IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY APPARATUSES FOR COMMUNICATING BETWEEN GUARD AND DRIVER, AND FOR COUPLING AND UNCOUPLING THE CARRIAGES, PARTS OF WHICH APPARATUSES ARE APPLICABLE TO CONNECTING PIPES AND TUBES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Kearsley Thompson,
Arthur Thomas Thompson, and Samuel Mawson at the Office of the
Commissioners of. Patents, with their Petition, on the 13th March
1862.
We, SAMUEL KEARSLEY THOMPSON, of Coniston, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, and ARTHUR. THOMAS THOMPSON, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, and SAMUEL MAWSON, of Bolton-le-Moors, in the
County of Lancaster, Surgeon Dentist, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY APPARATUSES FOR COMMUNICATING
BETWEEN GUARD AND DRIVER, AND FOR COUPLING AND UNCOUPLING THE CARRIAGES,
PARTS OF WHICH APPARATUSES ARE APPLICABLE TO CONNECTING PIPES AND TUBES,"
to be as follows:-
Our Invention for improvements in apparatuses for communicating between
guard and driver consists of the arrangements hereafter described. We carry
a pipe or tube through every carriage, and form the connections between
every two carriages by means of two trumpet-mouthed tubes pressed into
contact with each other by means of coiled or other springs, and free to recede
within the tubes in the carriages for a certain distance. Or we form our con-
nection by means of a flexible pipe, by preference of india-rubber; one end of

page_text: the pipe is fixed to one end of the tube running through the carriage, while
the other end is fixed to a bell or other shaped mouth, the lips or edges of
which have connected to them guide rods, free to slide in and out of the
carriage, and kept extended by coiled or other suitable springs. This flexible
spring pipe coupling is applicable to pipes for conveying liquids and fluids
generally. When required to increase the intensity of the sound produced by
the guard in communicating through the tube with the driver, or vice versâ,
we place a valve near the mouth-piece, and in front of that valve introduce a
bell-mouthed curved tube open outside the carriage, for the purpose of
catching the wind, and of driving forward the sound made after the valve is
opened.
For coupling carriages, our Invention consists of two fixed hooks and of
two movable hooks. One fixed hook and one movable hook are fitted to each
carriage to a boss placed on the end of a bar, capable of being protruded from
and drawn towards the carriage. The movable hooks are pinned to the boss
on the bars, and have springs fitted to them to cause them to assume con-
stantly a position parallel to the rails; to each of the bosses a lever is fitted,
and also a weight. The coupling is effected by the carriages being brought
together, when the spring hooks will become engaged in the fixed hooks. To
uncouple, turn the boss by means of the lever, when two of the hooks on one
boss will be turned and freed from one another; a weight is employed for
bringing back the hooks into position when the lever is let go.
Another of our coupling apparatuses consists of an adjustable anchor-headed
hook connected to each of the carriages to be coupled. First, a bar with
screw or other means of shortening and lengthening the coupling is fitted to
the carriage, the bar terminates at its outer end in a bow. Through the ends
of the bow a spindle is passed; this spindle carries a roller or drum, to which
a bar carrying an anchor or double hook is fastened; arms extend towards the
centre of the bow from the roller, and carry a cross head through a collar,
in which an upright rod is passed; on the bottom of this rod is a weight, free
to be moved up and down by means of a nut. The weight forms a counter
poise to the hook and hook bar, and by raising or lowering the weight the
inclination of the hook and bar is regulated, and this for the purpose of suiting
carriages of different height. A lever handle is connected to the weight rods.
Coupling is effected upon the carriages being brought together by one anchor
hook, the heads of which are conical, sliding over, and becoming engaged in
the other. The uncoupling is effected by one of the hooks being turned
laterally through the lever handle,

page_text: Another of our coupling apparatuses consists of two hooks movable upon a
centre. One hook is connected to the end of one coupling bar, and a corre-
sponding hook to the other. When the hooks come in contact, the ends play,
give way, and the hooks pass each other; springs draw them into the former
position, and the hooks meeting in the contrary direction become engaged.