IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR THE INCREASE OF SAFETY ON INCLINES OF RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Frederick Whitworth,
George Pearson, and William Smith at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 26th September
1868.
We, CHARLES FREDERICK WHITWORTH, of Bradford, in the County of
York, GEORGE PEARSON, of the same Place, and WILLIAM SMITH, of the
City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR THE INCREASE OF
SAFETY ON INCLINES OF RAILWAYS OR TRAMWAYS," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to operate on scotch blocks and on
switches respectively so as to arrest or obviate the accidental descent of
loose waggons and other carriages on inclines without interfering with
their ordinary and proper progress in ascent. To effect these purposes
we employ two main levers parallel to one of the rails and nearly close
to it so that the flanges of the wheels of the waggons or carriages can
act upon them, the normal position of each lever being such as to
present an upper surface inclined from near the bottom of the rail under
which its axis is fixed to the top of the rail, near the level of which it

page_text: terminates with a short curve downwards. The first of these main levers
by means of the pressure of a short pendant arm or rod can give motion
to a counterbalanced lever on a transverse rocking shaft below the rails,
on which shaft there are arms or levers communicating with other levers
for giving motion to one or more vertical shafts carrying scotch blocks;
or the counterbalanced lever communicates with a lever and rod for
opening a switch as may be required. When the waggons or carriages
are by accident descending the wrong way and arrive at the first main
lever a flange of one of the first pair of wheels depresses the lever, which
motion actuates the counterbalanced lever and parts connected with it
and places the scotch blocks in an angular position across the rails so as
to effectually stop the waggons or carriages; or a switch may be opened
in advance of the loose waggons or carriages and guide them from the
main line to a place of safety. The second main lever communicates
with a fork lever having cam-shaped slots in which the ends of a stud
or pin fixed through the pendant arm are placed, and its object is to
cause the removal of the first main lever from its normal position and
place it out of gear by giving motion to the slotted lever and removing
the pendant arm which otherwise actuates the counterbalanced lever.
When the arm is removed as described no ascending wheel of the loco-
motive or carriage can operate upon the counterbalanced lever, and as
the second main lever is the first in order up the incline its prior action
in affecting the slotted lever which acts on the stud pin fixed through
the pendant arm as a connecting rod draws down the first main lever
which is a few feet in advance of it and puts it out of gear, and thus
ascending wheels will have no contact with the first main lever, and
ascending waggons or carriages will cause no motion to the scotch
blocks nor action of the switches, and therefore there is no impediment
to the proper progress of the train. Counterbalance weights are used to
cause the return of both the main levers, and the action of these is
modified by one or more air cushions or vessels provided for the purpose,
bo that when one of these levers is depressed and the other drawn down
before an approaching wheel their return movements will be very slow
and gradual from the resistance of the air. The scotoh blocks may be
so arranged as to operate in sets of two or more, and a signal or signals
may operate with them or the switch, so that when the scotch blocks
are across the rails or the switch opened the fact will be made evident
by the signal or signals at any required distance. When the second
main lever is depressed by a wheel of the ascending train it not only

page_text: puts the first main lever out of gear, but by means of a rod and con-
nections it causes the removal of the scotch blocks from across the rails
if by neglect they should have been left thereon. When, as on some
inclines, the return of certain locomotives down the wrong line of rails
is sometimes expedient, the aid of extra levers and connections are used
to put the apparatus out of gear, and a short arm on the locomotive or
tender which may be moveable is employed to act on the extra levers so
as to prevent any motion of the scotch blocks across the rails, and by a
signal the driver and others may be assured that the blocks are secure in
their normal position off the rails.