Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Aug., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 16th Sept., 1887,
I WILLIAM HENRY HORN of Grove Square Leyburn in the County of York
Clerk do hereby declare the nature of this 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 a contrivance for automatically fastening the doors of railway
carriages when the said carriages are in motion. To affect this I have a bar preferably
square in section running beneath the carriage doors for the greater part of the length
of the carriage. Vertical rods one for each door are attached to this bar of sufficient
length to overlap the door and hold it secure when the carriage is in motion. When
the carriage is at rest the longitudinal bar is kept in such a position by means of a
weight or spring that the vertical rods do not overlap the doors. A dynamo placed
under the carriage is driven by means of a strap on the axle of the wheels of the
carriage. Wires from the dynamo are connected with an electro magnet placed near
one end of the said longitudinal bar. When the carriage is in motion the dynamo
is turned and the electro magnet attracts the longitudinal bar into such a position that
the vertical rods overlap the carriage doors. A play of one or two inches to the
longitudinal bar will be found sufficient. If desired the dynamo may be made to turn
more rapidly by means of multiplying wheels. I may construct my apparatus to so
work that a single dynamo on one of the carriages may be made to excite the electro-
magnets on all the carriages of the train. To carry this object into effect I fit to each
carriage a suitable coupling for the wires leading to the electro-magnet. These
couplings may be so arranged as to be automatically connected on the carriages being
placed together or they may be of any ordinary type to be connected by hand. I may
also provide suitable apparatus to allow of a door (which may have been left open)
being closed after the train is in motion.
I also fit a small roller into the bottom of each of the doors so that the vertical rods
may travel across these said rollers and materially reduce all tendency to wedge which
might otherwise occur. The said rollers are fitted in a vertical position. To show
more clearly how my invention is carried out I furnish drawings showing my fastening
apparatus attached to a railway carriage. Like letters of reference denote corresponding
parts in all the Figures.
A. is the cover containing dynamo.
B. the strap round the axle of the carriage wheels to turn dynamo.
C. wires connecting dynamo to electro-magnet.
D. electro-magnet.
E. longitudinal bar.

page_text: G. vertical rods attached to longitudinal bar in position for fastening the doors
when the carriage is in motion. . The dotted lines show the position of the vertical
rods G¹ when the carriage is at rest.
H. bearings for longitudinal bar.
J. weight attached to end of longitudinal bar pulling it when the carriage is at rest
into such a position that the vertical rods are in the position G¹ shown by the dotted
lines.
K. is the pulley block over which the cord attached to weight J. runs.
Or a spring attached to the carriage and bar may force the bar E in a direction
opposite to that caused by the action of the electro-magnet. Fig. 2 is an elevation
and Fig. 3 a plan of one of the vertical rods G fitted with a horizontal bar L so as to
allow of the door being closed after the train has started, and the vertical rod G
brought to its "closed" position." The horizontal bar L is pivoted to G being
retained in its normal position by a spring N. The other end 0 of this horizontal
bar L is shaped so as to present an inclined face to the door when the said door is
open. The inner face of the front edge of the door may also be somewhat inclined.
If now the door should be left open when the train starts the vertical rod G will be
attracted into position by the action of the electro-magnet on the longitudinal bar E,
but when the door is closing the pivotted horizontal bar L will move sufficiently to
allow of the door being shut, the horizontal bar L being returned to its normal
position by the spring N, which may be adjusted in any suitable manner. It is
obvious that while allowing the door to be closed if it had been left open when the
train was starting the vertical rod G will prevent the door being opened when once
shut and the train in motion.
Fig. 4 shows a method of connecting the wires of each carriage automatically, the
said connection being made preferably at the top of the carriages, but
do not
confine myself to either the method of connecting or the position of the connections.
R is fixed to the wire or wires leading from one carriage while the wire or wires from
the other carriage is attached to S. R, as will be seen from the drawing, is constructed
in the form of an arrow head being split in the centre so as to cause the two ends to
spring apart. S is made in the form of a cone or cylinder so that when the carriages
are run together the arrow head R will run into S. and the spring ends pressing
against the inside of the cone will insure good contact. Figures 5 & 6 are front and
side views of the bottom of the carriage door in which P is the roller designed to
prevent the vertical rod G from wedging in its horizontal travel.
A shield Q may be provided if necessary to prevent any tampering with the vertical
locking piece G.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is
I. The utilization of the motion of trains or other vehicles for the purpose of
fastening the doors of the carriages of such trains or of the said vehicles, whilst in
motion.
II. The method of automatically fastening the doors of railway or other carriages
when in motion by means of vertical rods attached to a longitudinal bar which bar
is acted upon by an electro-magnet in connection with a dynamo driven from the
axle of the carriage wheels substantially as described.
III. In apparatus such as is herein specified the arrangement for allowing a door
left open after the carriage or train is put in motion to be closed and locked or
fastened substantially as described.
W. H. MUNNS.