Iм- PROVEMENTS IN ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY BREAKS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Kendall at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th April
1866.
I, CHARLES KENDALL, of 29, High Street, Whitechapel, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY BREAKS AND COMMUNICATIONS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention of improvements in atmospheric railway breaks and com-
munications relates to that description of railway breaks a dd communications
which shall be worked by the aid of the atmosphere assisted in the performance
of its function by my specially adapted appliances mentioned and set forth in
the Specification of a Patent granted to me for improvements in atmospheric
railway breaks and communications, bearing date the Thirteenth day of Decem-
ber, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and numbered Three thousand
and eighty-three. In that Specification it will be seen that it was my intention
to generate the air in the receiver therein referred to by the aid of an ordinary
double action air pump set in motion by a belt attached to a pulley fastened
to one of the axles of the guard's van, and connected with what I then termed
my specially adapted striking gear, an appliance constructed for the purpose of
throwing the action of the pump from a tight to loose gear, and so saving
such ordinary pump from unnecessary friction.

page_text: PUMP.
The pump I propose using in lieu of the aforesaid ordinary pump and
striking gear is a vertical single-action three-throw force air pump, placed
inside the guard's van provided with specially adapted valves. These valves
are constructed to be worked by pistons with rods attached placed beneath
them, which are so arranged that they rise and lift the valves off their seat,
when the air shall have overpowered conical springs encircling the piston
rods beneath the cover of the cylinders containing the aforesaid pistons. The
contrivance has this peculiar property that the valve not alone becomes lifted,
but is kept off its seat admitting air to pass and repass at will, until such time
as the pressure shall become insufficient to keep the springs subject to its
influence, and when such insufficiency sets in, the pistons and springs resume
their former position and the valves become re-adjusted. The valves are used
for the following purposes:-When the pressure in the receiver shall have
gained fifteen to twenty pounds or thereabouts, the inlet valve of the left hand
or No. 1 barrel will be thrown out of gear, and when the pressure in the
receiver shall have gained thirty to forty, or thereabouts, the inlet valve of
the right hand or No. 3 barrel will be thrown out of gear leaving the middle
or No. 2 barrel to work up to fifty or any required pressure; but when the
middle barrel shall have worked up to the required pressure, the air will then
by the aid of the safety valve blow off, and thus equality of pressure will be
continually sustained in the receiver, and always comparatively equal to and
SIX WHEELS.
The next improvement which I propose is the adaptability of my Invention
to carriages with six wheels. By my first Specification it will be seen that the
cylinders employed in communicating the atmospheric influence to the break
blocks of four whell carriages are placed underneath them in the centre and
are supplied with pistons of equal size.
In order, however, that my Invention, which I claim as an improvement
thereon, may be so applied to six wheel carriages I propose that the cylinders
be made differentially, and should be constructed to admit of one piston being.
made larger than the other, and instead of being placed underneath in the.
centre of the carriage, that it be placed in the centre of any two sets of such

page_text: wheels. By additional rods being added to those rods attached to the larger
piston, all four blocks on that side will be brought into play and leaving
double the area of the smaller one on the other side the action of the whole
will be performed with an equal pressure
double the area of the smaller one on the other side the action of the whole
will be performed with an equal pressure
WEIGH SHAFT.
By placing a cylinder vertically underneath the break van packed with
a piston or plunger supplied with a spiral spring for re-adjusting purposes con-
nected with a lever and attached to the ordinary weigh shaft opposite to the
lever now in use for ordinary screw breaks, I propose that when my cylinder
shall be charged with air from pipe No. 2 that the piston shall press upon
the lever from above in addition to the lever worked by the ordinary means
aforesaid, which will give the same effect upon the break blocks as the present
appliance. The advantage of this improvement is that there will always be
two systems of break power applicable, and in the event of either failing, the
other will always be available and capable of acting independently of each
The next improvement which I propose is in the construction of the alarm
or signal between passenger and guard, mentioned and referred to in my said
Specification. By that Specification it will be seen that my intention was to
have the passenger's whistle placed at the top of the passenger's carriage.
Now, I propose connecting pipes Nos. 1 and 2, fully described in my said
Specification, underneath the carriage by means of a cock and lever, to which
lever shall be attached a rope or cord conducted from either end of the
carriage and threaded internally through each compartment and permanently
fastened on the opposite end. To each loop which will be then formed at
the top of each compartment I propose to attach a pulley or tassel, which
shall when pulled by a passenger open the passage or port of the said cock,
and permit sufficient air to escape from pipe 1 to 2 to cause whistles
placed in the break and on the tender or engine to speak and give alarm.
The respective whistles placed in the guard's break and on the tender or
engine will act as a communication between guard and driver, and vice
versa.