IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND IN APPARATUS OB APPLIANCES FOR CLEARING OR CLEANING TRAMWAY RAILS AND THE GROOVES THEREIN
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George James Cross and
Alexander Macgillivray at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 13th May 1872.
We, GEORGE JAMES CROSS, of New Oross, in the County of Kent,
and ALEXANDER MACGILLIVRAY, of Camberwell, in the County of
Surrey, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND IN APPARATUS OB APPLIANCES FOR CLEARING
OR CLEANING TRAMWAY RAILS AND THE GROOVES THEREIN," to be as follows:-
-
Various attempts have been made to provide apparatus to clear out
the dirt, snow, sand, stones, and other substances that collect and are
drawn into or on the groove and surface or track of tramway rails (and
which considerably impede the progress of the cars), but with no great
success, and this has been chiefly owing to the impossibility of re-
gulating the position of the brush, scoop, plough, or other appliance
that has been used because of the varying heights of the carriage from
the rails, according to the number of passengers, goods, merchandise,
raw material, &c., in the car, carriage, or other vehicle, for sometimes
the brush, scoop, or plough to be effective ought to be running in the

page_text: groove itself, and at other times it ought to be clear of the same, but
by the arrangements heretofore proposed or used this has not been
attained, now by our Invention we are enabled to accomplish the
above objects with great ease and facility.
The Invention consists in the employment of a rotary brush or
brushes, the bristles of which are preferably made of steel or other
metal wire mounted on an axle which is caused to revolve by a cross
strap, cord, chain, or gut passing round pulleys on the axles of the
wheel or wheels of a tramway car, carriage, or other vehicle, and the
brush wheel or wheels, or other equivalent means; the brush may be 1
made to correspond in shape with the groove of the track, or it may
have a plain surface or otherwise, as required; as the car travels so the
brush revolves in an opposite direction in or on the groove or track.
The bristles are fixed by pins, screws, or other means in the metal
bosses of the brushes. The brush can be removed or replaced without ]
disconnecting the apparatus or removing the car from the tramway.
The Invention further consists in connecting a lever to the brush
axle which is acted on by a screw-threaded rod under command of
the driver, so that by turning the screw by a handle or otherwise the
aforesaid lever is raised or depressed, and with it by preference in a a
parallel guide the brush axle and brush; in this way the brush may
be kept down in the groove or out of it by the driver or attendant,
as required. Apparatus arranged in the manner before described may
bo fitted to both ends and sides of the car, or only at one end, as desired;
but we prefer to fit them to both ends of the car, so that whichever way:
the car, carriage, or other vehicle be travelling the driver always has the
brush under his immediate control.
As a modification of the above it is sometimes advantageous to have
a spiral or other spring to keep the brush spindle down, in connection
with a notched lever or equivalent means operating the rod which de-
presses or raises the brush axle; on releasing the lever the spring at once
forces the brush down, and vice versa.