A NEW SHACKLE OR COUPLING FOR CONNECTING RAILWAY CARRIAGES, WAGONS, AND OTHER VEHICLES USED ON RAILROADS, WHEREBY GOING BETWEEN THE CARRIAGES, WAGONS, OR OTHER VEHICLES TO COUPLE OR UNCOUPLE IS RENDERED TOTALLY UNNECESSARY
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Richards Freeman and
Abraham Grundy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 4th September 1865.
We, SAMUEL RICHARDS FREEMAN and ABRAHAM GRUNDY, of the City of
Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "A NEW SHACKLE OR COUPLING FOR CONNECTING
RAILWAY CARRIAGES, WAGONS, AND OTHER VEHICLES USED ON RAILROADS, WHEREBY
GOING BETWEEN THE CARRIAGES, WAGONS, OR OTHER VEHICLES TO COUPLE OR
UNCOUPLE IS RENDERED TOTALLY UNNECESSARY," to be as follows:-
"
This Invention has for its object the construction of a shackle or coupling
for connecting railway carriages, wagons, and other vehicles used on railroads,
by the use of which the practice of coupling and uncoupling is rendered per-
fectly safe to those employed for the purpose, the necessity of having to go
between such-vehicles-to-couple or-uncouple them being by this Invention.
entirely obviated, and the usual side chains dispensed with. Now, this
Invention consists in having constructed in one piece or forging a tapered
cylindrical wrought-iron or steel plug and corresponding socket, radiating at
or about right angles from each other, from an horizontal transverse pin or
spindle, to which the plug and socket are attached securely, which pin or
spindle works between lugs projecting from a plate fastened to the end of the
vehicle, or from the usual spring bar to which the ordinary shackles or
couplings are connected, the said pin or spindle projecting beyond the outer
side of one of the lugs is there cranked in order to have a link connected for

page_text: jointing it to an actuating lever working upon a fixed stud also on the end of
the vehicle, or the said pin or spindle might be lengthened out beyond the
outer side of the said lug and be actuated by an eccentric motion or by a lever
affixed to its end. The tapered plug has annular slots cut round it up to a
certain distance, and the corresponding socket is considerably "bell-mouthed,"
so as to admit of a certain amount of play in action, and is provided with
catches working upon pins in slots cut through the socket, which catches are
formed so as to project in the inside of the socket and to fall back by pressure
exercised against them, whilst a corresponding plug is entering, until such
plug tightens itself; the catches then fall into and lay hold of the slots formed
in the plug and prevent its withdrawal, so long as the catches are not released
from the outside of the socket. The other ends of the said catches project
beyond the outer side of the socket, in order that when pressure is applied
against them in the direction of the mouth of the socket they are released and
beld back so as to allow of the tapered plug being withdrawn, and this is
effected either by an annular nut, washer, or ring (screwed upon a quick
thread formed on the outside of the socket and turned by radial arms or
levers), being 'screwed up against such catches, or the said annular ring or
washer may be mounted loosely upon the outside of the socket and be pressed
up against the catches by eccentrics or cams situated upon an horizontal, shaft
or spindle passing transversely through the rear end of the socket, and
turned by levers affixed at each end of the said shaft or spindle. It may be
advisable to have flat springs affixed to the backs of the catches on the
opposite side to which the pressure is applied by the annular ring or washer,
which springs would thus abut against the backs of the slots formed in the
socket and ensure them catching in the annular slots formed in the tapered
plug, and it may also be found advisable to have lock springs applied to the
ends of the levers to prevent the possibility of the vibration causing them to
alter their position.
The mode of using our shackle or coupling may be thus described :-Every
carriage being supplied with the shackle or coupling berein-before described
at each end, and all of such shackles or couplings being placed in an horizontal
position by means of the lever or eccentric gear connected to the pins or
spindles to which the tapered plugs and sockets are affixed, it is only
necessary to see that where a tapered plug is up at one end of a carriage
the socket part of the shackle or coupling on the end of the carriage
which is to be coupled to it should be in an horizontal position, if such is the
case and the one carriage is pushed up against the other, the tapered plug
part of the shackle of the one will enter the bell-mouthed, part of the socket

page_text: of the other, and they will instantly become locked together, and can only be
released by altering the position of the lever on the eccentric or cam shaft, or
by unscrewing the annular ring; all of which operations are easily accom-
plished without going between the carriages.