IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Taylor, of Wandsworth, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas. Taylor at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st July 1868.
I, THOMAS TAYLOR, of Wandsworth, in the County of Surrey, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY
BRAKES," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improved methods or arrangements of brakes
applicable to the engines or carriages of railway trains, whereby their motion
is, retarded in a more speedy and efficient manner than has heretofore. been
accomplished by the brakes ordinarily used. Instead of applying brakes to the
wheels of the engine and carriages I propose to substitute a separate and.
independent axle, upon which I place brake or friction wheels, the axle being
situated midway between the carriage axles. This axle is held in bearings
attached to the carriage frame, and is to be raised or lowered in the slotted!
bearing by means of a central vertical shaft passing into the interior of the
carriage, its upper part being furnished with a screw thread working in a
female screw box held by a bracket from the frame of the carriage or other
fixture. The brake wheels are to be constructed with a double flange slightly
bevelled outwards, in order that when the brakes are lowered they may bite

page_text: both sides of the rails, and thus cause a sufficient amount of friction to retard
the motion of the carriages. In order to ease the upward or return movement
of the brake wheels, and to relieve the screw, I propose to place within each
slot of the bearings a powerful spring which has a continual tendency to raise
the entire apparatus from the rails.
A modification of the foregoing description of wheel may consist of a
segment only thereof fixed to the axle and lowered and raised accordingly.
I also propose to fix two expanding arms to the vertical shaft, their lower
ends being attached to collars around the axle. These collars are to be
enlarged at their outer ends, and the brake wheels turn on these collars.
These wheels have only one flange on the inner side similar to the ordinary
railway wheels, and the friction is to be caused by lowering the vertical shaft,
which will cause the expanding arms to push the flanges of the wheels against
the interior side of the rails, and so act as brakes to check the speed of the
train or bring it to rest.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Taylor in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st January 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
TAYLOR, of Wandsworth, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Taylor, Her special licence that I, the said
Thomas Taylor, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Thomas Taylor, my 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
IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Taylor, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, 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

page_text: 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 I, the said Thomas Taylor, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof:_
This Invention consists in certain improvements in railway brakes appli-
cable to engines and carriages of railway trains, whereby their motion is
retarded in a more speedy and efficient manner than has hitherto been done
by the ordinary brakes.
Fig. 1 shews a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a section of one method, wherein
a separate and independent axle a is applied to the carriage, on which are
"placed break or friction wheels b, the axle being situated midway between the
carriage wheels. The axle is held in bearings attached to the carriage frame,
and is to be raised or lowered in the slotted bearings c by means of a vertical
central shaft d passing through the interior of the carriage, its upper part
being furnished with a screw thread working in a female screw box held by a
bracket from the frame of the carriage or other fixture. These break wheels
bare to be constructed with a double flange slightly bevelled outwards, in
order that when they are lowered they may bite both sides of the rails, and
thus cause a sufficient amount of friction to retard the motion of the carriages..
A spring may be placed in the slotted bearings in order to assist in raising
the break wheels by the screw, and to enable the wheels to rise when passing
over points; or instead of the entire wheel a segment only may be used.. A
skid break e may be applied suspended by rods to the framework of the
carriage, and raised or lowered by screw gearing.
.
In Figs. 2 and 3 a further improvement in breaks is shewn. A grooved
wheel is fixed on each axle of the carriages, into which a wedge-shaped
break genters by means either of the buffers or of supplementary buffers, or
by actuating a continuous rod h, working the arms i, and forcing the breaks g
inio the cavities of the wheel f. Lever handles k may likewise be employed
to actuate these breaks.
Fig. 4 shews a method whereby two collars 1, 1, are fixed on the axle, and
two moveable friction wheels m, m, are suspended by the arms n, n, to the
framework of the carriage; the continuous rods operating upon the arm n'
turn a right and left-handed screw o, which forces the friction wheels m, m
against the wheels 1, 1, and act as a break to the train..
Fig. 5 shews a method whereby the break wheels b, described in Figs. 1
and 2, may be made in two portions, in order that the width between their

page_text: .
flanges may be changed to effect more or less bite on the rails. This is
effected by making the parts & moveable; they may be actuated by means of
a rod with two arms forcing them nearer to or further from the main portions
d, d. Or the same action may be effected by the screw threads e, e, and the
lever handles ff, to be worked by the guard or other person.
Fig. 6 shews a method of actuating breaks bearing into wheels f, as in
Fig. 2. The screw a on the vertical rod is worked vertically by the hand
wheel b, and thereby the double bell-crank lever c, c, forces. the wedge-shaped
friction blocks e into the wheels f; the supplementary buffers h¹ serve to force
the other blocks e' into the opposite sides of the wheels f.
Fig. 7. shews a reversal of the plan of Fig. 4, the friction blocks m, m,"
being placed outside the rolling wheel l, fixed on the axle. In each of these
methods the friction blocks may have their surfaces roughened or serrated, in
order to effect greater hold upon the running wheels !, l.
Fig. 8 shews a most important feature of this Invention, whereby all the
breaks of a train, whether constructed in accordance with this Invention or
by any other construction, may be simultaneously actuated by the engine
driver or guard; this.is effected by a continuous rod a, formed of a square,
triangular, or polygonal form, running underneath every carriage and coupled
by means of its entrance into corresponding sockets at the end of each rod;
thus each rod has a socket at one end to receive the square or other head of
the next. The sockets are made sufficiently deep to permit of the driving up
of all the carriages of the train to the utmost limit of the buffer springs.
It will therefore be evident that when any portion of the rod is turned round,
either by the driver or guards, the whole series of the rods will be simul-
taneously turned; if, therefore, a series of worms, arms, or cranks %, %,
Figs. 8, 9, and 10, be fixed to the rods in order to actuate the breaks, of what-
ever kind (the worms gearing with worm wheels and levers attached to the
breaks), it will follow that every carriage of the train will be acted upon at
one time. The rod may be turned by screw or other gearing. And Fig. 11
shews an arrangement of hollow and solid continuous rods, the detail of which
may be modified without altering the principle of the Invention. Joints
y, y, are made in the rods to allow of the rising and falling and the lateral
motion of the carriages; or universal joints may be applied to each rod to
permit of the oscillating motion of the carriages, as well as their rising and
falling motion while travelling.
At Fig. 7 a method is also shewn whereby a friction wheel with a roughened
surface may be forced against the inner side of the main running wheels of the
carriages. The friction wheels p, p, are forced against corresponding surfaces

page_text: rivetted or bolted to the wheels by suitable gearing from the continuous break
rod a, or by a vertical rod and two arms actuated by screw gearing and a hand
wheel, or by a lever.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would remark in conclusion, that I do'
no limit myself to the precise details and configuration of parts herein
expressed and shewn, as the same may be varied or modified without in any
way departing from the principles of the Invention; for instance, the position
of the friction breaks shewn in Figs. 3 and 6 may be reversed or changed
from their vertical to a horizontal position,' but what I claim and desire to be
secured to me by the herein in part recited Letters Patent are, the various
improvements in railway brakes substantially as herein specified and illus-
trated, and the application thereto, or to any other forms of breaks, of a
continuous jointed rod, as described and shewn, which rod may be operated
or turned by the driver or guard of a train.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Taylor, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
ALEX, PRINCE,
Agent for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Square.
THOMAS TAYLOR. (L.S.)