IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OF STOPPING OR RETARDING VEHICLES USED ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1854

page_text: This invention received Irovisional Protection, out notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Eassie at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th December 1854.
I, WILLIAM EASSIE, of the City of Gloucester, Railway Contractor, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OF STOPPING OR RETARDING VEHICLES USED ON RAILWAYS" to be as follows:-
The improved features in the proposed kind of break consist, not so much in
the novelty of the means employed in the break itself, as in the simple con-
trivance whereby it is thrown in and out of gear. In this system, the guard
or engine driver will have command over the whole train, (and these breaks
apply simultaneously to every waggon or truck, if necessary,) can, by the
improved means of action, become arrested or liberated, whether in a state of
quick or slow motion, as may be required. It is applicable to any kind
of buffer whatever. Advantage is taken of the momentum which tends to pro-
long the motion of a train after the tractive power has been withdrawn,
thereby causing the buffers to come together on the breaks, and facilitate the
required stoppage of the train, so that by means of this buffer the train is
quickly stopped or guided down an incline at any speed required.
DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION.
A rod, with a joint coming through the buffer and working with it, actuates
a vertical lever; this lever being connected with the break block by means of
a rod with a number of teeth fitting on a pin fastened at the bottom end of

page_text: that vertical lever, and by means of a horizontal shaft running through the
centre of the waggon, worked by means of a lever and connecting rod with
another shaft running across it, also having two levers and two connecting
rods, one at each end, and joined to the rod before mentioned, in which teeth
are cut, so that by giving the longitudinal shaft a slight turn, the rod with
teeth in is lifted up clear of the pin in the vertical lever, after which the pres-
sure may come against that lever, but when working clear of the teeth does
not act upon the break. Again, in putting a bar across from one axle box to
the other, fastened to them by a single pin or set screw, so that the bar may
move freely up and down with those boxes, I provide a means to keep the
break always in the centre of the wheel, (the break having a loop at its upper
end, and keeping it in its place by a pin working therein, yet still allowing it
to slide up and down, as well as having a slot on its side sliding on the bar
before mentioned;) and whatever weight may be put on the waggon, the
bar moving with the axles, and the break block working in the slot as well as
sliding on the bar, the break is sure to wear as well as fit exactly in the same
places. Again, by means of a T-shaped handle on the end of the longitudinal
rod connecting the two breaks together, which fits in a coupling box, made so
as to correspond with the T, a method is employed, not only of joining the
breaks of the waggons together, but of allowing the rod to be turned a little
round, whereby the teeth can be raised above the pin in the vertical lever, and
that lever, being acted upon by the buffer, loses its action over the break, the
joints allowing plenty of play for any irregular position of the waggon on
the rails.