IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED. WITH CARRIAGE BREAKS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Clinton Edgcumbe Brooman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th August 1866.-A communication from abroad by Jean Pierre
Haffner, and Louis Désiré Guillet, both of Paris, France.
I, CLINTON EDGCUMBE BROOMAN, of the firm of Robertson, Brooman, and.
Company, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED.
WITH CARRIAGE BREAKS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to automatic break apparatus for omnibuses and
other four-wheel vehicles, with the view of preventing accidents, and diminishing
the labour of the horses in sudden stoppages or in descending hills. It consists
in an arrangement of slide and movable bolt or pin by which the breaks are
applied to the back under frame of the carriage by the stopping of the horses,
and without any other intervention. When it is required to annul or prevent
the action of the slide, a simple mechanism operated by hand is employed
as hereafter explained.
This Invention therefore consists first in the break apparatus, and secondly
in the mechanism for throwing it out of action. The breaks act upon the

page_text: hind wheels. For this purpose the two locking plates or discs of the front
under frame of the carriage are not only superposed and free to turn, but the
upper one is free to slide; they are also free to turn together upon a perch
bolt or pin serving as an axis thereto. The sliding movement is effected by
the dovetail formation of the upper locking plate or disc or part thereof, which
is movable (with the whole front under frame) upon a supporting plate fixed
immediately below the carriage body. The sliding part is jointed to a rod
extending back below the carriage body and connected at its other end to a
small lever fitted upon a fixed support. The small lever is intended to produce
sufficient tractive power upon two rods containing between them an angular
space and connected at their outer ends to a transverse bar which carries the
break blocks for the two hind wheels; this bar is suspended from the carriage
body by two double links, which while allowing it to oscillate longitudinally
prevent the lateral displacement of the break blocks which are thus kept in
front of the wheels.
The action is as follows:-The carriage when it is being stopped possesses
'a movement of inertia, which is greater or less according to the speed at
which the carriage has just been moving. It is this power of inertia which
effects the automatic application of the breaks. The reason is simple; the
horses being stopped suddenly, keep the whole of the front under frame of the
carriage for the moment in an invariable position; because they are yoked
thereto. The result is that the horses and front under frame, by remaining
stationary or having at least a slower speed than just before, allow the carriage
body and the parts fixed thereto to advance a little by the sliding one upon
another of the upper locking plate or disc and its supporting plate. This
effect it will be understood is only due to the force of inertia of the whole back
under carriage frame after the sudden stoppage of the horses or the slackening
of their speed. This displacement of the carriage body upon the front under
frame produces the oscillation of the small lever and a tractive power upon
the two rods before mentioned, which thereby apply the break blocks against
the hind wheels.
It may be useful in some cases to annul the break apparatus or throw it
out of action, and for this purpose I fit the carriage with the mechanism
about to be described, whereby an obstacle is provided to prevent the sliding
movement of the carriage body on the front under frame. Within reach of
the driver I place a handle connected to a vertical rod, the lower end of
which is jointed by the intermediation of a crank to a horizontal transverse bar
of semi-cylindrical section which is in front of the sliding disc and prevents its

page_text: displacement when so required. Thus when the handle is raised the sliding
movement and consequently the application of the break may take place,
But on the contrary if the driver frees the mechanism by disengaging the
handle from its engaging ring, the transverse bar presents its largest diameter
to the sliding disc, and thereby acts as an obstacle to its movement.