CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES, DESIGNED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING ACCIDENTS."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edgar Bluck, of Old Cavendish Street, in the.
County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES, DESIGNED FOR THE PURPOSE OF
PREVENTING ACCIDENTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edgar Bluck at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th January 1875.
I, EDGAR BLUCK, of Old Cavendish Street, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES, DESIGNED
FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING ACCIDENTS," to be as follows:—
This Invention is designed for the purpose of preventing that class of
railway accident arising from the breaking of a tyre or tyres of any one
or more of the wheels of a carriage or carriages composing a train whilst
in transit or otherwise.

page_text: The improvements consist in applying and securing to each carriage
adjustable projecting supporting bars, the adaptation and arrangement
of which may be thus described :-I firmly secure to the framing of
each carriage at one end thereof two or more bars or shafts which
project therefrom; the opposite end of such carriage is also provided
with two or more cylindrical tubes, into which when a train of carriages
similarly provided is coupled up the cylinders of one carriage admit of
the entrance therein of the projecting rods or shafts of the next carriage,
the varying distances between the carriages being compensated for by
reason of the projecting rods or shafts sliding telescopically in their
cylindrical tube bearings. The distance these rods are inserted in their
corresponding line of tube is such that in the event of the wheels of any
one carriage being disabled or broken the weight of the said carriage
would be thrown on and supported by the said rods bearing in the tubes
of the carriages, immediately in front or behind.
The projecting rods and tubes may be arranged so as to occupy a
position in a line with the centre of the buffers, in which case the present
buffer bars or shafts on one end of each carriage would be utilized; the
buffer bars at the opposite end would be replaced by having substituted
therefor cylindrical tubes in licu of solid shafting.
It will thus be seen that by the novel adaptation of this Invention to
railway carriages accidents arising from the breaking of wheel tyres will
be prevented; or in the event of any one or more of the tyres of the
carriage wheels becoming fractured and broken whilst in transit or
otherwise the carriage so disabled would be borne up and supported so 2
as to ride on the projecting bars and cylinders of the carriages in
advance and rear of the same; or if a wheel or wheels of one pair only
were to break, then the carriage to which such wheels belong would be
borno up and supported by the projecting rods and cylindrical tubes
adjacent thereto; or as an equivalent arrangement to be used in lieu of a
the supporting rods and cylinders I secure to each end of every carriage
two or more brackets, the projecting ends of which extend a distance
beyond the end of the next carriage, so that a length of their surface.
supplied with friction bowls will underlie a level portion of the opposite
or next carriage, in which position they act as supports for the body of 8
the carriage to ride upon in the event of any one of the tyres of the
wheels breaking.

page_text: SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said Edgar
Bluck in the Great Seal. Patent Office on the 7th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDGAR
BLUOK, of Old Cavendish Street, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edgar Bluck, Her special licence
that I, the said Edgar Bluck, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Edgar Bluck, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF Railway Carriages, DESIGNED FOR THE PURPOSE OF PREVENTING
ACCIDENTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edgar
Bluck, 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 seven calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edgar Bluck, 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 :-
My Invention is designed for the purpose of preventing that class of
railway accident arising from the breaking of a tyre or tyres of any one
or more of the wheels of a carriage or carriages composing a train whilst
in transit or otherwise.
-
The improvements consist in applying and securing to each carriage
adjustable projecting supporting bars, the adaptation and arrangement

page_text: of which may be thus described:-I firmly secure to the framing of
each carriage at one end thereof two or more bars or shafts which
project therefrom; the opposite end of such carriage is also provided
with two or more cylindrical tubes, into which when a train of carriages
similarly provided is coupled up the cylinders of one carriage admit of 5
the entrance therein of the projecting rods or shafts of the next carriage,
the varying distances between the carriages being compensated for by
reason of the projecting rods or shafts sliding telescopically in their
cylindrical tube bearings. The distance these rods are inserted in their
corresponding line of tube is such that in the event of the wheels of any 10
one carriage being disabled or broken the weight of the said carriage
would be thrown on and supported by the said rods bearing in the tubes
of the carriages immediately in front or behind.
The projecting rods and tubes may be arranged so as to occupy a
position in a line with the centro of the buffers, in which case the present 18
buffer bars or shafts on one end of each carriage would be utilized; the
buffer bars at the opposite end would be replaced by having substituted
therefor cylindrical tubes in lieu of solid shafting.
It will thus be seen that by the novel adaptation of this Invention to
railway carriages accidents arising from the breaking of wheel tyres will 2
be prevented; or in the event of any one or more of the tyres of the
carriage wheels becoming fractured and broken whilst in transit or
otherwise the carriage so disabled would be borne up and supported so
as to ride on the projecting bars and cylinders of the carriages in
advance and rear of the same; or if a wheel or wheels of one pair only 2
were to break, then the carriage to which such wheels belong would be
borne up and supported by the projecting rods and cylindrical tubes
adjacent thereto; or as an equivalent arrangement to be used in lieu of
the supporting rods and cylinders I secure to each end of every carriage
two or more brackets, the projecting onds of which extend a distance 8
beyond the end of the next carriage, so that a length of their surface
supplied with friction bowls will underlie a level portion of the opposite
or next carriage, in which position they act as supports for the body of
the carriage to ride upon in the event of any one of the tyres of the
wheels breaking.
I now proceed to explain some examples by which my said Invention

page_text: "Drawings, in which Fig. 1 represents a plan view, and Fig. 2 a side
elevation of the framework and lower portion of two railway carriages
with one of my improvements attached.
.It will be observed that at the respective ends of each carriage one
buffer head is provided with a projecting rod, while the buffer head on
the other side of the carriage is dispensed with, and the buffer block is
formed with an enlarged tube or recess, in which the portion of the
buffer rod communicating with the buffer spring is contained. This
buffer rod is also formed with a tubular end to receive the projecting rod
of the buffer head of the next carriage. Thus a, a, shew the projecting
rods; b, b, the buffer heads; c, c, the buffer blocks; d, d, the buffer
rods; e, e, the enlarged recesses or tubes (in dotted lines) to receive the
non-projecting buffer rods d', d', having tubular ends or sockets for
reception of their corresponding projecting rods. Now according to this
example the carriages so provided with my Invention would be especially
suitable for use where the composition of the train is not liable to
frequent change when once made up, and where the carriages are not
liable to be driven against stationary buffers; in fact they form a system
of twin carriages; but in Fig. 3 I shew a plan of another example of
my Invention, whereby the carriages may be taken at random from
stock and made up into trains, and here it will be observed that the
carriages may be placed against stationary buffers, because the buffer
heads are differently arranged and constructed in regard to the projecting
rods, and an equal projection of each is always maintained to resist the
pressure of the carriage against permanent or stationary buffers at
stations or termini, whereas in the former example the strain would be
borne by the projecting rods alone.
In Fig. 3 I form the buffer heads b, b, in conjunction with the buffer
rods d, d, causing them to project sufficiently, so that when the carriages
are pushed against a stationary buffer the projecting rods and buffer
heads shall equally bear the strain. The buffer heads b, b, are made of
elongated hollow cylinders, as shown in dotted lines, and d, d, shew solid
continuations thereof extending to the buffer springs, so that a double
telescopic action is effected; first, by the projecting rods a, a, in the
3 sockets of the buffer heads; and secondly, by the sliding action of tho
buffer rod in the buffer block. The elongated buffer head can only be
driven back to the buffer block to the same distance as its corresponding
projecting rod can be forced back, and thus an equal strain is given on

page_text: all the springs. Of course the dimensions and shape of the tubular
recesses for the reception of the rods must be made to allow for free
vertical and lateral play caused by the motion of the train and its passage
round curves, or by other causes, such as slight inequality in height of
framing or the proportion of the load, but experience will determine
these details.
vertical and lateral play caused by the motion of the train and its passage
round curves, or by other causes, such as slight inequality in height of
framing or the proportion of the load, but experience will determino
these details.
Some carriages would be made with both the foregoing arrangements,
that is to say, one at each end, so that a twin carriage could be coupled
to a carriage of the second example.
In Fig. 2 I have shewn a simple arrangement of sliding rods or bars 1
applied to the outside framework of a carriage. This arrangement is
more particularly intended for luggage or goods trucks. f.f, shew the
bars or rods secured by means of brackets or guides g, g, bolted to the
framework. Suitable fastenings, such as chains and hooks or bolts are
to be applied to maintain the position of the rods or bars, whether in or 1
out of gear, with the brackets or guides of the next truck. In the
Drawing they are shewn out of gear, but they may readily be pushed
along their guides and secured to the corresponding truck. In this
example ample room must be given for the play of the rods or bars.
With regard to the appplication of brackets and projecting plates to 2
the under framing of the carriages the principle of the Invention is the
same, and does not require illustrating. I should by preference apply
two bracketed plates to each end of the carriage, as near the sides as
possible, but in such positions as to form (when coupled up) two series
of two plates each, side by side, and provided with friction rollers.
2
Now in all these instances the object is the same, viz., to prevent
accident in the event of the breaking of a wheel or wheels, as first stated;
and even if a portion of rail were removed, broken, or damaged, provided
its length should not exceed the wheel base, the train would not run off
the line, the wheels being balanced and supported from the diagonal 3
corners of the carriage.
In Fig. 2 I shew one end of the carriago with wheel removed, and I
also shew a break in the line of rail; nevertheless the carriago would be
supported by the arrangements described. If a portion of a train were
to leave the rail at a facing point or otherwise the remainder would be 35
preserved on the line.

page_text: In order to render carriages constructed according to my second
improvement applicable to the present rolling stock supplementary
buffer heads may be screwed on to the projecting rods.
.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I would remark that I do
not limit myself to the precise details and construction I have given, as
of course the same may obviously be varied or modified without
departing from the principles and objects first mentioned. I have given
the foregoing examples as being the most simple presenting themselves;
but what I claim and desire to be secured to me by the herein in part
recited Letters Patent are, the improvements in railway carriages, con-
sisting in the application thereto of projecting rods, shafts, or bars
gearing with corresponding tubes or sockets at the ends or sides of each
carriage, and also in the application of bracketed plates underneath each
carriage for the purpose of preventing accidents by reason of the
breaking of a wheel or wheels, all substantially as herein specified and
shewn.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edgar Bluck, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
Witness,
ALEX". PRINCE,
Office for Patents,
4, Trafalgar Sq™.,
Charing Cross.
EDGAR BLUCK. (L.S.)