AN IMPROVED SAFETY BREAK FOR RAILWAY VEHICLES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st July 1869.-A communication from abroad by Silvestre Guitard,
of Barcelona, Spain, Merchant.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son,
of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED SAFETY BREAK FOR RAILWAY VEHICLES," a communication to
me from abroad by Silvestre Guitard, of Barcelona, Spain, Merchant, to
be as follows:-
The break the subject of this Invention is termed a safety break,
because it is to be used only in case of danger, either to avoid a collision
or to lessen the damage when a train leaves the rails. This break
should be applied to every railway carriage, so that the railway employés
may not have to choose a particular one when forming a train. One
man, the ordinary brakesman, may work the brakes of all the vehicles
forming a train, however numerous they may be, by means of a shaft
placed in the last carriage or van (by the side of the ordinary break
shaft), and to which will be hooked a chain corresponding with the
safety breaks, which the brakesman will work directly the engine driver

page_text: gives him the alarm signal with as much rapidity as may be necessary
to arrest the train within a very short distance. The breaks will each
lock the wheels of their particular carriage in proportion as the breaks-
man sets them at work, beginning by the last carriage of the train, that
is to say, the vehicle which carries the brakesman and successively the
one after the other and independently of each other in order to avoid
any concussion which might be experienced if all were stopped at once.
To attain this end when the engine driver gives the signal for putting
on the breaks the breaksman has but to turn the shaft carrying the
chain communicating with all the breaks with such rapidity as he may
deem advisable in òrder not to effect too sudden a stoppage. The brake
is composed of four lever catches carried by two axles and placed
between the cross beam of the carriage and the wheel. The wheel
carries an iron bar, stud, or projection placed in one of the spokes, or
preferably between two spokes, of from to an inch in diameter and
projecting about ½ of an inch, the lever catch coming down on this
projecting piece when the break is put on. This rod or projection will
be covered with a caoutchouc washer to lessen the contact of metal with
metal. A wooden bar of about one inch in breadth is placed about an
inch below the cross beam of the carriage frame, and on this is placed a
communicating rod carrying small chains passing over pulleys and
attached to the lever catches and to the communicating rod. A
pivoting piece is used having on one side a pin or branch entering a
projection made on the communicating rod and two pins or branches on
the other, between which rises a binged pivot to cause the piece to fall
over on the side of the two pins from whatever side the chain is pulled,
and thereby allow of the escape of the pin which enters the projection
on the rod so as to permit this latter to make the movement which is to
bring down the lever hooks or catches to brake the wheel of the carriage.
This pivoting piece is placed on a small axle at about of an inch below
the wooden bar, and has a spring on the side of the two pins, which
spring keeps it always lowered on the side of the single pin in order
that this latter may fix the rod. The hinged pivot which rises between
the two branches enters a link of the communicating chain, which is
slightly longer than the others, so that on pulling this chain it causes the
pivoting piece to pivot, and thereby permit the rod to work so as to
bring down the lever hooks or catches which are to brake all the wheels.
The communicating chain is entirely independent of the apparatus, inas-
much that it separates itself therefrom in proportion as it has caused

page_text: the brakes to work successively and separately upon one another. This
chain may be 20 or 24 inches longer than required in order to facilitate
the hooking of the one to the other when the carriages are joined, and
in order that the pull on the chain may not bring down the brakes too
precipitately the one after the other. This chain may hook on either
side to a hook placed at each end of the carriage when the carriages are
unhooked from each other. The spring hooks or rings for hooking the
communicating chains together should be no thicker than the rest of the
chain, because they must run freely in the guide rings. Pins or pro-
jections are placed on the round rod to prevent its turning, but these
may be dispensed with by making the rod flat, and causing it to pass in
double friction roller guides.