AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS OF CONNECTING AND DISCONNECTING LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, Í, Peren
KENDALL, of Gifford's Hall, in the County of Suffolk, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventeenth day of April, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Peter
Kendall, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that I,
the said Peter Kendall, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I,
the said Peter Kendall, my exors, adññiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OR METHODS
OF CONNECTING AND DISCONNECTING LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND RAILWAY CARRIAGES;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said Peter
Kendall, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as
in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Peter Kendall, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully specified and set
forth in the following description thereof, reference being had to the ex-
planatory Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:
Figure 1 represents a plan of part of a railway carriage with the newly-
invented additions which I propose shall be made thereto, for the purpose of
more readily connecting and disconnecting the same from any locomotive
engine, or other carriage to which it may be attached; and Figure 2 is a sec-
tional view of Figure 1 through the line a, b, and also of part of a tender
supposed to be attached thereto in front. A is a rod or pole, which passes
under the carriage through the centre of the cross pieces B', B, and B³, of
the frame work, moving freely in the orifices provided' for the purpose. The
inner extremity of this pole is secured to and presses against the centre of a bow
spring C, which is attached by its two ends to the back of the cross piece B³,
immediately behind the axle of the front pair of wheels. The other or outer
extremity of the pole is armed with two flat flexible and tapering spring grippers
or arms D, D. The bow spring C and the spring grippers D, D, may encli be
made either of different pieces of strong steel, connected together after the
ordinary manner of coach springs, and as shewn in the accompanying Drawings,
or in one piece of sufficient strength and flexibility. E is a coupling boss of
the form shewn in the separate Plan and side view, Figuro 3, from the square
sides of which project two short pins or axles e, e, which take into two lioles in
the outer ends of the spring grippers D, D, and by which it is held firmly there
as long as it is pulled in a line directly parallel with the said spring grippers:
The hook fat the end of the boss serves to connect it by a chain (which may
be of any length found in practice most suitable,) to the rear of the engine, or
tender, or other carriage in front. G1, G2, are two smaller pair. of spring
grippers, one at each side of the centre spring grippers D, D, and of like con-
struction, excepting only that they are not attached to moveable poles, but
firmly secured to the front cross piece B₁ (either in the manner represented in
G³, or in that represented in G³); and which smaller grippers grasp or carry two
auxiliary coupling bosses of the same description, and secured in the same way
as the principal boss before described. Instead of the coupling bosses being. of
the form represented in Figure 3, they may be of that shewn in Figure 4, or
of any other equally adapted to the purpose. The centre spring grippers D, D;
must always be of such length only that, when the buffers. H, H, are driven
home they shall not protrude beyond them; and the smaller grippers must, of
course, protrude in a proportionally less degree. Each carriage in a train is to

page_text: be: provided with a set of these grippers and coupling bosses. The effect of
this method of connection is as follows:-As long as all the carriages in a train
remain in the same line of traction, or no further deviation from a straight line
takes place than occurs in the worst cases of curvature or deviation known
upon railways (excepting always termini and stations,) the coupling bosses will
remain firmly secured within their respective spring grippers; but when it is
desired to disconnect, a locomotive engine-from a train, as, for example, on its
arrival at.a terminus, there should be a short line of rails laid down at an angle,
more or less acute, with the main line, so that on the engine passing off to that
line it shall, by such act of divergence, pull. the coupling bosses out of their
state of parallelism with the cheeks of their respective spring grippers, whereby
tliey will be instantly set free, and the engine be.detached from all the carriages
behind. In like manner, when it is desired to detach any number of carriages
in a train, all that is necessary is to pull the coupling bosses by which they are
connected with the rest out of the line of parallelism with the cheeks of their
respective spring grippers (to effect which a very slight force will - suffice;)
when the separation will be instantly effected. Again, should the engine
happen to run off the line the coupling bosses will equally lose their hold in an
instant in consequence of the angular pull thereby given to them, and the
danger of its dragging any of the carriages of the train after it, will be thus
wholly avoided. To expedite the introduction of the coupling bosses within
their respective spring grippers, there should be attached to the carriage, by
means of a chain, and close to each pair of grippers, an expander of a wedge
form, as represented in Figure 5, and of corresponding size, by the introduction
of which between them they may be instantly separated to the extent required.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim under my
said in part recited Letters Patent is the method or methods hercin-before
described, and explained by the Drawings hereunto annexed, of connecting and
disconnecting locomotive engines and railway carriages, however the mechanical
details thereof may be immaterially varied or modified, and whether one, two,
or more sets of coupling bosses and spring grippers are made use of for the
purpose. And such my Invention being to the best of my knowledge and
belief entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby
declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe
this my said Specification doth comply in all respects, fully and without reserve
or disguise, and with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters