A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE ATTACHED TO RAILWAY TRAINS FOR DIMINISHING wwww Daanam AD CAZZISIONS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ernest Leslie Macdonell, of Langham Street, in
the County of Middlesex, Esquire, for the Invention of "A NEW OR
IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE ATTACHED TO RAILWAY TRAINS FOR DIMINISHING
wwww Daanam AD CAZZISIONS "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ernest Leslic Macdonell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 14th July 1873.
I, ERNEST LESLIE MACDONELL, of Langham Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE ATTACHED TO RAILWAY TRAINS FOR
DIMINISHING THE EFFECT OF COLLISIONS," to be as follows:-
My Invention is for the purpose of promoting and effecting a greater
amount of security for the safety of the public travelling on railroads
than is the case at present, and relates to a new and improved means for
modifying and reducing the velocity of a locomotive steam engine
:

page_text: running on a railroad at the head end of a train of passenger or other
carriages at the instant of its approach within a few feet of the last or
hindmost passenger carriage of another train of passenger or other
carriages on the same line of railroad in front of it, at the same time,
whether in motion or at rest in the same or in an opposite direction, and
thereby to prevent the danger of a collision with the last or hindmost
passenger carriage of the train in question.
To accomplish the desideratum in question I make use of a machine
or contrivance of a peculiar and simple construction and great strength
which I name a mantelet carriage.
A mantelet carriage consists as follows, namely, of a platform of wood
or iron placed upon a four-wheeled carriage, the wheels of which are of
similar dimensions with the wheels of a passenger carriage of the rail-
road, and the platform of the carriage which corresponds in its width
from side to side with the width of the passenger carriages is provided
at each end with two buffers which correspond in their lines of position
with the buffers of the other carriages of the railroad in question. At
each side of the platform it is provided with a strong upright iron stem
or crank on which rest the two ends of an iron axle extending from side
to side across it. The axle in question passes through the centre of each
of the two ends of a hollow cylinder made of iron, two and a half or
more inches thick, the exterior surface of which is provided with corru-
gated horizontal projections. This hollow cylinder is from end to end
of similar length, with the width of a passenger carriage from one side
entrance to its other side, and its diameter is of corresponding
dimensions. The hollow cylinder is capable of revolving freely on the
ends of the axle above in question, and in its state of rest all but touches
with its lower end the platform.
A mantelet carriage of the kind above described I propose should be
placed at each end of a train of passenger or other carriages, namely, a
mantelet carriage between the tender which follows the locomotive
steam engine, and the first or leading passenger carriage of a train on a
railroad; and another mantelet carriage should in like manner be placed
at the opposite end of a train of passenger carriages on the railroad in
question in order that both ends of a train of passenger carriages
travelling on a railroad may always be protected from the danger of being
run into by another train, and on this account that as a mantelet.

page_text: carriage of the kind above in question will be placed between two trains
at the end of one of them it follows therefore that the mantelet carriage
in question would therefore receive the impact of the advancing train,
and would from the peculiarity of its construction and action thereby so
modify and reduce the velocity of the advancing train behind it as to
render the effect of collision comparatively harmless.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters atent,
filed by the said Ernest Leslie Macdonell in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th January 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ERNEST
LESLIE MACDONELL, of Langham Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Ernest Leslie Macdonell, Her
special licence that I, the said Ernest Leslie Macdonell, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Ernest Leslie
Macdonell, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE ATTACHED TO RAILWAY TRAINS FOR
DIMINISHING THE EFFECTS OF COLLISIONS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Ernest Leslie Macdonell, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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 cause 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ernest Leslie Macdonell, do hereby
declare the nature of my 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say :—
The object of my Invention is to promote and effect a greater amount
of security for the safety of the public travelling on railways than is the
case at present, and relates to a new or improved means for modifying
and reducing the velocity of a locomotive steam engine running on a
a railway at the head end of a train of passenger or other carriages at
the instant of its approach within a few feet of either the last and hind-
most passenger carriage, or the first passenger carriage, as the case may
be, of another train of passenger or other carriages travelling on the
same line of railway in front of it at the same time, and whether the
train in question may be in motion or at rest, in a same or in an opposite
direction, and in such a manner as to prevent the danger of a collision
with either the hindmost or the first of the passenger carriages, as the
case may be, of the train in question.
To accomplish the desideratum in question I make use of a machine
or contrivance of a peculiar and simple construction and great strength
which I name a mantelet carriage, which is a modification of the
principle of the ballistic pendulum, an Invention of Mr. Robins the
celebrated writer on gunnery, and used by him for measuring the actual
velocity with which a ball is projected from the mouth of a cannon, a
velocity which is very great, namely, from one thousand to two thousand
feet or more in a second of time.
My mantelet carriage above alluded to is represented in side view and
end view in Figures 1 and 2 of the annexed Drawings, and consists of
the following parts, namely, of a platform A made of wood and iron.
placed on and over the lower structure (i.e. the perch or other form) of
a four-wheeled carriage, the wheels B, B, of which may be somewhat
smaller in dimensions than the wheels of the passenger carriages of the
railway, say 2 feet 6 inches in diameter. The platform A which is on a
line with the bottoms of the passenger carriages corresponds in its
length from end to end, as also in width from side to side with the
width of a passenger carriage, and is provided in like manner at each
end with two buffers C, C, which correspond in dimensions and position

page_text: with the buffer of the other carriages of the railway. The platform A
moreover is provided on each side with a very strong vertical iron frame.
or bearing D, three or more feet high, on which the ends of an axle E
made of iron are supported which extends horizontally from side to side
across the centre of the platform. The axle just mentioned passes also
through the centre of a hollow cylinder F made of iron, by preference
wrought iron, two and a half or more inches thick, and the weight of
which may be increased, if desired, by introducing water into it, which
at each end is placed on the axle above the platform, at that height,
horizontally across from side to side; and the surface of the hollow iron.
cylinder F is strengthened from end to end with small iron cable rope,
of one or more inches diameter, so as to form horizontal projections of
about. an inch in extent along its surface at the distance of about a.
couple of inches between the tiers of the iron cable rope already
mentioned. The hollow iron cylinder F is from end to end of similar
length with the width of a passenger carriage of the railway, less the.
thickness of the two frames or bearings D, and its diameter is six feet.or
more so as to correspond with the height of the passenger carriage it is.
intended to shield. The hollow iron cylinder F in its state of rest nearly
touches the platform A with its lower side. The hollow iron cylinder
above in question is capable of revolving freely on the horizontal iron.
axle E above mentioned when impacted by either a blow or a push
from a locomotive steam engine of a train, either before or behind,
advancing against it, and as in the action of the ballistic pendulum when
struck by a cannon ball fired against it, the arch described by the hollow
iron cylinder, as it is made to move round on its iron axle mentioned
above will in like manner be greater or less, according to the force of the
blow or push impacted.
It is now proposed that a mantelet carriage should be made use of
and placed at each end of a train of passenger or other carriages on a
railway in the following manner, namely, a mantelet carriage between
the tender which immediately follows a locomotive steam engine in a
railway train, and the first passenger carriage of a train; and another
mantelet carriage should likewise be placed at the opposite or tail end of
a train of passenger carriages on a railway in order that the passenger
carriages at each end of a. train when travelling on a railway shall
always be protected against the danger of being run into by a train
travelling either before or behind it at the same time on the same line

page_text: of railway, and for this reason, that as a mantelet carriage of the kind in
question would for instance be situated at the tail end of a first train of
passenger carriages between two trains, it will be perceived that the
buffers and hollow iron cylinder of the mantelet carriage in question
being at the extreme end of the first train therefore would alone sustain
the impact of the second train advancing against it behind, and from the
peculiarity of the construction of the hollow iron cylinder, or in other
words its solidity, great resisting power, and facility to turn round on its
axle, and to describe an arch which would be as already stated greater
or less, according to the force of the blow struck, thereby so reduce and
modify the velocity of the second or advancing train behind the first
train above in question as to render the effect of such a collision with
a mantelet carriage null and void as regards the passenger carriages of
the train in question. Thus then, as in the ballistic pendulum, the
determination of the very great velocity of the ball projected from the
mouth of a cannon is reduced to the mensuration of the magnitude of
the arch described by the pendulum, so will the velocity of the blow or
push given by the advancing locomotive steam engine of a railway train
of passenger carriages to the hollow iron cylinder of a mantelet carriage
be reduced to the mensuration of the magnitude of the arch described :
by the hollow iron cylinder.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ernest Leslie Macdonell, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of January
ERNEST LESLIE MACDONELL. (L.S.)