IMPROVED MEANS FOR WARMING THE CARRIAGES OF RAIL AND TRAMWAYS PARTLY APPLICABLE FOR FORMING THE PIPE CONNECTIONS OF RAILWAY BREAK AND COMMUNICATING APPARATUS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Perkins at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 7th May 1883.
THOMAS PERKINS of Hitchin in the County of Herts. "IMPROVED MEANS FOR
WARMING THE CARRIAGES OF RAIL AND TRAMWAYS PARTLY APPLICABLE FOR
FORMING THE PIPE CONNECTIONS OF RAILWAY BREAK AND COMMUNICATING
APPARATUS."
This invention has first for its object to admit of railway carriages being efficiently
warmed by means of steam supplied from the locomotive.
Hitherto objections have been raised to conveying steam from the locomotive
through pipes along the train for the purpose of warming the carriages on account
of its increasing the number of pipe couplings which have to be released or made
fast when a train of carriages is made up or unmade and also that the warming of
the carriages at the rear end of a train by steam conveyed along a pipe or pipes
from the locomotive is very defective owing to the accumulation of water in the
pipes (from the condensation of steam) and especially in the flexible pipe couplings
by which the metal pipes on one carriage have been coupled to the metal pipes
on the adjoining carriages, and which usually hang down in a loop or bend. In
order to remedy these inconveniences I make the connections between the metal
pipes on one carriage and the metal pipes on the carriages adjoining its two ends in
the following manner.
Two short pipes are made to extend lengthwise from each end of each carriage at
the same level and one on one side of the central line of the carriage and the other
on the other side. They are made to be at the same level on all the carriages and.
at the same distance apart from one another.
One of the two pipes at each end of a carriage is made funnel mouthed ; the
other has around it a ring of vulcanized india rubber which is circular in cross
section. The pipes are made to stand out horizontally from the ends of the
carriages so that when two carriages are put together the pipes on the one carriage

page_text: always meet the pipes on the other carriage. The pipes with the ring around
them will then enter the coned or bell mouthed ends of the other pipes and the
coned ends form guides by which the pipes with the rings around them are directed
into the interior of the parallel portions of the bell mouthed pipes. The rings as
they enter the parallel sided portion of the bell mouthed pipes get compressed
between this tube and the inner tube which the ring embraces and form a tight
joint and as the pipes are pushed one into the other the rings roll along the pipes
so that the ring gets carried well into the interior of the outer pipe and always
remains in this pipe in spite of any to and fro play there may be between the
carriages by the play of their buffers.
+
Any up and down or sideway movement of either carriage is provided for by
the lengths of pipe which stand outwards from the ends of the carriage being
connected by a flexible joint either a short stout tube of india rubber or other
short length of flexible pipe to the main fixed pipe or pipes which pass from one
end of the carriage to the other.
This joint I either form of sufficient strength to normally hold the short lengths
of pipes carried by them horizontally or if the joint is not sufficiently strong for
this purpose then I use in addition spring supports to hold them normally in a
horizontal position but which spring supports will allow them to yield somewhat
either sidewise or up or down to allow for the up or down or sideway movement
of the carriages.
The pipes may also be made to turn on a joint at their connection with the
carriage so that they may be folded out of the way when the carriages are
disconnected or they may fit into slides or sockets and be lifted out of the way
when desired. .
In place of using two short pipes extending from each end of a carriage one on
each side of its longitudinal central line-a single central short pipe may be used
such pipe being branched or forked at its extremity and one branch having around
it at its end a ring of vulcanized india rubber and the other made bell mouthed
and of such a diameter that a pipe surrounded by a ring of vulcanized india
rubber of the size of the other branch or fork can enter and fit into it.
One of such couplings is in this case carried at each end of each carriage andi
when the carriages are coupled together the branches of the two couplings which
have the elastic rings around them enter the other branches which are bell
mouthed.
'
!
Each carriage or compartment may be fitted with a system of pipes through'
which steam may be passed from the steam supply pipe or if the carriage or
compartment is not required to be warmed the admission of steam to this system
of pipes can be cut off by closing a valve and the steam thus allowed to pass direct
through the steam supply pipe only The extremity of the steam supply pipe at the
rear end of the train might be left entirely open or partially closed or closed with
a lightly loaded valve:
The same system of forming the connections between the pipes on one carriage
to pipes on adjoining carriages may be used for pipes through which hot water or
air is caused to circulate.
J
It may also be used for forming the pipe connections requisite for continuous
railway break or communicating apparatus or for the water pipe from the tender to
the locomotive.
In place also of the short pipe of the pipe coupling which has the ring around it
being connected to the end of the carriage by a short length of flexible tube-it
may have another ring around it to fit into a socket or short length of pipe fixed'
on the end of the carriage.
The coupling would then consist of the bell mouthed pipe fastened to one carriage
a socket or short length of pipe to the adjoining carriage with a length of pipė
having a ring at each end fitting into their respective pipes or sockets thus forming
a joint free to move in any direction.
i
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page_text: Instead of these pipes the buffer rods of the carriages may be made hollow and be
fitted with connections similar to those described.
Instead also of the pipe connections or couplings of either form being held
normally standing out from the ends of the carriages in a horizontal position so that
one connection engages the other when the carriages are put together end to end
they might be each carried by lengths of flexible pipe so that the coupling together
of the two parts would have to be effected by hand.