IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Saint Thomas Clarke, of Charing Cross,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS."
Sealed the 7th February 1862, and dated the 10th August 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Saint Thomas
Clarke at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 10th August 1861.
I, WILLIAM SAINT THOMAS CLARKE, of Charing Cross, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS," to be as follows:-
I intersect the axle or axles of the driving wheels of locomotives transversely
with a current of electricity, and intersect the axle or axles of the locomotive
and the axles of the tender and carriages, and the axle or axles of the loco-
motive and the axles of the tender, luggage vans, guards' vans, and waggons
or trucks transversely with a single or with separate currents of electricity,
whereby most efficient grip or bite on the rails will be obtained.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Saint Thomas Clarke in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th February 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SAINT THOMAS CLARKE, of Charing Cross, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Saint Thomas Clarke, Her special licence that I, the said
William Saint Thomas Clarke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Saint Thomas Clarke, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY BREAKS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Saint Thomas
Clarke, 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 William Saint Thomas Clarke, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
(No. I.) The nature of the said Invention as hath been heretofore set
forth in and by the Provisional Specification left and recorded on application
for the said Letters Patent, consists in intersecting the axle or axles of driving
wheels of locomotives transversely with a current of electricity, and inter-
secting the axle or axles of the locomotive and the axles of the tender and
carriages, and the axle or axles of the locomotive and the axles of the tender,
luggage vans, guards' vans, and waggons or trucks transversely with a single
or with separate currents of electricity, whereby most efficient grip or bite on
the rails will be obtained.

page_text: (No. II.) Having thus far described the nature of the said Invention,
I will now proceed to further exemplify the same, and to particularly describe
and ascertain in what manner the same is to be performed, wherein I shall
refer to the accompanying Drawings by the words, figures, and letters marked
thereon, and herein referred to, that is to say :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, side elevation of a railway truck with this Invention applied
thereto; Figure 2, plan (a portion thereof being in horizontal section).
A denotes the body of the truck; B, wheels, on the axles of which are
tubes or cylinders (C), of brass or other suitable metal, which in the case of
engines having cranks between any pair of wheels, or under the body thereof,
would be a divided cylinder or tube, and this same arrangement might be
applied in other cases. These tubes encompass the said axles, but so that
there is a space between the axle and the said tubes or cylinders, the same
being kept clear of the axle by being suspended from the bottom of the
railway truck or carriage, by being screwed or otherwise secured to the pen-
dant supports D at **, and in the case of the engines without side bearings
these supports will be secured to the boiler. E are discs or pieces of brass
or metal fixed at right angles to the said tubes or cylinders (C), between
which are coiled the electric wires F, the surfaces of the coils being previously
insulated.
The beginning of the first coil in an engine with a single pair of driving
wheels, being previously tapered at its extremity, is connected direct to one
pole of the battery, and its end with commencement of the second coil, the
end of which is carried to the binding collar, marked I, on the regulator dial
(Figure 3), but in the case of two pairs of driving wheels, the commencement
of the first coil is joined to the end of its longitudinally next coil (or third),
and the first coil and the second coil, which is at its side on the same axle,
are also joined, and the end of this second coil is connected with the com-
mencement of its longitudinally next coil (or fourth), and the commencement
of the third coil is carried to one pole of the battery, and the end of the
second coil to the connecting screw collar, marked I., on the regulator dial
(Figure 3). In the cases of both kinds of engine a connection is made by
a wire between the binding collar L and that pole of the battery not herein-
before described as connected. For the tender or trucks, waggons or carriages,
as shewn in the Drawing, I connect the commencement of the "first" coil
with the binding collar (marked K, Figure 3) and the end of the said coil
with the commencement of its longitudinally next or third coil, and then

page_text: connect the commencement of the second coil (that is, the coil at the side and
on the same axle with the first) with the commencement of its longitudinally
next or the fourth coil, and then connect the end of the second coil with the
same pole of the battery as the collar L is connected with in the engine
arrangements before described. The lengths of wires are joined together to
form one continuous length by splice-jointing, that is, laying the end of one
wire over the end of the other, and binding the two together by winding wire
around them, and soldering, or by placing the two ends in a box or collar
provided with binding screws, bringing them end to end, and then binding
them in the box by said screws; and by the latter means any carriages may
be taken away or added to a train, and yet the electric current be kept up
throughout if necessary, taking care that in the last carriage the ends of the
wires be connected together. The battery it would usually be desirable to
place behind the engine on the tender, and the regulator near the battery in
view of the engine driver and attendant, who, by moving the pointer p on the
regulator dial, puts the said pointer into and out of connection with such wires
and the battery, as is required. The tubes or cylinders (C) when applied to
axles with cranks in the centre should be attached to the bearings of the
wheels by brass screws or otherwise, and not by pendant supports (as shewn
by the Drawings at D). These tubes or cylinders and attachments should be
put on the axles by being divided longitudinally, then placed on, and after-
wards soldering or securing the parts together, so as to give stability to
the tube.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the Invention,
the nature and character whereof is set forth in the outset (marked No. I.)
of this my Specification thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Saint Thomas Clarke, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of February, in the
vear of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two,
W. ST. THOMAS CLARKE. (L.S.)
Witness,
W. H. BATEMAN,
(General Patent Company, Limited,)
71, Fleet Street, London.