IMPROVE- MENTS IN AND RELATING TO CONNECTING LINKS FOR RAILWAY COUPLINGS AND COUPLING-BUFFERS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Turton and John Brunlees
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd May 1882.
GEORGE TURTON, Mechanical Engineer, and JOHN BRUNLEES, Civil Engineer,
both of Victoria Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN AND RELATING TO CONNECTING LINKS FOR RAILWAY COUPLINGS AND
COUPLING-BUFFERS
3J
Our invention relates to improvements in links used for coupling or connecting
railway carriages or vehicles, and to their use in combination with various forms
of couplings or coupling-buffers.
The essential feature of the said invention is the combined adjustability and
elasticity which we obtain in our links so that when two carriages are brought
together to be coupled the link may be elongated to enable it to reach or extend
from the hook on one carriage to that on the other carriage, and contracted or
shortened so as to tighten the coupling and take up the "slack," and when thus
adjusted the said hook will hold and keep the two opposite couplings properly
together but with an elastic tension which will greatly facilitate the passage of the
vehicles on curves, and will afford all the advantages sought to be obtained by more
complicated and costly contrivances for this purpose.
Our said invention may be embodied in various forms or modifications; One
method of carrying it into practice is as follows, that is to say-We provide a
screw whose two ends are screw-threaded in opposite directions, one being right
handed and the other left handed.-Midway between the two ends of this screw
we fix thereon a circular plate or disc which facilitates the manipulation of the
screw as hereinafter explained. We connect the two screw-threaded ends or
portions of the said screw with semi-links or shackle-shaped pieces which are so
arranged that their curved ends form the two extremities of the entire apparatus,
and it may be said that each of these pieces forms one half of the link which may
therefore be presented to the coupling-hooks of two vehicles in the same manner
as an ordinary link. These shackle-shaped pieces have fitted on them cross heads
or pieces having in them tapped holes through which the screw passes.
cross-head or cross-piece thus forms the nut for the end of the screw on which it
is placed. The said cross-pieces are fitted to slide on the shackle-shaped pieces
but are kept from moving too far outward by small pins or other suitable means.
Each

page_text: The inner ends of the aforesaid pieces or half links are provided with flanges or
collars between which and the cross-head, we place on each leg of the link a spiral
spring; that is to say there are two pairs of spiral springs, one pair between the
central plate or disc and one of the half links and the other pair between the said
disc and the other half link.-On each side of the said disc is a boss or projection
and when the coupling, by turning the said disc, is tightened or adjusted to take
up the "slack" these bosses form an abutment for the ends or collars of the half
links and the springs are compressed between these collars and the cross-heads, the
tension or strain tending to separate the vehicles being then borne or resisted by
the springs with the result of forming a close or tight, but at the same time, very
elastic, connection of the vehicles. The plate or disc should be of such a diameter
as to project beyond the edges of the buffer-heads with which it is connected so
that as these buffer-heads are drawn together they will not prevent the turning of
the screw.
If desired the said plate or disc may be provided with a series of
radial handles.
We may modify the construction above described by providing a plate extending
across each half link, at the inner end thereof, and placing a single spring between
this plate and the cross-head.
When our improved elastic link is to be used, as a coupling where side buffers
are used we dispense with the aforesaid plate or disc and provide the screw with a
jointed or swinging weighted handle like that used in ordinary screw-couplings.
We may use any suitable springs either of metal or india-rubber in the various
forms or modifications of our invention herein described.
We may also further modify our said invention to adapt it for use in com-
bination with coupling-buffers of the kind or class described in the specifications
of the above named George Turton No 3113 A.D. 1879 No 1975 A.D. 1880 and
No 4690 A.D. 1881, which coupling-buffers are provided with an excentric or
excentrics to take up the "slack" in combination with springs to give elasticity to
the connections. In this instance we provide the screw with the disc or plate and
connect the same with the two half links by means of cross-pieces somewhat as
above described, but we dispense with the springs thereon as the said buffers are
themselves provided with springs.