IMPROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STOPPING AND RETARDING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS: PATENT to Joseph Naveaux, of Strepy-Bracquegnies, in the
Kingdom of Belgium,. Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Naveaux at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
July 1865.
I, JOSEPH NAVEAUX, of Strepy-Bracquegnies, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR STOPPING AND RETARDING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for stopping
and retarding railway carriages and locomotive engines. For these purposes
a combined steam cylinder is applied to each carriage, and when desired also
to the locomotive engine of a train; this combined cylinder is composed of

page_text: two parts which are inclined to each other. In each of the two compartments
of the combined cylinder there is a piston and piston rod. The steam is
admitted into the combined cylinder between the two pistons, so that the two
pistons are caused to move away from a central position and from each other.
At the end of each piston rod there is a break, which when steam is admitted
into the combined cylinder presses against one of the wheels of the carriage or
engine. The ends of the combined cylinder are open except across the centre
at each end, where there is a bar through an opening in which the piston rod
works. There is a strong coiled spring on each piston rod tending to force
each of the pistons into the combined cylinder, and consequently to withdraw
the breaks when the steam is shut off. Each carriage has fixed to it a steam
pipe, and a flexible pipe is employed to couple the steam pipe of two carriages
together. This system of steam breaks may be employed as a reserve, and
ordinary breaks used to the carriages for the general purposes of breaking the
carriages of a train; or in place of applying the steam breaks to all the car-
riages they may be applied to some only.
On the steam pipe communicating with the several combined steam cylinders
there is a cock or valve, or more than one, capable of being used by the guard
or other proper officer.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Naveaux in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th
December 1865..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
NAVEAUX, of Strepy-Bracquegnies, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph Naveaux, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Naveaux, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Naveaux, my executors, administrators, 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

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR STOPPING AND RETARDING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Naveaux, 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-
formied, 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 Joseph Naveaux, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for stopping
and retarding railway carriages and locomotive engines. For these purposes
a combined steam cylinder is applied to each carriage, and when desired also
to the locomotive engine of a train ; this combined cylinder is composed of two
parts which are inclined to each other. In each of the two compartments of
the combined cylinder there is a piston and piston rod. The steam is
admitted into the combined cylinder between the two pistons, so that the two
pistons are caused to move away from a central position and from each other.
At the end of each piston rod there is a break, which when steam is admitted
into the combined cylinder presses against one of the wheels of the carriage
or engine. The ends of the combined cylinder are open, but across the centre
of each end there is a bar, through an opening in which the piston rod works.
There is a strong coiled spring on each piston rod tending to force each of
the pistons into the combined cylinder, and consequently to withdraw the
breaks when the steam is shut off. Each carriage has fixed to it a steam
pipe, and a flexible pipe is employed to couple the steam pipe of two carriages
together. This system of steam breaks may be employed as a reserve, and
ordinary breaks used to the carriages for the general purposes of breaking the
carriages of a train, or in place of applying the steam breaks to all the
carriages they may be applied to some only.
On the steam pipe communicating with the several combined steam
cylinders there is a cock or valve, or more than one, capable of being used by
the guard or other proper officer.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.

page_text: .
In the side view, Figure 1, an apparatus such as is above described is shewn
applied to a railway carriage, so much only of the carriage being there shown
as is necessary for illustrating my Invention. An end view of the carriage is
shewn at Figure 2. A is the combined cylinder, having two pistons P, P,
working in it as shewn in the sectional view of the oylinder at Figure 3,
the piston rods c, c, pass out from the cylinders through holes in bars a¹ that
pass across the outer ends of the cylinders, and at the end of each piston rod a
break block is applied, as seen at Figure 1. These break blocks are hung by
hinges or any other suitable contrivance to the underneath part of the carriage,
so as to prevent them from moving, vertically when the steam is let in between
the pistons, and the breaks are so pushed upon the wheels. Each carriage
may be provided with one of these cylinders, or two such cylinders may be
applied a carriage, one on each side. Along the under side of each carriage
a steam pipe passes, and at each end of the carriage this pipe is. furnished
with a stop-cock R, and with a flexible junction piece Y, by which the pipes
of the several carriages are connected together, and by which the. carriage
nearest to the engine is connected up to a pipe leading from the boiler. A.
cock placed near the engine driver regulates the admission of steam from the
boiler into the steam pipe. When this cock is opened the steam rushes along
the pipe, enters the cylinders at the inlets S, and acts at once on all the
pistons, thus all the breaks are simultaneously, applied. A second cock
placed on the steam pipe further from the boiler than the first cock serves
to stop the action of the breaks by letting the steam escape, the pistons are
then pressed back by the springs a, and returning to their original positions.
remove the breaks from, the wheels. A discharge cock may, be fitted to each.
cylinder to drive out from time to time the condensed water, or preferably a
groove may, as is shewn at Figure 3, be formed at the back. end of each.
cylinder underneath the pistons; the pistons when forced forward into the
position P¹, shown by dotted lines, pass. beyond the groove,, but when the
pistons are not being pressed forward by the steam any condensed water can
pass away freely through the grooves. The diameter of the pistons is deter-
mined according to the weight of the carriage and the minimum degree of pres-
sure that there will be in the boiler of the engine, and the pistons are by
preference made of such a size that the pressure of the breaks on the wheels
may always exceed the pressure of the wheels on the rails, in order that the
rotation of the wheels, may be completely stopped. In place of the break

page_text: blocks being directly applied to the ends of the piston rods, as above described,
the piston rods of the steam cylinders may be caused to act on the break
blocks by means of levers or otherwise.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Naveaux, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
THOMAS NASMYTH.
JOSEPH NAVEAUX. (L.S.)