IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR APPLYING BRAKES TO THE WHEELS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Beaumaris Bulkeley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th November 1878.
FRANCIS BEAUMARIS BULKELEY, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County
of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR APPLYING BRAKES TO THE
WHEELS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES."
This Invention relates to apparatus by which brakes of wood or other suitable.
material are applied when required to the peripheries of the wheels of railway car-
riages in motion for the purpose of retarding and arresting such motion, and especially
to apparatus in which the agency of electricity is used for the purpose of so applying
the brakes to the wheels of the carriage.
My Invention has for its objects improved methods of constructing and
arranging the apparatus by which the brakes are so applied to the wheels by
means of electricity so that it is simpler and more effective than has heretofore been
the case.
I arrange in a convenient position on the train of carriages to which my appa-
ratus is to be applied, but preferably on or near the locomotive engine, a galvanic
battery or preferably a magneto-electric machine of any of the kinds well known
and used, by the revolution of which a current of electricity can be generated, and I
drive it by means of a small steam engine of sufficient power connected to it and
driven by steam from the locomotive boiler when required. Or it may be driven by
means of belts or other gear from one or other of the axles of the locomotive, the
tender, or of one of the carriages constituting the train. I connect this electrical
generator to a properly insulated wire or wires by which the current of electricity
produced is conducted through, or under, or over, each carriage in the train, the
electrical circuit being completed either by means of a return wire or by connecting
the ends of the main wire to the railway or other metallic substance by which the
circuit is completed.
To one or more of the carriages through which the insulated wires are conducted
as described, I fit and fix one or more powerful electro-magnets constructed in the
ordinary way of bars of soft iron round which insulated metallic wire is coiled,
through which electricity, generated as above described, can be made to pass when

page_text: desired. I provide each of these electro-magnets with a moveable armature
actuating an arm or pall which operates the teeth of a corresponding ratchet wheel
revolving in fixed bearings. In this way by causing currents of electricity to pass
with greater or less speed through the insulated wires I cause the ratchet wheels to
revolve more or less quickly as desired. Additional fixed palls or detents are ar-
ranged by which the ratchet wheels are prevented from revolving backward, and to
the-axles of the wheels I connect cranks, eccentrics, levers, or endless screws, by
which the rotation of the ratchet wheels in the way described causes brake blocks
-of-wood or other suitable material, suspended from the frames of the carriages in.
the ordinary way, to be forced against the tires or peripheries of the wheels of
the carriages, and thus to retard or arrest the motion of the latter. The axis of
the ratchet wheel may be provided with a cam operating upon the end-of-a lever,
the other end of which forces the brake blocks against the wheels.
When it is required that the brake blocks should be removed and the wheels
released I release the ratchet wheels by removing from them the fixed palls or de-
tents by which they are prevented from turning backward as already described, and
the brake blocks are then removed from the wheels by their own weight or by other
weights or springs.
In order so to release the ratchet wheels I fit a second set of electro-magnets
which when in operation withdraw the detents and hold them back as long as may
be necesssary, and I put these. electro-magnets in operation by means of a second
insulated wire passing round them and through the several carriages, which wire
can be put in the circuit through which the electricity is passing by a guard or
attendant when desired.
The ratchet wheels can be set in motion as described from any convenient part
of the train by making and breaking at intervals as quickly as desired the circuit
of the conducting wire, either by pressing a stud or handle, or turning a wheel, or
other well understood means. I arrange the armatures of the electro magnets in
such positions that they have to travel backward and forward through a very
short distance when in action, and I arrange the ends of the insulated wires between
the several carriages so that they can be readily and quickly connected together and
disconnected by metal hooks or spring clips.