Ar IMPROVED SYSTEM OF BRAKES AND APPARATUS THEREFOR FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Beckett, of 39, High Street, in the City
and County of Worcester, Engineer, for the Invention of "Ar
IMPROVED SYSTEM OF BRAKES AND APPARATUS THEREFOR FOR RAILWAY
CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Beckett at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd March 1874.
I, JAMES BECKETT, of 39, High Street, in the City and County of
Worcester, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED SYSTEM OF BRAKES AND APPARATUS THEREFOR FOR RAILWAY
CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS," to be as follows (that is to say) :—
This Invention has for its object an improved system of brakes by
means of rotary engines, so that the opporations of retarding and stopping
the carriages and waggons may be performed in a superior, expeditious,

page_text: motion, or if the wheels be revolving upwards and the steam be admitted
below the line of centre the retarding action of the compressed steam
becomes equally effective; to be more precise rotary engines are
designed to propel or give motion. I here claim to retard or stop the
motion of the wheels of the railway carriages and waggons.
I do not confine myself to the rotary engines here described as other
forms of rotary engines may be employed to retard or act as brakes to
railway carriages or waggons instead of being propellers for which they
have been designed; and furthermore, compressed air instead of steam
can be used with equal effect to act as a brake with the engines and
appliances herein described; if air be used instead of steam a receiver
will be required for the compressed air and also an injector to throw
into the receiver the compressed air, the said injector to be worked by
the steam from a locomotive boiler.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Beckett in the Great Scal Patent Office on
the 29th August 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BECKETT, of 39, High Street, in the City and County of Worcester,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent bearing date the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Beckett, Her special licence that I, the said
James Beckett, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said James Beckett, 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 IMPROVED SYSTEM OF
BRAKES AND APPARATUS THEREFOR FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND WAGGONS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Beckett,

page_text: keeping the brake engines and feed pipes hot, to prevent condensation of
the steam that acts as a brake power.
The principle of these brake engines and their mode of action will
readily be understood if we consider the action of a pair of spur wheels
(when such a pair of wheels are working by the revolving of the axle of
the carriage or waggon), if steam is admitted into the space between
any given teeth (escape at the ends of the teeth being prevented), each
pair of teeth as they come into gear inclose a portion of the admitted
steam; the steam becomes more compressed and will in proportion exert
pressure to retard and stop the revolving of the axles of the carriages
or waggons; for if steam be admitted above the line of centre and
the wheels are revolving downwards the steam becomes compressed
between the teeth of the wheels, thereby retarding given motion; or if
the wheels be revolving upwards and the steam be admitted below the
line of centre, the retarding action of the compressed steam becomes
equally effective; to be more precise rotary engines are designed to
propel or give motion. I here claim them to retard or stop the motion
of the wheels of railway carriages and waggons.
I do not confine myself to the rotary engines here described as other
forms of rotary engines may be employed to retard or act as brakes to
railway carriages or waggons instead of being propellers for which they
have been designed; and furthermore, compressed air instead of steam
can be used with equal effect to act as a brake with the engines and
appliances herein described; if air be used instead of steam a receiver
will be required for the compressed air, and also an injector to throw
into the receiver the compressed air, said injector to be worked by the
steam from locomotive boiler.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention I declare that
what I claim to act as a brake for railway carriages and waggons
are,-
First. The present rotary engines worked inversely as herein-before
described.
Secondly. The power for retarding these rotary engines is steam direct
from the locomotive boiler or compressed air. the said air being com-

page_text: Thirdly. By the above arrangement I entirely dispense with the
entire brake gear now in use with its wooden or iron blocks, which vary.
much with the weather, in place of which I substitute a positive retarding
power by means of the said rotary steam or air engines.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Beckett, have hereunto set 5
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.