IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING COUPLINGS FOR RAILWAY Carriages and WAGONS.” FOR RAILWAY Carriages and WAGONS.”
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, of Globe Steel
Works, Sheffield, in the County of York, Merchant and Manu-
facturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING COUPLINGS
FOR RAILWAY Carriages and WAGONS.”
FOR RAILWAY Carriages and WAGONS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Buckingham
Ibbotson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 25th July 1874.
I, ALFRED BUCKINGHAM IBBOTSON, of Globe-Steel-Works,-Sheffield,
in the County of York, Morchant and Manufacturer, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING..
COUPLINGS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND WAGONS," to be as follows :-
1
My Invention relates to improvements in railway couplings of that
class in which in coupling together two carriages-or-wagons-a-link→
placed between buffer heads or draw-bar heads at the centre of the said
-

page_text: carriages or wagons is, when the said vehicles are pushed against each
other, caught and secured by hinged hanging pins or bolts therein,
the said pins or bolts being displaced by the entrance of the link to
allow the same to enter sockets in the buffer heads and then falling
automatically into the said link to secure or lock the same. These
couplings, as heretofore constructed, have been defectivo in their
action by reason of the great length necessarily given to the links,
which when secured or locked allow too much play between the buffer
heads. The object of my improvements is to obviate this difficulty,
and I accomplish this object, according to one method of practising
my Invention, by the introduction of springs between the heads of
the couplings or central buffer heads. These springs may be loose or
separate, or may be attached to the face of one or both heads. This
method of effecting the object of my Invention will not necessitate the
shortening of the links. Or I may accomplish my object by the use
of a shorter link, and by inserting a plug, wedge, or bolt at the back
of the said link after the same has been inserted and locked in ono
coupling head to hold the said link projecting firmly outward and
prevent its receding as it enters the other coupling head. The length
of the link in this caso is such that when the link is locked or secured
in both heads the two coupling or buffer heads will be in contact or
nearly so. The said plug, wedge, or bolt may be hinged or jointed to
the bar, to act automatically when the link is inserted, or may bo
adjusted by hand.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 23rd January 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
BUCKINGHAM IBBOTSON, of Globe Steel Works, Sheffield, in the County
of York, Merchant and Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
3

page_text: •
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, Her
special licence that I, the said Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time. agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, uso, exercise, and vend,. within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle
of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SELF-ACTING COUPLINGS FOR
RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND WAGONS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawing forming a part of this Specification :-
My Invention relates to improvements in railway couplings of that
class in which in coupling together two carriages or wagons a link
placed between buffer heads or draw-bar heads at the centre of the said
carriages or wagons is, when the said vehicles are pushed against each
other, caught and secured by a hinged hanging pin or bolt therein,
the said pin or bolt being displaced by the entrance of the link to
allow the same to enter a socket in the buffer head and then falling
automatically into the said link to secure or lock the same. These
couplings, as heretofore constructed, have been defective in their action
by reason of the great length necessarily given to the links,-which-
when secured or locked allow too much play between the buffer heads.
The object of my improvements is to obviate this difficulty, and I
accomplish this object in the manner herein-after specified, and as
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
According to one- method of practising my Invention I introduce

page_text: These springs may be loose or separate, or may be attached to the face
of one or both heads, but I prefer to use a pair of disc springs, which
may be made to fit closely together, or nearly so, about their centre,
where each spring is attached to a link at or near its centre, so that the
said springs may be held in position between the buffer faces by the
said links; when so fixed they will act as a support to the links when
one end of the same is locked in one apparatus to keep its other
or free projecting end in a nearly horizontal line. Near the periphery
of both of these disc springs I form an outward swelling or pro-
tuberance; these swellings are hollow on the sides facing cach other.
The outer sides of theso swellings should be so formed that they will
reach (and act as springs between) the faces of the buffers when they
are brought into contact or forced towards each other, and the said
swellings will project outward to such an extent that when they have
been compressed and flattened together between the said buffer faces,
and the link in one buffer head has at the moment of such com-
pression become locked into the other head, and the buffer faces so
locked together are drawn apart as far as the length of the link will
permit, the swelled portions of these disc springs may still act with
sufficient elastic outward pressure against the faces of both buffers to
prevent the jolting of the carriages whenever they are forced together.
These disc springs must not be attached so firmly to the link in their
centre as to prevent the sliding of the said link therein sufficiently far
.in both directions to pass the hanging pin or other locking point, and
becoming locked thereby at its ends in both buffer heads; but I form
stops on the link at both sides of the centre of the disc to keep these
disc springs from being drawn from the link or being lost, and also to
prevent the falling of the free end of the link by its own overhanging
weight too far out of the horizontal line. This method of effecting the
object of my Invention will not necessitate the shortening of the links.
Or I may accomplish my object by the use of a shorter link and insert
a plug, wedge, or bolt at the back of the said link and through the
sides or top of the apparatus after the same has been inserted and
locked in ono coupling head to hold the said link projecting firmly
outwards and prevent its receding as it enters the other coupling head.
The length of the link in this case is such that when the link is locked
or secured in both heads the two coupling or buffer heads will be in
contact or nearly so. The said plug, wedge, or bolt may be hinged or
jointed to the bar to act automatically when the link is inserted, or

page_text: Second. The plug, wedge, or bolt to be inserted by hand or auto-
matically at the back of the locked end of the aforesaid link for keeping
its free end projecting outward.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Buckingham Ibbotson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of January,
in the year of our Lord Ono thousand eight hundred and seventy-.
five.
ALFRED BUCKINGHAM IBBOTSON.
(L.S.)
Witness,
LONGWORTH POWERS.