IMPROVEMENTS IN BRAKES FOR RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WAGONS,
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Stokes, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Manufacturing Jeweller, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN BRAKES FOR RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WAGONS,
Ανη ηπατο 13
Sealed the 2nd April 1875, and dated the 5th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Stokes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 5th February 1875.
I, WILLIAM HENRY STOKES, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturing Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BRAKES FOR RAILWAY AND OTHER
CARRIAGES, WAGons, and Trucks," to be as follows :—
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
constructing and arranging the parts of and working brakes for railway
and other carriages, wagons, and trucks.

page_text: By my Invention great command is obtained over the motion of the
vehicle or vehicles to which it is applied, which vehicle or vehicles may
be casily and quickly brought to rest from a state of rapid motion.
I will describe my Invention as applied to a railway carriage. On the
under side of the carriage and extending under the middle of the
carriage is a rod supported in bearings, in which it is capable of a sliding
motion. The said sliding rod is between the axles and the bottom of the
carriage. On each axle are two discs, the said discs bearing respectively
against the inner faces of the two wheels or against the inner faces of
the tyres of the wheels. These discs are capable of a slight sliding
motion on the axle, but are incapable of a rotatory motion in con-
sequence of the ends of a bar fixed to the bottom of the carriage engaging
in holes in them near their peripheries. To the said bars and near the
ends thereof arms or levers are jointed. The said arms or levers have
motion in a horizontal plane, and their free ends extend somewhat
beyond the middle of the carriage, crossing or overlapping cach other,
and engaging in holes in the sliding rod herein-before described. The
said arms or levers are provided near the end on which they turn with
two strong brake blocks extending downwards, one on one side and the
other on the other side of the axle. When the sliding rod described is
pushed home in either direction it gives motion through a small angle
to the said arms or levers. A slightly oblique position is thereby given
to them, and the brake blocks on one or other side of them made to
press upon the discs described, and the latter to press with great force
upon the whole of the inner faces of the wheels or the tyres, and by the
resistance offered to the motion of the wheels to bring them quickly to
rest. When the sliding rod is no longer operated upon the arms or
levers assume their normal position by the action of springs and the
pressure on the wheels is removed.
.
The arrangement of parts described is applied to caeh pair of wheels
of the carriage, and by connecting the ends of the sliding rods together
in making up a train the guard can from his van simultaneously apply
the brake power to all the wheels of the train.
The application of my Invention to vehicles other than railway
carriages differs in no essential respect from its application to railway
carriages.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Henry Stokes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 28th July 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY STOKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturing Jeweller, send greeting:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Henry Stokes, Her special
licence that I, the said William Henry Stokes, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Henry_
Stokes, 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 BRAKES FOR RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WAGONS, AND.
TRUCKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Henry Stokes, 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 Invention,
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 William Henry Stokes, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
O is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—
5
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in
constructing and arranging the parts of and working brakes for railway
and other carriages, wagons, and trucks.
By my Invention great command is obtained over the motion of the
vehicle or vehicles to which it is applied, which vehicle or vehicles
may be easily and quickly brought to rest from a state of rapid motion.
:
>

page_text: I will describe my Invention as applied to a railway carriage. On the
under side of the carriage and extending under the middle of the
carriage is a rod supported in bearings in which it is capable of a
sliding motion. The said sliding rod is between the axles and the
bottom of the carriage. On each axle are two discs, the said discs
bearing respectively against the inner faces of the two wheels, or against
the inner faces of the tyres of the wheels. These discs are capable of a
slight sliding motion on the axle, but are incapable of a rotatory motion in
consequence of the ends of a bar fixed to the bottom of the carriage
engaging in holes in them near their peripheries. To the said bars and
near the ends thereof arms or levers are jointed. The said arms or levers
have motion in a horizontal plane, and their free ends extend somewhat
beyond the middle of the carriage, crossing or overlapping each other,
and engaging in holes in the sliding rod herein-before described. The
said arms or levers are provided near the end on which they turn with
two strong brake blocks extending downwards, one on one side and the
other on the other side of the axle. When the sliding rod described is
pushed home in either direction it gives motion through a small angle
to the said arms or levers. A slightly oblique position is thereby given
to them, and the brake blocks on one or other side of them made to
press upon the discs described, and the latter to press with great force
upon the whole of the inner faces of the wheels or the tyres, and by the
resistance offered to the motion of the wheels to bring them quickly to
rest. When the sliding rod is no longer operated upon the arms or
levers assume their normal position by the action of springs and the
pressure on the wheels is removed.
The arrangement of parts described is applied to each pair of wheels
of the carriage, and by connecting the ends of the sliding rods together
in making up a train the guard can from his van simultaneously apply
the brake power to all the wheels of the train.
The application of my Invention to vehicles other than railway
carriages differs in no essential respect from its application to railway
carriages.
Having explained the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe, with reference to the accompanying Drawings, the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in side elevation a portion of the body of a railway
carriage, to which a brake constructed according to my Invention is.

page_text: applied; Figure 2 is a plan of the under side of the same; Figure 3 is a
longitudinal section of the same taken on the line A, A, Figure 2; and
Figure 4 is a transverse vertical section of the same taken on the
line B, B, Figure 2; Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 represent parts of the
same drawn to a larger scale. The same letters of reference indicate tho
same parts in Figures 1 to 10.
a, a, are the wheels of the carriages, and 6 the axles of the same; c is
the sliding rod running along the middle of the under side of the
carriage and supported in the bearings d, d. The said rod o may be
square in cross section instead of the cylindrical figure represented. The
said sliding rod c is between the axles b, b, of the wheels a, a, and the
bottom of the carriage (see Figure 4). On the axle 6 of each pair of
wheels a, a, are two discs marked e, e, which discs bear respectively
against the inner faces of the two wheels.
I prefer to make the discs e, e, of wood and cover them with plates of
metal. One of these discs is represented detached drawn to a larger
scale in section and plan in Figure 5, and its metallic covering plate is
represented in Figure 6. The inner or bearing face of the said discs e, e,
is convex, and the inner face of the wheels a, a, is cupped to receive the
said convex face of the disc. The manner in which the convex face of
the disc engages with the cupped face of the wheel is best seen in the
cross section, Figure 4. One of the wheels is represented on a larger
scale in elevation and section in Figure 7.
Instead of making the acting or bearing face of the disc convex it
may be made flat, the inner face of the wheel being also flat, but I prefer
to give the disc and wheel the figures represented. The discs e, e, are
capable of a slight sliding motion on the axle 6, but the said discs are
prevented from rotating on the axle by means of the studs f², f³, on the
bars or brackets f fixed to the under side of the carriage taking into
holes in the disos e, e.
One of these bars or brackets is represented on a larger scale in side
elevation, end elevation, and plan in Figure 8, and the holes in the disc
into which the studs take are marked h, h, in Figures 5 and 6. By
means of spring arms i (shown separately in Figure 9) the discs e are
drawn from the faces of the wheels and made to take their normal posi-
tions on the axles when the levers herein-after described are not in action.
To the middle sliding rod c pairs of arms or levers k, k, are jointed, the

page_text: joint being formed by the inner overlapping ends of each pair of levers
passing through a slot in the middle of the rod c. A pair of levers is
used with each pair of wheels of the carriage, the said levers turning in
a horizontal plane upon the centres 2, 1, carried by the fixed blocks or
brackets f, f.
One of these levers is represented separately drawn to a larger scale in
elevation, plan, and end clevation in Figure 10. That end of each
lever near the joint on which it turns is expanded, the said expanded
parts constituting two strong brake blocks marked ks, ³, extending down-
wards. The brake block 2 of each lever is situated on one side and the
other brake block of each lever is situated on the other side of the
axle b (see the longitudinal section Figure 3). When the sliding rod c
is pushed home in the direction of the arrow, Figure 2, it gives motion
through a small angle to the several levers k, k. By the motion described
of the sliding rod c the several levers take the oblique positions indicated
in dotted lines at C, C, Figure 2, and the brake block k³ of each lever k
is made to press on the disc. e near which it is situated, the said disc
sliding on the axle b. The two discs e, e, of cach pair of wheels are
thereby pressed with great force upon the whole of the inner faces of the
wheels, and by their action bring the carriage or train of carriages quickly
to rest.
When the sliding rod c is moved in a direction contrary to that indi-
cated by the arrow, Figure 2, the several levers k, k, take the oblique
positions indicated in dotted lines at D, D, Figure 2, and the brake
blocks of the said levers are now put into action and made to press
the discs e, e, against the inner faces of the wheels. One or other of
the brake blocks k² or k³ of each lever k is thus brought into action
according as the rod c is moved in one or other direction, as will be under-
stood by an examination of Figure 2. When the pressure is removed
from the sliding rod c the levers k, k, take their normal positions, or the
positions represented in Figure 2, by a spring acting on the said rod.
The pressure of the brake blocks or being removed from the
discs e, e, the said discs slide on the axles 6 from the wheels a, and the
said wheels are now free to rotate without obstruction from the said
discs.

page_text: so constructed that they bear only on a portion of the inner faces of the
wheels or upon the inner faces of the tyre parts of the wheels, that is,
the circumferential parts of the discs may act upon the faces of the
wheels near the tyres.
The construction of the brakes described and the mechanism for
working them may be applied to one carriage only of a train or to all
the carriages of a train. In the last case the ends of the sliding rods c
running along the middles of the several carriages are coupled together
on making up a train in a like manner to that by which the several
carriages of a train are coupled together. The said sliding rods c may
be coupled together in various ways which I do not think it necessary to
describe. When the brakes of the several carriages are connected
together the guard can from his van simultaneously apply the brake
power to all the wheels of the train.
When from the particular construction of the wheels of the carriages
the cupped arrangement of the disc and wheel cannot be used, the
sliding discs may be dispensed with and the levers be made to act
directly on the inner faces of the wheels or portions thereof instead of
operating upon the wheels through the sliding discs. This modification
of my Invention is illustrated in Figures 11, 12, and 13 of the Drawings;
Figure 11 representing a front clevation of a wheel provided with this
construction of brake; Figure 12, a side elevation of the same; and
Figure 13, a plan of the same.
The brake blocks k³, k*, on the lever have in this arrangement a
quadrant form, the quadrant-shaped brake blocks operating upon the
flat inner face of the wheel a to arrest the motion of the said wheel.
The position of the quadrant brake blocks ³, k³ with respect to the face
of the wheel is best seen in Figure 11, and the way in which they are
alternately brought into action according to the direction in which
the sliding rod c is moved will be understood by an examination of
Figure 13.
Having now described the nature of my Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated, as
the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my Inven-
tion; but I claim as my Invention the improvements in brakes for

page_text: railway and other carriages, wagons, and trucks herein-before described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, that is to say, I claim,-
First. Arresting the motion of railway carriages or trains of carriages
and other carriages, wagons, and trucks, by causing brake discs to press
with great force upon the inner faces of the wheels or portions of the
wheels, or upon the inner faces of the tyres of the wheels of the said
carriages, wagons, or trucks, the said discs being constructed, combined,
and acting substantially as described and illustrated.
And I claim, Secondly. The construction and combination of the
brake levers marked k, k³, k³, and the sliding rod c for arresting the
motion of the railway or other carriage or carriages, wagons,. or trucks,
substantially as described and illustrated, whether the said brake levers
act directly upon the inner faces of the wheels or tyres of the wheels or
upon discs pressing upon the inner faces of the wheels or tyres of the
said wheels.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Stokes, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of July, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
WILLIAM HENRY STOKES. (L.S.)
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.