IM- PROVEMENTS IN TILE CONSTRUCTION OF FRICTION COUPLINGS
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Clayton Mewburn, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agont and Consulting Engineer, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN TILE CONSTRUCTION OF FRICTION COUPLINGS." A communication
from abroad by Thomas Aldridge Weston, of Stamford, Connecticut, in the
United States of America.
Sealed the 22nd September 1877, and dated the 28th March 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Clayton Mewburn at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th March 1877.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
FRICTION COUPLINGS." A communication from abroad by Thomas Aldridge
Weston, of Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States of America.
This Invention consists of improvements in the construction of friction couplings.
I employ frictional surfaces of disc form, as shewn in the Specification and Drawings
of Thomas Aldridge Weston's Letters Patent, dated January 29th, 1863, No. 263.
The said discs I use in pairs, one being of metal and the other of wood; the present
improvements relating especially to the wooden discs to prevent warping and
breakage, and ensure quick action in disengaging.
The improved disc of wood or other suitable material I make of detached radial
segments. The converging or inner ends of the segments enter within the pulley
or drum carrying them, and their outer or flaring ends project beyond the periphery
of the said pulley to receive the rubbing action or frictional contact of the metal
discs; I insert crosswise through each segment metal rods or pins to stiffen them
and prevent warping, or the said metallic stiffeners may be sunk in the outer surface
of the segments. The segments are retained in the pulley or drum, and connected
therewith by transverse pins or studs, or projections on the pulley passing between
or through the segments.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Clayton Mewburn in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th September 1877.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
FRICTION COUPLINGS." A communication from abroad by Thomas Aldridge
Weston, of Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States of America.
This Invention consists of improvements in the construction of friction couplings.
I employ frictional surfaces of disc form, as described and shewn in the Specifica-
tion and Drawings of Thomas Aldridge Weston's Letters Patent, dated January
29th, 1863, No. 263. The said discs I use in pairs, one being of metal and the
other of wood; the present improvements relating especially to the wooden
discs to prevent warping and breakage, and ensure quick action in disengaging.
The improved disc of wood or other suitable material I make of detached radial
segments. The converging or inner ends of the segments enter within the pulley
or drum carrying them, and their outer or flaring ends project beyond the periphery
of the said pulley to receive the rubbing action or frictional contact of the metal
discs; I insert crosswise through each segment metal rods or pins to stiffen them
and prevent warping, or the said metallic stiffeners may be sunk in the outer surface
of the segments. The segments are retained in the pulley or drum, and connected
therewith by transverse pins or studs, or projections on the pulley passing between
or through the segments.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying Drawings represent detached radial
segments of the improved friction discs of wood or other material possessing
equivalent texture or characteristics suiting it for frictional action in friction clutches
and brakes.
Figure 4 represents a complete disc of wood or equivalent material in one piece,
such as first horein-before referred to as being described in the Specification and
shewn in the Drawings of the aforesaid Letters Patent, dated January 29th, 1863,
No 203.
In the disc segment, Figure 1, steel or metallic rods or stiffeners A are driven
tightly into holes made for them in the body of the segment transversely to the
direction of the grain in the wood, or in such direction that any tendency to
warping or bending in the segment will be resisted and prevented by the stiffness
of the metallic rods.
In the segment, Figure 2, the rods or stiffeners are also placed transversely to the
grain of the wood, but from its direction they are oblique to the segment itself.
In Figure 3 the stiffeners are of flat section, and secured externally or hoop-
fashion to the edges of the segment or disc. Stiffeners of like sectional form in
suitable lengthis may be sunk slightly below the surface or any exterior face of the
segment or disc where the tendency to warp requires to be neutralized.
In Figure 4 the stiffeners (A) are metallic rods applied or inserted across the
grain, as in Figures 1 and 2. The stiffeners of rod form may be slightly shorter
than the holes containing them, and their ends upset or rivetted to form a bolt or
tie to bind the disc or segment together, and thus prevent splitting or breakage, as
well as warping; and the surface of the rods may be roughened or slightly screw
threaded to further improve their hold upon the wood or other material.
The general arrangement and operation of a disc coupling and brake employing
two series of discs (which may be constructed with the present improvements) are
set forth in the Specification and Drawings of the aforesaid Letters Patent of
January 29th, 1863.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that I claim constructing the discs of friction
4

page_text: couplings, substantially as herein-before described and shewn in the accompanying
Drawings, so as to prevent warping and breakage.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Clayton Mowburn, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of September, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-seven.
J. C. MEWBURN. (L.S.)