IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING CARRIAGES USED ON RAILWAYS OR COMMON ROADS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Massi at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th March
1862.
I, CHARLES MASSI, of 13, Greville Street, Holborn, in, the County of
Middlesex, Philosophical Apparatus. Manufacturer, do, hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR
RETARDING AND STOPPING CARRIAGES USED ON RAILWAYS OR COMMON ROADS," to be
as follows:-
ران
. **
This Invention has for its object the more instantaneous and effectual
application of brake power to the wheels of railway or other carriages than
is at present obtained, and also securing the simultaneous action of the brakes
to the tyres of as many carriages as may be desired when the Invention is
used on railways.
For the purpose of carrying out my improvements; I take a carriage, to
the tyres of the wheels of which the ordinary brake block is applied and
fixed in the usual manner, to the other end of the lever actuating the brake
block, or to another lever keyed or otherwise fastened on to a shaft, when
two or more wheels have the brake applied to them: I fix a "keeper" which
is attached thereto by screws or rivets, but I prefer to arrange it in such a
manner that the "keeper" shall be capable of adjustment when desired.
Opposite to this keeper I place a horse-shoe magnet of soft iron with a
copper coil outside thereof constructed in the manner now well known and

page_text: practised in manufacturing electro-magnets, one end of the wire coil is attached
to the galvanic battery, and whenever the apparatus requires to be used the
other end of the coil is brought into contact with the battery in like manner;
the effect of this is that as soon as the soft iron horse-shoe is magnetized the
keeper attached to the brake lever is forcibly drawn towards it and the brake
forthwith presses against the circumference of the wheel with a degree of
power proportioned to the strength of the magnet, thereby retarding or stop-
ping the carriage. It will be obvious that as one of these magnets and brakes
may be applied to every wheel or pair of wheels of a carriage, and the power
of the battery can act instantaneously on as many magnets as may be in con-
tact with it, it will be perfectly practicable to apply the apparatus to every
carriage of a railway train however long and as instantaneously-remove the
brake when not required. The wear of the brake blocks can be provided
for by the adjusting apparatus before alluded to as attached to the keeper, or
I can make the frame carrying the magnet capable of adjustment with the
same object. For the purpose of obtaining a longer pull than is usual with
electro-magnets, I make the keeper by preference in two or more parts
one working inside the other; the outer part is attached to the lever by means
of a metal box connected to the keeper and to the lever; the inner part or
parts travel within this box and have a suitable spring behind to keep it or
them in their proper position, and though I prefer to employ this arrange-
ment of the keeper I can work the apparatus perfectly well by the means first
described.