CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR APPARATUS FOR RETARDING OR STOPPING THE MOTION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHER RAILWAY CARRIAGES."
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Garforth and James Garforth, both of
Dukinfield, in the County of Chester, Engineers, for the Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR APPARATUS FOR RETARDING OR
STOPPING THE MOTION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHER RAILWAY CARRIAGES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Garforth and
James Garforth at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 9th January 1854.
We, WILLIAM GARFORTII and JAMES GARFORTH, both of Dukinfield, in the
County of Chester, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR APPARATUS FOR RETARDING OR
STOPPING THE MOTION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHER RAILWAY CARRIAGES" to
be as follows:-
It consists in a combination of mechanism or apparatus by which all or a
portion of the weight of a locomotive engine or other carriage may be taken
off the wheels and carried on supports, which will slide on the rails when the
locomotive engine or carriage is in motion, the mechanism being actuated by
the force of steam, air, or other clastic medium, or water, upon one or a series
of pistons for that purpose. In its simplest form it is carried into effect by
placing at convenient parts of the framing of a locomotive engine or carriage
steam cylinders with pistons and rods, the ends of the rods being shod with a
piece in form of the segment of a tyre of a wheel, so that by admitting the.

page_text: steam or other medium into the cylinders the pieces may be forced directly
against the rails, and all or a portion of the weight of the locomotive engine
or carriage made to rest upon them, and thus retard or stop the locomotive
engine or carriage or carriages. Otherwise feet may be made to the framings
of the locomotive engine or carriage, descending to as near the rails as possible,
leaving sufficient clearance for irregularities of the rails when the locomotive
engine or carriage is in motion, and cylinders and pistons may be employed to
compress the springs of the locomotive engine or carriage sufficient to take
away their bearing on the axle boxes, and thus allow the locomotive engine or
carriage to rest on the feet referred to. By the first arrangement referred to
steam or other medium may be used on both sides of the pistons, that is, both
to sustain the weight of the locomotive engine or carriage and to lift the
shoe at the end of the piston rod clear of the rails; or a spring may be used
for the latter purpose. By the second method steam or other medium need
only be employed on one side. The area of the cylinders employed should be
in proportion to the weight to be sustained by them, and the simultaneous
immission and emmission of steam or other medium to corresponding sides of
the pistons secured by mechanism giving motion to the valves by one handle,
or pipes communicating with corresponding sides of all the pistons may be
used, and one valve employed to admit to and release the steam or other
medium from all the cylinders at the same time. By these arrangements it
will be understood that the wheels of the locomotive engine or carriage will
roll as long as the locomotive engine or carriage is in motion, and the wearing
of flat places on the tyres, consequent by the ordinary mode of retarding or
stopping, will be prevented.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Garforth and James Garforth in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 7th July 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
GARFORTH and JAMES GARFORTII, both of Dukinfield, in the County of Chester,
Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said William Garforth and
James Garforth, Her special license that we, the said William Garforth and

page_text: James Garforth, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Garforth and James Garforth, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 In-
vention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR APPARATUS FOR RETARDING
OR STOPPING THE MOTION OF LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHER RAILWAY CARRIAGES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William Garforth and
James Garforth, by an instrument in writing under our 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 we, the said William Garforth and James Garforth,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and accompanying Drawing (that is to say):-
It consists in an arrangement and combination of mechanism or apparatus
whereby all or a portion of the weight of a locomotive railway engine may be
taken from off the wheels and transferred to supports which will rest and slide
on the rails when the locomotive railway engine is in motion, and thus retard
and stop it, the mechanism being actuated directly from the force of steam,
air, or other clastic medium, or by water, acting upon two or a series of pistons
for that purpose. It will be understood that by the method above referred to,
that the wheels of the locomotive engine will roll as long as tho engine is in
motion; consequently the wearing of flat places on the tyres of the wheels,
resulting from the present system of "breaking" the wheels, will be avoided,
and in addition to the advantage thus obtained the mechanism can be brought
instantaneously into action. The Drawing annexed hereto shews the manner
of applying this Invention to a locomotive railway engine, whereby a portion
of the weight of the engine is transferred to supports acting against the rails.
Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of a locomotive railway engine with the
mechanism or apparatus for retarding or stopping, partly in section; and
Fig. 2, a plan of the same. a is a plate on each side of the engine, extending
between the parts of the frame receiving the axle boxes, being secured to the
framing by bolts or other means, and to these plates are secured guides for
the rams b to slide in. The lower end of these rams are formed dovetailed

page_text: (as shewn), and on them are fixed shoes (6) in section, the tyre of a wheel
secured by a wedge or cotter . This arrangement gives a facility by which
the shoes when worn out may be readily removed and replaced. care frames
secured to the side frames (c) of the engine, upon which are secured the
cylinders d by means of bolts, passing through the frame c', and flanges cast on
the cylinders. The end of the piston rods d' pass through ears (6) formed on
the top of the ram pieces b, and a shoulder formed on it bears against the top
of the car, and it is secured to the ram piece by a cotter which passes through
the end of the piston rod on the under side of the ear piece . In the lid (d)
of the cylinders d, the valve and steam passages are formed, which are of the
ordinary construction. One of the ports leads directly through the lid to the
top side of the piston (d³), and the passage from the other port leads from it
to the side of the lid to a point on the top edge of the cylinder where the
passage is continued down the side of the cylinder to the under side of the
piston, the joint at the junction of the steam passage in the lid and the cylinder
being made by screwing down the lid. The valves admit and exhaust the
steam from the cylinders in the usual manner. The steam is conveyed from
the dome of the boiler to the valve boxes f by a pipe 9 (having a cock for
shutting it off and on), and, the exhaust steam is conveyed from the exhaust
passage of the valves to the smoke box by pipes g. To the valve spindles f¹
are jointed rods h, which connect them with arms ' on a shaft h², which
extends between the sides i, and works in bearings secured to them, passing in
front of the furnace. One of the arms to which the valve connecting rods are,
attached is prolonged to form an handle h*, by which both valves will be
simultaneously acted upon. When the break is not required in action, the
steam is admitted to the under side of the pistons, and exhausted from the top
sides, and it will (as will be obvious) lift the shoes off the rails, where they
will remain as long as the valves leave open the communication between the
under sides of the pistons, and the steam in the boiler, pet cocks being placed
in the bottoms of the cylinders as an outlet for condensed steam. When the
valves are reversed and the steam is admitted on the top sides of the pistons,
the shoes b' will be forced against the rails, and the engine will be lifted to a
certain extent, the amount of which can be limited in each piston by a screw
screwed into the under side of the car piece b, and provided with a lock nut,
the head of which comes against the lower part of the frames at c*, and thus
limits to that point the extent of the action of the piston rods, the amount of
action being increased or dimiuished by screwing the screw up or down. If
thought desirable two or more cylinders may be placed on the framing of the;

page_text: engine, similar and in addition to those shown with the rams arranged and
fixed in like manner. In place of using steam to lift and keep the rams from
off the rails, a spring on the buffer principle (or any other powerful spring)
may be used, and in that case one port will only be required to admit the
steam to the top sides of the pistons; and in place of having a separate valve
to each cylinder, one valve may only be used, or one valve only to the cylinders
on each side of the engine, one port communicating with the top sides and
the other with the bottom sides of all the cylinders. When a series of pistons
and cylinders are employed, the area of each should be in proportion to the
weight to be sustained by it, so that cach will lift its portion of the engine to
an equal extent to the others, but this may be secured by stop screws k,
herein-before explained, when the area of the pistons are large enough. The
method already described is that which we consider the most practical and
advantageous mode of carrying our Invention into effect, but it may be
accomplished by another modification as follows:-Feet may be made or
secured to the framing of the locomotive engine, shod with shoe b', in like
manner to the rams b, descending as close to the rails as possible, yet leaving
sufficient clearance for irregularities of the rails and the movement of the
engine when it is in motion, and cylinders and pistons may be placed on
frames similar to c³, over the centre of each spring, and the piston rods con-
nected with the spindles 7, so that by the force of the steam being admitted on
the under side of the pistons, the springs may be compressed till the spindles
cease to bear on the axle boxes (the engine at first lowering till the feet
rest on the rails), by which means the weight of the engine will be transferred
from the wheels to the feet. In the modification last described, the force of
the steam or other elastic medium will only be required to act on the
under side of the pistons. This method of retarding and stopping the motion
of locomotive railway engines may be applied to railway carriages, but under
a disadvantage, in having to convey from a boiler or reservoir steam, air, or
other elastic medium, or water, to the cylinders to work the pistons, rendering
it impracticable and useless, economically considered; we therefore make no
claim on account of it.
We have now particularly described the nature of our Invention, and the
mode in which it may be carried into effect, and wish it to be understood
(without confining ourselves to the details) that we claim as our Invention
the methods herein described, by which a portion or all the weight of a loco-
motive railway engine is transferred from the wheels to supports attached to
the framing, for the purpose of retarding or stopping its motion, when this

page_text: is accomplished by means of the direct action of pistons and cylinders
actuated by the force of steam, air, or other elastic medium, or water, as
herein-before explained and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Garforth and James Garforth,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixth day of July, in 5
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
WILLIAM GARFORTH. (L.S.)
JAMES GARFORTH.
(L.S.)