AN IMPROVEMENT IN COUPLING AND CONNECTING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joshua Williams, of Neath, in the County of
Glamorgan, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN COUPLING
AND CONNECTING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS."
Sealed the 7th May 1858, and dated the 11th November 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joshua Williams at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th November 1857.
I, JOSHUA WILLIAMS, of Neath, in the County of Glamorgan, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
COUPLING AND CONNECTING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
My Invention is intended to obviate accidents arising from the breaking of
the connecting apparatus employed between the draw hooks or chains, or from
the breaking of the draw bar or draw chains or hooks, or the derangement or
breaking of other parts connected therewith. It consists in the employment
of two supplementary draw bars or equivalents thereto (in addition to each
ordinary draw bar), to be connected by preference to the same draw spring aś
is employed with the regular draw bar. But a separate spring or springs may
be used, if desired, in connection with the supplementary bars. I employ side
couplings or safety chains, and connect them to the supplementary bars, and
in these chains less slack should be allowed than is customary in the safety
chains as ordinarily employed.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joshua Williams in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
11th May 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
WILLIAMS, of Neath, in the County of Glamorgan, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Joshua Williams, Her special licence that I, the said Joshua
Williams, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Joshua Williams, my executors, administrators, 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
"AN IMPROVEMENT IN COUPLING AND CONNECTING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joshua Williams, 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 per-
formed, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joshua Williams, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is, to say:-
My Invention is intended to obviate accidents arising from the breaking of
the connecting apparatus employed between the draw hooks or chains, or from
the breaking of the draw bar or draw chains or hooks, or the derangement or
breaking of other parts connected therewith. It consists in the employment
of two supplementary draw bars or equivalents thereto (in addition to each
ordinary draw bar), to be connected by preference to the same draw spring as a
is employed with the regular draw bar. But a separate spring or springs may
be used, if desired, in connexion with the supplementary bars. I employ side
couplings or safety chains and connect them to the supplementary bars, and in

page_text: these chains less slack should be allowed than is customary in the safety chains
as ordinarily employed.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed I have illustrated the methods which
I adopt for carrying my Invention into effect.
Figure is a side elevation, and Figure 2 a plan of a railway carriage fitted
with my improvement. A is an iron frame, usually termed a cradle, into
which the draw bars B, B, enter; they then pass through the vulcanised
india-rubber or other suitable springs C, C, and through crossheads D, D, to
which they are connected by the nuts E, E. The crossheads D, D, are
connected at F, F; by joints, nuts, or other fastenings, with the supplementary
draw bars G, G, G, G; these bars are fitted with chains H, H, H, H, (usually
called side or safety chains) at their reverse ends. Now, supposing two or
more carriages coupled together by the ordinary coupling I, I, the chains H, H,
are afterwards linked together, but only as much "slack" is required as will
allow of them being connected. Should the coupling I, or the draw bar B, or
anything connected therewith, break when the carriages are in motion, the
chains H, H, would immediately receive the shock, which would be transmitted
at once through the springs C to the supplementary bars G and the cross-
lieads D; thus the chance of the chains H becoming disconnected or broken,
or of the frame of the carriage being broken, as at a, Figure 4, is very much
lessened, and the safety of the train promoted; for it has frequently happened
that from the present loose and imperfect method of employing such chains,
and also from their being attached to the frames of the carriages only, the
train has separated into two or more portions upon the giving way of the
centre draw chain or bar. This danger is the greater as it is necessary in the
old plan to allow more "slack" to the chains H in order to provide for the
play of the centre draw bars; but by this Invention such extra slack is dispensed
with. Figure 3 shews a side elevation, and Figure 4 a plan, of the old method
referred to, exhibiting the extreme slack required at 6 compared with that at c
on the new plan.
Figures 5, 6, 7, and 8 shew my improvement adapted to some of the
existing construction of draw-spring apparatus and fittings, and will be under-
stood from inspection. It can also be adapted to any other suitable description
of apparatus; the essential principle of this Invention being so to connect the
chains H with the existing draw spring or with other suitable springs that, in
the event of the centre coupling apparatus giving way, the shock or strain shall
immediately come back upon the same spring, or upon the spring or springs
which may be specially provided in connection with the chains and supple-
mentary bars, in such a manner as to relieve the carriage from the shock and

page_text: keep the train entire. Figure 9 shews one of the various applications of
independent springs for the supplementary bars that may be had recourse to,
but I prefer connecting them with the centre springs, as with the other arrange-
ments more slack would be needed to the chains H, and they would be con-
sequently less efficient. Chains or other means may be employed to connect
the chains H with the springs upon which they are to act, but I prefer a solid
iron bar as most serviceable. Figure 10 shows another modification which
I sometimes adopt.
Separate cradles may be formed similar to Figure 9, and fastened by screw
bolts or otherwise to the centre cradle in Figures 1 and 2; and these separate
cradles may contain the independent spring or springs before referred to in
connection with the supplementary draw bars.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the employment
of supplementary draw bars or equivalents thereto (in addition to each
ordinary draw.bar) in connection at their inner ends with the ordinary draw
spring or with any other suitable spring or springs, and at their other ends
with suitable side couplings or safety chains, in the manner and for the
purposes herein-before described, and illustrated in the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Williams, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of May, One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-eight.
JOSHUA WILLIAMS. (L.S.)