IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR STOPPING OR RETARDING. RAILWAY TRAINS AND PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Gilbert Amable Laurent at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
September 1866.
I, GILBERT AMABLE LAURENT, of No. 22, Rue des Garceaux Moulins, in
the Empire of France, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR STOPPING OR RETARDING.
RAILWAY TRAINS AND PREVENTING ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS," to be as follows,
that is to say-
This Invention consists in improved mechanical arrangements for stopping
almost instantaneously and without shock, or slowly, at the will of the brakes-
man, a train when, running at a great speed, thus lessening the liability to
accidents on railways. By my improved arrangements the rotative movement
of the running wheels is, when it is desired to stop the train or lessen its speed,
replaced by a sliding motion on another set of wheels or segments of wheels,
thus avoiding accidents from the train running off the rails through broken
axles, declivities in the ground, or other causes. To carry out my Invention
I fix along each side of the engine and carriages a flat bar of iron, forming a
strong frame and carrying the same number of supplementary axles as of
ordinary axles. These supplementary axles are provided with wheels or
double segments of wheels placed excentrically, and serve when required to
lift the carriages a certain height above the rails. These wheels are moved

page_text: on to the rails by a coupling connecting rod which joins them together, and
by a transmission rod which is fixed underneath to a regulator screw nut
sliding between guides and fixed horizontally to each carriage. This screw
nut is made with close spirals, and is passed through by a shaft of the same
length as each carriage; this shaft is screw tapped at the part passing through
the screw nut, and is provided at each extremity with sliding joints easily
connected, by means of which it is connected to the shafts of the carriages
which follow and precede that to which it is fixed, so as to yield to all the
movements of the following and preceding carriages, thus all the shafts form
one common shaft under the control of the driver. In the locomotive this
common shaft is terminated by a bevil cog wheel gearing with another
mounted on a vertical rod carrying the lever arm or wheel serving to transmit
the motion given by the brakesman. In the last carriage the other extremity
of this shaft is terminated by a clutch which serves in case of dangerous
counter movement to receive, if required, the action of the brakesman for
transmitting it to the other carriages.
By the arrangements above described the brakesman can when required
lower the supplementary wheels on the lines. When the supplementary
wheels have been lowered by the action of the connecting rod, worked either
by the brake apparatus of the locomotive or by that of the last carriage, they
rub against the rails, and by reason of their excentricity slightly raise the
carriages and butt against the principal wheels, neither one nor the other can
then turn, and the whole train sliding instead of rolling is forced to stop.