CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Kennedy and Richard
Stanley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 17th January 1866.
We, JOSEPH KENNEDY, Maker-up, and RICHARD STANLEY, Tailor, both
of Hulme, in the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN RAILWAY BREAKS," to be as follows:-
Our Invention is designed for the purpose of instantly applying the
breaks of railway carriages to the wheels so as to retain and stop their
progress in order to prevent accidents by collision, and for afterwards
releasing the wheels upon the first movement of the engine. The im-
provements consist in.a novel arrangement and construction of mechanism
for effecting such purposes, and are described as follows:-Underneath
the flooring or basement of the carriage bars or levers are suspended
upon which are secured the break blocks, the opposite ends of these
levers are connected to horizontal surface levers having their fulcra in
brackets secured to the carriage frame; these levers project from their
fulcra towards each other so as to overlap, in order to bear one upon the
other, or their extremities may be connected by a pin running through
a slot, which will allow them slightly to move when acted upon so as to
force the break blocks against or withdraw them from the periphery of
the carriage wheels, such action being effected as follows:-Between the

page_text: horizontal surface levers and the bottom of the carriage strong springs
of any construction are inserted, and so formed that they shall exert a
powerful pressure upon such levers, which, when permitted by the e arrange-
ment of mechanism herein-after described, will transit and exert the same
pressure (through the medium of the break levers and blocks) upon the
wheels so as to retard and stop their motion. The breaks are actuated
as follows:-Transverse shafts, which are connected to the "draw bars"
and supported in bearings underneath the carriage and supplied with cams
or segments, are so arranged that when a lever outside the carriage frame
is retained by a spring catch the said cams exert a pressure upon the
surface levers so as to counteract the pressure of the springs underneath,
but so soon as such outside lever becomes released the springs are released,
and thereby allowed to exert their full pressure through the break blocks
upon the wheels. The action of the break may be thus described :-
When a train of carriages is in motion the "draw bars" being drawn out
to their full extent cause the aforesaid cams to exert a pressure upon the
surface levers, which thereby allows of the depression of the outside levers,
which falling below a spring catch upon each carriage become retained
in that position; these spring catches are actuated by fingers secured to
a longitudinal bar running the whole length of the train, the connection
or coupling of which being made by a projecting rod connected by a
swivel joint to one end of the bar of a carriage, the opposite end having a
groove or slot formed therein into which the rod with the swivel joint is
inserted. At a convenient place upon this longitudinal bar and near the
engine driver a handle projects, which when moved withdraws the catches
from the outside levers, and thereby allows the free action of the springs
upon the breaks as herein-before described, which effectually retards or
stops the train, but when the engine starts again the "draw bars" depress
the break springs and allow the outside levers to be again caught by the
spring catch and retained there until again acted upon by the fingers upon
the longitudinal bars. The backward action also of the engine is caused
to release the breaks through the medium of the front buffer being caused
to act when depressed upon the draw bars in a similar manner to the
forward action or pull of the engine.