Railway Wagons, or for other Analogous Purposes.
Year: 1886

page_text: Railway Wagons, or for other Analogous Purposes.
I, WILLIAM DAVISON of Darlington in the County of Durham Works Manager
do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to be as follows :-
My Invention relates more particularly to the arrangement of mechanical parts
for applying brakes to the wheels of railway wagons, but is equally applicable for
analogous purposes where the brake blocks such as the wooden blocks usually employed
are being continually reduced by the great friction to which they are subjected in
restraining the motion of the said wheels my object being to provide in a simple
and durable form a self adjusting mechanism for applying great pressure to the brake
blocks.
My invention constitutes improvements upon an Invention described in the
Specification of iny patent 4692 of 1876. According to my present Invention I
provide bangers formed of bars or rods set to a suitable inclination so as to form with
the frame or pole bar of the wagon triangular frames of sufficient rigidity to carry the
moving parts. The brake lever instead of being mounted on a separate axis or pin
fixed in the hangers is mounted on the axis or pin which carries the ratchet wheel
between the hangers which axis or pin is extended if necessary to also carry arms or
spanners which act through push rods on the brake blocks the ratchet wheel and the
arms or spanners being secured to the axis or pin so that all move together whilst the
brake lever simply fits on to the same axis or pin and moves or remains at rest
independently of the rotation of the said axis or pin for simplicity of structural
arrangement I prefer to mount the brake lever on the axis between the hangers, this
may be done by providing it with a forked end and double eye or its equivalent, so
that a solid ratchet wheel fits in between the jaws or forks of the brake lever, but I
prefer as a less expensive manner of effecting the same object to construct the ratchet
wheel hollow or with jaws on the underside so as to admit the end of the brake lever
which will not then require to be forked or otherwise complicated. The brake lever is
connected with the ratchet wheel by a pawl orcatch working on a pin fitting into it slower
part and extending to the ratchet wheel so that the pawl or catch can advance or ride

page_text: over the teeth of the ratchet wheel when moved in the direction due to the lifting of
the brake lever but immediately engages with them when moved in the opposite
direction due to pressing down the brake lever or if desirable the pawl or catch can
be arranged to ride over the ratchet teeth as the brake lever is let down and engage
with them when it rises, the motion of the pawl and brake lever in one direction not
being accompanied by a corresponding motion of the ratchet wheel the object being
to effect a readjustment of the push rods to compensate for the reduction of the brake
blocks by engaging the pawl or catch with any tooth on the ratchet wheel which may
be found suitable to transmit pressure from the brake lever to the brake blocks.
Should the reduction of the blocks be unequal in cases in which my invention may be
applied this may be compensated by correspondingly unequal lengths in the arms or
spanners connected with them. In the case of Railway wagons a guard is provided
for the end of the brake lever, which may be done in any suitable position, for instance
as a hanger fixed in the usual way to the frame or pole plate of the wagon, but in
order to hold the end of the brake lever in any required position to retain the pressure
upon the brake blocks, I provide the guard with a series of ledges or projecting
catches forming a serrated edge so that the lever when moved to any required position
may be held there by engaging with one of the catches of the guard.
J. HENRY JOHNSON,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the said William Davison.

page_text: Railway Wagons, or for other Analogous Purposes.
I, WILLIAM DAVISON of Westbrook House, Darlington in the County of Durham,
Engineer, 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:-
My Invention relates to improvements in the construction of brake apparatus
constructed on the compensating principle, such as was described in the Specification
of my patent of the 4th December 1876, and designed for use in connection with the
wagons or trucks employed on Railways.
The object of my invention is, whilst adhering to the general arrangement and inode
of action of the brake apparatus as therein described, to modify some of the details by
which I simplify the combination of parts, increase their durability, and save cost in
fitting up the apparatus.
And in order that my invention may be fully understood I will proceed to describe
my present improvements by referring to the accompanying drawings in which :-
Fig. 1, illustrates a side elevation of an ordinary railway wagon or truck with my
improved brake apparatus connected to the sole bar of the wagon in readiness for use.
Fig. 2, is a transverse section taken on line x x of Fig. 1, from which, in order to
avoid confusion, the brake lever guard is omitted.
This brake lever guard is separately illustrated in Fig. 3.
The brake apparatus, consisting of the brake lever a, the guard b, the hanger
frames c, the ratchet wheel d, the spanner e, the spanner spindle or shaft f, the paul g,
the push rods / h, and brake blocks, is supported in the usual manner from
the frame-work of the wagon, the brake blocks are free to move so as to be
applied to the wheels by the push rods /¹³ connected to and controlled by the arms
of the spanner e; this spanner e is secured to a shaft or spindle f, which is free to
turn in hanger frames c, in which it is mounted, the shaft f extends beyond the
position of the hanger frames in order to carry the spanner e in a position correspond-
ing to the ends of the push rods h' h² as illustrated more particularly in Fig. 2; the
hanger frames c consist of iron bars or rods set at an angle to make then sufficiently
rigid to carry the spanner shaft f, and enable it to act as the principal fulcrum in the
system of levers for operating the brakes, this mode of constructing the hanger frames
is substituted for the solid plates hitherto used for this purpose.
The brake lever a, instead of being rigidly fixed to the spanner shaft f, so as to act
directly on the spanner e, and therefore on the brake blocks k¹², acts upon them
through the intervention of compensating mechanism so that as the brake blocks k¹ k²
wear away the connection between the brake lever a and the spanner e can be suitably
and readily adjusted to compensate therefore and the brake be brought into full
operation with the same amount of depression of the brake lever, as when the brake
blocks were of their original dimensions, that is, at the commencement of the depression

page_text: of the brake lever; to effect this, a similar combination of compensating inechanism
to that described in the Specification of my patent No. 4692 of 1876, is employed but
simplified in the following details:-
Instead of mounting the brake lever on a separate pivot of its own, I dispense with
this extra pivot and mount the brake lever on the spanner shaft f, this arrangement
enables me to substitute the light and simple hanger frames c for the solid plates
hitherto used, the ratchet wheel d, which is fitted or housed in between the hanger
frames c, is made of cast steel and recessed or machined out underneath to admit the
end of the brake lever a, between the sides or hanging jaws d' d² formed by the recess,
the brake lever is free to move on the spanner shaft f,but the ratchetwheel d is rigidly
fixed thereto, the motion of the brake lever a is communicated to the ratchet wheel d
by means of the connecting bar or link g, which is fitted up at the free end in the form
of a paul to enable it to engage with the teeth of the ratchet wheel d, the nicety and
extent to which the action of the brake lever can be adjusted to the wear of the brake
blocks depends upon the number and fineness of the teeth with which the ratchet
wheel is furnished and can be varied with the design of each brake apparatus. The
guard b, instead of being constructed in the usual manner, that is, with a pin to be
inserted into a series of holes in order to hold the brake lever down to any required
position, is improved by being provided with serrations or teeth as illustrated in Fig.3
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention and
in what respects it is an improvement upon brakes of the saine class at present in use,
what I claim is :-
Inbrakesconstructed onthecompensating principlethearrangement and combination
of parts or mechanism for applying the brakes substantially in the manner and for the
purposes hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.