Year: 1886

page_text: I ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer declare the nature of this invention (a communication from Georgo
E. Blaine of Dayton in the County of Montgomery and State of Ohio United
States of America Master Car Builder) and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to dumping cars, and has for its object to provide an
improved mechanism whereby the contents of a car may be dumped in a rapid and
effectual manner, with a minimum expenditure of power, a saving in time and
certainty of correct operation, the parts being so arranged and combined as to be
entirely under the control of the operator at any and all times, and so that their
operation may be arrested or corrected at any time.
To accomplish the objects set forth, I have constructed, arranged and combined
the parts which are herein shown, and of which this invention consists.
Referring to the drawings herewith, and which form a part hereof:
Fig. 1, is a view in side elevation showing a dumping car containing these
improvements.
Fig. 2, is a view in elevation showing the end of the car at which the devices for
operating the dumping mechanism are located, the body of the car being level or
in its running position.
Fig. 3, is a similar elevation of the same end of the car, the body being in its
right band inclined or dumped position.
Fig. 4, is a sectional view taken on line x-x of Fig. 1, looking in the direction
of the arrow, showing a rack engaging a gear on the main shaft which extends
longitudinally through the car from truck to truck.
Fig. 5, is an inverted plan view of the body of the car upon the draw body.
Fig. 6, a sectional view on the line y-y of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of
the arrow.
Fig. 7, is a sectional view taken on the line - of Fig. 1, in elevation.
Fig. 8, is a detail perspective view of the latch mechanism.
Fig. 9, is a detail view in side elevation of the latch operating lever.
Fig. 10, is a detail perspective view of the operating devices removed from the
car, consisting of the hand wheel, its shaft, the worm mechanism, the gearing
which connects it with the main shaft, and the gearing on said main shaft engaging
the rack.

page_text: Fig. 11, is a detail perspective view of the arc-shaped guide way or sub-bolster.
Fig. 12, is a detail perspective view of the curved rack.
Fig. 13, is a detail sectional view showing the manner in which the curved rack
engages the arc-shaped or curved guide-way.
Fig. 14, is a detail section through one of the spring cushioning bolts and its 5
casing or cylinder.
Like letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures in which they
occur.
Referring to the drawings by letters, A, is the body of the car having doors A¹,
on the sides thereof, mounted at their tops on hinges a, which are of ordinary 1
construction, serving to permit the doors to swing freely when not controlled by
mechanisms to be hereinafter described. A", are the side beams or sills of the
body, and A, are the beams or sills. The body, except as hereinafter specified,
is of ordinary construction.
On the side beams A₁, are clips a¹, which serve as guides for vertical latch
bars a", of which there are two to each door and which serve to prevent said doors
At the lower ends
from tilting or swinging outward except at the desired time.
these latch bars are pivoted in the forked ends a¹¹¹, of levers A1111, see detail view,
Fig. 8, which are pivoted at all, in hangers Aui, depending from the sills A",
and are provided with sliding weights Au, on their inner ends which normally
serve to hold the latch bars in their highest positions. In the lower end of the
hangers A, at A, are journaled rods Aшu, near each end of which is secured
an arm A, each of which has a side projection al, which engages under the
weighted lever and serves to raise it when the rod is rotated by means of a
lever A, secured at one end to the rod and operated as hereinafter described.
B, is the lower or draw frame of the car and is composed essentially of two
longitudinal reach bars B¹, and two bolsters B. To this frame are attached the
dumpers b, b, and one end of this frame projects sufficiently beyond the end of
the car to form a platform B¹, upon which the operator stands to dump the car.
To the beams or reach bars B¹, are attached hanging loops or stirrups 6", which
serve to guide and operate automatically the levers A, as hereinafter set forth.
C, are curved or arc-shaped guide ways attached by means of bolts c, to the
projecting ends of the bolsters B, of the lower frame and held at a proper distance
apart by said bolts and shouldered cross bolts c¹, see Fig. 11.
Under the body A, and secured to the main sills thereof are metal bolsters or
transom bars D, to which are attached curved racks E, depending therefrom in the
space between the two parts of the curved guide-ways before mentioned. The
curved racks and the curved guide-ways are of the same radii, so that they will
always act in unison.
Projecting through the center of the bolster B¹, is the king bolt F, by means of
which the body is connected to the truck, twin pivot bearings or guide plates f, f',
being secured respectively to the bolster and the cross beam G, of the truck, as seen
in Fig. 4.
The curved guides C, are in pairs, one pair for each truck, the halves of each pair
being, as before stated, held apart by the shoulder bolts c.
In the space between
them rests the curved racks, each of which is provided at each end with a pin f
upon which is mounted, on each side of the rack, an anti-friction roller f, which
rests and moves upon the curved guide C. Outside of the roller, the pin is pro-
vided on each side, with a banger fi, which drops down, and has a lateral flange
or projection f11111, to engage under the side of the guide ways C, and prevent the
disengagement of the rack and the guide-ways, see Fig. 13.
Engaging with each rack is a gear h, mounted on the main operating shaft H,
(see Fig. 4). This shaft extends from truck to truck and through said trucks to
bearings mounted upon the reach bars B¹, of the lower or draw frame B. It passes
through all of the guide-ways C, and a gear h, is secured upon it and situated
between each pair of such guide-ways, to engage the rack therein. The ends of
these guide-ways are curved upward, as shown, to serve as stops or rests for the

page_text: antifriction rollers at the end of each dumping stroke. The shaft H, has upon it
another gear wheel marked h¹, (see Fig. 10-which engages a gear wheel i, on a
short shaft I, which, beginning at this gear wheel ends just above the platform B1,
to which its outer bearings 1', are secured, and near its end has mounted upon it a
worm wheel I". Engaging this worm wheel I", is a worm j, mounted upon an
upright shaft J, which is journaled in a bearing 71, secured on the platform B¹¹1,
and is supported by a standard J, bolted to said platform and having a horizontal
arm through which said upright shaft passes. The shaft J, terminates in a hand
wheel J", by which it is turned and the whole train of mechanism operated, and
this train of mechanism, from the hand wheel to the curved rack is the dumping
mechanism proper, by which the whole operation of dumping may be performed.
In order however, to properly control the action and render the several parts of
the devices automatic, I have made the other improved devices herein set forth
and shown.
The lever A, is provided at about its mid length with a U-shaped downward
curve marked a³, alo, all, the purpose of which will be hereinafter set forth.
Near each truck, attached upon the draw body, is a cross-plate or bar K, of
metal (see Fig. 7) having at each end an eye k, in which is secured one end of the
chain, whose opposite end is secured to an eye bolt L, which passes into a
cylinder M, through a small perforation in its end. The opposite end of the eye-
bolt has upon it a washer 1, and a nut . A spiral spring Ñ, is wound around this
eye-bolt, resting between the washer, and the end of the cylinder through which
the eye-bolt passes. The cylinder M, has a flange m, on its opposite end perforated
to receive bolts m³, by means of which it is secured to the sill A", of the car.
These chains k¹ serve to prevent the car body from being tilted too far in either
direction and if a sudden movement should take place, the spring attachment, by
means of the eye-bolts, would take off all sudden jar and by cushioning the stroke
prevent breakage.
The operation of my devices may be described as follows:
Supposing the car body to be in the position shown in Figs. 1, 2, 4, or 7, and
loaded, and that it is desired to bring it to the position shown in Fig. 3, to dump
the load. When in the position shown in Figs. 1, 2, 4, or 7, the car body will be
level, the gear H, engaging with the center of the curved rack as shown in Fig. 4,
the chains, will be slack as shown in Fig. 7, the latch bars thrown to their
higbest position resting the outside swinging doors to theirin Fig. 4, and the
levers A³, resting loosely in the stirrups 6, as shown in Fig. 1.
The operator standing on the platform B1, rotates the hand wheel and with it
the upright shaft and its attached worm. This causes the rotation of the worm
wheel and the shaft upon which it is secured (see Fig. 10) thus rotating the gear
wheel on said shaft. This motion is communicated to the main shaft by the
engagement of this gear wheel with the gear wheel on said main shaft, said shaft
carrying with it in its rotation the gear wheel h. This gear wheel, as before
stated, engages the curved rack E, and when it is revolved, being in fixed bearings,
it causes the said curved rack to be moved in either direction, as the case may be,
and the curved rack being fixed to the car body, carries the car body with it until
the anti-friction rollers have reached the curved unturned ends of the curved
guides, or until one of the chains k², is made taut, which will occur at the end of
the stroke or movement and when the car is in the position shown in Fig. 3, or in
a corresponding tilted position on the other side.
As before stated, this is the whole of the tilting motion proper, but I propose
further, by the mechanism herein before described, to cause the latches to remove
automatically out of the way of the door on the side of the car, on the side to
which it is being dumped, at the proper time to allow the load to slide off. This is
accomplished by the latch mechanism hereinbefore described, in the following
manner, viz:
When the car body begins to tilt or dump, the lever A³, on the door side, moves
through the stirrup 6", until the U-shaped bend is reached. Until this time-the

page_text: latch bars are in their normal highest position and are held so by means of the
weight on the inner end of the lever or bar A1111, (see Figs. 7 & 8). The bend in
the levers A³, is so located that it will not reach the stirrup until just the proper
time to loosen the latch and allow the load to dump. There is a double purpose in
this. In the first place if the latch were lowered too soon, that is to say, before
the car had dumped sufficiently to clear itself of its load, there would be a gradual
dropping of the load, or the strain or weight would not be sufficient to tilt the gate
after it had been freed from the operation of the latch. As it is however, the door
is kept locked until a proper inclination of the body is reached which is determined
before hand and the bend in the lever Aº, constructed accordingly so that when the
car body has reached such desired inclination, the inclined side a", of the bend in
the lever Aº, has reached the stirrup 6", and riding up on the bottom bar of said
stirrup, elevates the outer end of the said lever until the summit a¹0, of the bend
has reached the stirrup. This is the full extent of the movement, and any further
movement, should it take place, would simply allow the incline a³, of the bend to
ride over the stirrup and lower the latch at any undesirable time.
The lowering of the latch, when the incline a", rides up on the stirrup, is by
virtue of the fact that the raising of the outer end of the lever A°, partially rotates
the shaft A7, carrying with it the arm a¹, whose bend a, engages under the
inner weighted end of the lever An, thus raising such inner end and lowering the
outer end which by virtue of the connection at all, to the latch bar a¹¹, draws
such latch bar down, leaving the door free to swing outward on its hinges to dump
the load.
When the car is fully dumped, the anti-friction rollers, as before stated, rest in
the curved ends of the guide ways C, and the chain k³, on the upper side of the
car is stretched taut. A reversal of the movement of the hand wheel by the
operator, reverses the motion of all the parts and brings the several parts into
the level running position again. The worm and worm wheel mechanism renders
the operation extremely easy and will hold the car in any position, thus doing away
with any assistance in dumping the car. No stops are to be inserted or adjusted,
no latching to which it is moved, should accident or design cause the operator to
cease turning it, and this result is obtained with not the aid of stop or detents of
any kind.
When the car body has again reached its level position, the doors will hang
vertically and may be pushed into engagement with the latches again at will, the
latches being free to be pushed down at any time by simply exerting sufficient pressure
to raise the weighted inner end of the lever A. The outer edge of their ends being
beveled, they will be automatically lowered, when the edge of the door is pressed
against them, and by virtue of the weighted lever A1, will rise again when the
lower side of the door has passed beyond them.
The several devices and combinations included in this improved car are possessed
of many obvious advantages.
As has been explained, all the actions are automatic, when the hand wheel is
turned, rendering it unnecessary as is often the case that the operator should have
assistance to enable him to dump a car. No stops are to be inserted or adjusted,
no latching nor unlatching of doors has to be done, except automatically as
described, and no danger of a premature dump need be feared. The weight to be
dumped does not have any tendency to turn the mechanism, being effectually
arrested by the worm and the worm wheel.
A variety of changes might be made in the arrangement of the various devices
herein shown without departing from the spirit of my invention. For instance,
the cross-bar of the stirrup might be provided with a roller to facilitate the action
of the lever arm A.
A movable or adjustable U-shaped bend might be attached to the lever 4, to
change the time of unlatching when desired.
:
A spring might be used instead of a weight to keep the latches normally raised.
The worm wheel might be attached directly to the main operating shaft if desired.

page_text: Many other changes in the mere arrangement of element might be made and still
come within the scope of my invention.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of the said invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent I declare that what I claim is
1st. In combination, a car body having dependent therefrom a concave rack, a
stationary body carrying a shaft having a gear to engage said rack, and a worm
mechanism for rotating said shaft, as set forth.
2d. In combination, a car body having dependent concave rack a shaft having
bearings in the main or stationary body and carrying a gear to engage said rack, a
counter shaft having at one end a gear to engage the gear on the main shaft and at
the other end a worm wheel, and an upright shaft carrying at its lower end a worm
to engage said worm wheel, as set forth,
3d. In combination, the tilting body, the dependent concave rack carried thereby,
the pin passing through said rack, the hooked hangers in the ends of said pins, and
the curved guide-ways, having said flanges with which said hangers engage for the
purpose set forth.
4th. In combination, the tilting body, the dependent concave rack carried thereby,
the anti-friction rollers, carried by the rack, the main or stationary body of the car
and the curved guide-ways mounted thereon provided with upright ends for the
purpose set forth.
5th. In combination, the tilting car body, the dependent concave rack carried
thereby, the main body, a pair of curved guide-ways held apart by shouldered bolts
and having upturned ends and side flanges, the pins in the ends of the rack, the
rollers on said pins and the hooked hangers on said pins to engage said flanges, as
set forth.
6th. In combination, the tilting car body, having its sides pivoted at their tops,
the latches normally held in their highest position, the operating levers A³, and the
main body of the car having stirrups through which said operating levers pass, and
by which they are automatically elevated or depressed as set forth.
7th. In combination, the tilting car body, its pivoted sides, the latches normally
held in their highest position, the weighted levers secured thereto, the operating
lever A, and the main body of the car having stirrups to operate said lever, as set
forth.
8th. In combination, the tilting car body, the pivoted sides, the normally upheld
latches, the pivoted lever engaging said latches, at one end, and provided with
adjustable weight at the other, the operating lever A°, and the main body having
stirrups for actuating said lever, as set forth, and described.
9th. In combination, the tilting car body, the normally upheld latches, the
operating lever A³, provided with bend a, a, a, and the main body having stirrups
with cross bar to operate on said bend in the operating lever as the car body is
tilted, as set forth.
10th. In combination, the tilting car body, the flaged and perforated cylinder
bolted, thereto, the spring within said cylinder, the eye-bolts and nut in said
cylinder and engaging said spring, the main car body and chains connecting said
main body with said eye-bolts, as set forth.