IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR GUARDS FOR WHEELS OF CARRIAGES, PARTI- CULARLY APPLICABLE TO THE WHEELS OF TRAMWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Griffith Brewer at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd March 1878. A communication
from abroad by Pierre Alfred Tronchon, of Paris, France.
EDWARD GRIFFITH BREWER, of Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR GUARDS FOR WHEELS OF CARRIAGES, PARTI-
CULARLY APPLICABLE TO THE WHEELS OF TRAMWAY CARRIAGES." (A. communi-
cation from abroad by Pierre Alfred Tronchon, of Paris, France.)
This Invention refers to improvements upon an Invention for which Letters
Patent were granted to the present communicator the 28th August 1876, No. 3394,
and the present Invention refers to a protecting apparatus or guard placed in front
of the wheels of all kinds of carriages, but particularly tramway cars, the object of
the apparatus being to throw away from the wheels any obstacles, animate or
inanimate, that may come in the way.
The essential parts of the apparatus are an armature or framework jointed or
hinged or hooked on at its upper part to the frame of the carriage, or to the fore
carriage or other convenient place, so that it may when so suspended be capable of
adapting itself to the varying positions as may be required. In the normal state
the protector apparatus is in an inclined position; when it comes against an obstacle
it yields, and comes into a vertical position; and to prevent the blow being too
sudden there is a spring or counterweight, or its or their equivalent behind, so that
the blow will be allayed, which is a great advantage, especially if the action takes
place on an animate body. The obstruction being on the road, a man, for example,
might have one of his extremities, say, his arm, caught between the protector and
the road (tramway rail, for example); and to avoid this very dangerous position the
inventor provides a sliding frame or plate to be used in combination with the above,
which may be of metal, wood grating, wirework, fabric, leather, basketwork, or
other suitable material, and the lower end may be fitted with a piece of india-rubber
to still more reduce the blow. The plate is arranged so that it will with facility
rise or fall in such manner that the person (or obstruction) being pushed by the
plate the same can be disengaged from between it and the line.

page_text: This object may be attained in various ways; according to one arrangement the
plate being made, say, of basketwork, with loops or apertures to receive hooks on
the frame. The slightest upward pressure suffices to raise the plate, and so to dis-
engage any part of the body which may be between it and the roadway or rail
the pressure removed the plate falls by its own weight.
Instead of perinanently hanging the plate to the carriage it may be simply hooked
on so as to be capable of being removed or applied with the greatest facility.
i
Where necessary to provide for the rising or falling of the carriage on its springs,
by reason of the weight of passengers therein, the frame carrying the guard is sup-
ported directly from the axle or axles, whereby its height from the road is always 1
regulated according to the position of the axle.
The guard is preferably placed at an angle to the wheel, but the great feature in
the Invention is the spring articulated armature or framework in combination with
the movable or sliding frame.