IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING CARRIAGES, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY CARRIAGES, AND IN DISCONNECTING APPARATUS FOR CARRIAGES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Michael Henry at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th July
1862-A communication from abroad by Charles Fray, Vincent Paul
Amédée Varenne, Louis Casimir Descouleur, and Sabin. Joseph Cazier,
all of 88, Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING CARRIAGES, ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE TO
RAILWAY CARRIAGES, AND IN DISCONNECTING APPARATUS FOR CARRIAGES," com-
municated to me from abroad by Charles Fray, Vincent Paul Amédée
Varenne; Louis Casimir Descouleur, and Sabin Joseph Cazier, all of 38,
Boulevart Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be as follows:-
According to this Invention breaks may be applied and caused to stop or
retard carriages by the action of uncoupling or disconnecting the carriages
from each other in the case of trains; in one arrangement a chain or like
agent, extending to within easy reach of the driver or other attendant, is
connected under each carriage to a bar, rod, or shaft herein-after called dis-
connecting shaft. Each coupling hook is held to the carriage by a bar, rod, or
piece herein called a "key," kept in place by a moveable notched or hooked
piece connected to the disconnecting shaft by a crank, link, or jointed lever.
When the chain is pulled or drawn the disconnecting shaft is turned partially
round or oscillated, so as to move the notched or hooked piece and release the
the key therefrom, whereupon the key is forced upward or in the required

page_text: direction by a spring, and liberates the coupling hook from the carriage, an
action which the momentum of the latter facilitates. Now the same action of
the disconnecting shaft that disconnects the carriages also works the breaks.
For this purpose the said shaft operates the breaks preferably through links,
arms, or cranks actuating the breaks. In one arrangement this is effected by
connecting the shaft by a chain or otherwise to a hooked or a forked piece, in
which is an arm on, or portion of, a shaft, rod; or bar connected by springs,
chains, or other attachments to a clutch, lever, or fork; when the disconnecting
shaft is moved by the first-mentioned chain it works the hooked or forked piece,
so as to drop the arm and work the clutch shaft in such manner as to cause
clutch boxes or collars on the carriage axle to be connected or engaged, one of
which boxes or collars carries a pinion or a wheel, which is thereby caused to
revolve and drive, through pinions, chains, and endless screw or other gearing,
a pinion on a threaded axis. This axis is by these means worked upward
and moves with it an arm or link working a bell crank connected by a series
of cranks and arms to the breaks, that is to say, it is connected to a bar or
rod, to which breaks are attached. by cranks or arms, and these breaks by the
action of the bell cranks, moved as described, are applied against the wheel,
and thereby retard or stop it. The disconnecting shaft may act on the clutch
boxes otherwise than by the hooked piece before mentioned. Sometimes the
break shaft carries both a friction break and a biting or clutch break for each
wheel, to be applied on opposite sides of it, that is, a friction block and a
hollowed block, which may be a shoe or a skid, and may embrace half
the wheel's periphery. The wheel may thus be simultaneously locked and
skidded. The breaks may be restored to position by springs. The breaks may
be suspended from a point above the wheel, and the shaft connecting or
carrying them may be supported in slide blocks or sliding. bearings, capable of
up and down travel in slots, or ways in the axle guards, so that the breaks
may follow or accommodate themselves to, the movements or position of the
wheel to suit the lading of the carriage. Instead of working the break blocks
by the disconnecting action, the threaded shaft may be worked up by a hand
wheel or equivalent contrivance, and thereby actuate the breaks..