IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING RAILWAY BRAKES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Stirling, of Kilmarnock, in the County of
Ayr, North Britain, Locomotive Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING RAILWAY BRAKES."
Scaled the 29th July 1873, and dated the 31st January 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Stirling at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 31st January 1873.
I, JAMES STIRLING, of Kilmarnock, in the County of Ayr, North
Britain, Locomotive Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR WORKING RAILWAY BRAKES,"
to be as follows, that is to say :-
-
This Invention has for one of its principal objects the arranging of
brake-working apparatus in such a way that if a part of the apparatus
becomes deranged or disconnected, the brakes become at once applied to
the wheels automatically.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification, the
brakes of the locomotive of the tender and of the guard's van of a train

page_text: are arranged to be applied by hand as usual, whilst there are fitted to
one or more, and by preference to all the other carriages or waggons of
the train, a set or sets of brake blocks so arranged in connection with
springs or weights as to be pressed on the wheels when such springs or
weights are free to act. To counteract the springs or weights cach
carriage or waggon is fitted with a cylinder and piston, the rod of which is
connected to the brake gear, and the piston is moved so as to relieve the
brakes by a fluid under-pressure, such as compressed air admitted to the
cylinder by piping. The cylinders of the soveral carriages are connected
by piping with a reservoir, in which a sufficient pressure of the fluid is
maintained by a pump or pumps worked by a direct acting steam
cylinder, or in any other convenient way, and when the brakes are to bo
applied to the wheels the communication with the reservoir is closed by
a valve and a communication with the atmosphere at the same time
opened, which action, by relieving the pressure in the cylinders, sets the
springs or weights at liberty to act. A powerful hand lever is fitted in
connection with the brakes of each carriage or waggon to admit of the
brakes being set on or off as required when the carriage or waggon is
disconnected or when the cylinder apparatus is out of order.
The piping of one carriage or waggon is by preference connected to
that of the next by an intermediate coupling length of flexible tubing,
and spare coupling lengths may be carried by the train to allow of any
damaged ones being immediately replaced.
If preferred, the brakes of the locomotive, of the tender, and of the
guard's van, or any of them may also be arranged to be actuated liko
those of the carriages or waggons.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Stirling in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 30th July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES 30
STIRLING; of Kilmarnock, in the County of Ayr, North Britain,
Locomotive Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Lettors Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of January, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said James Stirling, Her special licence
that I, the said James Stirling, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Stirling, 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, usc, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR WORKING RAILWAY BRAKES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Stirling, my executors or administrators,
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 Scal Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Stirling, 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 in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention has for one of its principal objects the arranging of
brake-working apparatus in such a way that if a part of the apparatus
becomes deranged or disconnected the brakes become at once applied to
the wheels automatically.
In carrying out my Invention according to one modification, the
brakes of the locomotive, of the tender, and of the guard's van of a train
are arranged to be applied by hand as usual, whilst there are fitted to
one or more, and by preference to all the other carriages or wagons of
the train, a set or sets of brake blocks, so arranged in connection with
springs or weights as to be pressed on the wheels when such springs or
weights are free to act. Air or other fluid maintained by pumping at a
suitable pressure in a reservoir is employed for acting on the brakes by
means of cylinders and pistons, so as to relieve the brakes when
required,

page_text: And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood I hereunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing by
way of example a convenient modification of my improved brake
apparatus. In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to
mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal vertical section and Figure 2 is a plan
representing the frame of a railway carriage as fitted with my improved
brake apparatus. Brake blocks 1 are fitted in connection with each of
the four wheels 2 of the carriage, being suspended by links 3, whilst
they are worked by rods 4 jointed to them and to short levers on a
transverse horizontal shaft 5 carried in bracket bearings 6 attached to
the carriage framing. On the transverse shaft 5 thero is fixed a lever 7,
the upper end of which has jointed to it a shackle 8 connected by a
series of powerful rubber springs 9, to one, 10 of the transverso frame
bars. These springs 9 tend to turn the transverse shaft 5 in the
direction for forcing the brake blocks 1 against the wheels 2. The
transverso shaft 5 has also fixed on it a lever 11 which is jointed to tho
rod 12 of a piston working in a cylinder 13 attached to the carriago
framing. A branch pipe 144 communicates with the bottom of the
cylinder 13 and admits compressed air or other suitable fluid from
a main pipe 15 which extends from end to end of the carriage. The
piping 15 of one carriage or wagon is by preference connected to that of
the next by an intermediate coupling length of flexible tubing, and
spare coupling lengths may be carried by the train, to allow of any
damaged ones being immediately replaced. The compressed air or
other fluid is supplied to the piping 15 from a reservoir on the loco-
motive, tender, or other suitable vehicle, a sufficient pressure being
maintained in such reservoir by a pump or pumps worked by a direct
acting steam cylinder or in any other convenient way. When the train
is running and the brakes are required to bo off the wheels tho
compressed air is admitted through a suitable valve to the piping 15,
and getting access to each cylinder 13 raises each piston, and acting
through it on cach transverse shaft 5 overcomes the springs 9 and lifts
the brake blocks 1 away from the wheels 2, the complete clearance of
the blocks from the wheels being insured by small blade springs 16
acting on the suspending links 3. And when the brakes are to be
applied to the wheels the communication with the reservoir is closed by

page_text: a valve, and a communication with the atmosphere at the same time
opened in the piping 15. The pressure in each cylinder 13 is thereby
relieved, and the springs 9 then act on the transverse shaft 5 so as to
force the brake blocks 1 into contact with the wheels 2.
Instead of or in addition to springs (9), weights may be applied to the
transverse shaft 5 in the manner shown by the red lines, or in any other
convenient way. A pair of levers 17, indicated as fixed on the shaft 5,
have rods 18 jointed on their outer ends and working in guides fixed to
the framing, the weights 19 being placed on the rods.
Hand gear is shown as fitted for setting the brakes on or off as
required when the carriage or wagon is disconnected or when the
cylinder apparatus is out of order. This hand gear consists of a screw
spindle 20 having a hand wheel 21 fixed on its outer end, and working
in a nut jointed to one arm 22 of a bell-crank lever, the other arm 23 of
this lever being connected by a chain to the lever 7 through which the
springs 9 act, or to a shorter lever in place of the one 7, when weights 19
are used instead of the springs.
If preferred, the brakes of the locomotive, of the tender, and of the
guard's van, or any of them may also be arranged to be actuated like
those of the carriages or wagons.
It will be obvious, on a little consideration, that with my improved
system of brake apparatus herein-before described the condition which
the parts tend to assume when left to themselves is that of safety, the
air or other operating fluid requiring to be pumped to a suitable pressuro
and to be conveyed into the cylinders (13) in order to take the brakes
off the wheels; whilst if a carriage or wagon becomes disconnected
from the train, or if in any way the piping (15) or any coupling pipe
length between carriages or wagons is accidentally ruptured or separated,
the operative fluid in the cylinder (13) of such carriage or in con-
nection with such piping (15) at once escapes, and, as a consequence,
the brakes are instantly forced upon the wheels by the springs or
weights.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I claim
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, the combining of springs or weights arranged to

page_text: apply railway brakes, with cylinders and pistons actuated by com-
pressed air or other suitable fluid for relieving the said brakes
substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Stirling, have hereunto sot
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year of 5
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAS. STIRLING. (L.Ș.)