IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Martin Sullivan, of Clapham, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES."
Sealed the 1st July 1879. and dated the 3rd January 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Martin Sullivan
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd January 1879.
ALEXANDER MARTIN SULLIVAN, of Clapham, in the County of Surrey. "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BRAKES."
The object and nature of this Invention is to produce and communicate by a
simple and direct mechanism a motion or effect caused, directed, and controlled by
or from a brake-windlass or wheel on the engine or brake van or other part of a
railway train for the purpose generally of putting on or taking off brakes of any
one of various descriptions, and particularly for the purpose of working the lever
handle or any like lever handle referred to in a Provisional Specification lodged by
me on the 26th October 1878, No. 4306, whether such lever handle be with or
without the weighted end therein mentioned, and whether such weighted end be
with or without the latch and ratchet appliance therein mentioned.
On or in connection with the pulley-wheel mentioned in the said Provisional
Specification, or a pulley-wheel otherwise suited for this purpose, I place a worm
wheel or tooth wheel. Close by this wheel I place horizontally a metal rod, bar,
or tube (which I call the motion-rod) extending from end to end or nearly from
end to end of the truck, wagon, or carriage. On the portion of the motion-rod
which immediately adjoins the worm wheel I place a screw-thread or worm calcu-
Jated to work into and to turn the said wheel when the motion rod is made to
revolve. The motion-rod is allowed to revolve, yet is kept in its proper place and
horizontal position by cheeks, loops, or other suitable means.
I cause the motion of any one motion-rod to be communicated to the motion-rod
of the next adjoining vehicle by, amongst other means, the following:-I make the
end portions of the several motion rods either square or triangular, and I slide on
from the end of one such motion-rod to the near end of the motion-rod of the next
T

page_text: vehicle a sleeve, the interior of which as to shape and size fits the square or trian-
gular ends of the motion-rods on which it slides. This sleeve when so put on
remains partly on the end of each of the two motion-rods thus connected, and it is
so fastened as not to come off until its removal is desired. It freely allows the rods
to approach or recede one to or from the other in so far as the couplings of the two
vehicles may admit of, but the rotary motion of one rod is by the sleeve communi-
cated to the other motion rod.
Another of the several modes of communicating the said motion is as follows, that
is to say I use in place of the metal sleeve a link formed by a spiral spring or
coil of spring wire or steel rod. When I desire to effect the communication by this
means I either fasten the spiral spring at each end to the ends respectively of the
motion rods, or else I fix each end of the spiral spring in a socket which slides on
the end of the motion-rod, and I treat the spiral spring as if it were a sleeve.
By either of the foregoing means, amongst others, I connect the motion rod of
the vehicle next to the engine or brake van, with a motion rod directly worked and
caused to rotate by the turning of a windlass or wheel on or in the engine or brake
van, so turned or worked by the engine driver or guard whereby all the connected
motion rods are caused to revolve.
By means of the foregoing motion-rod and worm wheel, and the motion and
effect produced and communicated as before mentioned, I also at option raise and
lower a weighted fall-lover-brake-handle similar to that described in my said already
lodged Provisional Specification, except that I dispense with the spring latch and
ratchet arrangement therein mentioned.
By means of the foregoing motion-rod and worm wheel, and the motion and effect
produced and communicated as before mentioned, I also at option raise and lower a
fall-lever-brako-handle similar to that described in my said already lodged Provi-
sional Specification, except that I dispense with the weighted end and the spring
latch and ratchet arrangement, and likewise with the fall chain and pull chain and
with the pulley wheels for the said chains therein mentioned. I connect with the
axle of the worm wheel, which is turned by the screw thread on the motion rod, a
wheel, or disc, or crank, or lever, which by means of a rod, or bar, or otherwise, I
connect with the end of the fall-lever-brake-handle, or any of several other appli-
ances for operating a wheel brako, so that tho rotating of the motion-rod and the
turning of the worm wheel will lift or lower the fall-lever-brake-handle, or operate
any of the other appliances already referred to.