Improved Means for Supplying Compressed Air to Locomotives.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Feb., 1891-Accepted, 21st Mar., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means for Supplying Compressed Air to Locomotives.
I, WILLIAM HENRY MUNNS, of Victoria Chambers, 55 and 56, Chancery
Lane, in the County of London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention (a communication to me from abroad by George McCarten, of
Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.A., Inventor,) to be as follows:
My invention relates to an improvement in means for supplying compressed air
to motors.
The object is to provide simple and practical devices by which a motor while
under headway may renew its supply of compressed air.
With these ends in view my invention consists in certain features of construction
and combinations of parts, as will hereinafter be described, and pointed out in the
claims.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 is a view in side elevation, partly in section, showing a motor in position
to receive its supply of compressed air; and Fig. 2 is an end view of a portion of
the same.
A represents a track upon which a motor is adapted to travel. In the present
instance the parts of the motor are such as would belong to a compressed air
engine, the driving-wheels being actuated by a connecting-rod driven by a piston
working in a cylinder.
As my present invention relates particularly to the means for supplying the
engine tank with a new charge of air while the engine is under headway, only such
parts of the engine or motor as have to do immediately therewith will be particularly
described.
The motor is provided with a tank B for the storage of the compressed air which
it uses to drive it, and said tank B is provided with a shoe portion b, preferably
made detachable therefrom, as shown, so that it may be removed for renewal,
cleansing, or repairs. The shoe portion is provided with a forward extension C
and a rearward extension e, in order to give the tank an extended bottom surface in
the direction of its line of travel. At short intervals along its bottom it is provided
with check-valves D, opening inwardly and held normally closed by the pressure of
the air within the tank as well as by gravity. The bottom of the shoe is slanted
upwardly at its ends, as shown at d, and a tripper-rod E is attached to the side of
the shoe, the purpose of which will appear farther along. Along the track and
preferably beneath the surface of the ground between the tracks, where a double
track is employed, a compressed air main pipe F is located, and is provided at
suitable intervals with branch-pipes f, leading therefrom up to outlet-nozzles of tlie
following construction :
The stationary portion G of the nozzle is of cup shape and preferably cylindrical,
open at the top and having the upper end of the branch-pipe fitted to its bottom.
It is also provided with lateral flanges or lugs, through perforations in which the
guide-pins of the movable or male section His provided with a depending hollow
body portion adapted to fit with an easy sliding movement within the portion G,
suitable packing I being employed to make the joint air-tight. The top of the
section His provided with an opening 2, and also has flanges or laterally-extending
lugs 2, in which the upper ends of the guide-pins are secured. The top of thie
section His held normally in the path of the bottom of the shoe and slightly
above the plane of the bottom of the shoe by means of springs K, inserted between
the flanges or lugs g and h, and held in position by the guide-pins . The object
of so holding the top of the nozzle normally above the plane of the bottom of the
shoe is to ensure a tight joint between the nozzle and the shoe and prevent the

page_text: loss of compressed air during its passage from the main to the tank. The opening
is intended to lie in the line of travel of the openings in the bottom of the shoe band
to correspond therewith.
A valve L, in the present instance a turn-plug valve, is seated in the branch-
pipe and serves to cut off and turn the compressed air on as it is locked. A
valve-operating lever M, provided at its lower end with a weight m, which tends to
hold the lever normally upright and the valve closed, projects upwardly into the
path of the tripper-rod E. The tripper-rod E projects forwardly such a distance
in advance of the foremost opening in the bottom of the shoc that when said
opening registers with the opening in the nozzle of the branch-pipe the tripper will
have effected a full opening of the valve L. A. laterally-swinging cover O, to
prevent the entrance of dust and foreign substance into the nozzle, is adapted to be
engaged by a rod or rib o on the side of the shoe and held open while the shoe is
passing. A. spring of any well-known and improved form may be employed to close
the cover after the passage of the shoe.
The operation is as follows: The main pipe F being charged with air under high
pressure and the valve L closed, the motor, moving along the track, engages the
top of the nozzle with the forward end of the tank shoe b, and at the same time
begins to open the valve L by the engagement of the front end of the tripper with
the lever and also swings the cover O open. As the shoe passes along, the
several openings in its bottom are successively brought over the opening in the
nozzle, and as often as they so register the compressed air from the main rushes
into the tank by lifting the check-valve. Before the shoe leaves its engagement
with the top of the nozzle the valve L, under the control of the weighted lever M,
is allowed to close, and the motor, with its replenished charge of compressed air,
passes on.
It is evident that many slight changes might be resorted to in the form and
arrangement of the several parts described without departing from the spirit and
scope of my invention. Hence I do not wish to limit myself strictly to the
construction herein set forth; but,
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. In combination, a motor-tank provided with a removable shoe, the latter
having a series of valved openings therein, a main supply-pipe, a branch-pipe
provided with a nozzle extending upwardly into the path of the shoe, and a valve
in the branch-pipe controlled by the moving-motor, substantially as set forth.
2. In combination, a motor-tank provided with a shoe extended along the path in
which the motor moves and provided with a series of valved openings in its bottom,
a main-supply-pipe extending along the track a yielding nozzle connected with the
supply-pipe, and projecting upwardly into the path of the shoe, a valve to admit air
to the nozzle, a lever to operate the valve, and a tripper on the mor to operate the
lever, substantially as set forth.
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3. In combination, the tank on the motor, the main supply-pips along the track,
the yielding nozzle consisting of a stationary and movable section, a valve to admit
air to the nozzle, and a cover for the nozzle, substantially as set forth.
4. In combination, the main-supply-pipe extending along beneath the track,
branch pipes leading up above the tracks, yielding nozzles on the branch pipes, a
weighted lever, a valve in the branch pipe controlled by the lever, a tank carried
by the motor, and a shoe portion of the tank provided with openings to register
with the nozzle and with a tripper to engage the weighted lever, substantially as
set forth.
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