IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR APPLYING BRAKES TO THE WHEELS OF CARRIAGES, PARTS OF WHICH APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Wright at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
February 1871.
I, EDWARD WRIGHT, of Cannon Street, in the City of London,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR APPLYING BRAKES TO THE WHEELS OF
CARRIAGES, PARTS OF WHICH APPARATUS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in arranging levers or rods so that when any
suitable power is applied for the purpose of putting brakes into operation
upon carriage wheels, the point .at which the power is applied shall
travel through a comparatively short distance whilst the brake or block
is applied to the circumference of the wheel with great force. I also
apply a similar arrangement of levers or rods to the purpose of working:
the driving shafts of crushing and other mills in which case the handle
or point to which the driving power is applied passes through a less
space than the handles ordinarily used for driving such mills.
For the purpose of putting into operation brakes upon carriage wheels
by this Invention I take a lever or rod of suitable length turning upon

page_text: a centre or fulcrum at one end. This centre or fulcrum is mado
moveable either by sliding in a suitable guide or by being connected to
one end of a radius rod or vibrating link, the other end of which turns
upon a centre. I form a short lever, or wheel, or segment of a wheel
turning upon a centre which is fixed in a suitable position so that one
end of this lever, or a point near the circumference of the wheel or
segment, may be connected to a point in the lever or rod first described
at any suitable distance between the moveable fulcrum described, and
the other extremity to which the hand or foot or other power is applied.
And I fix or connect the brake block which is to be pressed against the
circumference of the wheel to the other end (which I prefer to make
of less length) of the short lever or to another point in the wheel or
segment of a wheel already described. In this way the point at which
the power is applied travels through a comparatively short distance,
whilst the pressure of the brake block applied to the circumference of
the wheel is very great.
Where this Invention is applied to the purpose of working the driving
shaft of crushing or other mills I use a similar arrangement of a lever
or rod having its fulcrum sliding in a guide or attached to one end of
a vibrating link, and I connect the point in the lever or rod which in
the arrangement already described was connected to a short lover to a
crank or handle upon the driving shaft of the crushing mill (upon
which a fly wheel is also fixed). By this means the crank or handle
may be of shorter length than usual whilst the extremity of the lever
or bar to which the hand or other power is applied instead of describing
a circle describes an ellipse approaching to a straight line.
The accompanying Sheet of Drawings is in illustration of some forms
of the apparatus constructed according to this Invention.
·
Fig. 1 shews one of the methods which I adopt for putting into
operation brakes upon carriage wheels. A is a lever turning upon the
centro or fulcrum B. This centre or fulcrum B is mado moveablo end-
ways either by sliding in a suitable guide C or by being connected to a
vibrating link as shewn at C, Fig. 2, which turns upon the centre D. E,
Fig. 1, is a short lever which I sometimes make in the form of a wheel
or segment of a whcol turning upon the centre F and connected
at the point G to tho lever A. The brake block II is connected to
a shorter lever turning upon the centro F, and when the lever A is
depressed, the brako block E is thus forced against the circumference

page_text: of the wheel (shown in dotted lines). In Fig. 2 the brake block H
is shewn attached directly to the centre F.
Sometimes I apply the apparatus as shown in Figures 1, 2, and 3, to
cach end of the carriage. In such case I make another lever similar
to the lever A but turned in the opposite direction, and I connect to
a suitable point in it a lever similar to that marked E in Fig. 1 and
turning upon the same centre F. This lever is connected in the same
way as E to a brake block pressing against a wheel at the other end
of the carriage. In this way the brakes on carriages for tramways
or railways can be worked from either end of such carriages.
Fig. 3 shews another arrangement in which A is the principal lever
turning upon the centre B as already described, to which the brako
block H is connected. To a point G in the lever A is connected the
end of the rod or link E, the other end of which turns upon the fixed
centre F.
Figures 4 and 5 shew apparatus constructed according to this Inven-
tion applied to working the driving shaft of a crushing mill. A is a lever
turning upon the centre B which can move endways either by sliding
in the guide C, Fig. 4, or by means of the vibrating link as already
described and shewn at C, Fig. 5. D is a crank pin or handle upon the
driving shaft of the crushing mill which is connected to the lever A.
The handle or end of the lever to which the power is applied takes a
longer stroke than the crank or handle D and describes an elliptical
path much nearer approaching to a straight line than that of the crank
pin, and in this way considerable advantage is obtained.