IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF RAILWAY BREAKS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Theodore Dann, of 126, Stockwell Park Road,
"
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF RAILWAY BREAKS."
A communication from abroad by Marc Chambrier, of Geneva, in the Republic
of Switzerland
Sealed the 11th January 1878, and dated the 10th July 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Theodore Dann
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th July 1877.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 126, Stockwell Park Road, Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING
OF RAILWAY BREAKS." A communication from abroad by Marc Chambrier, of
Geneva, in the Republic of Switzerland.
This Invention has for its object to fully secure the safety of railway trains by
enabling the whole or part of them to be brought to an instantaneous standstill,
either in the course of the regular traffic or with a view to prevent the possibility of
disasters in cases of accident. To this effect I provide upon the engine a hand
lever connected with a system of mechanical organs by means of which, on the one
hand, the breaks of the engine wheels, and on the other, those of the carriage wheels
of the entire train, may be worked simultaneously in the following manner:-
The breaks, which are to bear upon the driving wheels of the engine, and which
may be either single or double, according to the proximity of these wheels to one
another, I suspend by a chain or wire on a pulley or roller having its axis fixed upon
the framework of the engine, and I so connect the hand lever by means of a
connecting rod with a cranked lever, which in its turu I combine with a ratchet and
a system of links and eccentrics that as soon as the hand lever is shifted from the
off" to the "on" position the ratchet is released and the breaks thereupon are
made to bear upon their wheels; and as soon as the breaks are to be taken off again
"

page_text: this may be done by reversing the position of the eccentrics or of the mechanical
appliances used in lieu thereof. I furnish each carriage with a horizontal pivoting
lever having its fulcrum in the longitudinal axis of the carriage.
The hand lever of the engine I fit with a chain, which I connect by means of a
rod and another chain with one end of the pivoting lever of the nearest carriage,
while the other end thereof is similarly connected with the corresponding end of the
pivoting lever fitted to the next carriage, and the same connection I effect by means
of rods and chains or equivalent mechanical appliances between the pivoting levers
of all the carriages, so that on reversing the hand lever of the engine the whole of
the pivoting levers are set in motion. The pivoting lever of each carriage I connect
by means of a set of intermediate links with a longitudinal sliding lever, with which
I connect the breaks of the carriage wheels by means of a series of levers and
counterweights, or any other of the usual mechanical appliances, in such a manner
that whenever the pivoting lever is actuated by the man in charge of the engine
reversing the hand lever, the sliding levers are pulled and the breaks worked upon
simultaneously, so that the breaks of the engine and of the entire train may be
pressed against their wheels by a single motion imparted to the hand lever by the
engine driver, and thus the engine and train stopped of a sudden, whilst by
subsequently raising the levers by hand the breaks may be replaced in their "off"
position. Inasmuch as the chains connecting the hand lever with the first pivoting
lever, and the successive pivoting levers between one another, are lax while the train
is in motion and the breaks are "off," and stretched while the breaks are "on," it
follows that whenever a carriage becomes detached from the train by the breaking
of the connection, or by any other accident, the chains of the pivoting levers are
stretched at once, and consequently the breaks are pressed against their wheels, and
'the detached part of the train is brought to an immediate standstill.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Joseph Theodore Dann in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
January 1878.
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN, of 126, Stockwell Park Road, Brixton, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING
OF RAILWAY BREAKS." A communication from abroad by Mare Chambrier, of
Geneva, in the Republic of Switzerland.
This Invention has for its object to fully secure the safety of railway trains by
enabling the whole or part of them to be brought to an instantaneous standstill,
either in the course of the regular traffic or with a view to prevent the possibility of
disasters in cases of accident. To this effect I provide upon the engine a hand
lever connected with a system of mechanical organs by means of which, on the one
hand, the breaks of the engine wheels, and on the other, those of the carriage wheels
of the entire train, may be worked simultaneously in the following manner:-
The breaks, which are to bear upon the driving wheels of the engine, and which may
be either single or double, according to the proximity of these wheels to one another,
I suspend by a chain or wire on a pulley or roller having its axis fixed upon the
framework of the engine, and I so connect the hand lever by means of a connecting
rod with a cranked lever, which in its turn I combine with a ratchet and a system
of links and eccentrics that as soon as the hand lever is shifted from the " off" to
the "on" position, the ratchet is released and the breaks thereupon are made to bear
upon their wheels, and as soon as the breaks are to be taken off again, this may
be done by reversing the position of the eccentrics or of the mechanical appliances
used in lieu thereof. I furnish each carriage with a horizontal pivoting lever
having its fulcrum in the longitudinal axis of the carriage.
The hand lover of the engine I fit with a chain which I connect by means of a rod
and another chain with one end of the pivoting lever of the nearest carriage, while
the other end thereof is similarly connected with the corresponding end of the
pivoting lever fitted to the next carriage, and the same connection I effect by means
of rods and chains or equivalent mechanical appliances between the pivoting levers
of all the carriages, so that on reversing the hand lever of the engine the whole of
the pivoting levers are set in motion. The pivoting lever of each carriage I connect by
means of a set of intermediate links with a longitudinal sliding lever, with which I
connect the breaks of the carriage wheels by means of a series of levers and counter-
weights, or any other of the usual mechanical appliances, in such a manner that
whenever the pivoting lever is actuated by the man in charge of the engine reversing
the hand lever, the sliding levers are pulled and the breaks worked upon
simultaneously, so that the breaks of the engine and of the entire train may be
pressed against their wheels by a single motion imparted to the land lever by the
engine driver, and thus the engine and the train stopped of a sudden, whilst by
subsequently raising the levers by hand the breaks may be replaced in their "off"
position. Inasmuch as the chains connecting the hand lever with the first pivoting
lever, and the successive pivoting levers with one another, are lax while the train is in
motion and the breaks are off," and stretched while the breaks are "on," it
follows that whenever a carriage becomes detached from the train by the breaking of
the connection, or by any other accident, the chains of the pivoting levers are stretched
at once, and consequently the breaks are pressed against their wheels, and the
detached part of the train is brought to an immediate standstill.
"
Instead of raising the breaks by hand, after they have been pressed against their
wheels by the manipulation of the hand lever, the levers to which the breaks them-
selves are fitted or else the rods joined thereto, may be connected with the piston of
a compressed air cylinder or of a steam cylinder in such a manner that by causing
either the compressed air or the steam to bear upon such piston, the motion imparted
to the piston is transmitted by any of the usual mechanical contrivances to the lever
of the break and the break is thenceforth taken off the wheel, to be put on again

page_text: as soon as the gearing, herein-before described, is again set to work. The same end
may be achieved by connecting such a disengaging gear with the pivoting lever
in such a manner as to raise it and raise the breaks along with it as soon as the
train is to be put into full motion again. Instead of effecting the motion of the
breaks by means of a set of levers, as herein set forth, a jack or crane may be fitted
to the tender or to the engine, and by the movement of the chains passing between
the drums and pulleys of the same, the levers connected with the breaks may be
raised or lowered, according to the requirements of the service.
In the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, I have shewn in Figure 1 an elevation
of a carriage and part of locomotive, and in Figure 2 a plan of the same, representing
the mode in which the breaks of a carriage and those of the locomotive may be
worked upon simultaneously in a break arrangement constructed according to my
Invention.
Figure 3 is a plan, and Figure 4 a sectional elevation on an enlarged scale of the
pivoting lever and part of the sliding levers of a carriage, shewing the manner in
which the connection between these take place.
Figure 5 is a side elevation, and Figure 6 a sectional front view on an enlarged
scale of the double break, shewn in Figures 1 and 2, for locomotive wheels that are
in close proximity to one another; and Figure 7 is a side elevation of a single
break for a locomotive, applicable in cases in which the wheels are at a greater
distance from each other.
In all these illustrations identical letters of reference denote identical parts or
organs.
"
on
"
The hand lever A moving in the slide B is held in its position by the spring C.
The rod E attached to the hand lever A is connected with the cranked lever F. Upon
the roller or pulley H the breaks proper I, I, bearing upon the wheels M, M, are
suspended, and their movement is guided by the rail n fixed upon the framework of
the engine. G is the ratchet, by means of which the breaks are kept "off" J, J,
are the eccentrics connected with the links K, K, and the rod L. N is the shaft by
means of which the disconnecting levers F, F, on both sides are connected together.
When the hand lever A is shifted from the off" to the " position, as marked
in Figure 1, the ratchet G is disengaged, and the breaks consequently fall upon their
wheels, to be subsequently replaced in their "off" position by means of the eccentric
arrangement, which may either be governed by a hand lever L, Figure 7, or by
a mere rectilinear motion effected by the hand of the attendant, or else by a jack or
other well-known means of transmitting motion. The link D connected with the
hand lever A has the chain O attached to it, which is suspended at one end on the
rod P of the carriage, by which the pivoting lever Q held in its position by the
spring R is actuated. S, S, T, are the intermediate levers acting upon the sliding
levers U, U, weighted with the counterweights u, u, and connected by means of the
link V with the shaft W. The links Z, connect the lever U with the lever b
fixed upon the shaft X, and with this shaft X the breaks e, e, are connected by means of
the rods f, g, h, and the levers i, i, in such a manner that as soon as all these
intermediate organs are set in motion by actuating the band lever A, the breaks e, e,
are pressed against their wheels. is a handle by means of which and the cranked
lever o the rod k is actuated, which by means of the lever j transmits the movement
to the shaft X for taking off the breaks in those cases in which the operation of
disengaging is not effected from the engine itself. The shaft W consists of two
pieces coupled at 2, and the chain q which passes from one carriage to the next is
kept stretched by means of the counterweights Y, Y, in connection with the lever d,
and this chain being thenceforth connected by means of the lever U with the shaft
X, it follows that as soon as, by the carriage being detached from the train, the chain
q is broken, the counterweights Y, Y, act upon the shaft W and thence on the shaft X,

page_text: and the breaks are forthwith pressed against their wheels and the train is brought
to a standstill.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and illustrated the same
in the accompanying Sheets of Drawings, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim any particular shape of a railway break, nor do I claim the motion of railway
breaks by means of chains, but what I claim is,-
First. The use or employment of a hand lever in connection with a set of levers
and counterweights for simultaneously working the breaks of the engine and of the
carriages of the train, in the manner herein set forth, and illustrated in the
annexed Sheets of Drawings.
Secondly. The use or employment of double breaks for proximate engine wheels
with disengaging eccentrics, as herein-before described, and illustrated in the
accompanying Sheets of Drawings.
Thirdly. The use or employment of a pivoting lever in connection with sliding
bars and levers, in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth, and illustrated in
the annexed Sheets of Drawings.
Fourthly. The use or employment of chains connected with the break gear for
bringing a train to a standstill in cases of accident, in the manner herein-before
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Sheets of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Theodore Dann, have hereunto set iny
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
(L.S.)
JOSEPH THEODORE DANN.