IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND. STOPPING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough Park,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND. STOPPING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS."—
A communication.
Sealed the 8th January 1858, and dated the 27th July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson Bous-
field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 27th July 1857.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in
the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND STOPPING CARRIAGES ON
RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for retarding
and stopping carriages on railways; and the improvements consist in so com-
bining apparatus that the breaks used therewith will be out of action so long
as the power of the locomotive engine is acting to move the carriages attached
thereto, but so soon as the speed of the locomotive engine is reduced below
that of the carriages attached thereto, or the motion of the locomotive engine
is (by being retarded, stopped, or reversed) brought in opposition to the motion
or momentum of the carriages attached thereto, the breaks will be applied

page_text: to the wheels or caused to act in such manner as to tend to prevent the
further movement of the carriages.
It is preferred in carrying out this Invention that each carriage should have
suitable breaks applied thereto, and that part of the breaks should be suitably
arranged to act whether the locomotive be for the time being moving forward
or backward. For these purposes the power of the locomotive engine is
applied by means of a sliding bar to each carriage, on which there are two
stops or projections, one to come into action. on an elastic stop or projection
on the carriage when the locomotive engine is moving forward, and the other
on another elastic stop or projection on the carriage when the locomotive
engine is moving backward. The arrangement of breaks and apparatus for
actuating the same may be varied. The arrangement preferred is as follows:-
The breaks are applied in each case to the two ends of a bar, which is
carried transversely of the carriage, and the breaks of each bar are made to
act on the peripheries of two wheels on opposite sides of the carriage, and
they are caused to act immediately the further progress of the carriage (in the
direction in which it has been moving) becomes resisted by the locomotive
engine, or by the sliding bar carried by the preceding earriage. In each case
two of the above-mentioned transverse break bars are suspended from the ends
of two levers, and the respective break bars are brought into action by
connecting rods and counter levers, actuated by levers carried by the break
bars; the levers attached to the break bars being respectively acted on by
projections on the under side of the sliding bar by which the power of the
locomotive engine is applied to the carriages.
-Le
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughboro' Park, Brixton, in the County of Surrey,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special licence that I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such

page_text: others as I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RETARDING AND
STOPPING CARRIAGES ON RAILWAYS," (a communication.) upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object inprovements in apparatus for retarding
and stopping carriages on railways; and the improvements consist in so com-
bining apparatus that the breaks used therewith will be out of action so long
as the power of the locomotive engine is acting to move the carriages attached
thereto, but as soon as the speed of the locomotive engine is reduced below
that of the carriages attached thereto, the breaks will be applied to the wheels,
or caused to act in such manner as to tend to prevent the further movement
of the carriages.
:
It is preferred in carrying out this Invention that each carriage should have
suitable breaks applied thereto, and that part of the breaks should be suitably
arranged to act whether the locomotive be for the time being moving forward
or backward. By such an arrangement of break apparatus it will not be
material which end of a carriage runs first, as the sliding bar of a carriage, as
hereafter described, will, when coupled up, draw the carriage by its stop
resting against one of the fixed stops of the carriage. For these purposes the
power of the locomotive engine is applied by means of a sliding bar to each
carriage, on which there are two stops or projections, one to come into action
on an elastic stop or projection on the carriage when the locomotive engine is
moving forward, and the other on another elastic stop or projection on the
carriage when the locomotive engine is moving backward. The ends of these
sliding bars are to be arranged to be readily connected with each other, in

page_text: order that the several sliding bars of the carriages composing a train may act
as one bar, allowing however sufficient lateral action for passing round curves.
The object in making the stops on the carriages elastic is that there shall be
no objectionable shock take place when the sliding bars are moved so as to
change the stops. The distance apart of the stops fixed on the carriage is to
be-such as to allow of the break apparatus coming into action whilst the
sliding bars are moving a distance equal to that between the fixed stops on the
carriages; and the break apparatus, whatever be its arrangement, is to be
such that the breaks shall be off the wheels when either of the stops of the
sliding bars is pressing against either of the fixed stops on the carriage. The
arrangement of breaks and apparatus for actuating the same may be varied,
and separately is not claimed by me; the arrangement preferred is as follows:
-The breaks are applied in each case to the two ends of a bar, which is
carried by a lever or levers transversely of the carriage; and the breaks of each
bar are made to act simultaneously on the peripheries of two wheels on
opposite sides of the carriage, and they are caused to act immediately the
further progress of the carriage (in the direction in which it has been moving)
becomes resisted by the locomotive engine, or by the sliding bar carried by the
preceding carriage. In each case two of the above-mentioned transverse
break bars are suspended from the ends of two levers, one break bar on each
side of a pair of wheels, and one break bar is arranged to act when the
carriage is going in one direction, and the other when the carriage is moving
in the opposite direction, and the respective break bars are brought into action
by connecting rods and counter levers, actuated by levers carried by the break
bars or by other convenient means. The levers attached to the break bars
are respectively acted on by projections on the under side of the sliding, bar by
which the power of the locomotive engine is applied to the carriages.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, bave
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.S.),
Witness,
R. BROWNING,
New Court, St. Swithin's Lane, City.