IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BUFFERS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Rowe at the Office of the.
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd February
1865.
I, WILLIAM ROWE, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, Plumber, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF BUFFERS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction of
buffers for railway carriages, and which combine simplicity with greater safety
than is obtained by the use of the buffers hitherto employed, while they are
Jess liable to become deranged or to get out of repair. A cylindrical tube
or trunk is attached or secured in any convenient and suitable manner to
each side of the carriage, the extreme ends thereof being enlarged or bell
shaped. In these cylindrical tubes or trunks are the buffer rods, which are
of such length as to extend from one end thereof to the other, and when in
their normal position to project to such a distance from the ends of the
cylindrical tubes or trunks as to preserve the required distance between the
carriages when at rest. The ends of the buffer rods are not furnished with
the ordinary buffer heads, but are enclosed in cylindrical metallic cases of
such diameter as to work freely in the before-mentioned cylindrical tubes or
trunks, the spaces between such metallic cases and the buffer rods which
run through the centre thereof, being filled up with wood or other material

page_text: adapted for the purpose.
purpose. The interior of the central portions of the
cylindrical tubes or trunks in which the buffer rods work are contracted so
as to leave but a little larger diameter than is sufficient for the buffer rods
to work freely therein. The spaces between the internal ends of the terminal
metallic casings attached to the buffer rods and the contracted central
portions of the cylindrical tubes or trunks are fitted with concentric elastic
rings of vulcanized india-rubber, or with some other elastic material or
substance adapted for the purpose. Upon a collision taking place, the
terminal metallic casings with which the ends of the buffer rods exposed to
the blow are furnished will be driven into the cylindrical tubes or trunks,
thus compressing the elastic rings or springs before mentioned against the
contracted portion of the cylindrical tubes or trunks, while the ends of the
buffer rods with their terminal metallic casings furthest from the point of
concussion will in their turn act upon the buffers of the next carriage and
thus communicate and equalize the momentum occasioned by the collision
throughout the train. As the buffer rods are not furnished with the heads
commonly employed, the terminal metallic casings at the ends thereof are
free to enter the cylindrical tubes or trunks of the adjoining carriages, thus,
in the event of a collision, connecting and locking together the several
carriages of which the train is composed, and thus having a tendency to
prevent them from rising on end or turning over or leaving the line. The
entrance of the terminal metallic casings of the buffer rods into the cylindrical
tubes or trunks is facilitated by the ends of the latter being enlarged or
constructed of a bell shape as before mentioned, thus allowing and compensa
ting for any slight inequality of level in the carriages or buffers. If, however,
it should be desired, the cylindrical cases may be provided with buffer heads
such as are ordinarily employed; in which case although the carriages will
not in the event of a collision become locked or connected together, yet the
shock or momentum resulting therefrom will be communicated and distributed
throughout the train as before mentioned.