Improved Coupling and Detaching Apparatus for the Shafts and Poles of Vehicles.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 14th Mar., 1887
Complete Left, 14th Dec., 1887
Complete Accepted, 27th Jan., 1888
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improved Coupling and Detaching Apparatus for the Shafts and
Poles of Vehicles.
I, JOHN ADAM BERG of Peter Street Ashburton New Zealand, Coachbuilder, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a coupling for the shafts and poles of wagons and other
vehicles, and to mechanism in connection therewith, whereby the shafts or pole of the
vehicle may be readily detached when required.
I will describe the Invention as applied to the shafts of a carriage. Each shaft is
hinged or pivoted in a fork or pair of jaws carried by the under bed of the fore
carriage, the joint being made by a bolt passing not through the heel end of the
shaft itself but through a block which fits in a recess in a metal clip forming the heel
end of the shaft. This recess is closed at top by a hinged cap secured by a sliding
bolt or cotter having a spring to retain it in position. When it is required to detach
the shafts, the spring cotters are drawn out, thereby allowing the shafts to drop out
of the fork. This releasing of the shafts from their couplings is provided for as
follows-Upon the undercarriage in rear of the shafts, are mounted brackets in
which a rotatable cross-shaft is mounted, having secured on its ends, drums on which
are wound ropes or chains that are connected with the spring cotters. Upon the
middle of the shaft is fixed a third drum from which a rope or chain wound thereon
passes up to within easy reach of the driver, this rope or chain being wound the
reverse way to the other two, so that by pulling on it the other two will be wound
up and so made to withdraw the spring cotters, thus releasing the shafts instantly in
case of the horse running away. When it is not desired to enable the detaching of
the shafts to be effected from the driver's seat, the cap of the recess in the heel end
of the shaft may be secured by a wing bolt, instead of the spring cotter, and it may
be detachably hinged at the other end.
Dated this 14th day of March 1887
J. A. BERG.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Coupling and Detaching Apparatus for the Shafts and
Poles of Vehicles.
1 JOHN ADAM BERG of Peter Street Ashburton in the Province of Canterbury
New Zealand Coach-builder do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
IMPROVED COUPLING AND DETACHING APPARATUS FOR THE SHAFTS AND POLES OF
VEHICLES and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention consists in a shaft or thill coupling for wagons and other vehicles
substantially as herein shown and described, and pointed out in the claims, and
whereby increased facility is afforded for detaching the shafts or pole of the vehicle
when required, and a firm and substantial coupling is obtained.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this
specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all
the ligures.
Figure 1 represents a side elevation showing the improved thill coupling as applied
to the shaft of a vehicle.
Figures 1a, 16 and 1 c are sectional views shewing the mode of detaching or
attaching the shaft or shafts.
Figure 2 is a plan of the same.
Figure 3 is an elevation, and
Figure 4 a plan view of certain drum and chain devices for releasing the shafts
when requiring to detach them.
Figure 5 is a side elevation showing a different method of fastening the latch.
Figure 6 shews the detaching arrangement applied to traces.
DD are projecting jaws or prongs fixed to the under carriage of the vehicle,
and is a clip-bolt arranged to pass through said jaws and through a brass or
bearing made either whole or divided, and arranged to sit within a recess b open
at its top in a solidly made clip G permanently secured at its forward end to the
shali or thill H. This clip G which passes up between the jaws D D when the thill
is attached has pivoted or hinged to the upper portion of its rear end as at ca latch I,
which is provided with a slot d in front that passes over and receives through it when
the latch is closed a slotted pin J projecting from the top of the clip G for holding the
thill securely to its place in the coupling by means of a sliding bolt or cotter having
a spring on one side, the two forming a spring key K which is passed over the latch
and through the slot in the pin J. Both shafts or thills are similarly secured and
provided with like couplings.
When it is required to detach the shafts, the spring keys K are drawn out from the
couplings that is from out of the slotted pins J when the shafts will be free to drop
as shown in Figure 1 c, the latches I flying upward to enable them to pass down
between the jaws D D. This releasing of the shafts from their couplings is provided

page_text: for as follows. Upon the under carriage in rear of the shafts are mounted brackets
or stays L L which carry a rotatable cross shaft M having its bearings in said stays
and having secured on it near its opposite ends drums N, N, on which are wound
ropes or chains O, O that are connected at their opposite ends with the detachable
spring keys K. Said shaft M has also secured on it, in the centre of its length,
another drum N from which a rope or chain O' wound thereon passes up to within
easy reach of the driver when on his seat in the vehicle. By pulling on the chain O'
the chains OO are made to withdraw the spring keys K from the slotted pins J
with which they engage, this releasing the latches I from their locking hold of the
thill clips G on the bearings F and permitting of the thills or shafts instantly or
quickly falling off or severing connection with the under carriage, and as this may be
done by the driver from his seat a great protection will be afforded against accident
in case of the horse or horses running away.
In Figure 5 I have illustrated a modification, in which the latch I is secured to the
clip G by a winged screw bolt P passed through an aperture in the free end of the
latch and into a threaded socket in the clip G so that the shaft may be readily coupled
and detached, although it cannot be uncoupled from the drivers seat. I have also
shown the latch I provided with a slot Q on its inner end adapted to engage a recess R
in the clip G by which the latch is detachably hinged to the clip.
In Figure 6 is shewn the detaching apparatus applied to the releasing of traces in
which S is the roller bolt to which the trace T is attached, U is a metal plate rivetted
to the trace and from which projects the slotted pin J which passes through an
aperture in the trace. The spring key K in the slot of the pin J confines the end of
the trace in its place until released by pulling on the cord O as hereinbefore described
in relation to the shaft or thill coupling.
Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to
secure by Letters Patent, is :-
1. The combination with the jaws D and the bolt E of the bearing block F on the
bolt between the jaws and the clip G having a recess in its upper edge to receive
the bearing block a latch I hinged to the clip G and a bolt for detachably securing
the free end of the latch to the clip, substantially as set forth.
in
2. The combination with the jaws D and the bolt E passed there through and the
bearing block F on the bolt between the jaws of the clip G formed with a recess
its upper edge to receive the bearing block F, a latch I hinged to the rear upper end
of the clip G and having an opening d in its forward end, the slotted pin J projecting
up from the clip G to enter the opening da locking bolt engaging the opening in
the pin J, and adapted to be operated from the vehicle, substantially as described.
3. In a shaft coupling, the clip G having a recess in its upper edge the latch I
hinged to the rear upper end of the said clip and having an opening d in its opposite
end the pin Jadapted to enter the opening d and having an aperture and the sliding
locking bolt having a spring secured to it thereby forming a spring key K, held by
frictional contact within the opening in the pin J substantially as set forth.
4. The combination with the shaft coupling of the character described having
latches and releasing bolts or catches of a shaft M mounted in brackets L on the
under carriage, having end drums N chains O passing from the releasing bolts or
catches to said drums, an intermediate drum N and a chain 0 wound around
the same and adapted to be operated from the vehicle to which the coupling is
attached substantially as set forth.
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