In- PROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Naylor at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th.
August 1868.
I, WILLIAM NAYLOR, of Mildmay Park, in the County of Middlesex,.
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "In-
PROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention relates, firstly, to means or apparatus for applying:
nearly simultaneously any number of brakes to carriages, wagons, or-.
any other description of railway vehicles, which may be denominated
a set of continuous breaks, and consists of weighted levers suspended
by a rope or chain passing under or along each vehicle over fixed
pullies and under pullies attached to the weighted brake levers, which
weights being lifted, suspended, or lowered act by the force of their.
gravity through levers or other well known and suitable means and
connections upon the break blocks, thereby forcing them against the
periphery of the wheels of the carriages. A second weighted lever
may be employed in connection with the lever above described for
the purpose of adding to the power when the brake is put into action..
As the distance between the vehicles composing a train varies as the-

page_text: draw springs are distended or the buffing springs are compressed, or
where a varying length of coupling chains connecting the vehicles
together is used, I propose to counteract these variations by two or
more bars and a connecting piece or pieces carrying a pulley or pullics
under which the rope or chain passes from vehicle to vehicle. These
bars in their normal condition are bent down to an angle of
about 45 degrees, and as any two carriages approach nearer together
the bars become more bent down through their joints and pins and
draw the rope or chain with them, thereby suspending the levers at
very nearly the same level, so that they are when required ready for
being lowered one after another in rapid succession, and either a portion
or the entire series connected together. Gravity is the only force that
is applied in putting the breaks on, and its action is certain and almost
instantaneous. The weighted levers are raised and the brakes withdrawn
from the wheels by hauling in the chain or rope at one or both ends
until all are lifted; this may be done by the guard working a capstan
or windlass of sufficient multiplying power, or by a small steam engine
in connection with the boiler of the locomotive, or by steam power direct
from the piston, or by water pressure acting against a piston or ram,
which by a series of pullies moving a proportionate short distance draw
the single line of rope or chain. The water pressure may be obtained
by the use of a pump worked by an eccentric on one of the axles of
the vehicle carrying the guard or brakesman. The pump can be
worked through the medium of a slotted link; to one end is attached
the eccentric rod, to the other end a radiating rod, but without movement;
when the eccentric rod end of the link is moved to the pump it is put
to work, and when the necessary force has been attained a pressure
gauge moves the slotted link so as to bring the still end of the link
to the pump, and it ceases to work. As a reservoir of power an
accumulator may be employed, and in case the breaks should be down
and the accumulator exhausted, by which there would be no means
of putting the ordinary pump to work, a pump worked by hand may be
employed for the purpose.
Another part of my Invention consists in having a weighted lever
break as the last vehicle of a goods, cattle, fish, coal, or mineral train, or
any train of that character. The weighted lever to be attached to the
preceding vehicle and so as to be lifted, and the brakes free from the
wheels before the ordinary draw gear comes into operation. With such
a brake attached to a portion of a goods' train any tendency of such

page_text: train to move backwards will put the break fully on as it is self-acting,
and that whether the guard or brakesman be attending to it or not.
In case of its being necessary for the train to move backwards, such as
shunting into a siding, the guard may have a means of suspending
the brake during that operation by a chock between the buffers, so
preventing their coming near together. In connection with this arrarge-
ment a second lever may be employed in the manner described with
reference to the first part of my Invention.
A further part of my Invention consists in having a steam cylinder
and piston through its rod attached to one end of a lever of the first
order, the other end of such lever being attached to the end of the
tender brake lever. The steam power may be so regulated by a pressure
guage as to be equal to the maximum power of the stoker with the
ordinary means in present use. In case from any accident there should
not be any steam in the engine by which this brake may be actuated,
an arrangement may be adopted for enabling the stoker to screw
down the break as at present. This power may be exerted almost
instantaneously, as time in preventing collision is of great importance.