IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COUPLING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND VEHICLES
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Richardson, of Bradford House, Harrogate, and
Charles Greenwood, of 20, Parliament St., Harrogate, in the County
of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COUPLING
RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND VEHICLES."
Sealed the 20th August 1867, and dated the 13th April 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Richardson and
Charles Greenwood at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 13th April 1867.
We, JOHN RICHARDSON, of Bradford House, Harrogate, and CHARLES
GREENWOOD, of 20, Parliament St., Harrogate, in the County of York, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR COUPLING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND VEHICLES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for coupling
railway carriages and vehicles. For this purpose we arrange at each end of
each carriage or vehicle a draw bar with a hook and an eye upon it. The
hook has an incline on its bead, and both the hook and eye are arranged to
turn together upon a horizontal axis on the draw bar, and their position is
governed by a hand lever at the side of the carriage, so that either of them
may be made to project horizontally from the carriage or vehicle. The draw
bar, which, as already described, carries the hook and eye, is arranged to slide
through a socket at the end of the carriage frame, and is fixed in rear to a

page_text: cross head extending from one buffer rod to the other. In the draw bar a
bolt hole is formed, and there is a bolt carried by the socket through which
the bar slides, and the bolt is capable of being drawn back by means of a
band lever at the side of the carriage. This then being the arrangement, its
operation is as follows:-Supposing it to be desired to couple two carriages
provided with this apparatus, the carriages are brought together by means of
the engine, or otherwise, and an attendant on one of them by means of the
hand lever at the side sets the hook-and-eye mechanism of his carriage, so
that when the carriages meet, the incline on the head of the hook of one
carriage comes against the eye of the other, this causes the hook to rise until
its point is past the end of the eye, and it then falls down into it, and so the
hook and eye become linked together. At the same time that this is taking
place the buffer heads being brought into contact with some force are driven
in, and they take the draw bars with them until the bolts in connection with
the sockets of these bars drop into the bolt holes in them and retain them.
Thus it will be seen that the apparatus renders the carriages not only self-
coupling, but also self-tightening. When it is desired to uncouple the
carriages they are pushed together by the engine or otherwise, and the bolts
which lock the draw bars are drawn back by the hand levers at the side so as
to slacken the coupling, and then by the lever at the side of one of the
carriages the hook of the coupling is raised clear of the eye with which it is
linked. Thus it will be seen that all the operations of coupling, tightening up,
and uncoupling can be performed without its being necessary for the attendant
to enter between the carriages.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Richardson and Charles Greenwood in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 12th October 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
RICHARDSON, of Bradford House, Harrogate, and CHARLES GREENWOOD, of
20, Parliament Street, Harrogate, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Richardson and Charles Greenwood, Her special licence that we, the
said John Richardson and Charles Greenwood, our executors, administrators,

page_text: and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Richardson and Charles
Greenwood, our 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
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
COUPLING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND VEHICLES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Richardson and Charles Greenwood, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or then, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, 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 we, the said John Richardson and Charles Green-
wood, 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 improvements in apparatus for coupling
railway carriages and vehicles. For this purpose we arrange at each end of
each carriage or vehicle a draw bar with a hook and an eye upon it. The hook
has an incline on its head, and both the hook and eye are arranged to turn
together upon an horizontal axis on the draw bar, and their position is governed
by a hand wheel or lever at the side of the carriage or vehicle so that either
of them may be made to project horizontally from the carriage or vehicle.
Supposing it be desired to couple two carriages provided with this apparatus,
the carriages are brought together by means of the engine or otherwise, and
an attendant on one of them by means of the hand wheel or lever at the side
sets the hook and eye inechanism of his carriage so that when the carriages
meet the incline on the head of the hook of one carriage comes against the
eye or link of the other; this causes the hook to rise until its point is past
the end of the eye, and it then falls down into it, and so the hook and eye
become linked together. When it is desired to uncouple the carriages they
are pushed together by the engine or otherwise, and then by the lever at the
side of one of the carriages the hook of the coupling is raised clear of the eye.
with which it was linked, being acted upon by a cam, rack, or cranked lever
arm, or other equivalent. When, as for passenger carriages, it is required to.
tighten up the coupling after it has been hooked, we according to our Inven-
tion adopt the following arrangement:-The draw bar which as already

page_text: described carries the hook and eye is arranged to slide through & socket at
the end of the carriage frame, and is fixed in rear to a cross head extending
from one buffer rod to the other. In the draw bar a bolt hole is formed, and
there is a bolt carried by the socket through which the bar slides, and the
bolt is capable of being drawn back by means of a hand wheel or lever at the
side of the carriage. Then the action is as follows:-At the same time that
the carriages are brought together for hooking the couplings the buffer heads
being brought into contact with some force are driven in, and they take the
draw bars with them until the bolts in connection with the sockets of these
bars drop into the bolt holes in them, and retain them. Thus it will be seen
that the apparatus renders the carriages not only self-coupling but also self-
tightening. Before coupling the carriages the bolts which lock the draw bars
are drawn back by the hand levers at the side so as to slacken the coupling.
Thus it will be seen that all the operations of coupling, tightening up, and
uncoupling can be performed without its being necessary for the attendant to
enter between the carriages or rails.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a plan of a portion of the under frame of two railway carriages
with coupling apparatus arranged according to our Invention; Figure 2 is a
vertical section of the same. This arrangement is adapted for good's trucks
where it is not required to tighten up the couplings.
a, a, are the frames, and b, b, the draw bars, fitted with springs b¹, capable
of playing in and out a short distance as is usual; c, c, are combined hooks
and eyes (or links), one of them is jointed to the end of each draw bar, it is
shewn separately in side view at Figure 8, where the hook part is marked c¹,
and the eye c; is an arm upon the combined hook and eye, carrying a
friction pulley at its end, which rests upon a cam surface d mounted on an
axis e, carried by the frame a; there is a band wheel e¹, or it may be a simple
lever, at each end of each of the axes e, by which it can be turned. The
cams d are adapted to turn in the direction indicated by the arrow, and a
ratchet and pawl, not shown in the Drawing, may be applied to prevent their
being turned in the opposite direction if desired; the position in which the
cam d is set governs the position of the combined hook and eye. When the
cam and combined hook and eye are in the positions in which they are shown
in the diagram, Figure 4, the book is prepared to take into the eye of the

page_text: coupling of another carriage when it is brought up to it.
When the parts are
in the position indicated by the diagram, Figure 5, the eye is in position to be
taken by the hook of the coupling of another carriage, and when the parts
are in the position indicated by the diagram, Figure 6, the hook of the
coupling is raised so as to detach it from the eye of another coupling with
which it has previously been linked; a spring or weight may be applied in
order more securely to hold down the look of the coupling in the eye or link.
In order to enable carriages fitted with our couplings to be coupled with
vehicles having the ordinary draw bar hook, we provide a short supplementary
chain terminating in a hook. Figure 7 is a plan of a portion of the under
frame of a carriage having self-tightening coupling apparatus applied to it,
such as is suitable for passenger or other carriages. The draw bar à bas a
combined book and eye c applied to it as before, it is now arranged to pass
through a socket f, which itself is able to slide in and out along the guido
bolts f, and through the end of the frame a, but it is pressed inwards con-
stantly by means of the coiled springs f* with which it is fitted; the draw bar
has a stud upon it, which prevents it moving outwards beyond a certain
distance independently of the socket f, and it has also a slotted hole 6² in it,
which receives a bolt g when the coupling is tightened up, so that in either
case any strain on the draw bar comes upon the springs f; is a cross head
on the draw bar b, its ends are received between the studs h³, h³, on the buffer
rods h. When in coupling the carriages the buffer heads are brought forcibly
together so as to be driven in against the resistance of their spring i, the
pins h', h³, conie against the ends of the cross head 63, and thus force back the
draw bar until the bolt g drops into the hole 2, so as to retain the draw bar
when the buffers return. Thus the coupling is tightened up whilst the buffers
are left sufficiently free to play. Previous to uncoupling the carriages the
draw bar is set free by raising the bolt g by means of one or other of the
levers g', which are connected with the bolt, and loosely jointed to the frame a,
being free to slide with the draw socket f; as soon as the draw bar is set free
the buffer spring throws it forward by the pins h bearing against the cross
head. The uncoupling is afterwards completed as in the arrangement
before described, except that in order to set the combined hook and eye c in
position a rack j is employed; when moved forward this rack abuts on the
hook and eye c, and raises it more or less as may be required. The rack j
receives its movement from a pinion k on an axis k, having at its ends hand
wheels or levers k at the side of the carriage. In place of employing self-
acting apparatus to tighten up the coupling, the arrangement may be adopted
which is shown in plan at Figure 8, where the draw bar b is made in pieces

page_text: connected by the right and left-handed screw 6, the stem of this screw is
slotted and is free to slide, and receives a feather in the boss of the incline,
skew, or worm wheel 1, which gears with another similar but larger wheel on
the axis m carried by the frame; the axis m has hand wheels at each end,
which are turned to tighten or slacken the coupling. We would remark that
couplings are cheaply constructed according to our Invention, there being
constantly a repetition of similar parts. Cast iron or malleable cast iron may
be employed in lieu of forged work for some of the parts. To distinguish our
coupling from others we name it the "Claro coupling."
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the exact details described, but what we claim is,-
The arranging apparatus for coupling railway carriages with a combined
book and eye or link, governed or capable of being set by means of a band
wbeel, lever, or equivalent instrument at the side of the carriage as herein
described.
We also claim the combining with a self-acting coupling apparatus for
tightening up the coupling in the manner described in respect to Figure 7.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Richardson and Charles Green-
wood, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventh day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
sixty-seven.
JOHN RICHARDSON.
(L.S.)
CHARLES GREENWOOD (L.S.)
JOHN RICHARDSON.
(L.S.)
CHARLES GREENWOOD (L.S.)