IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CARR, Junior, of Paddington, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twentieth day of May, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Carr, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said John Carr, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Carr, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no. others, from time to time, and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING RAILWAY
CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said John Carr, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in

page_text: appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Carr, do hereby declare. the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascar-
tained in and by the following statement thereof; reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say)-
The object of my Invention is an improved mode of arranging apparatus
for applying friction breaks to the wheels of railway carriages. The Drawing
shows a plan, a longitudinal section, and a side elevation of so much of the
framing and wheels of a railway carriage, with apparatus applied thereto,
according to my Invention. In each of these Figures the same letters indicate
similar parts. a, a, a, are the wheels of the carriage; the Drawing repre-
senting part of a carriage which has six wheels, but the Invention is equally
-applicable to carriages with four wheels. b, c, b, c, b, c, represent the friction
blocks, which are suspended by arms d, d, d, to the side framing of the car-
riage, as is shown, and are capable of moving on their points or axes of
suspension, and thus allow. of being pressed in contact with the wheels, or kept
off therefrom, by the simple act of moving the rod or bar e in the following
manner is an arm or lever, with its axis at 9, which is carried by a
bracket h, affixed to the under part of the fraining of the carriage, as is shown.
At the end of the arm f is a screw nut, which moves on axes or necks carried
by the forked end of the armf. Through the screw nut at f¹ passes the
screw i, which is supported above at j, and turns freely by means of the
handles k, and thus is the arm or lever f caused to move; and at the same
time, the arm (affixed to the axis 9) is caused to move with that axis, and
thus will motion be communicated to the rod or bar e, as will readily be under-
stood on examining the Drawing, and by moving the rod or bar e motion will be
given to the friction blocks b, c, in opposite directions, by means of the curved
levers m, m. These levers move on axes m², carried by brackets n, n, affixed
to the under part of the framing, as is shown; and n¹, n', are stays, by which
the pressure of the friction blocks b, c, are resisted. 1, 12, 13, 14, and 15 are
arms affixed to the axes m². They enter slits or openings formed in the rod or
bar e, and are there secured by pin joints, as are shown. The curved levers m
have projecting flanges, which work within guiding brackets or bent projec-
tions m², affixed on the blocks b, c, and thus in the movement of the curved
Jevers they are retained correctly in aspect to their blocks, and will move the
blocks away, and retain them from their wheels, when not required to be in

page_text: action. The Drawing shows the various parts of the apparatus in the positions
they would be in when the blocks b, c, are out of use; and supposing it desired
to put the breaks into action, the arm f would be raised by the screw i, by
which the bar e would be moved in the direction of the arrows, which would
cause the arms 1, F, with their respective curved levers m, to move, and thus to
press their blocks b, c, towards each other, and thereby offer friction to the
wheels at opposite sides of the axletree, the pressure being borne by the axes of
the curved levers m, and resisted by the stays n', and each of the wheels will be
similarly acted on by their blocks b, c, and thus may any required degree of
friction be applied to the wheels, according as it is desired to retard or wholly
to stop the rotation of the wheels a, a, of the carriage.
I would remark, that I do not confine myself to the precise details of the
above-described apparatus, provided the peculiar character of action be retained,
whereby the movement of the bar or rod e caused a series of friction blocks
to be pressed against their respective wheels, and whereby the pressure of the
blocks are borne by suitable stays, as above described. And I would remark,
that although I have shewn the apparatus as applied to the wheels of only
one side of a carriage similar apparatus may be applied to each side of a
carriage, if desired.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Carr, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-one
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid John Carr came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-one.