IMPROVEMENTS IN CABLE RAILWAYS AND CABLE-CAR GRIPPING- MECHANISM
Year: 1886

page_text: mechanism.
I, JOHN JACOB ENDRES, of 482 Fourth Avenue, in the City, County and State
of New York, United States of America, Engineer, do solemnly declare the nature of
this invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN CABLE RAILWAYS AND CABLE-CAR GRIPPING-
MECHANISM, and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The invention relates to cable roads generally-whether surface or elevated
roads; and its object is to provide means for practically running cars at a high
rate of speed on cable roads.
In order to practically attain a comparatively high rate of speed on a road
where the cars are moved by a cable, and particularly where stops must often be
made along the road, there are two important conditions that must be satisfied, and
the higher the speed at which it is desired to run the cars, the more important do
these conditions become. First, to start the cars, it is necessary to have a slowly
acting, strong or heavy force; and, second, to impel the cars at a comparatively
high rate of speed, it is necessary to have a rapidly acting and hence light force.
In roads that have but one cable, the first of these requirements is fulfilled by a
cable which is of such size and weight and speed as best adapts it to overcome the
dead inertia of its loads, and hence the possibilities of speed are limited by the
conditions incident to starting the cars. Furthermore, by reason of the necessary
weight of such a cable, it cannot safely be run at a high rate of speed; and, on the
other hand, a cable sufficiently small and light to run at a high rate of speed is
not adapted to the slow and heavy work of starting the cars.
In cable roads where parallel cables running at different rates of speed, and of
the same or substantially the same size, are used, the same difficulties exist to
prevent giving the cars a high rate of speed; for here, though one of the cables is
restricted, as to its speed, by the conditions of starting the cars, yet both cables, so
far as concerns their capacity of running fast, might have the same speed; and the
only possible gain in the speed of the cars, by using a fast and a slow cable of the
same size, is the difference between the speed of a cable by which the cars can be
properly started and the speed that such a starting cable (or one of the same size)
might safely have.
My invention, however, contemplates a speed of the fast cable and the cars very
much beyond that practically possible with a cable of the size and weight requisite
to properly start the cars from a state of rest. That is, if such a cable be driven at
the rate of speed required by the invention, its weight and size would cause it to
have a momentum and centrifugal force that would be not only very wearing to
the cable itself and to its driving and carrying machinery, but would cause
weakening vibrations in the supporting structure, besides making it difficult to
apply to the cars the transmitting power of the cable.

page_text: My invention consists, therefore, in the use of two parallel cables running in the
same direction along the road, one cable being large and slow moving and adapted
by its speed and size to start the cars from a position of rest, and the other cable
being small and adapted to run at a much higher rate of speed than that practically
possible with the large cable and being used to drive the cars after the large and
slow moving cable has started them.
The accompanying drawings show, in Fig. 1 a cross section of a cable road and
car, in Fig. 2 an enlarged detail elevation view of the gripping devices, and in
Fig. 3 a plan view of the same.
Referring to these views in detail, A A are the track rails; B B are cable
carrying pulleys, and C is the large, and D is the small cable running on the
pulleys. The full black lines show the cables as held up in position for the grips
to take hold of them, and the dotted lines show them on their carrying pulleys.
The cable C is run at a slow rate of speed, and the cable D runs in the same
direction at a higher rate of speed-a speed representing the desired maximum
speed of the cars. Each car is to be provided with a suitable gripping device or
devices that shall be arranged to connect the car with either table. Any proper
gripping mechanism may be used; but, preferably it should be so constructed as to
release one cable when it is made to grip the other. One form of such mechanism
is shown, E being a casting that forms the fixed jaw of each grip thereof, and the
block or wedge F, moving on a guide or way G inclined to the fixed gripping
surfaces, being operated from the hand wheel H, the worm I of which meshes with
the gear J, which carries the crank arm K, which is directly attached to wedge F
by rod L.
When a car is to be started, the large slow-running cable is first connected with
the car, and, when the car is well under way, or has acquired the speed of the large
cable, the car is disconnected from the large cable and attached to the small fast-
running cable, which then drives it until it is again stopped.
By these means, a heavy car can be quickly and easily started from a position of
rest, and driven along the road at a much higher rate of speed than is practically
possible to attain with a single cable or with two cables of the same size; for, that
one cable shall be large and one small, is a necessary condition, since either cable
must be adapted by its size and weight to its speed and to its particular kind of
work, and could not in any practical way be made to do the work of the other; so,
also, neither cable could be made to practically serve the office of both.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:
1. In a cable road, the combination of a large slow-moving cable with a smaller
fast-moving cable, in substantially the manner and for the purpose set forth.
2. In a cable road, the combination of a large cable for starting the cars with a
small cable for increasing the speed of the cars after being started, as and for the
purpose set forth.
3. The combination, in a cable-car system, of a large and slow-moving cable, a
parallel small and fast-moving cable, and gripping devices for connecting the car
with either cable which are constructed to grasp but one cable at a time, as and for
the purpose set forth.