Device for Disconnecting Railway Cars,
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Dec., 1894-Accepted, 9th Feb., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Device for Disconnecting Railway Cars,
I, CARL MORADELLI, of No. 2 Baumstrasse, Munich in the Kingdom of Bavaria,
German Empire, Fitters Foreman, do hereby declare the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The present invention consists of a device for disconnecting a train at any point
by means of electricity, from the locomotive.
And in order to make the present Specification more easily intelligible reference
is had to the accompanying drawings in which similar letters denote similar parts
throughout the several views:-
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a coupling showing the connection of the coupling
hook with an angle lever worked by the armature of an electro magnet,
Fig. 2 a plan of two car ends showing the conductors arranged between the
same,
Fig. 3 is a general arrangement showing a car coupled at both ends,
Fig. 4 is a diagrammatic arrangement of three cars and their electric connections
to the switch board and the dynamo machine,
Fig. 5 shows the arrangement of conductors having moveable contact heads, the
bearing sleeve being in longitudinal section.
Figs. 6 and 7 are longitudinal and cross sections respectively of a contact head,
drawn to a larger scale,
Fig. 8 shows a cross section through two contacting heads.
The coupling hooks ff are pivoted to the ends of the cars at fl and provided
with rearwardly extending arms f, with which a roll g at the end of an angle
lever c, pivoted at underneath the car, engages. The lower arm of the said
lever is connected by means of a rod d to the armature of an electro magnet b
arranged as shown at Fig. 4 underneath the car. Obviously if the electro maguet b
is excited it will attract the armature and turn the angle lever c on its pivot thus
depressing by means of the roll g the arm f' of the coupling hook f, and if the
corresponding magnets of two coupled cars are excited simultaneously both the
books will be raised simultaneously from their connecting links and the two cars
will be uncoupled. In order to effect such uncoupling from the locomotive or any
other part of the train, the conductors connecting up all the magnets individually
with the dynamo and with a suitably arranged switch board are provided as shown
diagrammatically at Fig. 4. Each car must be provided with twice as many
conductors as there are cars in the train. Thus as shown clearly at Figure 4 the
conductors of the last electro magnet will pass along all the cars without inter-
fering with the conductors of the other cars, leading to the switch board B, which
may be of any suitable construction and situated on the locomotive or at any other
desired point of the train. Suitable connections are provided from the switch
board to the dynamo A which is advantageously mounted on the engine.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 represent the switches. The operation of the device will be
evident from Figure 4 of the drawings: supposing switches 1 and 2 are operated,
they will excite the magnets bb of the contacting ends of the first and second cars
from the locomotive, the hooks connecting these cars will be thrown up and the
train disconnected at this point. By means of the other switches the train may be
disconnected at other points. I will now proceed to describe the way in which the
conductors keep contact between the cars. The conductors consist of steel or iron
rods extending underneath the cars and having their ends loosely mounted in

page_text: suitable casings h at the car ends. The rods are insulated and provided at their
ends with enlarged cylindrical contact heads a having advantageously pointed
heads as shown at Fig. 6. These heads are of such diameter that when the cars
are run together they will contact with the corresponding heads of the opposite
car, whatever the variation in the height of the two cars, due to varying loads,
may be. Being elastically mounted they will push by one another and contact
gently lying side by side. The ends of the conductors may however be rigidly
mounted in the car ends or casings and the contact heads be made to swing on
said conductor ends as shown in Figs. 6 7 and 8. In this case the head a is
provided with interior bearings a¹ a through which the end of the conductor rod
extends (Fig. 6) on which the said head is free to rotate. As the bearings are
excentrically arranged the heads will always fall into the position shown at Fig. 7
when free to rotate. Thus as shown in Fig. 8 when two cars are run together the
heads will contact by means of their own weight either as shown at Fig. 8 or as
shown in dotted lines in this figure, when the rods happen to be somewhat further
apart.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
:-
1. A device for uncoupling cars at any point of a train, consisting of electric
magnets arranged underneath the car, armatures to the same adapted to raise the
coupling hooks when attracted by said magnets, separate conductors from each
magnet to a switch board on the locomotive or at other convenient position on the
train, a dynamo and means for connecting same with the magnets substantially as
described.
2. The combination of electric magnets bb arranged underneath each car,
separate conductors from the magnets of each car to the locomotive or other part
of the train, a dynamo and means for connecting same to any one of said car
magnets, armatures to said magnets and means in connection with same to operate
car hooks when the magnets are excited, free lying conductor ends at the end of
each car, elastically mounted and having cylindrical contact head with conically
pointed ends, in the manner and for the purpose substantially as described.
3. The combination of electro magnets bb arranged under each car, armatures
to said magnets, a coupling hook fhaving rearwardly extending arm and pivoted
to the car end at f', an angle lever a pivoted to the car at c and having anti-friction
roll 9, to engage the rearwardly extending arm of said car hook, a connecting
rod d to connect the free end of said angle lever with the armature, and means for
exciting each of the magnets of each car from any predetermined point of the
train, separately in the manner and for the purpose substantially as described.
4. In a railway train the combination of magnets arranged underneath the cars,
means for connecting said magnets to the coupling hooks by armatures and lever
connections, to raise said coupling hooks when the maguet is excited, means for
exciting each magnet separately from a given point of the train and free lying
insulated conductors extending underneath the cars, and having at their free ends
cylindrical contacting heads, excentrically mounted to rotate on said conductor
ends, and having pointed front ends, in the manner and for the purpose
substantially as described and shown.
Dated this 20th day of December 1894
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.