IMPROVEMENTS IN BREAKS FOR RETARDING MACHINERY AND VEHICLES USED ON RAIL OR COMMON ROADS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Richards Freeman and
Abraham Grundy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 22nd September 1866.
We, SAMUEL RICHARDS FREEMAN and ABRAHAM GRUNDY, of the City of-
Manchester, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREAKS FOR RETARDING MACHINERY AND VEHICLES USED ON
RAIL OR COMMON ROADS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the construction and use of a break or
breaking apparatus to be applied to carriages, vans, waggons, and other vehicles
used on rail or common roads or applied to machinery to impede, retard, or stop
such vehicles or machinery in an efficient, and if need be quick manner, so
that the attendants in charge of a train or machine may have more control
over the progress of such train or machine than has hitherto been practicable.
Now this Invention, as applied to vehicles, consists of a break wheel to be
mounted upon the axletree or connected to the wheels of such vehicles having
an angular groove upon its periphery, round which break wheel a metallic
band or jointed arm is passed, which carry on their inner surfaces the blocks,
commonly called break blocks, constructed of wood or other suitable material
of the same shape as the angular groove herein-before mentioned; one end

page_text: of such band or jointed arm is jointed to a fixing on the under surface of such
vehicle, and the other connected to a quick threaded screw mounted in suitable
bearings, also underneath the vehicle, to which a longitudinal motion may be
imparted either by having it serewed through a stationary nut, in which case
the screw revolves, or the screw may be moved longitudinally by means of a
revolving nut, or in the case of vehicles used on common roads the other end
of the said band or jointed arm may be connected to a lever conveniently
situated to be under the control of the driver, and by having the metallic
band which surrounds the break blocks formed of spring steel the blocks may
be made to release themselves when the pressure is removed from the
lever.
The action of this break, as applied to vehicles used on railroads, may be
thus described:-Each axletree of the vehicle being provided with a break
wheel worked by one and the same screw, and a longitudinal motion being
imparted to such screws by means of bevil gearing in the ordinary manner, the
break blocks which surround the grooved break wheels are caused to collapse
and grip the groove in the break wheels, and. eventually to stop the motion of
the vehicle.
It will thus be apparent that the break blocks constitute neither more
nor less than an annular wedge, which by the action of the quick threaded
.screw or lever is wedged in the groove of the break wheel, and thus the
necessary friction is caused to retard or stop the progress of a vehicle, and
when applied to vehicles used on rails by having the screws to project beyond
either end of the vehicles and fitted with universal male and female sockets the
whole train can be under the control of a single attendant.
It will be readily understood that a breaking apparatus similar to that
berein-before described is applicable with slight modifications to all machines
which require to be governed by break power.