus made from the one air pipe
to the next. In case of the carriages accidentally separating the one or the other of
the caps is pulled forcibly off the pipe face, the lever then closing the orifice of the
pipe.
In order, however, to provide for the case where the cap and flexible pipe
remains on the end of the pipe through which the air is supplied, and to effect the
closure of that pipe in such case, I make in or near the middle of the flexible pipe a
hollow part or cavity of larger internal diameter than the pipe itself with a valve
seating at each end of the cavity, and in the cavity I place a ball. While the com-
municating pipe is connected to both carriage hanging between them with its
iniddle horizontal, or nearly so, the ball lies in the cavity, leaving the air passage
clear through it; but should the pipe becoming detached at one end hang vertically,
then the ball will rest on the lower seating and so close the passage.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents a side view of a brake block A and its abutment B, with a
flexible bag C interposed between them, a separate front and an edge view of such bag
being shewn in Figs 2 and 3. The brake block A is kept usually off the wheel by.
a counterweight a, for which a spring might be substituted, and the abutment B is
held in position by a strut b adjustable in length. The bag C communicates with a
pipe e supplying compressed air by a connecting branch, provided with a cock or

page_text: valve c.
When it is desired to apply the brake (the cock or valve c being open)
compressed air from a suitable reservoir is made to flow by the pipe e into the bag
C, which it distends, so pressing the block A against the periphery of the wheel.
For taking off the brake the supply pipe e being opened to the external atmosphere
the air escapes from the bag C, whereupon the counterweight or spring moves the
block A. back from the wheel.
Fig. 4 is a side view of a compressed air reservoir D, which, as above stated, may
be charged from a pump on the locomotive, or from a pump worked from one of the
running axles of the train, or which, being portable, inay be charged at a station and
taken on to the train and connected by a flexible hose to the air pipe E supplying
the bags C. In any case a cock, or valve d, is provided to close the reservoir branch
or open it as required.
Fig. 5 is a side view, and Fig. 6 is a plan of the under framing of a carriage,
showing the connections to the several brake blocks. The air supply pipe E carried
under the carriage is connected by branches e to the several bags C, which, when the
pipe E is charged with compressed air, become distended, and cause the brakes to be
applied.
Fig. 7 is a side view, and Fig. 8 an end view of the under framing of a brake
carriage, in which is mounted a reservoir D, and a pump F worked by an eccentric
on a wheel geared to a wheel on one of the running axles, or worked therefrom by
frictional contact.
=
The brakes are shown in Fig. 7 arranged to act on both sides of one pair of
wheels in the following manner :-On the one side of the wheel is a brake block A,
an air bag C, and an abutment B, which, instead of being strutted from the carriage
frame as in Figs. 1 and 5, is connected by a rod b₁ extending across the wheel to a
brake block A on the opposite side of the wheel. When the bag C is distended it
pushes the one brake block A against the wheel, and it equally presses away the
abutment B, thereby dragging the other brake block A¹ against the wheel. It is
obvious that other modes of hanging and connecting the brakes might be adopted,
bags C such as I have described, being made to act on them when distended by
compressed air so as to push or drag them against the wheels.
Fig. 9 shews a battery or set of portable reservoirs D, which, being charged at a
station and placed in a guard's van, are connected by their branches to the pipe E
supplying the brake bags.
Fig. 10 is a side view shewing the ends of two carriages with the mode of coupling
the air pipes E, and Fig. 11 shews the condition of the pipe coupling when the
carriages are separated. The coupling pipe G is flexible, and of sufficient length to
hang loosely between the carriages. It is held in position connecting the heads of
the two pipes E by weighted, levers H, that press down its ends upon seats K
provided on the up branches of the pipes E. The faces of the ends g are provided
with caoutchouc or other suitable packing so that when they are pressed down upon
the seats K the connection is rendered air-tight. The ends are made on their
upper faces with rounded parts or bulges, entering corresponding hollows in the
pressers of the levers H, so that it will require a certain amount of drag to pull
either end of the pipe G out of its place between the presser and the head K.
When this does happen, either by the accidental or the voluntary separation of the
train, the pipe G hangs down, as shown in Fig. 11, and provision is made for its
becoming automatically closed when it is in this condition, that is to say, at or about
the middle of the pipe G there is an enlargement L containing a ball of caoutchouc
or other clastic material. When the pipe G is connected from carriage to carriage,
as shewn in Fig. 10, the ball lies in the lower part of the enlargement L, leaving
a free passage for the air past it, but when the pipe G hangs, as shewn in Fig. 11,
then the ball 7 resting on the lower end of the enlargement acts as a valve to close
the mouth of the pipe. The head of the pipe on the other carriage, from which the
connecting pipe G has been detached, is closed by the presser of its lever, and in
order to render such closure air-tight, the underface of the presser is provided with
caoutchouc or other suitable packing.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, I claim-
First. Applying brakes on a milway train by means of flexible bags distended by
compressed air, substantially as herein described.
Second. The use for working brakes in the manner referred to in the preceding
clain of portable reservoirs that can be charged with compressed air at a station, and
taken charged on to a train and connected to the pipes for supplying the flexible
bags.
Third. Coupling the main air pipe of one carriage to that of another by a separate
length of flexible tube having its ends held down by weighted levers on to the ends
of the two carriage pipes, substantially as herein described.
Fourth. Effecting the automatic closure of the air pipe of a separated carriage by
means of a ball valve within an enlargement of the flexible connecting tube, substan-
tially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Tyer, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six.
EDWARD TYER. (L.S.)