IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF AN APPARATUS TO RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES, WAGGONS, AND CARRIAGES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF LESSENING THE EFFECT OF CONCUSSION IN THE EVENT OF COLLISION
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot, of 60, Boulevart de
Strasbourg, Paris, Mechanician Jeweller, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF AN APPARATUS TO RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES,
WAGGONS, AND CARRIAGES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF LESSENING THE EFFECT OF
CONCUSSION IN THE EVENT OF COLLISION."
Sealed the 21st June 1859, and dated the 1st January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st January 1859.
I, PIERRE EMMANUEL GUERINOT, of 60, Boulevart de Strasbourg, Paris,
Mechanicien Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF AN APPARATUS TO RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES,
WAGGONS, AND CARRIAGES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF LESSENING THE EFFECT OF
CONCUSSION IN THE EVENT OF COLLISION," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in a disposition of deadening buffers or parashocks
applied to locomotive engines or railway waggons better calculated to lessen
the effect of concussion than the arrangement described in the Specification of
the Patent granted to me in the year 1856, under No. 227.
The annexed Drawing is an illustration of my improvements. Fig. 2, plan
of the frame of a waggon provided with my improved parashocks, which are still
composed of pointed rods running through blocks of lead in the event of con-
cussion, the stroke of which is thus deadened. a, a, rods of the buffers, ending

page_text: in a sharp point i; d, d, sliding box fitted on the rods a, which bear on the
buffer spring r, r. The boxes d fastened on the rods a become loose when the
spring r, r, is straightened by a powerful pressure, then the rods a, a, sliding
freely in the guiding blocks m, m, the joints i, i, enter the lead blocks held
fast by suitable bearings s, s.
Fig. 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a concussion waggon frame
intended to be placed in front, and at the back of trains the buffer rods
a, a, are longer than in common waggons. Similar cast-iron blocks d, d,
as in Fig. 2, bear on the buffer springs, and when loose the points of the said
rods run through a set of lead blocks 1, 1, 1, 1, suitably disposed along the side
frame. The stroke is then completely deadened, and the speed of the train is
instantaneously stopped.
The locomotive engines and tenders could also be provided with several
pointed rods either of the same or of different lengths, which would run
through blocks of lead without interfering with the springs.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot in the Great. Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd June 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
EMMANUEL GUERINOT, of 60, Boulevart de Strasbourg, Paris, Mechanician
Jeweller, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot, Her special licence that I, the said Pierre
Emmanuel Guérinot, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot, 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 THE APPLICATION OF AN APPARATUS TO RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES,
WAGGONS, AND CARRIAGES, FOR THE PURPOSE OF LESSENING THE EFFECT OF CON-
CUSSION IN THE EVENT OF COLLISION," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said. Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot, my executors or administrators, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Pierre Emmanuel. Guérinot, do hereby,
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
In a previous Patent, dated the 28th of January, 1856, I described certain
processes for the purpose of lessening the effect of concussion on railway trains
in the event of a collision, and my present Invention consists in arrangements
for the same purpose, but better suited in their application to the carriages
and waggons of railways than those described in the Patent just alluded to.
To that effect I still put in front and at the back of locomotives and waggons
of railway trains pointed steel or iron rods and lead blocks corresponding to
the said points, so that the latter may penetrate the lead blocks whenever two
trains meet, thus preventing or lessening, the shock and damage which might
otherwise result from the collision..
If two trains provided with my protecting apparatuses happen to meet, the
violence of the concussion will be prevented in a great measure, because the
points running through their corresponding lead blocks will thus meet with a
progressive resistance sufficient to deaden the shock, and prevent the disastrous
effect, stopping both trains almost instantly, the locomotive and waggons of
which will remain so to speak motionless, instead of being violently jerked
back by the reaction of the springs, as is the case with the buffers in common.
use, for the forward motion of the other vehicles tending to continue after the
stoppage of the locomotives, their respective points will then run also almost.
simultaneously through their corresponding lead blocks.
In order that the principle of my improved Invention may be better.
understood, I have represented in the two Sheets of Drawings herewith.several.
modes of applying it; the Figures are drawn on various scales, either
103, and so on, as will be seen.
The Figures of the first Sheet represent various modifications and improve-
ments which I propose to introduce both in the construction and application
of my protecting apparatus to railway vehicles in order to have their action more
efficacious. It will be seen that they are all based on the same. principle,
namely, either and with preference the perforating or punching of lead
blocks or plates, or other blocks made of materials of suitable hardness, by

page_text: .buffers provided with pointed rods, or by the smashing of similar blocks by
cast-iron hands suitably disposed on the buffers' rods so as to bear on the
springs as usual, the latter bearing on the lead block's whenever a concussion
takes place either between two trains running against each other, or between
two trains running in the same direction with unequal speed.
Fig. 2 is the plan of the frame of a waggon, in which the pointed buffer
rods Tare opposite lead blocks carried by the supports S. The buffer rods are
so disposed that the first effect of a concussion, or even of the driving back of
a train, either by men or by a locomotive, is sustained by the buffer springs R,
which by their elastic strength can partly resist the stroke of the buffer before
the points enter the lead blocks. The buffer rods run as usual in slide boxes
M fastened to the head cross pieces, and also in guides I fixed to the side
frame piece. The hands B which bear on the buffers' spring are neither
embodied nor permanently fixed on the rods of the buffers; a square hole is
bored through them, and they set as coupling boxes on the said rods, as
shewn, Fig. 3 and 5, which are drawn on two scales. Fig. 3 is a side view
of the buffers' rod T, whilst the sliding hand B and guiding piece I are shown
-in cross section. Fig. 5 is an end view of the sliding hand B set on the rod
T, touching the end of the buffer spring R. This sliding hand being adjusted
on the square portion of the buffers' rod, is held by a gudgeon a, carried by a
spring 2, screwed fast on the said sliding hand, which is carried along by the
rod T, whilst the hand bears on the spring R, which bends until the spring
meets the inclined plane b, fixed to the cross piece D; the inclined plane
raises up the spring and gudgeon a carried by the former, the latter holding
the rod T no longer; the latter slides freely into the. sliding hand or box,
which is repulsed by the spring R, and at the same moment the point P enters
the lead blocks, into which it penetrates in proportion to the intensity of the
shock or concussion, the effect of which is absorbed by this penetration.
Fig. 4 is a vertical section made lengthways through the middle of the
support, which carries the lead block. On examining Fig. 2, it is evident from
the arrangement adopted for the waggon there represented, that the first
portion of the sliding motion of the rod when the buffers are pressed upon, is
sustained by the buffers' spring R, while the second part is sustained by the
lead blocks carried by the supports s, s, into which lead blocks enter the points
which from either end can run as far as the middle cross piece A, on which
piece other lead blocks could also be disposed, which would completely
deaden the shock.
The system of detent placed on the slide box M could be modified in various
_ways to produce the same effect, viz, by letting the spring R sustain the first

page_text: effect of a shock, then disengaging it at the moment the point is entering the
block of lead. It is obvious that the shoulder of the slide box, which bears
on the end of the buffer spring, is placed interually, as shewn, Fig. 10, in
order that the buffers and drawing rods may be in the same plane with their
spring. Fig. 6 is the plan of the frame of a waggon in which another
arrangement is adopted by suppressing the points altogether, and using lead or
any other like material, so as to attenuate the effect of shocks, not by per-
foration, but by smashing; the hands B of the buffers' rods, after compressing.
the spring R to a certain extent, cause its end to bear on a lead cylinder a,
carried by the box I, bolted to the middle cross piece A. The lead block a
can slide freely into its box when struck by either of the springs before the
opposite one, but it is almost at the same moment squeezed between both
springs, which squeezing or smashing is most efficacious, the resistance of the
springs having first come into play. Instead of a lead cylinder or prism à, as
shown in Fig. 6, placed on each side of the frame, lead blocks of a certain
thickness could be placed in the middle of the frame of the waggons, the rods
of the buffers should be pointed as in Fig. 2; the buffers' springs, after
resisting as far as they could, might be released by a detent, and the opposite
points not being placed in the same direction, would run through the central
lead blocks close to each other, as shown Fig. 7, and the effect of the shock
would then be destroyed. Instead of a single block of lead, the frame of the
waggons could be so disposed as to contain several of them, as shown in
Fig. 7; they would be run through successively by the buffers' rods, which
would continue to move on after the resistance of the spring R is exhausted.
The rods T should be disposed so as to cross each other, and so that the heads
of the buffers may always meet whichever way the waggons may be turned.
The first lead block run through after the action of the detent is carried by the
central cross piecé A, and the last one by the intermediary cross piece D; the
other blocks, in any number, are placed in cast-iron holders c, c, between these
cross pieces, which holders serve at the same time as guides for the buffers
rods. Fig. 8 shews another disposition of a waggons furnished only with one
buffer at each end, which buffer can then have a much longer stroke; the
said buffers should always correspond with a disc II fixed to the head cross
piece, against which they bear whichever way the waggons may be turned.
The buffers' rod is surrounded by a helical spring B, against which it bears
through a moveable cylinder, which can be released by means of a detent
similar to that already mentioned; when the spring has been compressed to
the utmost, the point of the rod runs through the lead blocks c, c, c,-till-the
concussive force is absorbed.

page_text: Fig. 1 is the plan of two adjoining waggon frames, arranged for the special
purpose of neutralizing the effect of concussions; such waggons should be
placed before and behind the trains. The head cross pieces of the said
waggons are provided with double buffer rods; these rods, which should
have a long sliding motion, are terminated internally by points P, P; they run
freely in cast-iron blocks M, fixed to the head cross piece, and in guides I,
fixed to the first intermediate cross piece D, sliding cast-iron boxes or sleeves
kare placed and held on the double rods T, T, in the same manner as the
block B, Fig. 3, and as in the latter, hands form part of their body; these
hands bear upon the ends of the buffers' spring, so as to transmit to the said
springs any pressure which they may be submitted to, and when the springs
are bent to the utmost, a detent similar to that already described for the
waggon, Fig. 2, releases the sliding boxes, which are driven back on the rods
by the springs, and the points of the rods run through a set of lead blocks
B, B, placed in special compartments placed for the purpose between the
exterior side frames L, and the interior ones C, which can be united together
by strong wrought-iron plates. It is therefore evident, that as many lead
blocks may be used as may be thought necessary for absorbing even the most
violent concussions.
The various arrangements herein-before described for applying my Inven-
tion can be modified to suit the particular requirements of various modes of
constructions, and of the nature of the vehicles the arrangement represented.
Fig. 1 is intended for the special concussion waggons to be placed before or
behind the trains; the same arrangement could be applied to locomotives,
which being exposed to sustain the first effect of concussions suffer accordingly
the principal share of damage, whilst they inflict them upon the vehicles which
they meet with. In order to protect locomotives more effectually, I would
propose to provide their buffers, which should be then wider, with several
short-pointed rods corresponding to lead blocks, through which they would run
directly without interfering springs; in the case of a concussion such pointed
rods could be either of equal or unequal length. The buffers of the tenders,
which, next after the locomotive, sustain the largest share of the shock, and
transfer it to the train, should be provided with buffers similar to those of the
locomotives.
The special concussion waggons, as well as the locomotives, provided with
such preserving apparatus, would require many more lead blocks, for the more
violent the concussion will be, the greater the number of the lead blocks run
through by the points will be, whilst in the waggons more remote from the
point of the collision, hardly more than one or two lead blocks will be run

page_text: through, for the first ones will absorb the intensity of the concussion, and
annihilate its effect. In order to simplify this apparatus in its application to
all the vehicles actually running on railways, I would do away altogether with
the escapement for all the waggons of the trains-except-the-first ones,--which-
should be fitted as described before; the simplified arrangement alluded to is
shewn, Fig. 9; a cast-iron or steel block B is fitted on the buffer's rod T, the
spring R plays in a mortice cut through the block B, which is pointed at P,
and this point runs through a lead block carried by a support S..
The most convenient mode for applying my Invention is shown in Sheet II.,
it consists in moveable protectors, which can be conveniently, applied to or
removed from the waggons in a short time. This moveable and comparatively
light apparatus consists chiefly of a cast-iron frame or box, which is placed on
each side of the head cross piece of the waggon, being bolted to the side frame
piece; there is a recess behind the cross piece, into which several lead plates
are fitted, being separated from each other by iron washers, with a central hole
for the free passage of the projecting point when a collision takes place. The
tapering of the points, and thickness of the lead plates, are calculated and
made from previous comparative experiments.
This apparatus can be easily applied altogether to any waggon or carriage
in actual use without any important modification being required. The pointed
rods are provided outside with a head or buffer, which strikes the corre
sponding one of the adjoining waggon after the common buffers have bent their
springs about 2 or 3 inches, the points then run through the lead; deadening
the shock, and relieving at the same time the springs.
The rod of the protecting point slides freely in the fore part of the cast-iron
box, holding the lead plates; the fore part of this rod has a thread, and is
fitted with a nut, which, in the normal position, is screwed up to the head or
buffer. When the lead plates have been run through by the point, the latter
sticks so hard in these plates that it is not possible to take it out by hand in
order to remove them for replacing fresh ones into the box. But by turning
the nut with a wrench, it will move along the rod by bearing against the fore
part of the box, thus pulling the point out very easily. The shape and arrange-
ment of the cast-iron box is such that the lead plates can be viewed and
removed very easily when they have been run through by the point. The
moveable preserver is represented in Sheet II.; the Figures 1 to 7 are
separate views drawn to the scale of; the Fig. 8, 9, & 10, are general views
of a portion of a first-class passengers carriage frame to which the apparatus
is applied; it is drawn with red ink; the three last Figures are on the scale of
1. The same pieces are represented by the same letters in all the Figures.

page_text: A, cast-iron box, fitted on the end of head cross piece D, and bolted on the
side frame piece L; P, sharp rod provided with a thread, and tapering at one
end, while the other end terminates in a head or ram H; E, nut fitted on the
threaded part of the rod P; B, lead plates or discs placed in the box A, and
separated from one another by iron washers R, Fig. 6. The lead plates are
held by an upper iron band attached on the edge of the box by screws; F,
fore part of the box A, for guiding the rod P, which slides freely therein, and
for stopping the nut E when the lead plates are run through. By turning the
nut E to the right, it is made to bear against the box F, and to pull the point
from the lead plates; C, cast or wrought iron ledged plate, screwed fast on
the side frame piece L, for strengthening the resistance of the box A, the end
ledges of the plate C are let in the side frame piece.
Having thus described my Invention and the means of applying it, I shall
now observe in conclusion, that I do not mean to limit or restrain myself to
the precise modes of application, nor to the precise forms or shapes of the
shock preventers or protectors herein-before described; but what I claim as
my Invention is, the application of iron or steel sharp-pointed rods running
through lead blocks or plates suitably disposed on the locomotives and waggons
of railway trains, for the purposes mentioned.
I shall further remark, that the protecting rods may be either the buffers'
rods themselves or special rods; that the number of pointed rods and lead
plates can be increased at pleasure, and that any equivalent material may be
used in lieu of lead for deadening the concussions.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Emmanuel Guérinot, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Signed and sealed in the presence of
L. D'AUBRÉVILLE, C. E.,
P. E. GUERINOT. (L.S.)
60, Boulèv. de Strasbourg, Paris.