Improvements in the Automatic Coupling of Railway and other Vehicles.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 9th July, 1895
Complete Specification Left, 7th Apr., 1896-Accepted, 9th May, 1396
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Automatic Coupling of Railway and other
Vehicles.
I. GEORGE WASHINGTON MOON, of 16 New Burlington Street, St. James',
Westminster, in the County of London, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature of Great Britain and Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of this.
invention to be as follows :-
This invention for improvements in the automatic coupling of railway and other
vehicles has for its object to facilitate the coupling and uncoupling of railway and
other vehicles without the necessity of the operator having to go between them and!
consists essentially in connecting the coupling hook arm to the draw bar by means
of a drop hinge device. The bottom part of the said hinge is connected to the
draw bar and is provided on its upper working face with a cam surface which
engages with a corresponding surface on the hook arm end so that, as the said hook
arm is rotated about the hinge pin it is thereby caused to rise or fall. The books.
are turned over at a suitable angle so that on the approach of two vehicles they
strike and displace each other and afterwards fall into engagement automatically,
their weight, acting on the aforesaid cam surfaces of the hinges, causing them to
fall into their lowermost and normal position when free to do so.
Dated this 9th dow of Jul 1805
i
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40 Chancery Lane, W.C., Agents.
ענעם VII
Improvements in the Automatic Coupling of Railway and other
Vehicles.
I GEORGE WASHINGTON MOON, of 16 New Burlington Street, St. James',
Westminster, in the County of London, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature of Great Britain and Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention for improvements in the automatic coupling of railway and other
vehicles, has for its object to facilitate the coupling and uncoupling of railway and
other vehicles without the necessity of the operator having to go between them, and
consists essentially in connecting the coupling hook arm to the draw bar by means
of a drop hinge device.
In the accompanying sheet of drawings:
Fig. 1 shows a side elevation of the shank end of a coupling hook and draw bar
end, and Fig. 2 is a sectional end elevation of the same.
Figs. 3 and 4 show perspective elevations of vehicles coupled together by two
different shaped coupling hooks constructed according to this invention.
The draw bar a of a vehicle has a head b having an inclined face or cam
surface c from the centre of which springs a vertical pin d on which is mounted the
end e of coupling hook f having an inclined or cam surface corresponding to that
Pine RAI

page_text: on the head b so that when the said hook is rotated about the pin d the inclined
surfaces slide on each other and the hook fis raised or lowered relatively to the
head b. The upper part of the hook end e is formed with a hook h for the purpose
of connecting it to a draw chain when desired.
A chain is connected to each hook, and led to the side or end of the vehicle, in
order to allow of its withdrawal from the outside when uncoupling.
The hooks may be made in various forms. That shown in Fig. 3 is vertical
while Fig. 4 shows a hook having its point sloped backwards towards the
carriage.
The hooks are turned over at a suitable angle so that on the approach of two
vehicles they strike and displace each other and afterwards fall into engagement
automatically, their weight acting on the aforesaid cam surfaces of the hinges,
causing them to fall into their lowermost and normal position when free to do so.
In order to uncouple two adjacent vehicles they are forced together sufficiently
near to allow of the hooks clearing each other when they are withdrawn by means
of the chains or their equivalents, from the outside of the vehicle thereby
avoiding the liability to accident attending the passage of the operator between
them.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
1. In apparatus for automatically coupling railway vehicles hinging the arm of
the coupling hook to the draw bar by means of a drop hinge device comprising
a draw hook end formed with a cam surface and mounted on a pin in a corre-
sponding inclined cam surface on the draw bar head b substantially as described
and for the purpose specified.
2. The construction of automatic coupling apparatus substantially as described
with reference to the drawings.
Deted this 7th day of Amil 1906
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40 Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.