US1086069A - Safety appliance for railway-cars. - Google Patents

Description

0. M. MO GK & A. U. GERBER.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAY CARS. APPLIUATION PILED 313.10, 1913.

Patented Feb. 3, .1914.

W if?? 0 COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60-, WASHINGTON, D. c.

"entree sraras PATENT oerrca.

CHARLES M. IVIOCK AND ARTHUR U. GERBER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SAFETY APPLIANCE FOR RAILWAY-(JARSJ To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CHARLES M. Moon and ARTHUR U. GERBER, citizens of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Safety Appliances for Railway- Cars; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the inventiomrsuch as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention relates to safety appliances for railway cars, and particularly for cars having brakes normally held out of engagement with the wheels and adapted to be applied to the wheels by pneumatic mechanism, which mechanism is set in operation when air pressure is reduced in a brakepipe. In our copending application for U. S. Letters Patent, Ser. No. 743622, we have shown and described a safety appliance of this class in which this brake-actuating reduction of the air pressure in a brake pipe is effected by the rupturing of a closure for the said pipe, the rupturing being caused by the impingement upon the track system of a partially fragile portion of the safety appliance.

Our present invention relates to safety appliances of this class in which the brakeactuating reducing of the air pressure is effected by the opening of a valve in the brake-pipe; its prime object being to provide electrical mechanism for actuating the said valve, and a circuit-closer for the said mechanism, which circuit-closer will be actuated by the impingement of a part of the safety appliance against a part of the track system. 7

Further objects are to provide means whereby the valve-actuating mechanism will be maintained in actuating relation for a suflicient length of time to effect the setting of the brakes even if the contacting of the impinging part of the safety appliance with the track system has only been 1110- mentary; also to provide means for testing the valve-actuating apparatus and for releasing the same from its operative position.

The single figure of the drawing shows, partly diagrammatically and partly in section, an embodiment of my invention.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed February 10, 1913.

Patented Feb. 3,1914.

Serial No. 747,531.

In railway practice it has long been customary to equip each car with an emergency valve or so-called conductors valve operated by a pull' on a bell-cord. The same valve could'be used as a part of our applivalve being manually operable by pulling the bell-cord 5 in the direction of the arrow. For the purpose of our invention, the lever 4 is also connected by a pitrnan 6 to the piston-rod 7 of a piston 30 slidably mounted in a cylinder 8. A small perforation 9 connects the interior of the cylinder 8 with a chamber 10 to which compressed air is supplied from the brake-pipe 3 by a branch pipe 11. The perforation 9 is normally closed by a tapered pin 12 mounted upon a pivoted lever 13, which lever is held in the said closure position by a spring'14. This lever may be drawn out of its closureposition by the attraction of an electromagnet 15 for an armature 16 carried by the lever. Wires 17, 18 and 19 connect the said magnet with a battery 20 and a pair of contacts 21 and 25, which contacts are positioned within a casing 23 mounted upon a portion of the car truck in proximity to one of the rails. One of the contacts, 21, is insulated from the said casing by a block 2 of hard rubber; while the other contact 25 is carried by a plunger 26 slidably mounted in the cap 27 of the casing 23. A spring 28 bearing against a transverse pin 37 carried by the plunger 26 holds the latter normally with a considerable air space between the contacts 21 and 25.

The plunger 26 has at its lower end a head 29 so positioned with respect to a rail as to be normally slightly above the top of the rail and to one side of the same. lVhen the wheel adjacent to which the casing 23 is mounted is derailed, the head 29 of the plunger will impinge against the rail, thereby sliding the plunger longitudinally and closing the circuit of the battery 20 through the wires 17, 18, 19, the magnet 15 and contacts 21 and 25, current being carried to Y Consequently, the lever 13 Will be drawn toward the magnet, thereby withdrawing the closure pin 12 from the perforation 9 and allowing compressed air from the pipes 3 and 11 to enter the cylinder 8, thereby actuating the piston 30, which in turn will actuate the openting lever 4 of the outlet valve 1.

In case the impinging of the head 29 of the member contacting with the rail or other part of the track system should only be momentary, or in case part of the contacting mechanism of our safety appliance be damaged by the impact, the circuit through the magnet might only be closed momentarily, in which case the entrance of compressed air through the port 9 might not be ample to move the piston and operate the emergcncy valve 1. We, therefore, preferably provide a detent 31 normally held against the end of the armature lever 13 and adapted to slide behind the same so as to hold the lever close to the magnet against the action of the spring 1% when it has once been drawn over by a momentary closing of the circuit, thereby keeping the pin 12 out of its closure position and permitting the continued admission of compressed air to the cylinder 8 through the port 9. To guard against the actuating of the piston (and hence of the brake-setting valve 1) by a leakage of compressed air between the pin 12 and the port 9 when the pin is in its closure position, we preferably provide a small vent 32 in the cylinder which will emit any air thus leaking into the cylinder, but which will not be large enough to interfere with the operation of the piston when the pin 12 is moved out of its normal closure position.

To test the operative condition of the valve-actuator of our appliance, the battery circuit may be closed by a switch which is preferably positioned near the actuating mechanism. l i hen the latter has thus been tested, the compressed air may be released from the cylinder 8 by opening a pet cock 34:, thereby permitting the return of the lever 1 and the piston 80 to their normal positions Likewise, the detent 31 may be manually released by raising the knob 35, while the electrical control mechanism may be disconnected from the circuit by a switch 36 inserted in the wire 19.

While we have shown and described the device of our invention in an embodiment having a slidably mounted and spring-held circuit closing member, and having a lever actuated operating mechanism for the valve which effects the setting of the brakes, it will be obvious that these as well as other features of our safety appliance may be varied greatly without departing from the spirit of our invention.

-We claim as our invention:

1. A safety appliance for a railway car equipped with an air-brake, comprising a pneumatically actuated brake-setting valve; a piston controlling the same; a cylinder slidingly housing the piston; an air cham ber connected to the compressed air supply of the air-brake system; a passage connecting the air chamber with the interior of the cylinder; an electromagnet housed within the air chamber; a valve carried by the armature of the electromagnet and controlling the said connection to the cylinder; a source of electricity; a circuit-closer disposed in proximity to the track system and adapted, upon derailment of the car, to be actuated. by contact with a portion of the track system; circuits connecting the circuit-closer with the source of electricity and the electromagnet, whereby the circuit-closer, when actuated, causes the electromagnet to move its armature and the valve carried thereby; and a manually releasable detent for retaining the armature in the position to which it is thus moved by the electromagneti 2. A safety appliance for a railway car equipped with an air-brake, comprising a pneumatically actuated brake-setting valve; piston controlling the same; a cylinder slidingly housing the piston; an air chamber connected to the compressed air supply of the air-brake system; a passage connecting the air chamber with the interior of the cylinder; an electrically operable valve controlling the said passage; a source of electricity; a circuit-closer disposed in proximity to the track system and adapted, upon derailment of the car, to be actuated by contact with a portion of the track system; circuits connecting the circuit-closer with the source of electricity and the electrically operable valve, whereby the circuit-closer, when actuated, will operate the valve to ad mit compressed air from the air chamber to the interior of the cylinder; a manually releasable detent for retaining the valve in its said air-admitting position; and a vent for permitting the emission of air from the interior of the said cylinder.

in testimony whereof we have signed our names in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES M. MOCK.

Witnesses p E. J. K0011, ALBERT Sonmnnn.

Copies oi. this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

ARTHUR U. GERBER.

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