IMPROVEMENTS IN BREAKS OR APPARATUS FOR STOPPING OR RETARDING RAILWAY TRAINS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David William Thomas at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th December 1865.
I, DAVID WILLIAM THOMAS, of Bethesda, in the County of Caernarvon,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREAKS OR APPARATUS FOR STOPPING OR RETARDING RAILWAY TRAINS," to be as
follows (that is to say):
This Invention has for its object the convenience of coupling the whole of
the breaks of railway carriages together, so that the breaks may be applied
from either end of the train by the conductor or engineman without the
work of turning the carriages at their terminus (which hitherto has been the
practise) to suit the particular character of the break now in use, so that the
whole of the breaks may be applied at one and the same time or to as many
carriages as it may be deemed necessary to break at once, and consists, first,
in providing two round, square, or flat bars of iron to each carriage, of
suitable size, with their ends flattened down and having a long slot cut in
them for the purpose of compensating the working of the buffers, and at
their outer ends they are fitted with forked couplings for joining the break
rods or bars together. The extreme flattened ends of the above-mentioned
bars are bent at right angles and take into a lever on the middle of the
rocking shaft in the centre of the carriage. On this same shaft at each end
are placed double levers; attached to the last-mentioned levers are placed
four tapered bars or rods on each side of the carriage, the ends next
the break blocks being turned at an angle, and provided with holes of

page_text: sufficient size to receive pins or bolts attached to the break blocks so that
the ends of the tapered rods or bars may slide freely thereon. The above-
mentioned rocking shaft is held in position by a fixed bar of wrought iron
extending from one axle box to the other, having a long slot cut therein for
the purpose of receiving the slide attached to the side of the break block,
which also holds it in position.
The action of this improved break block is as follows:-The required
number of carriages being coupled together in the ordinary manner, and at
the same time coupling the break rods when there is one continuous line of
rod from one end of the train to the other; now at whatever end of the train
the breaking power may be applied, the whole of the levers upon the rocking
shafts are acted upon at the same time, and presses two of the herein-before
mentioned tapered rods on each carriage in opposite directions towards the
break blocks and also against the wheels, at the same time allowing the
other two corresponding tapered rods to slide freely on the before-mentioned
pins or bolts attached to the break blocks.
The tapered rods herein-before described may be attached to the break
blocks by transverse pins or hinge joints, in which case the levers on the
rocking shafts are shorter and connected to the joints at the centre of the tapered
rods by links, so that when the levers on the rocking shaft are thrown over
on the turning of the rocking shaft the centres of the two pairs of tapered
rods are drawn towards each other, thus causing the outer ends of the tapered
rods jointed to the break blocks to expand outwards in both directions, thus
thrusting the break blocks against the wheels by the action of each tapered
rod. The lower arms on the rocking shaft in the latter case it is preferred
to key on horizontally.