Apparatus for Arresting and Restarting Tramcars and other Wheeled Carriages.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 1st June, 1895
Complete Specification Left. 22nd Nov., 1895--Accepted, 28th Dec., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Apparatus for Arresting and Restarting Tramcars and other
Wheeled Carriages.
JAMES WILSON 22 Montgomery Road and JOSEPH MITCHELL 14 Broom
Close, Sheffield, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
The invention consists of an arrangement of mitre wheels on the wheels of the
carriage or car, these moving three crown wheels placed parallel over the axle,
(but not on it), and working horizontally to it.
To one of these wheels is attached a spring which is wound up by the momentum
of the car.
This wheel with the spring attached (or the other wheels by a like
arrangement), may be put in gear by a lever, and the power of the spring used
for re-starting the cars, relieving the exhausting strain upon the horses.
Dated this 29th day of May 1895.
JAMES WILSON.
JOSEPH MITCHELL.
Apparatus for Arresting and Restarting Tramcars and other
Wheeled Carriages.
We JAMES WILSON and JOSEPH MITCHELL both of 14 Broom Close,
Sheffield, in the County of York, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
This invention relates to apparatus for arresting the motion of tramcars and
other wheeled carriages and storing the energy of momentum of the same and for
utilizing such stored energy for restarting.
In carrying out our invention we arrange two bevel wheels upon one of the axles
with each of which wheels engages a similar wheel one of which is fixed so as to
be permanently in gear while the other can be moved out of gear. On the shafts
of each of these latter wheels is arranged a spur wheel and between these spur
wheels a third spur wheel permanently in gear with the spur wheel on the shaft of
the fixed bevel wheel but adapted to gear with the other spur wheel when the
berel wheel on the same shaft as the latter is out of gear with its companion bevel
wheel on the axle. To the spur wheel shatt of the movable bevel wheel is
connected one end of a powerful coil spring, while the other end is connected to
the case containing the coil, the said case being adapted to he reciprocated on
guides by means of a lever so as to put the wheels hereinbefore described into
or out of gear and thus allow of the spring being wound up by the momentum of
the car or to uncoil to start the car.
In the annexed drawing,
Figure 1 is a plan of part of the underframing of a trancar provided with our
improvements.
Figure 2 is a sectional elevation of the same, the section being on the line 2, 2
Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a transverse section on the line 3, 3 Figure 1.
a, a' are the bevel.wheels.upon-one of the axles and 6, 6.the-bevel-wheels engaging

page_text: 72
respectively therewith and mounted upon shafts c, c', the wheel being capable
of being moved into and out of gear with the wheel a'. d, d' are the spur wheels
on the respective shafts of the wheels b,, the said wheels being advantageously
formed integral with the said wheels b, so as to economize space. e is the third
spur wheel permanently in gear with the wheel d and with which the wheel d¹ can
gear after the hevel wheel b' is moved out of gear with the bevel wheel a¹, the
said wheel e being mounted upon a shaft. The shafts c, c¹ and fare journalled in
bars gg attached to cross-bars hh supported on frames ii carried by the axles.
jis the coil spring one end of which is connected to the shaft c while the other
end is connected to the case k containing the said spring; the said case being
formed at the sides so as to engage and slide upon the bars hh (which thus form
guide bars) so as to enable the wheel to gear with the wheel a' or the
wheel with the wheel e. is the lever for reciprocating the case k the said
lever being fulcrummed at m on one of the bars h and engaging with the shaft c'
and advantageously operated by a hand-lever n through the medium of a shaft o
and lever .
The handle n of the lever n is advantageously a spring handle
pivoted thereto and provided with an extension 2 designed to engage in three
notches in a plate, the extreme notches determining the extreme positions of
the lever 1, that is to say, when either of the wheels or d¹ is in gear, while the
centre notch determines the position when both of the said wheels are out of
gear. s is a spring pawl designed to engage in a ratchet wheel t upon the shaft c¹
and prevent the spring juncoiling when either of the wheels or d¹ has been
moved out of gear with the wheels a¹ or e respectively. The pawl is advan-
tageously moved out of gear with the wheel t by a pin u upon a lever u pivoted to
the top of the case k, the said lever being operated by a hand lever v through the
medium of a rod w* shaft w and lever w². The pawl is returned into gear by its
spring when allowed by the movement of the lever u². A brake consisting of
an ordinary brake pulley and brake band y is provided to stop the rotation of
the axle carrying the wheels a, a' when the spring is fully wound up, the said
band being advantageously tightened upon the pulley by a lever y¹ operated by
a handle y through the medium of a shaft, drum and chain -².
The operation of the apparatus is as follows. Assume the car to be travelling in
the direction of the arrow 1, Figure 1, and it be desired to stop it, the wheel di
must be put into gear with the wheel e as indicated in Figure 3 whereby the
spring will be wound up, the brake also being applied if required until the car
stops. To restart the car the brake must be released, the pawl s put into gear
with the ratchet wheel and the lever j operated so as to remove the wheel dout
of gear with the wheel e and place the wheel into gear with the wheel a', after
which the pawls must be released from the wheel t thereby allowing the spring j
to uncoil and rotate the axle to drive the car in the direction of the arrow 1, the
wheel when the spring is unwound being removed from gear with the wheel a
When the car is travelling in the opposite direction to that described and it is
desired to stop it, the wheel & must be put into gear with the wheel a¹ to wind up
the spring, the spring being uncoiled to restart the car by placing the wheel d' into
gear with the wheel e as will be obvious.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is,
Apparatus for arresting and restarting tramcars and other wheeled carriages
constructed and arranged substantially as herein before described and illustrated in
the accompanying drawing and operating as set forth.
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11005
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JAMES WILSON.
JOSEPH MITCHELL.