IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SELF-ACTING BRAKES FOR LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierro Alfred Tronchon, of 2, Rue Ste. Appoline, Paris,
France, Mechanic, for the Invention of " IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF SELF-ACTING BRAKES FOR LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER CARRIAGES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Pierre Alfred Trunchon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th August 1870.
PIERRE ALFRED TRONCHON, of 2, Rue Sto. Appoline, Paris, France, Mechanic.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SELF-ACTING BRAKES FOR LOCOMOTIVE
AND OTHER CARRIAGES."
Brakes constructed according to this Invention are applicable to locomotives,
railway carriages, tram cars, and all other vehicles, also, for instance, to the
carriages of roller skates. The braking appliance proper consists of a parallelogram,
one member of which is a shoe taking its pressure and bearing vertically against
the rail or road and against the lower part of the carriage wheel, and this shoe is
suspended from some part of the carriage frame by means of a jointed double rod.
The brake may be actuated through lever or other well-known mechanical
appliance, either by the conductor or other attendant, or from some motive power,
such as steam, compressed air, or electricity. Or it may also be put into gear
automatically in the moment that it meets an obstruction on the rail or road, the
obstruction pressing against a hinged suspended wedge-shaped apron or flap, which
is made to put the shoc into braking action.
As applied to a tramway car the shoes are preferably actuated by a counter-
weighted lever within the reach of the conductor, and fixed to a shaft ruuning
lengthways under the carriage. As applied to railway carriages 1 prefer to connect
them between each two carriages by means of jointed 1ods or bars, which form an
angle against each other, and thus accommodate themselves to the varying heights
The brakes in each carriage .are
of the carriages and their distances apart
connected by weigh shafts, levers, and rods, or other well-known mechanical
connecting appliances.
As applied to roller skate carriages one member or link may be fitted with a
roller or shoe, which can take its bearing against the ground, the other member

page_text: being also jointed to the foot plate or other convenient part, and connected to the
first-named member. It is formed with a shoe which can be made to bear against
the ground and against the opposite side of the roller or wheel, or this member may
be a spring. The brake is put into action when pressure is brought strongly
against the back of the skate. The rubbing parts may be fitted with leather 5
or similar material. The aforesaid members of the brake need not be parallel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Pierre Alfied Tronchon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th
February 1877.
PIERRE ALFRED TRONCHON, of 2, Rue Ste. Appoline, Paris, France, Mechanic.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SELF-ACTING BRAKES FOR LOCOMOTIVE
AND OTHER CARRIAGES."
Owing to the numerous railway accidents which daily occur the necessity of
having powerful brake power has for some time been acknowledged. There are
various conditions to be fulfilled to obtain the object of my Invention
First. That it should be self-acting, and that promptly and efficiently in case of
accident
Second. That it may be under the control of the guard and driver
Third That it should act automatically when only operated by the obstacle
itself.
]
2
Biakes constructed according to this Invention are applied to locomotives, railway
carriages, tiam cars, and all other vehicles, also, for instance, to the carriages
of roller skates. The braking appliance proper consists of a parallelogram, one
member of which is a shoe taking its pressure and bearing vertically against the rail
or road, and against the lower part of the carriage wheel, and this shoe is suspended 2
from some part of the carriage frame by means of jointed double rods
The brake may be actuated through lever or other well-known mechanical
appliance, either by the conductor or other attendant, or from some motive power,
such as steam, compressed air, or electricity, or it may also be put into gear
automatically in the moment that it meets an obstruction on the rail or road, the a
obstruction pressing against a hinged suspended wedge-shaped apron or flap, which
is made to put the shoe into braking action.
As applied to a tramway car the shoes are preferably actuated by a counter-
weighted lever within the reach of the conductor, and fixed to a shaft running
lengthways under the carriage. As applied to railway carriages I prefer to connect
then between each two carriages by means of jointed rods or bars, which form an
angle against each other, and thus accommodate themselves to the varying heights
of the carriages and their distances apart. The brakes in each carriago are con-
nected by weigh shafts, lovers, and rods, or other well-known mechanical connecting
appliances.
As applied to roller skate carriages one member or link may be fitted with a
roller or shoe, which can take its bearing against the ground, the other member
being also jointed to the foot plate or other conveniont part, and connected to
the first-named member. It is formed with a shoe, which can be made to bear
against the ground and against the opposite side of the roller or wheel, or this 4
member may be a spring. The brake is put into action when pressure is brought
strongly against the back of the skate. The rubbing parts may be fitted with
leather or similar material. The aforesaid members of the brake need not be
parallel.
As it is my intention to apply this system to all kinds of vehicles I give in the 5
accompanying Drawings detailed examples of the application of the principle, and
different general applications for several kinds of vehicles.

page_text: At Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4 my Invention is shown as applied to a tramway carriage
illustrating how the principle is applied, and the method of action in such manner
that the mechanical operation being well understood the different examples
hereafter given will be to show that the same principle can be applied to all kinds
of vehicles
b is a carriage or tramway car; c, a longitudinal shaft operated by a lever j, which
may be operated by the foot or hand through suitable mechanism placed at the
disposal of the conductor for communicating the motion to the whole brake system,
but this is only the case where the stoppage of the carriage is to be under the
control of the conductor. If, for the sake of example, however, there is an obstacle d
placed on the road it will act on the protecting plate e, motion will be transmitted
to the first brake f, which will operate the axis f¹, and by means of the crank f¹ and
connecting rod g, the movement will be transmitted to the second shoe h It the
brake is applied to a vehicle with four wheels or with a connecting rod on a vehicle
of six wheels, it should be understood that a single brake is sufficient for a vehicle
with two wheels, the counterweights i continually tend to bring the shoes fand h
away from the rail when there is no obstacle or when the conductor does not operate
upon the lever j.
The automatic movement is such that if there is an obstacle on the road, not only
is it thrown on one side, but still while it remains it acts on the brakes fand h, and
the greater the pressure so is the action greater. When the cause is removed the
brakes are disengaged by the counterweights i or by other equivalent means.
The movements of the front and back wheels being in unison an obstacle placed
in front of one of these wheels will transmit its action to corresponding wheels
independently of the will of the conductor, I thus obtain a brake motion which
is either automatic in its action or at the will of the conductor by means of
the lever
As before stated this example is supposed to be applied to a tramway carriage,
and at Figures 0, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, I further illustrate my Invention as applied to
other class of vehicles
•
Figure 9 illustrates the Invention as applied to railway carriages; here several
carriages are shown coupled together, and for the curves there is provided sufficient
play, which should be increased as the curves have a less radius; it is however
necessary that the driving shafts of the different carriages correspond in order that
the obstacle or stoppage of one carriage may be transmitted to the following car-
ringe; for this purpose the arrangements shown at Figures 12, 13, and 14, are
applicable where I suppose the two driving shafts, c, as belonging to two different
carriages; at the ends of these shafts I form slots c¹, in which a piece of is inserted,
connected to a double hinge c³, it will be understood that during the rotation the
shaft c will draw the hinges c³, and transmit this motion to the corresponding shaft
on the next carriage, there is no loss of time in the rotation, and moreover great
latitude may be allowed between two coupled carriages whereby great advantage
is obtained, particularly for sharp curves. To facilitate coupling the same may be
effected by a pin or bolt; at c, on locomotives, the rail clearer is brutal if it comes
against any obstacle having life; it tears and mangles it. According to my Inven-
tion I break this shock (which is often a killing shock) by the application of india-
rubber, combined with metal, an example of which is given by the Drawing at
Figures 7 and 8. This application consists of one or several tubes, discs, or
cylinders, of caoutchouc 7, combined or not with spring tubes made of metal, which
are placed either directly on the guard or spread over the whole width of the
vehicle; these cylinders or caoutchouc arrangements or appliances are carried down
to the level of the rail, and follow the rising or falling motions of the curiage,
however, it may be loaded in such manner that an obstacle, however light it may be,
cannot become engaged or entangled under the guard, whether it is in a body, leg,
arm, or even a hand, the shock is completely prevented; owing to the nature of the
material employed the trembling motions are arrested and almost annulled, and
the cylinders are always maintained at an even distance.

page_text: Sometimes instead of employing cylinders I propose to employ bands of caout-
chouc, leather, or analogous material, and the application of this arrangement is
shown at Figures 20, 21, and 22; here let a represent an armature or wheel guard,
which is fixed to the vehicle; to this armature strips c are applied, which can be held
by bolts b or by any other good mode of securing the same, at the lower part these
strips are held together by a bar d, which may be made of any elastic or other
suitable material it will be observed that the strips c and bar d extend a short
distance beyond the armature, so that the object of the latter is only to maintain
the strips in position.
In these Figures I have shown an ordinary wheel guard, but it will be better
understood that a similar application can be made to a protecting apparatus, such
as that shown at Figure 23, which I call a "Tronchon." In these different appli-
cations I have supposed the armature fixed either to the frame of the railway
carriage or to the body of a road carriage or other vehicle, and the only objection
that could be made would be that the vehicle being capable of being raised or
lowered according to its load (the load is very variable) the shoe would vary in
height from the ground or rail, but with an armature such as that shown at
Figure 24 this observation would not be tenable; here I will suppose d' an axis on
which I mount an armature e firmly maintained on the axis by bolts for other
good mode of attachment, this armature may be single or double, as shown in the
Drawing; it will carry the guard.
I give here the application with a fixed guard, I can liowever obtain a similar
result with a movable guard, as shown in the Fig 25; in the latter case the
armature e firmly secured on the axis d¹ is provided with at its lower part a
joint e¹ which will support the parallelogram f and the brake shoe g. In this way
however the vehicle may be loaded, the protecting shoe or brake will be always
maintained at the same distance from the rail subordinate to that of the axle, and
if I allow as an example five centimeties between the protection and the road or
line this height will be always maintained however the vehicle may be loaded
I wish it to be well understood that 1 intend the word vehicle to be very com-
prehensive, thus a skate is a vehicle, and I give on the accompanying Drawings
several examples of my Invention as applied to this kind of vehicle, and people
acquainted with these articles, and who are in the habit of using them will under-
stand the necessity of having an automatic brake, so as to be able to stop oneself or
to slacken speed when required
At Figure 15 I have shown in full lines a skate provided with this arresting
mechanism in its normal state, that is to say, when it is free to run, and in dotted
lines the position of the skate and of the mechanism when the brake is applied; it
will be seen that I have a double automatic brake depending at an inclination from
the sole of the skate, viz, the roller m which acts at a given time to produce the
brake action by its friction on the surface of the rink, and the shoe n which arrests
the rotation of the skate roller, that is to say, there is a double action, one on the
rink and the other on the roller
At Figure 16 I give another illustration of this part of my Invention, the sole o
carries a spring p to which is fixed a shoe q; r is a jointed lever united by a cross
piece s to the shoe q, two soles t, t', made of leather, caoutchouc, or other suitable
material, their object being to avoid injuring the rink are fixed to the cross piece 8,
so that when the skater inclines backwards it will not only bring the shoe q against
the roller n of the skate, but moreover it will lower the soles t, t¹, on to the
rink, whereby a double brake is obtained affording a perfect equilibrium, and
thereby preventing accidents which so often occur with this kind of vehicle
At Figure 17 another illustration is given of my Invention as applied to this
kind of vehicle when in full lines; the skate is shown in its normal state and in
dotted lines with the brake power applied.
I believe I have sufficiently described the different applications of my system of
a brake protector which is intended to clear the line, and to protect any living
object or not which may be placed there, the said operation being effected either

page_text: automatically by the obstacle itself which operates the brake, or by the conductor,
driver, or other authorized person, according to the kind of vehicle, reserving to
myself the right of varying the shapes and dimensions of the parts described
without departing from the essential features of the Invention.
By my Invention any kind of vehicle can be stopped automatically and instan-
taneously, locomotives, railway, and other carriages by transforming rotary motion
into a sliding motion, its articulation renders it self-acting and renders any injury
to obstacle next to impossible, for supposing a person falls on the rails it produces
by its own weight the obstacle, and puts the apparatus in action and removes it
from the rail immediately; one or all of the wheels are under the control of the
operator.
Having now described the nature of any said Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
The construction and employinent of a brake power consisting substantially of a
parallelogram or mechanism capable of lowering horizontally a shoc platform or
brake under the wheel or wheels which operates at the intersection of the rails and
wheel transforming rotary motion of the latter into a sliding motion, and pushing
or throwing away a human body or any other obstacle that may be encountered on
the route, or the operation is produced by the conductor, guard, driver, or other
authorized person, or by steam, air, or electricity in all cases, so that the shoe
platform advances horizontally and at the intersection of the wheel and rail or the
road, and not at an inclination.
Second. The several applicances and arrangement of apparatus for producing
brake power, constructed and acting substantially as herein-before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Alfred Tronchon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of February in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven
A. TRONCHON. (LS.)