IMPROVE- MENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Slater, of the Fitzroy Works, Euston
Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES."
Sealed the 30th July 1869, and dated the 3rd February 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Slater at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd February 1869.
I, JOHN SLATER, of the Fitzroy Works, Euston Road, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in railway carriages.
In a Provisional Specification filed by John Corbett, and dated the
5th day of November 1868, No. 8862, a method is described of pro-
tecting the bodies of railway carriages from the shock of collision by
causing the buffer rods when forced in to meet and form as it were
continuous rods passing from end to end of the train.
With this

page_text: arrangement however it is possible, the thrust being taken only in one
plane, for the carriages to tip or lift at one end. To obviate this I
employ two rows of buffers, one above the other, the upper row by
preference being at the top of the parriages, The buffer rods of both
rows of buffers are by preference arranged to meet in the manner
already described, so as to form rigid bars. Two rows of ordinary
buffers, one above the other, may, however, also be employed; but
although this arrangement is preferable to the use of the single row
of ordinary buffers it does not afford the security resulting from causing
the buffer rods to meet as continuous rods, as above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said John Slater in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd August 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SLATER, of the Fitzroy Works, Euston Road, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unta me, the said John Slater, Her special licence
that I, the said John Slater, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Slater, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 RAILWAY
CARRIAGES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Slater 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Slater, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
In addition to the two sets of buffers at present in use I place two or
more single or sets of buffers on each railway carriage, truck, van, waggon,
or car, on any part thereof, but in preference on the top, and placed so
as to act the same as the ordinary buffers, and to meet at the same time;
thus, in the event of abrupt stoppage or collision, the momentum of all
carriages, &c, aforesaid so fitted is arrested simultaneously both at the
top and at the bottom.
I aim for this Invention, that it will in a great measure prevent
the carriages, &c, from leaving the rails; that it will prevent the
jumping of the carriages &c. aforesaid, and thereby preclude the
possibility of their being thrown on the top of each other, which
is due I apprehend to the jumping having a tendency to prevent the
heads of the buffers of the one carriage meeting fairly the heads of
the buffers of the following carriage, the heads of the buffers, in
such cases of missing, acting as battering rams and forcing their way
into the other and corresponding carriages, and thereby damaging it.
I reserve to myself the liberty of applying any ordinary buffer as
above, but by preference I use "Corbett's continuous buffers," as set
forth in his Specification of date 5 Nov. A.D. 1868, and sealed 16 April
A.D. 1869.