IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING BRAKES AND COMMUNICATING SIGNALS ON RAILWAY TRAINS BY FLUID PRESSURE
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Tempest Anderson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th June 1876.
TEMPEST ANDERSON, of Stonegate, in the City and County of York.
"IMPROVED
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR WORKING BRAKES AND COMMUNICATING SIGNALS ON
RAILWAY TRAINS BY FLUID PRESSURE."
My Invention relates to means and apparatus for working the brakes of a railway
train by fluid pressure, the said apparatus being applicable also for communicating
signals throughout the train.
On one or more break carriages or vans of the train I provide brake blocks,
which are drawn or pressed by powerful springs or by a weight or weights against
the peripheries of the wheels, but which are also connected by suitable rods with a
piston working in a cylinder. I connect the several cylinders by communicating
pipes coupled from carriage to carriage with a pump and reservoir on the loco-
motive. By this pump, worked either by the engine of the locomotive or by an
auxiliary engine, I force air, water, or other fluid into the communicating pipes at
such pressure that the pistons are pressed in opposition to the brake springs with
sufficient force to keep the brake blocks off the wheels; but when the pressure is
relieved, either by opening a suitable cock or valve on the communicating pipes, or
in the case of these pipes or their connections being accidentally broken then the
pistons being no longer subject to the pressure allow the springs to apply the
brakes to the wheels. In order to provide for the case of keeping off the brakes
when the pump is not at work, as for example when the brake carriage is in a
station yard,
arrange on the piston rod a catch in such a manner that by forcing
the piston beyond its normal stroke by an excess of pressure this catch prevents it
from returning when the pressure is taken off, and so keeps the brake blocks off the
wheels. I provide also screw gear, by which an attendant can by hand move the
piston sufficiently far to engage the said catch.
It is obvious that the pistons could be worked either by pressure, as above
described, or by vacuum, and when the latter mode of working is adopted a
partial vacuum may be maintained in the communicating pipes by a steam jet.
For the purpose of communicating siguals throughout the train I provide on the
communicating pipes cocks or valves, which can be opened by passengers, but these

page_text: have an area of opening so small that the pump can by more rapid working make
up for the discharge by them.
By arranging the pump to work at a certain speed when there is a certain
resistance, or to stop when the pipes and cylinders are fully charged, and permitting
it to work at higher speed when this resistance is diminished, or to start when part
of the charge is allowed to escape, the engine driver is by the movement or accele-
ration of the engine apprised that one or more of these signal cocks or valves has
been opened. A like effect would be produced by the accidental fracture of the pipe
or its connections.
The pumping engine may be provided with a governor so as to shew or to give,
if required, an audible indication of increased speed.
In order to signal in a guard's van there may be a pressure gauge, which would
shew by the reduction of pressure that one or more of the signal cocks or valves has
been opened, and this gauge may be so arranged that when the pressure falls below
a certain limit an audible signal shall be given, and similar arrangements may be
adopted in working by vacuum.