AN IMPROVED COUPLER FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT John Redgrave and Stephen Redgrave, both of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED COUPLER FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES."-A communication from
abroad, by John Dix Mills, of Alexandria, Virginia, United States
of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Redgrave and
Stephen Redgrave at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 19th October 1874.
WC, JOHN REDGrave and STEPHEN REDGRAVE, both of Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED COUPLER FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES," a communi-
cation, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a coupling which is adapted to automatically
connect the carriages or waggons when they come together, and it
consists in a vertically moving hook of peculiar construction, and in its
combination with a peculiarly constructed drawhead, and also with a

page_text: movable pin by means of which it is adapted for use with couplings pro-
vided with a link or pin.
-
The said Invention may be generally described as follows, that is to
say:
-We employ a drawhead provided in front with a proper buffer
face, and in rear with an enlargement having a central recess or space.
We also employ a peculiarly constructed hook which has a rearwardly
extending shank pivoted to the enlargement of the drawhead. The
front end of the shank is provided with a hook proper which has an upper
face with an inclined recess having upon each side guide projections, and
a lower horizontal face provided also with a recess and guiding pro-
jections.
The said hook is provided also with a recess corresponding in size and
shape with its point, so that when two hooks are united the point of one
is adapted to rest in the recess of the other. The hook having its
shank pivoted at its rear end, as above described, is supported in place 1
by means of a suitable spring which yields when the carriages or waggons
come together, and permits the hook to be depressed, so that the
point of the hook of the adjacent coupling can pass over its upper
face, and be caught in the return movement of the spring in its
recess.
A movable pin is employed which is adapted for use in connection with
the ordinary link and pin. A peculiar arranged lever and catch bar for
holding the same in different nositions is also amploved
2
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said John 2
Redgrave and Stephen Redgrave in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 30th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
REDGRAVE and STEPHEN REDGRAVE, both of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
8

page_text: successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Redgrave and Stephen
Redgrave Her special licence that we, the said John Redgrave and
Stephen Redgrave, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Redgrave and Stephen Redgrave, our
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 "AN
IMPROVED COUPLER FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES," a communication to us from
abroad by John Dix Mills, of Alexandria, Virginia, United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
Redgrave and Stephen Redgrave, our executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our, or their, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Redgrave and Stephen
Redgrave, do hereby 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, reference being
had to the accompanying Drawing forming a part of this Specifi-
cation.
This Invention consists in vertically moving hooks adapted to couple
automatically as the carriages come together, and in the combination of
them, with a drawhead of proper construction, and also with a movable
pin adapted for use with the ordinary link. It further consists in
certain details of construction which in connection with the foregoing
will be fully described herein-after.
Figures 2 and 3 are side elevations of the coupling.

page_text: Figure 6 is a perspective view of a single coupling.
Figure 7 is a vertical sectional elevation of one of the hooks.
To enable others skilled in the art to make and use our Invention we will
now proceed to describe fully its construction and manner of operation.
A represents the drawhead proper which is provided in the rear with
the enlargement a having the recess a¹ and in front with the buffer a²,
as shown; B represents the vertically moving hook which is provided
with a rearwardly extended shank 6 the extreme end of which is suitably
hinged or pivoted to the enlargement a. It may be attached either to the
front end of the enlargement, as shown in Figure 2, or to the rear end,
as shown in Figure 3, the point of attachment being determined by the
length of the drawhead, the object being to permit the head of the hook
to swing in the arc of a large circle in order that its bearing face may
move as nearly as possible in a vertical plane at b¹. Figures 5, 6, and 7,
represent the hook proper, provided with the upper face, having the
inclined recess and corresponding guiding projections x1, x¹, and
lower face having recess a³ with corresponding guiding projections
x³, ³, y'. Figure 5 represents the inner recess of the hook which cor-
responds in size and shape with its rounded edge y', by which means it is
adapted to couple with its fellow of identical construction, receiving and
holding the end y¹ of its fellow, and its own end resting in the recess of
its fellow, as shown.
The hook and shank may be constructed of any proper metal, and is
preferably provided with ribs, as shown, to give it necessary strength
without excessive weight. O represents a spring adapted to secure the
hook in its proper place and permit it to yield the proper distance for
the purpose of coupling and uncoupling.
In Figure 2 the spring is located in a proper recess c in the lower
part of the hook, and is united by a fixed bolt c¹ to the drawhead, as
shown.
In Figure 3 the spring is located in a recess in the upper part of the
drawhead, and the uniting bolt is rigidly attached to the shank of
the hook, as shown. If desired, the shank and drawhead may each
be recessed, and two springs may be employed, one above and one
below.

page_text: D represents a pin which is loosely held in a slot in the hook and
secured from displacement by an enlargement or pin above and below
the slot. Its upper end is curved in such manner and it is so held
in the slot of the hook that when strain is exerted upon it by the link
of the adjacent carriage in connection with which it is employed,
it is drawn forward and upward until its extreme upper end enters a
hole in the drawhead and bears against its front side, by which
means it is securely held above and below the link. The coupling thus
described is suitably connected to the carriage by means of proper
stirrups y, y, y³, and draw plates 2, z, the usual spring 2¹ and pin ³
being employed as shown. In Figures 2 and 3 the intermediate spring
between the draw plates is made less in length than the length of the
recesses in the drawhead for the purpose of giving the latter a slight
longitudinal movement before the spring is brought into action.
E represents a lever suitably pivoted at one end to a suitable bracket
dependent from the carriage, which is adapted to rest upon the hook
and bear it down when properly operated for the purpose of uncoupling
the hook.
F represents a catch plate provided with two notches, one of which
is adapted to hold the lever from dropping down when the hook is
depressed by the action of the adjacent hook in coupling, and the other
to hold the hook in its depressed position when it is desired to keep it
from coupling with another carriage. The operation is as follows:-As
the carriages come together the point of one hook strikes the incline of
the other, either above or below the horizontal line at the point of the
hook, as the case may be, and the lower hook of the two is depressed by
the pressure of the other, the spring yielding for that purpose until
each hook enters the recess of its fellow, when the depressed hook moves
back to its place through the action of its spring and the carriages are
consequently coupled. The projections upon the sides of the recess
serve to guide the entering hook accurately into place even if the
coupling is effected upon a curve.
By the above-described arrangement of levers carriages can be un-
coupled on either platform or from either side.
When it is desired to uncouple one of the hooks may be depressed
until its bearing face is moved out of line with its fellow by operating

page_text: Some of the advantages of the herein described coupler are as follows :—
By attaching the hook to the peculiarly constructed drawhead which
is itself attached to the carriage in the usual well-known manner, the
coupling is provided with the proper buffing surfaces, the hooks are
held from displacement vertically, and the coupling is adapted to be
readily substituted for those now in common use. By means of the
movable pin the coupling is adapted for use with the ordinary link
without compelling the brakeman to go between the carriages, the link
being guided into the drawhead by the hook where it is caught by the
return of the pin to its place, the lever having been properly depressed 1
to permit its entrance.
When the strain is exerted upon the pin it is pulled forward and
upward until its upper end enters the hole and rests against its front
edge in which position it is supported at each end.
By the employment of the short spring at the rear end of the draw- 1
head the latter is adapted to have sufficient longitudinal play to permit
the locomotive in starting to move the carriages successively instead of
starting the entire train at once. This construction however is designed
only for freight carriages, no lost motion being desirable in passenger
carriages.
The peculiar construction of the inner bearing faces of the hooks
which are formed of arcs of equal circles is particularly advantageous
because in turning curves the rounded end of the hook in each coupling
turns in a corresponding curved recess, and consequently there is no
grinding of the parts, and sufficient play is permitted to enable a
coupling to be used upon the shortest known curves.
By means of this construction also the following carriage in turning
curves is drawn strongly in the line of movement in which the preceding
carriage is moving instead of being permitted to follows its natural
tendency to move off at a tangent as is done with the ordinary link.
2
2
8
Another result of this construction is that the central portions of the
coupled carriages are strongly held to the centre of the track under all
circumstances, and hence the usual tendency to vibrate from side to
side, and to press more strongly upon one rail than the other in passing
curves is entirely or almost entirely avoided by means of this construc- 3
tion, also a practically rigid connection is made between the carriages..

page_text: The tendency of the drawheads is to hold down the carriages to the
track with an amount of force determined by the power of the spring,
so that obstacles which would otherwise throw the carriages off the track
will have no effect upon them. This tendency of the drawheads
prevents the carriages from jumping and bouncing upon the track, and
causes them to ride easily even when lightly loaded. These couplings will
not separate when the carriages leave the track unless one of the car-
riages trips over. They are adapted for carriages of varying heights, and
couple readily under all circumstances.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Redgrave, for myself, and on
behalf of the said Stephen Redgrave, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness,
HY. JA. NOONE.
J. REDGRAVE. (L.S.)