RETARDING AND STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS AND RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1853

page_text: time prescrived by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Ellerthorpe at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th November. 1853.
I, JOHN ELLERTHORPE, of Kingston-on-Hull, in the County of
York, Master Mariner, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "RETARDING AND STOPPING RAILWAY TRAINS AND RAILWAY
CARRIAGES to be as follows:-
By the application of a lever or other suitable contrivance, at the
disposal of a guard or other attendant, I throw into gear a connexion
by which the motion of one or more axles of the train may cause, the
application of breaks to several wheels of the train so as to stop it
altogether or retard it. A reference to the annexed sketch will show

page_text: how this is to be done. I use breaks of any ordinary construction
known in railway practice to several or to all the wheels of the train,
and I operate upon all the breaks simultaneously in manner following:
-I select an axle of one or more of the train carriages, and fit and fix
upon it a coupling, consisting of male cones, A, A', running loose upon
the axle when not in gear, and a double or right and left female cone
B, which double female cone is fixed on the axle. By any lever C, or
other hand gear, B can be caused to put the gearing wheels in motion
in one direction by connecting with A, or in the other direction by
connecting with A', and thus the motion of this carriage axle is caused
to give rotary motion to the screwed shaft E, extending all along under
the bottom of the carriage. This shaft E is provided with bearings
suitable for its support, and upon it will be seen both a right hand
thread and a left hand thread, so that when it revolves the female
screws through which these different threads work can be caused to
approach each other or to recede from each other, carrying with them
the break iron bars F, F. When, by the turning of the screwed shaft
E, in the break iron bars F, F, are caused to recede from each other,
the breaks are brought up to the wheels to retard or stop the train. The
parallelism of the break irons is provided for by any suitable contrivance.
The extreme ends of each screwed shaft of the train are squared, and
when two carriages are coupled together these squared ends of the
respective shafts are kept in the required proximity by a long squared
coupling or socket joint G, which is held fast on one shaft by any
suitable keep or set screw at H. Sometimes I prefer coupling by two
squared sockets united in the middle by an universal joint or other
suitable contrivance to allow of curvature.
The same arrangement as that above described may be extended
throughout the entire train or any section of the train, and the breaks
may be made to act on the fore or the after parts of any of the
-wheels.
The line of screwed shafting may be set in motion by means of an axle
of the locomotive engine, and in that case I prefer having the power of
the engine to disengage the breaks when starting the train again,
instead of backing on the line or disengaging by hand.

page_text: The coupling and gearing A, A', B, C, may be repeated on other
axles of the train.
I claim the line of right and left hand screwed shafting E, for
moving the break irons towards each other or from each other, and the
arrangement for giving it motion.