A NEW MODE OF CHECKING THE SPEED OF OR STOPPING RAILWAY CARRIAGES UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS..SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BESSEMER, of Percival Street, Clerkenwell, 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 Sixth day of January, in the fourth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs' and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Henry Bessemer, Hér especial licence that I, the said Henry Bessemer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others is I, the said
Henry Bessemer, my executors, administrators, of 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, mý
Invention of "A NEW MODE OF CHECKING THE SPEED OF OR STOPPING RAILWAY
CARRIAGES UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a provisó obliging me, the said Henry Bessemer, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part récited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto hud, will more fully and at.largé.appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Bessemer, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist
in an improved manner of applying breaks to railway carriages so as to check
their speed, and thereby prevent accidents from collision or other causes,
which breaks are set in instantaneous action by the guard or engine driver, so
that each pair of breaks shall be acting at the same time upon the several
carriages to which they are applied, which will be found more effective than
the present system, for the guard is now only enabled to apply the breaks
to the carriage on which he is placed; but under my improved application the
breaks may be applied through the whole train, and are all set in action at the
same time. Instead of applying the breaks to the running wheels of the
carriages, as in the present system, which is found in practice to be very
imperfect, owing to the impossibility of making them bear with equal force on
each of the running wheels, and thus sometimes acting only on one side of the
carriage, as also the conical form of the wheels, causing great lateral strain to
the breaks, thus occasionally destroying the parallelism of the axles by forcing
the wheels more on one side than the other. I apply the breaks to friction drums
fixed on the centre of the axles of the running wheels, by which I am enabled
to adjust them more accurately and prevent them slipping, as at present; as
also, to simplify the apparatus connected with their action, I propose that to
one carriage only in a train the apparatus should be applied, by which the
guard communicates the power of the break of the drums, and that the breaks
of the different carriages should be connected together by a peculiar coupling,
hereafter to be described, so that if the guard should set the apparatus in
motion over which he has command the whole of the breaks throughout the
train should be acted upon at the same time. And I propose also that the
guard should always have the full power of the apparatus at his command to
throw it into instantaneous action, instead of having, as at present, to occupy
'considerable time in bringing the full power of the break upon the wheels,
by which a collision would often be prevented, as the speed of the train
would at once be checked by all the breaks acting with their full power upon
the wheels.
i.
My Invention also consists in an improved single-acting break to be applied
to a railway carriage, but not connected with any other in the train, which
break is also intended to be kept ready for action, so that in an instant the
guard may apply its full power to check the speed of the train, as herein-before
described.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Henry
Bessemer, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention. is

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
.Sheet A shews the general construction and adaptation to a railway carriage
of the break apparatus which is intented to be continued through the whole train,
although I have only thought it necessary to shew portions of two carriages,
as the others will be mere repetitions of the breaks, and couplings, and shaft,
as shewn in this Drawing. And I would here observe, that similar letters are
used to denote similar parts in all the Figures..
3
G, G, are
Figure 1 is a vertical section of portions of two ordinary railway carriages.
Figure 2 is a plan of the under framing, the bodies of the carriages being
supposed to have been removed. A, A, A, A, represents the framing of the
bodies of the carriages; B, B, B, the woodwork of the framing upon which
they are supported. C, C, are two drums fixed on the axles D, D, of the
running wheels, there being only four wheels to the carriages hicre shewn; but
if the carriage should have six whcels, as is now the case on certain railways,
the drums and breaks should be applied to the two outer axles. E, E, are
the breaks, suspended from the framing in loops t by slings F, F.
rods connected at either end to the breaks, and provided with adjusting
screws H, H, to regulate the pressure of the breaks upon the drums C, C.
The rods G are connected by joint T at. the centre to an eye, to which the
chain I is attached. The upper end of the chain is linked to an eye on a
box J, which box has a female screw within it, and works upon a spiral
thread K, formed on the shaft L, at such an angle that the force of the
spring u, pulling it by the slings and chain, is sufficient, with the assistance
of the helical spring m, to cause the shaft to revolve, and consequently the
breaks to be forced outwards against the friction drum. The box J is prevented
from turning by a feather x moving in a slot in the bracket P. M, M, are
two guide rollers to keep the chain in its place, and on one of which it
works when the shaft L is turned; the rollers are mounted in slots in the
bent piece N, which is screwed to the bearings O, O, which bearings, are
fixed to the bracket P, attached to the framing of the carriage, and through
which the shaft L revolves. Between the framings A and B is fixed a pillar Q,
upon which a strong spiral spring u is coiled, the upper end bearing against
the upper flange of the pillar, and the lower end pressing upon a sliding
collar R, to which are attached two slings S, S, which are connected at
bottom to the joint T, between the rods G... Figure 5 is a vertical section

page_text: which will shew these parts more clearly. The shaft Lis supported in bearing
U at each end, and projects beyond the ends of the carriage, where it is formed
square for the purpose of working within the couplings hereafter to be
described. At the end of the carriage, where the guards sits, is a small vertica
shaft V, see Fig. 7, which has a handle W at the top to enable the guard to
turn it, and its lower end carries a worm X, which gears into the worm
-wheel Y fixed in a shaft Z, which is mounted in bearings attached to the
frame. Upon this shaft is a spur wheel a which gears with a similar wheel
.on the shaft L; the boss of this wheel is elongated on one side, and forms a
part of the clutch c, the other half d of which slides upon the shaft L, and is
acted upon by a forked lever e vibrating upon a rod fmounted in bearings g, g,
fixed to the framing. The rod ƒ also carries an arm h to which is attached an
upright rod i, extending to the top of the carriage, and passing through a
guide j; the upper end of this rod is jointed to a small starting lever kc, see
Fig. 6, which is placed at one side of the guard's seat, and by which he is
'enabled in an instant to detach the clutch d. The shaft L passes through a
box l, which is fixed to the frame of the carriage; within this box is a strong
helical spring m attached at one end to a collar n on the shaft, and the other
end is fixed to the box; this spring is for the purpose of assisting the revolu-
tion of the shaft when the breaks are to be applied.
I will now describe my improved coupling, by which I transmit the power
of the breaks through the whole train of carriages, it being. understood that
each carriage is fitted with the shaft L and apparatus in the centre which
forms the breaks. The coupling consists of a double forked link o, see Fig. 2,
carrying at each end the collars P, P, one of which is shewn detached in
Figure 3, which turn upon trunnion pins 9. 9. Through the centre of the
collars are square holes through which the square ends of the shafts L slide freely.
In Figure 4 it will be seen that the holes in the collars are splayed on two
opposite sides r, r, where the trunnions are fixed, and the shaft is made to fit
closely to the two opposite sides s, s, thus forming an universal joint, at the same
time allowing the carriages to move towards each other to compensate for the
action of the buffer springs, and allowing the shaft L of one carriage to
transmit its rotatory motion to the shaft on the following carriage, and thus
by similar couplings through the whole number of carriages in the train.
.
I will now proceed to describe the method by which the. breaks are to be
brought into action, which will be as follows:It is one of the features of my
Invention that the guard may occupy himself at any spare moment in pre-
paring the apparatus to throw on the breaks, which will then be in a state
to act at a moment's notice, instead of the guard being obliged, as at present, to

page_text: occurs.
ose time in, throwing the breaks on after the necessity for their application
It is necessary, therefore, when the engine is at rest, that the guard
or breaksman first turn the handle W before the train starts, the worm ✗ at
the lower end of the vertical shaft V will put in motion the worm wheel Y,
which also turns the wheel a fixed upon its shaft, and this wheel will turn the
wheel b, and also the shaft ; as the clutches c, d, will have previously been
put in contact by the rod i, and starting lever k, the revolution of the shaft L
will cause the spiral thread K to move the box J upon it, which will draw the
chain I over one of the rollers M, and thus withdraw the breaks E from the
periphery of the friction drums C, C, and also compresses the spiral spring u
between the sliding collar R and the top flange of the pillar Q, by means of
the two side slings S, S, at the same time the helical spring m within the
box will be wound up, in which state it will remain, in consequence of the
worm of the worm wheel being so pitched as not to be able to drive the worm
round in the reverse direction. The operation of lifting off the breaks, and
compressing their springs, just described, will have been communicated
throughout the whole train by means of the couplings before described, and
thus it will remain-ready to be thrown into instantaneous action, should it be
required to stop or check the train. In order to put the whole of the breaks
in action the guard has only to move the handle k into the position of
the dotted lines in Fig. 6, which, by detaching the clutch c, d, sets the
shaft L at liberty, and the springs to, m, will immediately force the breaks
with their full power upon the friction drums c, c.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SINGLE-ACTING BREAK.
:
In Sheet B, Figure 1 is a vertical section of a portion of an ordinary
railway carriage, and Figure 2 is a plan of the under framing as seen when
the bodies of the carriages are removed. A, A, is the framing of the bodies,
and B the lower framing which supports them. D, D, are two friction drums
fixed on the centre of the axles of the running wheels E, E. a, a, are the
breaks suspended by the T-shaped slings b, b, to the lower framing B in loops
at N, N.
c, c, are two rods connected at one end to the breaks, and at the
other end to arms d, d, keyed to a rocking shaft e. This shaft turns in
bearings f, f, formed in the lower part of the support g, g,.w which are bolted
at h, h, to cross pieces of the framing B: The rocking shaft e has also an
arm i attached to it, to which is jointed the rod j, supported in a guide k at
the other end. This rod. has teeth formed upon it, shewn in Figure 2,
which gear with a pinion m. The boss of this pinion is elongated to forin one
half of a clutch n. The other half o is made to slide upon the tubular

page_text: upright shaft p, which extends to the top of the carriage, and has a handle
at top to enable the guard to turn it, and also a ratchet wheel y and pall z t
keep it from turning in the opposite direction by the force of the spring r
upon the rod j is coiled a strong spring r, between an adjusting nu
s and a stop t, fixed to the carriage. Within the tubular shaft P is
small rod u, at the upper end of which is attached the starting handle v. The
lower end of this rod has an eye, through which passes a pin w, connecting
it with the clutch o, and the tubular rod has a slot in it to allow the cros
pin w and clutch to move up and down. The lower end of the shaft
works in a projecting arm of the guide & attached to the frame. Previous to
the starting of the train the guard must, as before described, turn the handle.
which acting by the pinion m in the teeth of the rack on the rod j, will
tightly compress the spring r between the nuts and the stop t. At the same
time the break will be withdrawn from the periphery of the friction drums
D, D, by means of the arm i, rocking lever e, and connecting rods C, where it
I will be held in this position by the pall falling into the teeth of the ratchet
wheel y.
Should it be required to stop the train the guard must press
down the starting handle v, which will immediately raise the rod u and
clutch by means of the cross pin w, and the pinion being now disengaged
from the rod p allows the full action of the spring at once upon the breaks,
and presses them with equal force against the friction drums D. The power
of the spring r may be regulated to any required pressure by means of the
adjusting nuts working upon a screw on the rod j.
I claim as my Invention,-
First, the mode of checking the speed of or stopping a railway train by
throwing the breaks upon drums upon the wheel shafts or upon the wheels, by
means of apparatus such as herein-hefore described, whereby a supply of
accumulated power sufficient for the purpose is always ready to be thrown on
to the breaks by the guard or breaksman in an instant, on the necessity for
their application occurring, whilst the power thus ready at a moment's notice
has been accumulated at a time when the guard or breaksman has ample
leisure, thereby enabling him to devote more of his time to a proper look out
whilst the train is in motion, and whereby also the power of the breaks can
be applied to every carriage in the train simultaneously.
Secondly, as connected with the foregoing, the connecting the whole of the
breaks together by means of shafts supported on each carriage, the revolution
of which shall put the whole of the breaks in action.
Thirdly, as connected also with the foregoing, in a peculiar construction of
coupling, which, while it freely allows the ordinary oscillation of the car-

page_text: Inrolled the Sixth day of July, One thousand eight hundred and
forty-one.