IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DRAW GEAR OR TRACTION APPARATUS AND BUFFING ARRANGEMENTS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND OTHER SIMILAR VEHICLES."
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Blackwell Hansell, of Sheffield, in the County of
York, Railway Spring Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE DRAW GEAR OR TRACTION APPARATUS AND BUFFING ARRANGEMENTS
OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND OTHER SIMILAR VEHICLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Blackwell Hansell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st July 1870.
ROBERT BLACKWELL HANSELL, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Railway
Spring Manufacturer. * IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DRAW GEAR OR TRACTION AP-
PARATUS AND BUFFING ARRANGEMENTS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND OTHER
SIMILAR VEHICLES."
My Invention relates to an improved arrangement of draw bars and springs
whereby the effects of the shock at starting and the strain in drawing (which is
generally borne by the timbers or framework of railway carriages or wagons) is
cominunicated through the series of draw bars and springs of the carriages or
wagons composing the train, also to a modification of the arrangement by which a
buffing apparatus is obtained.
According to one mode of carrying out my Invention I make the ends of the
draw bar (with the hooks) of sufficient length to reach to within a short distance of
the centre of the carriage or wagon, between which the spring or springs (by pre-
ference made of steel and of an "eleptic" shape) are secured in a horizontal position
by a double hoop, one part of the hoop being keyed or otherwise secured to one
inner end of the draw bar, and the other part to the other inner end of the draw bar
whilst the two parts work one inside the other.
The position of the springs as also their shape, the material of which they are
composed, and their number, may be varied whilst retaining the general features of
the arrangement as described.
By a slight modification of the above arrangement of springs, and by attaching
the draw bar to a central buffer plunger or to a cross bar connecting two outside
buffer plungers, I obtain an efficient buffing apparatus.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by the
said Robert Blackwell Hansell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31st
January 1877.
ROBERT BLACKWELL HANSELL, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Railway
Spring Manufacturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DRAW GEAR OR TRACTION AP-
PARATUS AND BUFFING ARRANGEMENTS OF RAILWAY CARRIAGES, AND OTHER
SIMILAR VEHICLES."
My said Invention relates to the arrangement of a hoop or buckle for holding
or securing the spring or springs to be used in the draw gear or traction apparatus
of railway carriages and other similar vehicles, and which may be also adapted to
buffing apparatus.
In order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall proceed to
particularly describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to the several Figures
on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the
application of my said Invention to an ordinary draw gear for railway purposes.
In carrying out my said Invention I take a piece of iron, steel, or other suitable
material A, Figure 1, of the requisite length and thickness, and punch or other-
wise form two slots or openings a, a, lengthwise in the bar, leaving a convenient
space a between them in the centre of the bar, as shewn in Figure 2. I next
round the ends, as shewn at b, Figure 2, and make two holes c, c, therein, I
then bend the bar A over a block so as to leave the blank piece a¹ in the centre
of the bar A to form an end plate, as shown in plan and elevation at a², Figure 3,
to which end plate a² a spring is subsequently secured, I then take a bar of iron,
steel, or other suitable material B, Figure 4, of width about equal to that of the
slots a, a, in the bar A, Figures 2 and 3, and I form thereon by welding or other-
wise two ends b₁, b', (Figure 5), similar to the ends b, b, on the bar A, and having
holes c, c, therein, the length of the bar B being thus made equal to the bar A.
The bar B is then bent over the same block as the bar A, so as to leave an end
plate a³ of the same width as the end plate a* on the bar A, as shewn in Figure 6.
I then thread the bar B through the slots or openings a, a, in the bar A, and
the sides of the bar B will fit in and fill ap such slots or openings (,, of the
bar A, as shewn in Figure 7, and will also slide in them lengthwise forming a
double hoop or oblong clip or buckle, which may be designated a double interbuckle
coupling and is adapted to secure and compress a spring, say, for example, an
ordinary elliptical spring C, as shown in plan and longitudinal section in Figures 8
and 9 respectively. The springs are secured in position by means of bolts d, ',
passing through the plates of which the springs are composed and through the
ends, respectively of the double hoop or buckle, and the draw bars D, D,
are attached to the hoop or buckle by pins e, c, passing through the holes c, c¹.
The hoop or buckle may be graduated, as shewn at f, in order to indicate the
amount of weight drawn.
It is obvious that by suitably modifying the shape of the hoop or buckle it may
be arranged to hold springs of other constructions than that shewn in Figures &
and 9.
The Invention is also applicable to buffing apparatus by making such modifications
as will be perfectly understood by persons skilled in the art.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that I do not wish to confine myself to the
configuration of the hoop or buckle or to the manner of attaching the same to the
draw bars and springs liercin-before described and illustrated on the accompanying
Drawings, but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claiin as
the Invention secured to me by the hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
the employment of a double hoop or buckle laving the two parts of which it

page_text: is composed working or sliding one within the other, substantially as and for the
purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, said Robert Blackwell Hansell, have to this my Speci-
fication set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
ROBERT BLACKWELL HANSELL. (L.S.)