IMPROVements in Coupling and UncouplinG RAILWAY VEHICLES AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOB
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Sydney de Mattos at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th April 1874.
I, WILLIAM SYDNEY DE MATTOS, of Portobello, in the County of
Mid Lothian, North Britain, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention of "IMPROVements in Coupling and UncouplinG RAILWAY
VEHICLES AND IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREFOB," to be as follows, that is to
say:―
This Invention which relates to improvements in coupling and un-
coupling railway carriages and wagons consists in the employment of
certain apparatus whereby these operations are effected without the
operator going between the carriages or waggons as is usually practised.
For this purpose a hook formed with a curved or bevilled face is
attached to a draw bar at each end of the carriage or wagon by means of
a jaw piece formed on or fixed to the outer extremity of each bar. The
hook is centred in the jaw piece by means of a pin or stud on which it is
free to turn, and behind this pin a hole is made in the stem of the hook
and in the jaw piece into which a pin enters, when it is desired to

page_text: maintain the hook in a horizontal position, and so keep the carriages or
wagons coupled. At each end of the carriages or wagons the extremities
of an eye or bent staple are attached loosely to a draw bar, placed
parallel with the draw bar to which the hook at the same end of the
carriage is secured. The eyes or staples pass through slots in plates 5
fixed on the ends of the carriages or wagons, and when these are brought
together the staples or eyes slip up the curved or bevilled surfaces of the
hooks opposite them, until they fall over the hooked portion when the
carriages or waggons are coupled.
When it is desired to uncouple the carriages or wagons, the pin passed 1
through the hole in the jaw and in the hook behind the pin or axis on
which the hook turns is withdrawn, and the dragging action of the eye
or bent staple of the next carriage or wagon causes the hook to tilt up
sufficiently to release the said eye or bent staple.
The apparatus employed to withdraw the pin consists of two levers 1
centred on pins or studs fixed in the end of each carriage or wagon, to
the lower extremities of which levers a horizontal bar is attached to
which the pin is secured, so that by operating the lever at one side of the
carriage or wagon the pin may be inserted into or withdrawn from the
hole in the hook. The portion of the stem of the hook behind the axis 2
is weighted by a hanging or fixed weight so as to cause the hook to rise
again to the horizontal position when the eye or bent staple of the
next carriage or wagon has been released as herein-before described.
Under another arrangement of the coupling and uncoupling apparatus
the hook may be formed in one piece with the draw bar of the carriage or 2
wagon, and when it is desired to uncouple two vehicles previously
coupled by the eye or bent staple of one passing over the hook of the
other the said eye or bent staple is lifted off the hook by a horizontal
lever placed under it.