IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE POWER ENGINES AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH FOR PROPELLING AND STOPPING TRAMWAY CARS AND OTHER VEHICLES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Vincent Newton at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th November 1878. A communication
from abroad by the Pneumatic Tramway Engine Company (Incorporated), of the
City and State of New York, United States of America.
ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOTIVE
POWER ENGINES AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH FOR PROPELLING AND
STOPPING TRAMWAY CARS AND OTHER VEHICLES." A communication from abroad
by the Pneumatic Tramway Engine Company (Incorporated), of the City and State
of New York, United States of America.
One object of this Invention is to provide for the utilization of the largest amount
of available space beneath the body of the car or vehicle, for the reservoirs which
contain the coir pressed air or gas used to work the engines by which the car or
vehicle is propelled, and to support said reservoirs against deflection and from lateral
disturbance, as well as to combine lightness, strength, neatness, and simplicity in the
structure of the car so far as concerns the portion of it which supports the reservoirs,
engines, and car body. Said part of the Invention relates to the construction of the
lower portion of the car or vehicle which carries the reservoirs, whereby the above
named advantages are obtained, and consists in a combination, with reservoirs at
opposite ends of the car, of transverse frames bolted or rivetted to the ends of the
reservoirs, longitudinal girders bolted or rivetted to said frames and consisting of
upper and lower angular members and a connecting web plate, braces arranged out-
side of and parallel with said girders, and connecting the said transverse frames at
the ends of the reservoirs, and diagonal braces secured between said outside braces,
or certain of them, and said girders to laterally stiffen the latter, the whole forming
a lower framing, which not only supports the reservoirs and engines, but also forms
a firm base for the car body.
Another object of the Invention is to arrange in a more direct and advantageous,
manner than has heretofore been done, relatively to the engine cylinders of the car
or vehicle, self acting inlet and outlet valves controlling passages in communication
with opposite ends of each cylinder, whereby, on the pressure of the propelling
agent on the back of the engine piston getting below that of the atmosphere, air is
[Price 21

page_text: admitted from the exhaust or front side of the piston to equalize the pressure on both
sides of the latter and the amount of air or gas exhausted to the atmosphere is
.reduced, thereby diminishing the noise consequent on exhausting into the atmosphere,
also whereby the engine may be converted into a compresser to act as a brake to
the car when necessary, and by proper adjustment of the main valve gear said
braking effect may be varied as required. This part of the Invention consists in a
novel arrangement of said self acting inlet and outlet valves, and comprises a com-
bination with the cylinder of each engine and its piston of independent self acting
inlet and outlet valves arranged in both heads of each cylinder, one or more passages
in communication with the compressed air or gas reservoir or reservoirs of the car
opened and closed by said outlet valves, and one or more passages opened and closed
by said inlet valves and in communication with the exhaust outlet for operation in
connection with the main valve of the engine, to produce the results or effects herein-
before stated, and so that the piston of each engine may work close up to the heads
of its cylinder, and on removing said heads said self acting inlet and outlet valves are
readily accessible for adjustment or repair.
Another part of the Invention relates to the valve gear of engines driven by com-
pressed air or other elastic fluid in which a link motion is used to control both the
throw of the main valve and of a cut off valve which regulates the admission of
the impelling gas or fluid through the main valve, and in which provision is made
for reversing or stopping the motion of the engine without stopping the link motion.
This part of the Invention consists in a combination of a separate hand lever at-
tached to the main hand lever of the valve gear, an arc-shaped guide provided in or
connected with or applied to said main hand lever, a rod fitted to work in said arc
shaped guide, a connection between said rod and the separate hand lever to operate
said rod, a bell crank actuated by said rod, and a sliding or adjustable block attached
by a connection or connecting rod to the bell crank and serving to control the cut
off valve of the engine, the whole being applied to a reversing link motion or gear
for controlling both the main valve and the cut off valve of the engine, and preferably
in which independently sliding blocks adjustable along the same rocking link are
respectively connected with the main valve and cut off valve of the engine. By this
combination of devices facilities are afforded for controlling the cut off valve in-
dependently of and while manipulating the main valve, and the idle end of the link
may be used to work the cut off valve.