IMPROVEMENTS IN FENDERS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Augustus Turk Forder, of Leamington
Priors, in the County of Warwick, Solicitor, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FENDERS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES."
Scaled the 23rd May 1853, and dated the 24th November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Augustus Turk
Forder at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th November 1852.
I, AUGUSTUS TURK FORDER, of Leamington Priors, in the County
of Warwick, Solicitor, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FENDERS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES"
to be as follows: _
One of the improvements consists in dividing my improved
fender (for which I have obtained a Patent, dated on or about the
Eighth day of March 1852) into sets of two or more, projecting the
same or different distances from the carriages to which they are
appended, as experiment may prove best. The patented improved
fender contains a number of striking bars of different lengths, the
centres of which are placed opposite the centres of steel plates,
fastened over apertures in the other part of the fender called the

page_text: receiver, to which the striker is fastened by guiding irons and nuts.
Another improvement is in bolting two or more steel plates over
each aperture of the receiver instead of only one, and in the receiver
having one or more plates with apertures and steel plates, as
experiment may prove most advantageous. A further improvement
is in so placing the striking bars that those distant from each other
shall successively strike the receiver plates in such manner that the
collision or blow shall be nearly equally distributed over the
different parts of the surface of the frames, and not all strike on
one part at one time, similar to the following table, the figures
representing the striking bars, which vary in length: No. 1, re-
presents the longest, and No. 60, the shortest.
1, 23, 30, 40, 50, 19, 11, 53, 43, 33, 26, 6.
16, 27, 34, 44,
54,
7,
15, 57, 47, 37,
24,
18.
12, 29, 38, 48,
58,
2,
5, 59,
49,
39,
28, 14.
8, 25, 36, 46,
56,
17,
21, 55, 45, 35,
60, 10.
13,
9, 51, 41, 31, 22,
3.
4, 20, 32, 42, 52,
Thus if sixty strikers are used, and the set of fenders consist of
four, each of them will have 15 strikers placed. Upon the same
principle, I do not limit the improvement to the exact position of
the different strikers shewn above. This method of placing the
strikers will make the fenders less liable to be broken than when
otherwise fixed. An additional improvement is by letting into the
frame of two of the set of fenders a volute, or some other spring, in
such manner that its moving part projects beyond the frame of the
striker outwards, and being driven home is flush with the outside
striker plate. I do not limit myself to this mode of fixing the
spring, but require time for experiments.
My improvements in fenders for railway carriages render them
more portable and less liable to injury.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Augustus Turk Forder in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 24th May 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
AUGUSTUS TURK FORDER, of Leamington Priors, in the County of
Warwick, Solicitor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty fourth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty two,
in the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Augustus Turk
Forder, Her special licence that I, the said Augustus Turk Forder,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Augustus Turk Forder, 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 FENDERS
FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Augustus Turk Forder, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Augustus Turk Forder, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement (that is to say):
The object of my Invention is the improvement of the class of
fenders called an Improved Fender (for which Her most Excellent
Majesty Queen Victoria granted Her Letters Patent to ine, dated
on or about the Eighth day of March, One thousand eight hundred

page_text: and fifty two), which are so constructed and arranged as to absorb
any probable amount of force that may be exerted against them, in
the event of a collision upon a railway. One of my improvements
consists in making fenders in sets of two or more, thus rendering
them smaller, less in weight, and more portable, than can effectually
be done where one fender only at each end of a railway carriage is
used. Another improvement is by fixing the striking bars in the
frame in such manner that those distant from each other shall
successively strike the receiver plate, and so distribute the blow
gradually over the surface of the frames, which will render the
frames barely liable to be seriously injured by a collision; and also
by making the two longest striking bars of each fender of each set
of the same length. A third improvement consists in placing two
or more steel spring plates across each other over the apertures in
the receiver, and riveting them to the boiler plate; or, where it is
desirable that the fenders should occupy as small a space as possible,
by placing two steel spring plates crossed over each aperture of the
receiver, and also fixing one or more similar steel spring plates on
each of the striking irons. I attach one set of fenders to each end
of each railway carriage or truck in such a manner that the fenders
shall receive and absorb the whole force of the shock, except that
expended on the ordinary buffers. The fenders may be made of
various sizes to resist the power or collision that
may be possible,
considering the weight of the carriages, and the velocity with which
they move. The fenders consist of two parts; one I call the striker,
and the other the receiver. By way of exemplification, I will
describe a set of fenders for one end of a carriage of an assumed
weight, say three tons, and moving at an assumed velocity,say
thirty miles an hour (where fenders are to be applied to carriages
of a greater weight, moving at the same or a greater velocity, they
must of course be proportionably enlarged). I construct a set of
fenders consisting of two for each end of such a carriage and
velocity as follows:-The set consists of two fenders. The annexed
Drawings shew the parts of the fenders. Figure 1, represents the
side elevation of one of a set of fenders thirteen inches by thirteen

page_text: inches without a covering, in which Number 1, is the receiver, and
Number 2, the striker; in the receiver a, and b, are plates of boiler
iron, half an inch thick, thirteen inches long by thirteen inches
broad, placed parallel and six inches apart, and united by wrought
iron stays one inch in diameter, d, d, d, d, d, with tenons shouldered
and riveted to each plate. The plate "a," is perforated with
apertures symmetrically arranged, as represented in the Plan,
Figure 2; the space between each aperture is one inch; the spaces
from the apertures at and to the extreme edges of the top and
bottom are one and a half inches; the spaces from the extreme
edges of the other two sides are one inch from the nearest apertures:
cach of the apertures is two inches by one inch and three quarters
of an inch. Four bars, as shewn by A, A, and in the positions
indicated by A, A, A, A, Figure 2, are firmly fixed and riveted to
the striker, and corresponding apertures are made in the inner
boiler plate of the receiver b1, Number 1, Figure 1, to enable the
striker to slide home. These four bars have to support the weight
of the striker; they project seven and a quarter inches from the
plate a 2, of the striker. The ends are screwed and fitted with
nuts e, to prevent the striker from sliding off. The back boiler
plates of the receivers are fixed to the end of the carriages either by
plates or bolts, or any other suitable means. Four steel spring
plates of one sixteenth of an inch in thickness, three inches long by
one and a half inches broad, are placed in pairs over the apertures,
corresponding with Numbers 1, 1, and Numbers 2, 2 (see Figures
3, 3) in the strikers; the pairs cross each other, and are fastened
to the boiler plates similarly to the other steel springs next
mentioned. Steel spring plates B, B, Figure 2, three sixteenths of
an inch thick, tempered, that they may have an elasticity of one
inch before breaking, are fastened over the other apertures across
each other; the dimensions of the under one is two and a half
inches by one and a half inches, and of the upper one three inches
by one and a half inches, and are fastened with wire riveted at two
corners through small holes in and to the boiler plate, Figure 2,
B, B. The striking part of the fender is represented by Number 2,

page_text: Figure 1, and is constructed similarly to the receiver, that is to say,
there are half inch plates of boiler iron thirteen inches long and
thirteen inches broad, placed parallel and two inches apart, united
by the tenons and tails of the striking bars; the boiler plates are
kept asunder by tubes between them, through which the tails of the
striking bars pass; the tails are riveted upon the outer boiler
plate, the other boiler plate bearing against the shoulders of the
striking bars, as shewn on the Drawings at f, f, Figure 1, Number 2.
I let into the boiler plates of each striker sixteen pieces of round
tough steel (so tempered as not to render it brittle), tapered and
shouldered; the points (slightly rounded) one inch diameter taper-
ing to the shoulder, which is one and a quarter inches diameter, and
abuts upon the inner plate, as shewn in the Drawings, Figure 1,
Number 2, c, c, c, c, and Figures 6, 7, c, c; the tenons and tails
G, G, G, G, are also one inch diameter, and pass through both
plates and through tubes, sections of which are shown at e, e, e, e, e,
e, e, e, e, e, e, e, e, e, e, e, which keep the plates apart; the lower
part of the tails or tenons are riveted to the outer boiler plate 1.
The two fenders forming one set are to this extent similar; but the
length of the striking bars and the places in which they are fixed
are different. The striking bars project different distances from
the inner boiler plate; the first and second project six inches;
the third and fourth project five inches and seven eighths of an
inch; the fifth projects five inches and three quarters; the sixth
projects five inches and five eighths; the next five inches and a half,
and so on, each consequtive striking bar being one eighth of an inch
shorter than its precedent. The striking bars are fixed into the
boiler plates of the frames of the strikers, as represented by figures
in the Drawings, Figure 3.. The two longest are represented by 1, 1;
the two next longest by 2, 2; the next longest by 3; the next by 4,
and so on to the shortest bar, which is represented by 30.
A, and
B, Figure 3, represent the front boiler plates of the two strikers of
the set of fenders; the positions of the striking bars correspond
with the centre of the apertures in the receiver plate, as shewn in
the Drawing, Figure 1. The ordinary buffer rods, coupling irons,

page_text: and connecting gear, must be altered to allow of the fenders being
fixed to the carriages, so as not to interfere with their action. The
tivo parts of the fender are fastened together by the nuts on the
guiding irons, pressing the two longest striking bars against their
antagonistic steel plates in the receiver. To make the fenders as
small as possible, the striking bars are made as in the Drawing,
Figure 6, which represents a striking bar of six inches in length
from the shoulder f, f to the point. The bar is of tough steel;
altogether rather more than nine inches long and half an inch in
diameter; a piece of iron one inch and one sixteenth of an inch
broad is welded to the striking bar to form a shoulder at f, f, to
bear against the boiler plate; a piece of steel spring plate one eighth
of an inch thick, three inches long, and one and a half inches broad,
with a hole punched through the middle, through which the
striking bar is passed, is placed at g, g; a piece of tubing one inch
broad is placed round the striking bar, and upon the steel spring
plate and on the top end of that tube a similar piece of steel spring
plate is placed, so as to be across or at right angles with the plate
at g, J.
The other plates shewn in the Drawing are similarly
placed, with tubing between them one inch from and at right angles
with each other. To make them all tight a washer is put on the
top of each striking bar with a pin through it, as shewn at h, h, in
the Plan. Figure 4, is a bird's-eye view of the striker, upon which
steel spring plates are fixed. The striking bars being of different
lengths have only as many spring plates fixed upon them as their
length will permit, which depends upon the distance required
between them and between the shoulder f, f, and the lower one.
The number of striking bars in the set of fenders herein-before
described is thirty-two; the parts of them upon which I place.steel
spring plates are as follows. From the shoulder f, of each striking
bar the plates are placed at the following distances:-

page_text: 1 and three others one
1 and three others.
17 and three others.
1 and two others.
1
and two others.
1
and two more.
1 and two others.
2
and one other.
16
2
: 2
2
and one other.
and one other.
and one other.
Where more than one plate is put upon the striking bar there
one inch space between them. The object of so placing the steel
spring plates is that they may one after another come into contact
with the receiver plate at the sides or edges of the apertures, and
not altogether, nor more than one, at a time.
Although in the exemplifications given, I have described the
proportions I followed in the fenders designed by me, I do not limit
myself to such proportions, it being necessary only to construct
them accurately, that the striking bars shall be directly opposite the
centre of the apertures in the receiver, and the fenders of sufficient
strength for the work they are intended to perform.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim
as of my Invention, first, the making of the improved fenders in
sets; second, the mode of placing the striking bars; third, the
mode of fixing and placing steel spring plates on the receiver and on
the striking bars; fourth, the making two of the striking bars of the
same length; and, fifth, the mode of keeping the frame or boiler
plates of the striker separate by means of tubing, as herein-before
described and represented in the drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Augustus Turk Forder, have
hereunto set my hand and seal this Twenty-fourth day of
May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
AUGUSTUS TURK FORDER. (L.S.)
Witness,
JAMES BROOK JACKSON,
Seven Sisters' Road, Holloway.