IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRAKES FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick John Money at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th May 1875.
I, FREDERICK JOHN MONEY, of No. 1, Marlborough Place, Brighton,
Sussex, Doctor in Medicine, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BRAKES FOR RAILWAY
CARRIAGES," to be as follows, viz. :—
A new way of employing water pressure to actuate continuous brakes
by obtaining power directly from the locomotive boiler without any
intermediate machinery.
The precise form of the brake apparatus used is immaterial, but I
prefer to place one on each carriage midway between two adjoining pairs
of wheels, and to make it brake all four wheels at once by a single
movement. Various contrivances for doing this are in common use,
whichever be adopted; to that part of it at which pressure is to be
applied I attach one end either of a chain or of a rigid rod, according as
a pushing or a pulling action may be required, and connect the other
end of the same with the rod of a piston working in a fixed cylinder.
The said piston is actuated by the pressure of water admitted into the
cylinder from a supply pipe running the whole length of the carriage,
and furnished at each end with a length of flexible tubing fitted with a

page_text: union joint for connection with corresponding parts on other carriages.
Thus a continuous tube can be formed extending from end to end of the
train, communicating with all the cylinders, and reaching to the engine,
where it is connected with a pipe entering the boiler below the level of
the water. This pipe is fitted with a high-pressure cock near the boiler,
and beyond this with a branch leading to the tank supplying the boiler;
this branch being furnished with an escape cock.
By opening the high-pressure cock and closing the escape cock the
water in the boiler is made continuous with that in the supply pipe, and
the pressure of steam in the boiler is made to act simultaneously in all
the cylinders. On the other hand by closing the high-pressure cock and
opening the escape cock the pressure is reduced in all the cylinders
through the escape of a portion of the contents of the supply pipe into
the tank under the influence of certain springs or weights which are
arranged to act on the brakes in antagonism to the water pressure.
The foregoing apparatus may be made to act on the brakes in either
of two opposite ways:-It may be made to put them on or it may be
made to take them off. In the former case the springs or weights above
alluded to come into play as an antagonistic power to take the brakes off
when the water pressure is removed. In the latter case the springs or
weights themselves apply the brake power, while the water pressure is
used to take it off when the train is in motion. The advantage of the
latter arrangement is that in case of any accident disconnecting the
carriages and severing the flexible tube between them, instead of the
brakes becoming useless thereby, they at once apply themselves as the
water escapes from the broken ends of the tube, and both parts of
the train are brought to a standstill until the mischief be repaired.
I do not confine myself to the use of metallic cylinders for the purpose
of transmitting the water pressure. A distensible bag of sufficient
strength placed between a fixed and a moveable plate of wood or of any
other material may be substituted with like effect.
Any continuous; hydraulic brake now in use can easily be adapted so