AN IMPROVED CON- STRUCTION OF SPRING FOR SUSTAINING LOADS AND MODERATING CONCUSSION
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Rishworth, of Sheffield, in the County of
York, Railway Spring Maker, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED CON-
STRUCTION OF SPRING FOR SUSTAINING LOADS AND MODERATING CONCUSSION."
Sealed the 20th July 1858, and dated the 20th January 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Rishworth at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th January 1858.
I, CHARLES RISHWORTH, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Railway
Spring. Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF SPRING FOR SUSTAINING LOADS AND MODERATING
CONCUSSION," to be as follows:―
This Invention relates to a peculiar arrangement of straining and resilient
parts for the distribution and economical resolution of the forces which operate
on bearing springs and buffers for railway and other carriages or waggons.
The combination prevents the pressure or force of concussion from acting
directly upon the elastic media or springs, and consists of a guide frame with
bars or tension rods working therein, which are actuated by straining pieces,
and restrained by springs. The frame is made of such length as may be
necessary with cheeks and strong enlarged ends; in each end is a mortice or
hole through which a bar or tension rod passes freely at a distance of about
half the length of the frame; these rods are fitted with a key or flange, between
which and the end of the frame the elastic media consisting of spiral or seg-
mental steel springs or other elastic materials are fixed. The end of each bar

page_text: which passes through the mortice in the frame also passes through and is
firmly secured to a straining piece which projects at right angles beyond the
cheeks of the frame within which it works; on each side of the frame these
straining pieces are connected by three or more distending pieces or links
jointed together and forming an endless connection. Of these the centre
pieces are enlarged and secured to the framework and bearing parts of the
carriage, and when they are forced apart they draw. the straining pieces
attached to the tension bars as near the middle of the frame as the load or
force applied determines, thus compressing the springs which exert their
resilient action most effectively in overcoming a strain instead of the direct
action of a blow or vibration of a heavy load.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Rishworth in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
RISHWORTH, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Railway Spring Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Charles Rishworth, Her special licence that I, the said Charles Rish-
worth, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles Rishworth, 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, use, exer-
cise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED CON-
STRUCTION OF SPRING FOR SUSTAINING LOADS AND MODERATING CONCUSSION," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Rishworth, my
executors or administrators, 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 per-
formed, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles. Rishworth, 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 fol-:
lowing statement, reference being had to the annexed Sheet of Drawings, and.
to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My improvements relate to a peculiar arrangement of straining and resi-
lient parts for the distribution and economical resolution of the forces which:
operate on bearing springs and buffers for railway and other carriages, or
waggons. By this peculiar arrangement or combination of parts the pres-
sure or force of concussion is prevented from acting directly upon the elastic
media or springs.
Fig. 1 in the annexed Sheet of Drawings represents the spring extended or
at rest, with accompanying parts in ground plan connected with the draw hook
of a railway carriage; Fig. 2 is a side view in section through the line a, b,
of Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a section through the line c, d, of Fig. 2, showing the
spring compressed or under strain.
A, A, are two sockets or slide pieces working on a guide bar B, upon
which the springs C, C, are fixed. To the socket pieces A, A, are attached
straining bars D, D, D', D', the first being secured to the bearing bar E,
and the latter connected with the draw hook F. When in a state of rest, see
Fig. 1, the socket pieces A, A, are distended as far as the number and size of
the springs determine. When in action the load or pressure acts upon rods
connected with and bearing on both ends of the bearing bar E, and as the
strain increases the sockets A, A, will through the links D, D, D', D', be forced
5 to approach each other, whereby the springs will be compressed as shown in
Fig. 3. The spring is highly elastic when the strain is first applied, but as it
becomes more compressed it acquires rigidity. The joints of the connecting
pieces sustain a certain proportion of the acting pressure, and the socket pieces
transmit it only indirectly to the segmental plates of steel fixed on the guide
O bar, or to spiral springs or other elastic medium or material fixed in the
manner contemplated between the socket pieces.
In the accompanying Drawing one row of springs or blades is shown,
which springs are intended to act by compression, but two or more rows of
springs or one single spring, or two or more single springs placed side by side,
5 or one within the other may be used. The springs may also be so disposed
between or connected with the blocks or parts connecting the straining links
as to act by stretching or pulling, instead of by compression.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, I wish to observe
that I do not restrict myself to any particular form, shape or construction of

page_text: spring, nor to the material of which the elastic: medium may be made, nor to
the manner in which such springs are fixed or secured, but what I do claim
as my Invention to be secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, the combination of parts whereby the action of the spring
or elastic medium is called into force in a direction at right angles with the
direction in which the strain or force is applied, for the purposes and in the
manner substantially as herein-before described.
In. witness whereof, I, the said Charles Rishworth, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
T. F. CASKIN,
Sheffield, July 1858.
CHARLES RISHWORTH. (L.S.)