IMPROVEMENTS IN REVERSING LEVERS FOR LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHERS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Johnson, of Peterborough, in the County of
Northampton, Engineer, and William Braithwaite, of the same Place,
Foreman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVERSING LEVERS FOR
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHERS."
Scaled the 11th December 1863, and dated the 11th June. 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Johnson and
William Braithwaite at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 11th June 1863.
We, JAMES JOHNSON, of Peterborough, in the County of Northampton,
Engineer, and WILLIAM BRAITHWAITE, of the same Place, Foreman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REVERSING
LEVERS FOR LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHERS," to be as follows:-
Reversing levers as at present fitted are capable of being moved over a
toothed segmental bar, and are armed with a "fall" or paul for taking
into one or other of the teeth on the bar; many inconveniences attend this
arrangement. Now our Invention consists in the employment of a plain
segmental bar, by preference circular in transverse section, and in fitting the
lever with a collar or tube to embrace and clasp by friction the said bar, but
only to such extent as to admit of the lever being moved along the bar when

page_text: required.
We fit the lever with a wedge or other like appliance, in order to
fix it and hold it stationary at any required point on the bar. On raising the
wedge the lever may be shifted and again fixed as required.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Johnson and William Braithwaite in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 11th December 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
JOHNSON, of Peterborough, in the County of Northampton, Engineer, and
WILLIAM BRAITHWAITE, of the same Place, Foreman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said James Johnson and William Braithwaite, Her special licence that
we, the said James Johnson and William Braithwaite, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Johnson and
William Braithwaite, our 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN REVERSING LEVERS FOR LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND OTHERS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Johnson and William
Braithwaite, or one of us, our executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our, or one of our, 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 we, the said James Johnson and William Braith-
waite, 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 thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say
Reversing levers as at present fitted are capable of being moved over
a toothed segmental bar, and are armed with a "fall" or paul for taking into

page_text: one or other of the teeth on the bar; many inconveniences attend this
arrangement. Now our Invention consists in the employment of a plain
segmental bar (by preference circular in transverse section,) and in fitting the
lever with a collar or clip to embrace and clasp the said bar by friction.
We
fit the lever with a wedge or other like appliance in order to fix it and bold it
stationary at any required point on the bar. On raising the wedge the lever
may be shifted and again fixed as required.
In the accompanying Drawings we shew a screw instead of a wedge
for causing the clip to bite and bold on to and to be released from the
quadrant.
Figure 1 is a side, and Figure 2 an end elevation, of a reversing lever
constructed according to our Invention. A is the quadrant, which is a
circular bar of iron, accurately turned and bent to the required radius. It is
marked on the top in inches and half inches, taking the edge of the clip
nearest the driver as the centre for each gear; B, B, are brackets, which
receive the ends of the quadrant, and are fastened by nuts to the same; C is
the lever frame, to which the brackets B, B, are firmly bolted; D is a plate
of angle iron by which the lever frame may be fastened to the foot plate or
frame of the engine; E is the reversing lever, the lower end of which moves
upon a pin a; F is the clip; G, the joint or hinge of the clip; H is a treble-
threaded screw, the inner end of which is rivetted to the body of the lever
handle E, as shewn on a larger scale in the detached sectional view, Figure 3;
I is a lever, the inner end of which terminates in a nut working on the
screw ; when the nut moves inward on the screw it forces the upper end
of the clip against the body of the lever handle, and the clip bites on the
quadrant A. When the nut is moved in the contrary direction it frees the
clip sufficiently to allow it to run freely over the quadrant. J is a spiral
spring attached to the outer end of the lever I; K is a handle for loosening
the clip F. The clip F which encircles the quadrant is formed partly by the
lever itself hollowed out to receive the quadrant, and partly by similarly
shaped plate of metal working on the binge G. By raising the lever I through
the handle K, the clip is freed, and the reversing lever can be moved to any
part of the quadrant, which for the guidance of the driver is, as before stated,
divided into inches and half inches, to enable him to work expansively with.
the greatest accuracy. On releasing the bandle K the clip becomes securely
fastened, the spring J pulling down the end of the lever 1, and causing the
nut to move inwards on the screw H to make the clip F bite and hold on the
quadrant. The reversing lever will remain immovable until the clip is
released by means of the handle K, as before described.

page_text: And having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we declare that we claim constructing
reversing levers for locomotive and other engines, substantially in manner
herein-before, described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Johnson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three.
JAMES JOHNSON. (L.S.)