New or Improved Means and Apparatus for Ventilating, Heating, and Cooling the Interior of Railway Carriages, and for Purifying and Disinfecting Air supplied thereto.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Apr., 1893-Accepted, 10th June. 1893
[Communicated from abroad by FRANZ VERRUE, of 53, Rue de la Source,
Brussels, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Engineer.]
New or Improved Means and Apparatus for Ventilating, Heating,
and Cooling the Interior of Railway Carriages, and for Purifying
and Disinfecting Air supplied thereto.
I PAULINE LAWRENCE-SIEGRIST of Boston Massachusetts in the United
States of America at present residing at the Grand Hotel Charing Cross in the
County of Middlesex wife of Robert Southworth Lawrence of Boston aforesaid
Gentleman do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
My invention has for its object to supply railway cars while travelling with air
free from smoke, cinders or dust from the chimney of the locomotive and in some
cases with heated or cooled air.
To this end my said invention consists essentially of a funnel-shaped apparatus
fitted on to the front end of the engine and into which air blows more or less
violently according to the speed of the train and is delivered inside the cars by
means of suitably arranged delivery pipes and distributors.
The air pipe is provided with a cock or tap by preference placed near the
point where the air enters the pipe at the bottom of the funnel by means of
which cock or tap the engine driver may cut off the delivery current on the
train entering a tunnel or a station or when running through fog or rain or on
approaching a place where the air is usually vitiated.
The air pipe is suitably insulated to protect it against the action of heat and
cold.
The apparatus may also be used to supply the cars with heated air and for
this purpose the air pipe is passed through or underneath the fire box or fire grate
or connected with a series of tubes arranged in or beneath the firebox or fire
grate of the engine; or the apparatus may be arranged for delivering fresh or
cooled air to the cars by passing the air tube through the water tank or an
ice-chest on the tender or in the front guard compartment or other convenient
place or by connecting the air pipe with a series of small tubes arranged in an
ice chest.
According to a modification of my invention I make the air pipe with a
branch pipe containing a suitable filtering substance saturated with disinfectants
and suitable means may be provided by which the engine driver may cause the
current of air to pass either-through-the-branch pipe or directly through the
main pipe. Instead of a branch pipe a spray injector may be arranged in con-
nection with the air pipe in order to purify the air by saturating it with a
suitable disinfectant as it passes through the pipe.
The air pipe is preferably fitted on the top of the cars, each car being provided
with a length of pipe leading from one end of the car to the other end and the
connections between the cars are formed of flexible couplings and union joints.
From this main pipe, smaller pipes lead into each compartment, where they
terminate in a suitable air distributor which may consist simply of a cross pipe
closed at both ends and perforated throughout its length.
Instead of fitting the main pipe on the top of the cars it might conveniently be
fitted either underneath the cars or along one side.
The pipes through which the air passes from the main pipe into the distributors
are provided with taps by which the entry of air may be regulated or cut off
entirely.

page_text: The accompanying drawings represent diagrams of my invention.
Figure 1 shows my invention applied to a railway train.
Figure 2 is an enlarged detached diagram of my apparatus.
a represents the funnel fitted to the fore end of the engine, b, b' the main air
pipes, c the flexible couplings between the cars with union joints d; e the cock or
tap for cutting off the admission of air; the pipes through which the air enters
the cars ; 7 the distributors in the compartments and the cock for regulating the
supply of air to the distributors.
I have not shown the modifications of my invention according to which either
cooled or heated air can be supplied to the cars; neither have I shown the com-
bination with the air pipe of means for purifying or disinfecting the air as the same
will be readily understood, the more so as the arrangement of the parts in each
case will depend greatly on the construction of the engine to which my invention
is to be applied.
I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to any particular construction
or arrangement of the several parts of my invention but what 1 consider to be
new and claim as my invention, of "New or improved means and apparatus for
ventilating heating and cooling the interior of railway carriages and for purifying
and disinfecting air supplied thereto " is
First; A funnel-shaped apparatus fitted to the fore-end of the engine and an
air-pipe leading from the said funnel to the rear-end of the train, an air pipe
provided with branch pipes that bring the air into the several compartments of the
cars where it is distributed through suitable air distributors; a cock or tap, to be
operated by the engine driver on the air pipe near the funnel and cocks on each of
the branch pipes inside the compartments by which the supply of air may be
regulated or entirely cut off substantially as hereinbefore described and shown in
the accompanying diagrams.
Secondly; The modified arrangement of my invention according to which the
air pipe is passed either through the fire-box of the engine or through the water
tank in order to heat or cool the air to be distributed to the cars.
Thirdly; The combination with the ventilating apparatus herein before described
and claimed of means for purifying or disinfecting the air to be distributed into the
cars either by causing it to pass through a suitable filtering and purifying substance
or by the use of a suitable spray injector.
Dated the Thirtieth day of March 1893.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicant.