IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS
Year: 1856

page_text: by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th January
1856. A communication.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, and of Glasgow, North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS," a
communication from Jean Baptiste Marie Albert Cochot, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, to be as follows:
This Invention relates to certain peculiar constructions and arrangements of
railway breaks, wherein the carriages or waggons are lifted entirely off the
rails, and rest with the whole of their weight upon suitable shoes or skids,
which are brought instantaneously into contact with the rails at every carriage
throughout the entire length of the train, if desired, when the breaks are to
be put on.
According to one modification, each or any desired number of carriages in
the train is fitted with four shoes or skids, placed each in front of the wheels
of the carriage. These shoes are connected to lever arms, which have a slight
vertical play at their upper ends in suitable sockets, formed in two shafts,
working in bearings bolted to the under side of the main framing, one shaft
being at or near the front end, and the other at or near the back end of the

page_text: carriage. The object of allowing the vertical play is to compensate for tho
varying height of the carriage.framing from the rails, according as the carriage
contains a greater or less number of passengers.
Each pair of shoes or skids aro connected by a transverse bar, and the 'back
pair are connected to the front pair by a longitudinal rod and one or two links
of a chain, so that their coupling may be adjusted as required. The front pair
of shoes or skids are connected by means of a lever and vertical rod to a hook
fast on a horizontal longitudinal actuating shaft, working in bearings on the
roof of the carriage. The breaks on a number of carriages are connected
by forming a winch handle on the end of the actuating shaft of one carriage,
and a simple-arm on the end of the actuating shaft of the next carriage, the
two ends being then made to bear against each other, so that when one is
turned to put the break on, the other will be turned likewise, thereby breaking
the entire train instantaneously, since by simply turning the actuating shafts
one-fourth of a revolution, the hooks will be disengaged from the vertical
suspension rods, and the shoes or skids (which are flanged and formed to
receive the wheels,) will at onco descend on to the rails, and the wheels will
be raised from off the rails and run on to the skids.
According to another modification, only one lever arm in place of two is
used for connecting each pair of skids to the short transverse shaft underneath
the carriage framing, such arm being forked at the lower end, and bolted to
the transverse bar, which connects the skids of each pair. In this case, in place
of the arm having a vertical play through a socket in the shaft, the shaft
'itself is made to work at its bearings in vertical guide slots.