IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUFFING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY ENGINES AND CARRIAGES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Drysdale Malcolm, of 47, Leicester Square,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUFFING
APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY ENGINES AND CARRIAGES."
Sealed the 6th November 1857, and dated the 12th May 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Drysdale Malcolm
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th May 1857.
I, JAMES DRYSDALE MALCOLM, of 47, Leicester Square, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
BUFFING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY ENGINES AND CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
My improvements consist, first, in attaching to the spring of every buffer,
or to the rod or spindle of the buffer itself a ratchet and catch, or other similar
mechanical apparatus for detaining the spring or buffer at the point to which
it may have been driven by the force of the collision. Such ratchet and catch
or mechanical apparatus to be affixed so as to come into action only when the
engines or carriages shall be driven against each other, or against any other
object with a force likely to be destructive or injurious to such carriages and
engines, or to the occupants thereof.
Second, in constructing the springs of the buffers and the buffers themselves
of sufficient strength and power, and with sufficiently increased length of play
to sustain the whole shock to which they may be exposed by a collision, such

page_text: strength, &c. being calculated by the weight of the engine or carriage
respectively, the speed at which it is intended to travel, and the resulting force
with which it would consequently impinge upon any thing with which it might
come into collision.
Third, the adaptation of breaks to operate on some or all the wheels of such
carriages or engines, such breaks being brought into action by the buffers or
springs, or ratchets, only when the buffers have been driven inwards to the
determined extent.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Drysdale Malcolm in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 12th November 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
DRYSDALE MALCOLM, of 47, Leicester Square, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of May, in the year of Our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Drysdale Malcolm, Her special licence that I, the said
James Drysdale Malcolm, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said James Drysdale Malcolm, 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, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUFFING APPARATUS FOR.
RAILWAY ENGINES AND CARRIAGES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said James Drysdale Malcolm, 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 Inven-
tion, 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 I, the said James Drysdale Malcolm, 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 thereof, that is to say :---

page_text: The object of my Invention is to convert a railway carriage or engine, or a
train of such carriages into an analogous condition to "non-elastic soft bodies,"
as in all cases of collision of such bodies it is an ascertained fact that one half
of the power or force of the stroke or momentum is lost or absorbed, whereas;
in collisions between railway trains or carriages as at present constructed, the
whole of the momentum is exerted to their injury or destruction.
I propose to effect this by, in the first place, adding as herein-after indicated
and described a ratchet and catch, or other similar or equivalent mechanical
apparatus, to the buffing apparatus usually attached to railway carriages, or to
some part of the carriages themselves, in such a manner as, while allowing the
exercise of a sufficient amount of elastic force for ordinary purposes, such
ratchet and catch or equivalent apparatus shall act so as to retain the springs
and absorb the elasticity of the buffing apparatus whenever and so soon as the
carriages shall strike or be driven against any other object with a force likely
to be injurious or destructive. And, in the second place, by increasing the
strength of the buffer springs and apparatus to an extent sufficient to receive
the whole force of the shock to which they may be exposed in the event
of a collision, such extra strength of springs, &c. being calculated and
ascertained by the weight of the carriages, &c. respectively, the rate at which
they are intended to travel, and their consequent resulting momentum. It is
the combination of a sufficiency of elastic force to receive the whole shock
of a collision, and the means of absorbing it and preventing its reactive
force, which accomplishes the object of reducing or converting railway
engines and carriages into an analagous condition to "non-elastic soft
bodies."
I will now proceed to describe the manner in which the proposed effect
may be accomplished, and I will first describe the mode which I have illus-
trated by the Drawing attached hereto, and which mode I have preferred so
to illustrate to any other, inasmuch as; without departing materially from the
present external appearance of the buffing apparatus, much of it at present in
use can be made available in the new arrangements.
Figure 1, in the Sheet of Drawings annexed, represents a longitudinal
section of part of the framework of a railway carriage; and Figure 2 a plan
of the same portion, in which a, a, a, is the wooden framing, on to which are
fixed the guiding blocks b, b, in which the buffing apparatus moves. c, c, are the
spindles or shafts of the ordinary buffers acting on the spring d, d, such spring
having sufficient power for all ordinary purposes for which buffing apparatus is
at present used, the spring d however being itself attached to another spring
e, e, as represented, in order to provide for the consequences of its being driven

page_text: in with greater force than its own elasticity alone would allow or receive. It
is assumed for the purposes of this description that the length of the spindles
c, c, from the front of the containing cylinders f, f, in which they move to the
buffer heads g, g, is no more than sufficient for the play of such elastic force
as is necessary for ordinary use, and therefore such spindles do not come under
the operation of the restraining power of the ratchet or catch, &c. until they are
driven completely home to the front of the cylinders f, f; but as soon as they
reach that point, a spring bolt or catch which is so fixed that it is confined within
the cylinder f until the buffer head g is driven home) is immediately released,
and prevents the return of the spindle c, c, to its ordinary position, as well as
the reaction of the spring or springs to which it is attached. This spring bolt
or catch is seen at c¹ in Figure 4, which is a separate view of the buffer rod of
spindle c. ff, are cylinders moving freely in the guiding blocks b, b, but not
liable to be acted on by any pressure on the buffer heads 9, 9, until the latter
shall have been driven home to the front ends of the cylinders ff, by the
violence of a collision; in which case they will be driven inwards, thereby
acting on the springs h, h, the strength of such springs h, h, being assumed
for the purposes of this description to have sufficient elastic force to endure any
stroke to which in cases of collision they would be liable.
The springs h, h, are attached to the cylinders f. f (of which a separate
sectional view is given in Figure 3), by or at the projections i, i. On the
cylinders f, f, are attached the racks or ratchets k, k, the teeth of which work
into the catches m, m. When therefore a collision occurs, having sufficient
violence to overcome the ordinary play of the buffers c, c, not only will they be
retained by the catch c, Figure 4, but the buffer heads being then in contact
with the front ends of the cylinders f, f, will drive in the latter against the springs
h, h, (which it will be seen on reference to Figure 1 are doubled), and the
ratchets k, k, will work into the catches m, m, and will thus be prevented from
returning, and consequently absorb the force which has driven them in; and as
the ordinary buffer rods c, c, will, after having been driven home and retained
by the catch or bolt c, Figure 4, continue to move onward in connection with
the cylinders ff, against the spring d, d, the provision of the spring e, e,
will prevent the ordinary spring d, d, from being taxed beyond its elastic
power by the extra pressure to which it would thus be subjected, and the
elastic force of all the springs h, h, d, d, and e, e, will be brought into play in
receiving the force of the collision, all which force will be absorbed or retained
by the catches m, m, and c¹.
Another part of my Invention relates to a system of breaks to be brought
into action by the apparatus above described, so as to stop the motion of all or

page_text: any number of the wheels of the carriages, and thus diminishing the effect of
their momentum simultaneously with the action of such momentum on the
springs or buffing appuratus. I have shewn a form of application of such
break apparatus in Figure 5, in which, as in Drawings Figures 1, 2, a, a, is
part of the wooden framework of the carriage; b, the guiding block for the
cylinder f, f; c, c, the ordinary buffer rod or spindle.
In this Drawing will be seen a projection p attached to and forming part
of the cylinder f,f, connected with the spiral spring s, working in a cylindrical
box s'; the other end of the spring is attached to the lever t of the break v,
and it will be manifest on inspection, that as soon as the cylinder f is pushed
inwards by the force of the collision it will press on the spiral springs, and
by the action of the latter on the lever t force the break v against the wheel
with which it is in proximity.
A further part of my Invention is a new configuration for the ends or heads
of the buffers. In the present form of such buffer heads, should a collision
occur, and they should happen to be worn unequally or not to be exactly
opposite to each other, it very frequently happens that the buffer heads slide
off each other either upwards or laterally, in which cases the carriages are
either turned on end or thrown off the rails, and to obviate this I have
invented the configuration of buffer heads, which I have now to describe, and
which is also shewn in Figure 5. The buffer heads at one end of a carriage
are smaller than the other, as shewn at w, and those at the other end are
larger, as shewn at x, and have a projecting rim, part of which is represented
as being broken away in the Drawing to shew the construction, and I prefer
the touching surfaces to be plane or flat and not curved, or at least but very
slightly so, and it will be seen that, when the buffers are in contact, the head w
will be completely enclosed in the head x, and they will therefore be prevented
from slipping away from each other.
As has been already implied, the plan of accomplishing the object of my
Invention, which I have illustrated by the Drawings annexed hereto, and the
operation of which I have described, is only one of several means of carrying
out that object, and it would not be difficult for an experienced mechanician
to suggest a large number of different arrangements for carrying out the
principle of my Invention. It is not, for example, at all necessary that there
should be the two separate parts, represented in Figures 3 and 4. It would
be a simpler arrangement to affix the buffer head at once on to the end of
the cylinder f, Figures 1, 2, and 3, and allow such cylinder to project a
sufficient distance beyond the front of the carriage to accommodate the whole
play of whatever springs it may be attached to, and the rack can be then so

page_text: arranged as not to come into play until the amount of elastic force necessary
for ordinary use has been overcome, and the point of safety, as it may be
called, passed. It is not even necessary to attach the ratchets and catches to
any part of the buffing apparatus or to the openings connected therewith, as
the object proposed may be effected by having a ratchet bar or bars attached
to the end of the framework of a railway carriage, such ratchet bar passing
into an opening in the adjacent end of the next carriage, and beyond such
opening a "catch" shall be fixed, so as to play into such ratchet bar when
driven beyond a certain point, the carriages being so adjusted as regards the
distances between them that the catch connected with the frame of one
carriage shall not play into the ratchets of the bar attached to the other until
the amount of elasticity necessary for ordinary use shall have been overcome.
I do not recommend this plan; I merely mention it to show that by that
and other analogous methods, it is possible to accomplish the object of my
Invention without at all interfering with the existing buffing apparatus except
to increase the power of the springs attached thereto and the length of play
of the rods or cylinders, to which the buffer heads are attached, to a sufficient
extent to receive the whole force of any collision. But, I may remark that
in all such arrangements as last described, it will be necessary that the first
and last carriages of a train should be provided with other arrangements, as
it is impossible to speculate upon a rod affixed to the end carriage of a train
exactly meeting and entering an opening provided for its reception in the
opposite carriage of a train with which it might come into collision. The
ratchet and catch, or equivalent apparatus, may moreover be affixed to some
part of the springs instead of to the buffer rods or cylinders, or the buffer
rods or cylinders may be perforated with holes or openings to receive cor-
responding spring bolts or catches affixed to the framework of the carriage
or or to some convenient part of the apparatus connected therewith; or, the
ratchet may be affixed to the framework of the carriage, and the buffer rods
or cylinders furnished with spring bolts or catches to fit into such ratchet. In
fact, the variations in the mode of carrying out the details of my Invention are
endless.
I may further remark, that, although it is manifest that for the purposes of
this description the introduction of one ratchet and one catch to each buffer
is sufficient, it may practically be found expedient to use more than one. It
may also be found preferable to use springs of a different form and material
to those shewn in the Drawings. I recommend also that that portion of the
buffer rods or cylinders, which projects beyond the end of the carriage, should
be as long as possible consistently with convenience, inasmuch as it will allow

page_text: of a greater length of play in the springs, and a consequently greater effect in
the action of the ratchet and catch. And it may also be expedient to multiply
the amount of action in the ratchet and catch or equivalent apparatus in
some such mode as the following, viz. :-Instead of using a straight ratchet
attached to the buffing apparatus, to attach thereto in place thereof a rail or
series of cogs, such cogs to play into the teeth of a small cog wheel, to the
spindle of which is attached a ratchet wheel of much larger size, the effect of
which arrangement, and the increased power thereby obtained in retaining the
elasticity of the springs, is too obvious to need further remark.
I will now suppose that a collision has occurred, and that the buffers have
been driven home, and the reaction of the springs retained by the action of
the ratchet and catch, as before described, it will then become necessary to
use some caution in releasing the power thus absorbed, and the mode I
recommend for the purpose is the following:-The couplings between the
carriages are to be tightened up so as to bring the buffer heads in close
contact with each other, the couplings used for that purpose being in the form
of the ordinary screw couplings now in use; this being done, 'the catches are
to be drawn out of the teeth of the ratchet by a screw provided for that
purpose, as shewn at Z, Figure 1, and the catches in the buffer rod cat c¹,
Figure 4, driven back by a similar screw. All parts of the buffing apparatus
will now be at liberty to return to their normal condition, but will still be
prevented from so doing by the restraining power of the screw couplings.
These couplings are then to be gradually lengthened by the action of the
screw until the buffers have returned to their original position. The catches
are then to be unscrewed so as to allow them again to play into the teeth of
the ratchets, and the apparatus will then be again in a condition to act, as
before described.
What I claim as my Invention is the arrangement, whether carried out in
the manner illustrated in the Drawing, and described in the foregoing Speci-
fication, or in any other analogous manner, for rendering a collision, as regards
a railway train, analogous to a collision of "non-elastic soft bodies; or in
other words I claim the arrangement, as before indicated, for absorbing and
preventing the reaction of so much of the elastic force, which is communicated
to a railway carriage or train by the springs attached to the buffing apparatus
connected therewith, as would be detrimental or liable to be detrimental in
cases of such reaction.
I also claim the arrangement for applying breaks to all or any of the
wheels of railway carriages by the action of the buffing apparatus, whether

page_text: carried out in the manner illustrated in the Drawing, and described in the
foregoing Specification, or in any other analogous manner.
But I do not claim any particular form of ratchet, or catch, or spring, or
buffer, save as before mentioned.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Drysdale Malcolm, have hereunto 5
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
JAS D. MALCOLM. (L.S.)