IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY TRAINS AND OTHER CARRIAGES, AND GENERALLY WHERE A LIFTING POWER OR PRESSURE IS REQUIRED
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
Cunliffe Lister, of Manningham Hall, in the Parish of Bradford, in the
County of York, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth day of.
January, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the eleventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her.
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, my exors, adññors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during.
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY TRAINS AND OTHER CARRIAGES,
AND GENERALLY WHERE A LIFTING POWER OR PRESSURE IS REQUIRED;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister,.
should cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and:
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of..
Chancery within six calendar months. next and immediately after the date of

page_text: the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same," reference bein
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the sai
Samuel Cunliffe Lister, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inver
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are full
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, referenc
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letter
marked thereon, that is to say:-
The numerous accidents which are constantly taking place on railways hav
long called for some more expeditious and effectual method of stopping train
at high velocities. A guard acting upon the wheels of one carriage canno
instantly bring a train to a state of rest, and a number of guards operating
upon several carriages is but little better, from the impossibility of getting
them all to act at the same moment, and consequently when it is necessary to
stop a train instantly, accidents are constantly occurring which might other-
wise be avoided. The object of my Invention is to remedy such evils, and to
point out a simple and ready method by which the wheels of every carriage
in the train may be operated upon at the same moment.
I will now proceed to describe the Invention by which I accomplish such a
desirable object. I first fix an air box or tank in the carriage of the guard,
a suitable air pump being attached which is worked by the axle of the carriage,
and keeps the air box filled with air at the requisite pressure.
It is not
necessary that I should give a detailed description of the air pump, as it is a
well-known instrument, and any intelligent workman would, by means of a
crank or wheels, readily work it from the axle of the carriage. All that is
necessary in the air box is, that it should be of sufficient strength to bear a
pressure of fifty or sixty pounds to the square inch, or more if required. The
chief object in having the air at such a high pressure is to avoid the necessity
of having to carry large air boxes. The tank should be provided with valves
to let the air in and out of the pipes as may be required. To the air tank I
attach a pipe which is placed under the carriages, and I connect the pipes so
placed by means of suitable joints so as to produce one continuous pipe from.
one end of the train to the other. From the main pipe I have branch pipes
which convey the air to the pistons, which press against the wheels of the
carriages with any force that may be required. Supposing the air in the pipes
to be at a pressure of five lbs. (as it will, of course, expand upon leaving the
air chest), and the piston to have an area of four hundred square inches, it
would act upon each wheel with a pressure of two thousand lbs., and, as will
be readily understood, the force, may be increased or diminished by increasing
or diminishing the pressure of the air in the tubes or the area of the piston.
.4

page_text: In order that the Invention may be more fully understood, I will proceed
to describe the Drawings annexed. P is the pipe which conveys the air into
the cylinder C, which acting upon H, H, the heads of the pistons which work
in the air-tight cylinder c, and forces them against the wheels; F, F, are the
fixings by which the pistons are firmly held when pressing against the wheels.
It is not necessary that the pistons should move more than an inch, and when
the air is let out of the pipe, the wheels themselves will force back the
pistons. Although both pistons are shewn to be acting upon one cylinder in
opposite directions, yet in many instances it will be less expensive, and the
break will be firmer, by fixing separate air boxes or cylinders close to each
wheel. The manner of working the breaks is as follows:-The guard wish-
ing to stop a train turns the valve, upon which the air fills the pipes and the
air boxes, and presses the pistons against the wheels or rails with such force
as instantly to stop the train. It is necessary in connecting the pipes of the
different carriages together to have an expeditious and at the same time
perfectly air-tight joint, and it is also necessary to have them so fixed as
to allow for the oscillation of the carriages from side to side. The kind of
joint which I believe to be the most suitable (because it will allow the carriages
to approach and recede a little from each other) is to have a hollow plunger
ground into each end of the pipe so as to be as air tight as the piston of an
air pump, and yet by having the hollow plunger of sufficient length, it will act
like a telescope joint, and it will be shortened or elongated as the carriages
approache or recede from each other; flexible pipes would also do if made of
the requisite strength to bear the pressure of the air. Nearly the same effect
may be produced by pumping a vacuum in the pipes and caising the atmo-
sphere to press upon the pistons.
What I claim as my Invention is, the so applying elastic fluids that they
may be conducted to and act on the breaks of several carriages of a train
simultaneously, or by a vacuum, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.

page_text: Manningham Hall, in the Parish of Bradford, in the County of York,
Esquire, for his Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOPPING RAILWAY
TRAINS AND OTHER CARRIAGES, AND GENERALLY WHERE A LIFTING POWER OR
PRESSURE IS REQUIRED," bearing date at Westminster, this Eighteenth
day of January, One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
DISCLAIMER proposed to be entered by Samuel Cunliffe Lister with the
Clerk of the Patents of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the
fifth and sixth years of the reign of His late Majesty King William
the Fourth, intituled "An Act to amend the Law touching Letters
Patent for Inventions."
I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, do declare that since I obtained the said
Letters Patent I have discovered that the Invention which was to have been
described under that part of the title which is contained in the following words
"and other Carriages, and generally where a Lifting Power or Pressure is
required," is not of such practical utility as would make it desirable to retain
it in the said Patent, for which reason I am desirous to and do hereby dis-
claim all that part of the title which is contained in the following words
"and other Carriages, and generally where a Lifting Power or Pressure is
required."
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
To the Clerk of the Patents of England.
This is to certify that the above-named Samuel Cunliffe Lister, of Man-
ningham Hall, in the Parish of Bradford, in the County of York, Esquire,
has applied to me for leave to enter with you the above-written Disclaimer
of part of the title of a certain Invention for which Letters Patent were
duly granted to him under the Great Seal of Great Britain, dated at
Westminster, the 18th day of January, 1848; and having considered of the
said application and no objection having been made to the same, I hereby
grant leave to the said Samuel Cunliffe Lister to file his said Disclaimer,
pursuant to the Statute passed in the fifth & sixth years of the reign of His

page_text: late Majesty King William the Fourth, entituled "An Act to amend the Law
touching Letters Patent for Inventions."
Lincoln's Inn,
JOHN ROMILLY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of July, in the
year of our Lord 1848, the aforesaid Samuel Cunliffe Lister came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped accord-
ing to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.