IMPROVEMENTS IN ACTUATING RAILWAY BREAKS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jules Alexandre Petict, of No. 34, Rue Lafayette,
Paris, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ACTUATING
RAILWAY BREAKS."
Sealed the 31st July 1857, and dated the 4th May 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jules Alexandre Petiet
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th May 1857.
I, JULES ALEXANDRE PETIET, of No. 34, Rue Lafayette, Paris, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ACTUATING
RAILWAY BREAKS," to be as follows:--
:..
This Invention has for its object improvements in actuating railway breaks,
and consists in employing a small rotatory engine worked by steam from the
boiler of the locomotive for giving motion to the break lever.
For this purpose it is preferred that the axis of the rotatory engine should
by means of cog wheels give notion to an axis, on which there is a screw
thread, the screw thread working in a nut, on which there is a pin which
works in a slot in the break lever.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jules Alexandre Petiet in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULES
ALEXANDRE PETIET, of No. 34, Rue Lafayette, Paris, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth. day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Jules Alexandre Petiet, Her special licence that I, the said Julcs
Alexandre Petiet, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Jules Alexandre Petiet, 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 ACTUATING RAILWAY BREAKS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Jules Alexandre Petiet, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument 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 causo
the same to be 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 Jules Alexandro Petiet, do hereby s
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in actuating railway breaks,
and consists in employing a small rotatory engine worked by steam from the
boiler of the locomotive for giving motion to the break lever.
For this purpose it is preferred that the axis of the rotatory engine should
by means of cog wheels give motion to an axis, on which there is a screw
thread, the screw thread working in a nut, on which there is a pin, which
works in a slot in the break lever.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the same.

page_text: Figure 1 is a side view, Figure 2 a section, and Figure 3 a section through
the dotted line C... D, Figure 2, of a rotatory engine for actuating a railway
break. a is a hollow chamber, attached to the pipe b, through the centre of
which the axis c passes, and to which it is attached. Around the circum-
ference of the case a there are openings a', as shewn at Figure 3. The hollow
chamber a is surrounded by a case d, attached to the framing of the engine,
and on the top and bottom of this case are pipes d', d", in which the
pipe 6 turns. In the pipe d' there is an enlargement, into which steam is
admitted from the boiler of the locomotive through the pipe c, which is
furnished with a tap. From the enlargement in the pipe d' the steam passes
through holes in the pipe b into the hollow chamber a, it then escapes through
the openings a' at a tangent to the circumference of the hollow chamber a into
the case d, and from there it passes through the pipe e into the reservoir of
water contained in the tender, or into the air. The steam escaping through
the openings a', causes the pipe b, and in consequence, the axis c, to rotate.
On one end of the axis c there is a wheel c', and on the other a screw thread,
which works in a nut f, on which there is a pin, which works in a slot in the
end of the break lever g, so that when the axis c is caused to rotate, the nut f
travels along the screw thread on the axis c, and gives motion to the break
lever, which may cause blocks of wood to be pressed against the wheels of the
locomotive in the usual manner. Instead of the screw thread being on a
continuation of the axis of the rotatory engine, it may be on a separate axis,
and the motion of the rotatory engine may be communicated to this axis by
means of cog wheels, as described in my Provisional Specification. By this
means, by turning the tap in the pipe e the break may speedily be applied.
When it is desired to take off the brake, the steam is shut off from the pipe e,
and the wheel c' on the axis c is turned by hand, so as to cause the nut fto
travel back along the screw thread. Or the brake may be taken off by means
of another engine, arranged to rotate in the opposite direction to the engine
which puts on the brake.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that I do not con-
fine myself to the precise details herein described, as other forms of rotatory
engines may be employed, and motion may be communicated from the
rotatory engine to the break lever in other manners to that shewn in the

page_text: Drawing; but what I claim is, actuating railway breaks by means of small
rotatory engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jules Alexandre Petiet, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
T. BASSET,
14, Boulevard Montmartre,
Paris.
31st October.
J. A. PETIET. (L.S.)