IMPROVE- MENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Mansbridge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
February 1861.
I, WILLIAM HENRY MANSBRIDGE, of Camden Lodge, St. Paul's Road,
Camden Town, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in railway brakes. For
this purpose apparatus is applied to each railway carriage in order that
brakes may be put on two or more of the wheels when the locomotive or
forward carriages of a train are retarded. Each brake is suspended by
suitable link or rod from the side framing of the carriage, in such manner
that the brake may ordinarily hang clear of the wheel. The suspending link
is at one end pin-jointed to the brake, and at the other end to the framing of
the carriage. The brake is by means of a connecting rod, which is pin-jointed
to it, attached to an arm on a brake axle, the connecting rod being pin-jointed
to the arm on such brake axle; on each end of the brake axle is a slotted arm
or lever, by acting on which the brake axle is turned partly round, which
causes the brake to be pressed on the wheel on each side of the carriage, and
such slotted lever or arm is acted on in the following manner :-Each carriage
carries a rod or cord, which is capable of sliding in suitable bearings or
supports, and when a train is made up these rods are all attached together by
suitable chains or other couplings. This rod or cord is connected in each
case to a weighted pendulous apparatus in such manner that such apparatus

page_text: may, when it is desired that the brakes of the train should come into action, be
moved out of its perpendicular position by the engine driver or other person in
cbarge of the train, and by so doing to cause a catch or hook at the end of a
rod to come into position to be acted on by a stud or projection carried by and
fixed to the end of the buffer rod, the hook or catch at other times being kept
out of the way of such stud or projection, thus leaving the buffers and their
rods free to move without acting on the brake apparatus. The pendulous
apparatus is on an axis, and turns therewith, and there is a tappet on such axis
which is arranged to act on the bar above mentioned, (which has a hook or
catch on its end) and to lift it out of the way of the stud or projection carried
by the buffer rod. The other end of the bar, which is acted on by the buffer
rod, acts on a pin or stud, which passes through the slotted lever or arm on
the brake axle, so that when the bar is forced back by the buffer rod the
slotted lever or arm causes the brake axle to turn partly round and by so
doing it forces the brake in contact with the wheel, and the object in using
a slotted lever or arm is, that the brake may be put on immediately the
buffer rod has moved back a few inches, and that as the buffer rod is moved
further and further back, the pin or stud on the bar which is forced back by
the buffer rod may move in the slot and act on the slotted lever or arm at a
greater and a greater distance from the brake axle. It may be stated that
although the use of a slotted lever or arm is described to be used other form of
lever or arm may be employed so long as the bar or instrument acted on by the
buffer rod is so arranged that the brakes may be put on before the buffer rods
have been forced back to the fullest extent they are capable of being moved,
and that the further movement back of the buffer rods shall be expended by the
bars put in motion thereby sliding or moving along the levers or arms on the
brake axle. It is preferred that the brake axle should act on two brakes,
one on each side of the carriage, but if desired like brake apparatus may
be applied to act on more than one pair of wheels of each railway carriage of a
train.