CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES NASMYTH, of Patricroft, near Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,
by Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Fourth day of December, in the third year
of the reign of Her said Majesty, did, for Herself and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Nasmyth, Ier especial license
that I, the said James Nasmyth, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Nasmyth, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no other.
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my
Invention of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO RAILWAY CARRIAGES;"
in which Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said James
Nasmyth, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be

page_text: inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso I, the
said James Nasmyth, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is
particularly described and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto
annexed, and the following explanation thereof (that is to say):
My Invention of certain improvements applicable to railway car-
ringes consists in the adaptation of certain mechanism or apparatus to
railway carriages, in order to effect such connexion of the parts of a
train of railway carriages whereby the train is made to stop or is
assisted in stopping itself by means.and through the agency of its own
velocity; so perfectly is this accomplished that in exact proportion to
the velocity and weight of the moving train of carriages is the amount
of the stopping or retarding agency; and by means of my said Inven-
tion I have placed this so entirely under the command of the engine
man, or his assistant, that he is able at all times to convert the
momentum of the train of carriages into the agent whereby that
momentum is absorbed or destroyed, thus bringing the whole train
from a state of high velocity to a state of perfect rest with a much
greater rapidity of transition than has hitherto been done, which is
required occasionally and frequently. at the certain various stopping
places or stations along the line of a railway. The principle feature of
this Invention consists, therefore, of a means of causing the momentum
of a railway train to destroy or absorb itself, and also of the arrange-
ment or connection of certain parts by means or through the agency of
which this desirable effect may be produced. But in order that the
details of my Invention may be more perfectly understood I have
attached to these presents a Sheet of Drawings representing an eleva-
tion of part of a railway train, consisting of a locomotive engine, tender,
and a passenger carriage, with my improvements attached. A railway
train consists of a locomotive engine and its tender, followed by a series
of carriages connected together by means of certain links, hooks, or

page_text: rods generally employed for that purpose; with the view to prevent any
sudden shock which might arise from the concussion of carriage against
carriage, in the event of any resistance from before or pressure from
behind the train, certain bars or rods a, a, are placed between every
carriage, which bars or rods being projected by a spring or springs
serve to soften or remove, by means of the elasticity of the said springs,
such shock or concussion as would otherwise be inconveniently felt by
the passengers in the several carriages. These rods and springs are
usually termed buffers. In observing the action of a railway train
when the locomotive engine has its impelling power withdrawn by the
engine man who shuts off the supply of steam, which he does whenever
he intends to stop at any station or other part of the railway, we shall
find that the locomotive engine has now become the impelled body
instead of as just before it was the propelling or tractive agent or power;
this propulsion or pushing onward of the locomotive engine arises from
the momentum of the train behind it, which now expends that force it
had previously acquired in pushing on or before it the now resisting object,
that is, the locomotive engine and its tender; the effect of this deposition.
of momentum from the train of carriages to the locomotive engine and
tender is seen in the compression or forcing inwards towards the centre
of each carriage of the buffer rods, the distance between the carriages is
in consequence decreased by the quantity or length which the buffer
rods are thus forced inwards against the springs, which otherwise would ·
have kept them extended; this forcing in of the buffer rods will be
greatest in that carriage next to the tender, and will become of less
and less amount in each carriage, reckoning from the first one, or, as
said before, from that next the tender, this decreasing ratio being the
consequence of the decrease in the number, and consequent mass of
moving carriages. All that has to be done therefore, in order to cause
the momentum of the train to become the agent for its own absorp-
tion, is to connect these buffer bars with the brake lever or brakes as
generally employed, and provided in railway carriages for creating
friction, or rubbing upon the tyres of the several wheels of the train of
carriages or waggons the instant this connection is brought about (by
means herein-after to be described), and the locomotive engine is made

page_text: to become a retarding agent, as well as the tender whose wheels are
for that purpose braked or rubbed upon by a brake; we not only
have, as before described, the pressing inwards of the buffer bars, but
also they, being now connected with the brake lever of each carriage,
will by such pressing inwards transfer the whole or greater part of the
momentum of the entire train into a rubbing or brake action upon
the tyre of the wheels of every carriage on the train, the effect of
which will be to bring to a state of perfect rest the entire train, and
in a space of time very much less than is at present required, when the
momentum has to be absorbed by the comparatively feeble action of
one or two brakes, which are brought into action by the tender man
and carriage guards. In order to effect this connection between the
buller bars and brake levers at pleasure whenever it may be wanted
I employ such an arrangement as shewn in the accompanying Drawing,
in which it will be seen that I attach to the end of the brake lever b,
which is an elastic bar or spring, a certain catch or pull c, and by
means of the cord or chain (I prefer a cord) or other flexible material
marked d, d, d, d, which is made fast at one end to the last carriage, the
other end being corled round the axle of the roller c in the tender, and
then passing under the end of each cleck e, I am enabled to pull straight
all the depressed parts in the cord d, d, by winding up the end at the
tender, thus throwing or lifting up each click or pall into geer with the
ratchet or toothed rack f f which, being connected with the bufler rod
in each carriage, enables me, so long as the connection is preserved, to
transfer the inward motion of the buffer bar to the brake lever in each
carriage in the train, and thus to set in simultaneous action at least
four brakes in every carriage of the train, the effect of which will be in
the most effectual and safe manner to stop the velocity of the entire
train; and as the actuating cause which sets these several brakes into
action is under the command of the brakesman in the tender, he has
in his power the means of stopping more or less rapidly, as he pleases,
the entire moving mass, whatever be its weight or velocity; one single
brake put into action by his hand setting into motion four brakes or
more to every carriage in the train. One of the means by which I
propose to transfer the motion from the main brake lever b to the

page_text: several rubbers or brakes g, g, is shown in the accompanying Drawing
by means of the levers h, i, when the motion of the lever b is transferred
each way with equal force to the rubbers by these rods. There are
several means of doing this, but I need only describe that shewn in the
Drawing, as I think it the best. The moment the locomotive engine
begins to draw the train again, all the buffer rods re-extend themselves
by means of the springs behind them, which causes the pall e to fall
out of their catch or hold of the teeth in the rack bar, and as the cord.
is now slackened, each pall in falling out of geer depresses the cord (as
seen in red) as and is left ready to be brought into action on the next
occasion; here, therefore, by means of this apparatus we have the mo-
mentum of the train converted into the agent for its own absorption by
a force self-proportioned to its own intensity, and by means of the cord
and cleck we are enabled to throw in and out of gear at pleasure every
bufler bar with its respective brake handle, so that in the event of
requiring to back the train, or push it from behind, we have main-
tained in full the elasticity or shock relieving properties of the several
buffers, without acting on the brakes at all. One of the means which
I employ for winding up or pulling the cord is shewn in the Drawing
annexed. It consists of the wooden roller or wheel e, fixed to the
end of a bent lever k, which can at pleasure be brought into con-
taet with the rim of the tender wheel, by which means it will partake
of a portion of its motion, and be made to wind up the cord with
a force proportioned to that with which it is pressed against the
rim of the tender wheel; the moment the cord is sufficiently tight or
wound up the roller c will slip round on its stud or pin (on which it is
for that purpose not solidly fastened), and so by slipping remove any
risk of breaking the cord; the lever k is furnished with a stop screw /,
in order that when the foot of the brakeman is placed upon it the
lever will descend just sufficient to bring the circumference of the
roller e in contact with the rim of the tender wheel, so as to cause it
to wind up the cord with a force just sufficient to pull up all the
catches into gear with the toothed rack f. There is also a spring m
under the foot lever for the purpose of removing the contact of the
revolving surfaces; when the foot is taken off the head lever foot, or lets
C

page_text: the lever of the roller free, tlic cord slackens. There is a separate cord
or chain for each carriage, and these are connected together by means
of hooks or any other mode of connection, so that when any of the
carriages are removed or separated the cords are unhooked or divided
into as many lengths as there are carriages in the train. The cord is
kept in the exact situation by being passed through small eyes in the
end of each click, and through eyes or over pullics or rollers, as at
n and e, in the sides of the carriages.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Nasmyth, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty
JAMES (L.S.) NASMYTH,
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of May,
in the third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the
said James Nasmyth came before our said Lady the Queen in Her
Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and
every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His
late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fourth day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and forty.