A NEW OR IMPROVED RAILWAY BREAK
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jones Saunders, of No. 7, Morden Place, Lewisham
Road, in the County of Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW
OR IMPROVED RAILWAY BREAK."
Sealed the 6th March 1868, and dated the 10th September 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jones Saunders at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the 10th
September 1862.
I, JONES SAUNDERS, of No. 7, Morden Place, Lewisham Road, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW OR IMPROVED RAILWAY BREAK," to be as follows:-
I describe my Invention as a simple, inexpensive, continuous railway break,
to be made to act by the power of the locomotive, and requiring no fixing
between the carriages, but ready to act upon the carriages being screwed up
together, as is usual.
I fit a vertical lever or bar, which I call a contact lever, on every buffer
head by a pin through its mid-centre, on which pin the lever vibrates, and I
fit each of these contact levers at the lower end with a pulley, and at one or
both ends with contact pieces. At a suitable distance above the buffer heads
on the bodies of the carriages at the corners I fit by a pin joint one end of a
vertical curved bar, which I call a differential bar, which passes down behind
and in contact with the back of buffer head, and has fastened at its other

page_text: end a rope, which rope passes over the pulley of contact lever, and is thence
led to a bar hanging from the frame of the carriage, to which hanging bar its
other end is fastened. This hanging bar carries the usual wooden blocks for
pressing on to the periphery of the wheel, with a spring interposed between
the said block and bar, and this arrangement being the same at both ends of
the carriage I connect the hanging bars carrying the blocks by rope, iron
wire, or rods, thus each contact lever upon the buffer heads of carriage is
connected with its corresponding contact lever on the same side of carriage.
Then if a number of carriages are screwed up together in the usual way, it
will be seen that the contact levers on the buffer heads at one end of a carriage
will come in contact with the contact levers on the buffer heads at the end of
the other carriage screwed up to it. It will be seen further that if the position
of the front pair of contact levers on front pair of buffer heads of first carriage
be altered from the vertical, all the contact levers must alter accordingly;
thus will be formed a continuous railway break apparatus.
I propose to make this break act either by the power of the locomotive either
by fitting the locomotive or its tender with an arrangement like a capstan or
windlass, or horizontal roller, worked with a toothed wheel and endless screw,
and a rope coiled round this horizontal roller, so as to leave a bight or loop to
be looped on to the hook of the first carriage, and having two ends to be
attached to the lower ends of contact levers on buffer heads of first carriage,
so that by simply turning a handle on the end of spindle of endless screw on
the locomotive or tender the roller will turn round and cause the locomotive
to pull either by the hook at the body of the carriage or at the break; or I
cause the break to act by the power of the locomotive through other simple
mechanical arrangements.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jones Saunders in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th March 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONES :
SAUNDERS, of No. 7, Morden Place, Lewisham Road, in the County of Kent,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her:
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the

page_text: said Jones Saunders, Her special licence, that I, the said Jones Saunders, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jones
Saunders, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED RAILWAY
BREAK," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Jones Saunders,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly, describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Jones Saunders, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following.
statement, that is to say:-
I describe my Invention as a simple, inexpensive, continuous railway break,
to be made to act by the power of the locomotive, and requiring no fixing
between the carriages, but ready to act upon the carriages being screwed up
together, as is usual.
I fit a vertical lever or bar, which I call a contact lever, on every buffer
head by a pin through its mid-centre, on which pin the lever vibrates, and I.
fit each of these contact levers at the lower end with a pulley, and at one or
both ends with contact pieces. At a suitable distance above the buffer heads.
on the bodies of the carriages at the corners I fix by a pin joint one end of a
vertical curved bar; which I call a differential bar, which passes down behind.
and in contact with the back of buffer head, and has fastened at its other end.
a rope, which passes over the pulley of contact lever, and is thence led to a
bar hanging from the frame of the carriage, to which hanging bar its other
end is fastened. This hanging bar carries the usual wooden blocks for,
pressing on to the periphery of the wheel, with a spring interposed between
the said blocks and bar, and this arrangement being the same at both ends of
the carriage I connect the hanging bars carrying the blocks by rope, iron wire,
or rods, thus each contact lever upon the buffer heads of carriage is connected
with its corresponding contact lever on the sanie side of carriage. Then if a
number of carriages are screwed up together in the usual way, it will be seen
that the contact levers on the buffer heads at one end of a carriage will come,

page_text: in contact with the contact levers on the buffer heads at the end of the other
carriage screwed up to it. It will be seen further that if the position of the
front pair of contact levers on front pair of buffer heads of first carriage be
altered from the vertical, all the contact levers must alter accordingly; thus
will be formed a continuous railway break apparatus.
I propose to make this break act by the power of the locomotive by fitting
the locomotive or its tender with an arrangement like a capstan or windlass, or
horizontal roller, worked with toothed wheel and endless screw, and a rope
coiled round this horizontal roller, so as to leave a bight or loop to be looped
on to the hook of first carriage, and having two ends to be attached to the
lower ends of contact levers on buffer heads of first carriage, so that by simply
turning a handle on the end of spindle of endless screw on the locomotive or
tender the roller will turn round and cause the locomotive to pull either by
the hook at the body of the carriage or at the break; this will actuate the
first contact levers, causing them to incline, and from the continuous nature
of the arrangements will also incline all the levers on all the carriages, and
these levers being connected with the break blocks by the ropes or chains in
the manner herein-before described will thus effect the breaking action; or I
may cause the break to act by the power of the locomotive through other
simple mechanical arrangements which will incline the contact levers, and
thus effect the breaking action.
In order that the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, may be clearly and distinctly described and ascer-
tained, I append to this Specification a Sheet of Drawings to scale, having
figures and letters of reference marked thereupon, the like letters being used
to denote corresponding parts in each Figure.
•
In these Drawings, Figures 1, 2, and 3 are respectively side elevations of a
locomotive tender, a carriage, and part of another carriage, to which my
breaking arrangements are fitted; and Figures 4, 5, and 6 are plans of the
lower part of the said tender carriage and part of carriage.
Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, are views to an enlarged scale of parts or portions
of my breaking arrangements, and will herein-after be alluded to.
In these Figures A, A, A, A, are the contact levers or bars fitted on buffer
heads, one of which levers or bars I also show separately to an enlarged scale
by Figures 7 and 8, b, b, b, b, are the pulleys at bottom of contact levers or
bars;
D, D, D, D, are the vertical curved differential bars, fitted at their
upper ends by a pin joint on ends of carriages. Figures 9 and 10 exhibit one
of these differential bars D drawn to an enlarged scale; E, E, E, E, is the rope
or chain leading from the differential bars D, D, D, D, to the hanging

page_text: bars 9, 9. 9, 9, with their blocks F, F, F, F; the hanging bars 9, 9, 9, 9, will
vary slightly in form, according to their position on the carriage, but their
general construction will be understood by a reference to the Drawings; and I
show one of the forms of these bars separately to an enlarged scale in
Figure 11, these bars being so constructed that their lower end serves as a
spring; these springs are to ensure the breaking action of all the blocks.
In the Drawings the contact levers are shown with pulleys at both ends,
which pulleys will act as contact pieces, instead of employing separate contact
pieces, as herein-before described.
In the capstan or windlass arrangement for applying the breaking action by
the power of locomotive, as shewn in elevation and plan of tender, H is the
horizontal roller with toothed wheel J and endless screw K on spindle L, with
wheel or handle M.
The power of this break may be increased to any desired extent by an
alteration of the point of attachment of the rope to the contact lever, as
indicated by the red dotted lines at the end of the carriage next the tender, or
by attaching the ropes or chains to horizontal levers N, N, N, N, in the
manner shown by the black dotted lines in the front part of the elevation and
plan of first carriage, so that by the pull of the rope on one side the wheel
on the opposite side is breaked by leverage. If it be found necessary to
release the pull of the locomotive without releasing the breaks, I fit the tender
with a horizontal rod P with a fork end, which is capable of being screwed
out against the first contact lever on each side of first carriage, thereby
keeping the contact levers in the inclined position they assume when the
breaks are in action. The rod P is shown by red dotted lines in Figure 1.
Having now by this Specification, and the Drawings appended, particularly
described and ascertained the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, what I claim is, the construction and use
of a continuous railway break, and its actuation by the locomotive, as described
and shown in this Specification and the Drawings appended thereto.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jones Saunders, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
JONES SAUNDERS. (L.S.)