IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS AND APPARATUS FOR APPLYING THE SAME TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Carl Ludwig Präger at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th.
March 1871.
I, CARL LUDWIG PRÄGER, of No. 17, Treventon Street, Notting Hill,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS AND APPARATUS FOR
APPLYING THE SAME TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS ON RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to prevent accidents on railways, and
this I effect by the employment of more efficient break apparatus than
that now in use, and of self-acting apparatus for applying the same
whenever it is required to arrest the motion of a railway train..
In place of employing, as is now usual, break blocks which are by.
mechanical means forced against the periphery of the wheels, I employ
break blocks which are brought into action simply by their being turned
The break blocks are eccentric in form, the central portion of
each block being of shorter radius than the portion on either side of it.
When the central portion of the block is opposite the periphery of the
on axes.

page_text: wheel the wheel is free to turn, but by turning the break block on its
axis it can be brought into contact with the periphery of the wheel and
be caused to lock or impede it from turning, and by forming the block of
longer radius on each side of the central portion the break blocks can be
caused to lock or impede the revolving motion of the wheels, whether
the train be moving forwards or backwards; the axes of the break blocks
are suspended by links from the body of each carriage, and are held in
position by other links from the axles of the wheels. The break blocks
are connected by rods to lever arms on transverse axes mounted on the
bottom of the carriages, and other arms on these axes are attached to a
cord or chain running from end to end of a train. In the guard's van or
at some other part of the train this cord or chain is attached to a lever
which when the break blocks are to be held out of contact with the
wheels is retained by a suitable catch, but so soon as the catch is
released the lever arm is turned by a weight or otherwise, and the cord
or chain being thus drawn upon allows the break blocks to come into
contact with the wheels and prevent their turning; wedge-shaped blocks,
which can be interposed between the eccentric blocks and wheels, may
be employed if desired to regulate the power of the breaks. To release
the catch whenever it is required: to apply the breaks, I employ self-
acting mechanism placed between or at the side of the rails, and acted
on either by the passing of a train along the line of rails, or at junctions
by the passing of a train along branch lines in connection therewith, or
by the movement of the points at the junction, or the apparatus may be
worked in connection with the ordinary signal apparatus. For this
purpose a lever arm in connection with the catch before mentioned
projects downwards from the guard's van or from the engine or other
part of the train where the catch is situated, and between or near to the
rails a stop is placed, which can be turned up into such a position that
when a train is passing over it the arm before mentioned shall come
against it and be thus caused to turn on its axis, and so release the
catch and apply the breaks. The stop which acts on the breaks may
also, if desired, be caused to shut off steam from the engine or sound a
whistle. As before mentioned the stop may be caused to turn upwards
(into a position to apply the breaks to any train passing over it) either
by a train passing along the same line of rails coming against a trigger
lever, or at junctions the train passing along one line of rails may by
acting on a trigger lever raise the stop on a branch line or lines in

page_text: By this
connection therewith. By this arrangement all danger of two trains
coming into collision with one another will be avoided.
arrangement also a train may automatically be stopped at any station,
even though the guard be not attending to his duty. The break
apparatus above described may either be employed separately or in
conjunction with ordinary break apparatus.