US27411A - Walter j - Google Patents

Description

W. .1. F. LIDDELL.

Car Spring.

Patented Mar. 6, 1861).

No.V 27,411.

Inventor:

Witnesses W UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WALTER J. F. LIDDELL, OF ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND BENJAMIN HERSHEY, OF SAME PLACE.

CAR-SPRING.

Speccaton of Letters Patent No. 27,411, dated March 6, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, VALTER J. F. LIDDELL, of Erie, in the county ot' Erie and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Springs for Railroad-Cars; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specication, in which- Figure l, represents in perspective a car truck furnished with the springs in question. Fig. 2, represents a vertical section through one of the pedestals or pilloT blocks, and axle box, in one of the proposed Vmodes of application of the spring. Fig. 3,

represents vertical section through the pillow block and axle box, in another mode of application of the same kind of spring.

Similar letters of reference where they occur in the several figures denote like parts in all the drawings.

The usual method of arranging plate or leaf springs upon vehicles is such as to cause them to be compressed in the direction of their short diameter by the superincumbent weight put on top of them, and to expand or elongate in that direction when relieved of their load. In my plan of hanging car bodies I reverse this mode of hanging the spring, and so arrange and connect them to the car as that the application of weight or force thereto is applied in a longitudinal and not in a transverse direction, which elongates the spring and the removal of the weight or force allows them to contract. And my invention consists in the application to car or carriage bodies, or their frames, or supports, of plate or leaf springs which will elongate by the weight or force applied to them, in a longitudinal direction and contract by the recoil or removal .of such weight or force, as will be explained, with reference to the drawings.

A, represents an ordinary truck frame composed of the usual longitudinal and transverse pieces; and to this frame is properly secured the pedestals or pillow blocks C, for supporting the axle boxes B, which in turn support the truck frame on the journals of the car wheels D, said frame and pedestals being free to rise and fall on said journals in accommodating themselves to the weight, force, or jar of said car frame.

E, are curved or semi-elliptic leaves, or plates of steel, that constitute the springs of the car or vehicle to which they are to be applied. Two of these leaves or plates constitute one spring, and they are connected to the car-frame, and axle-journals, the former being movable, and the latter immovable in a vertical line as follows: a, is a plate underneath the pedestal, to which the lower ends (5) of the leaves or springs E, are connected by bolts, on which they can turn in expanding or contracting, and 0 is another plate above the axle box, to which the upper ends (d) of said leaves or springs are similarly attached by bolts, the plates c, passing through a slot or mortise e, in the pedestal, and rests on top of the axle box `B. hen weight or force is applied in a vertical direction on the frame, the pedestal C, forces down the plate a, and the upper plate c, rest-ing on the box B, which is held at a fixed vertical position by the journals of the axle resting in the wheels I), remains stationary in that line, and the tendency of this weight or force is to elongate or straighten out the leaves or plates E, in a vertical line, and in this strained extended position, the weight of the car body and its load is suspended. When the spring is relieved it contracts to its former normal position.

In Fig. Q, the spring is arranged to extend from above to below the axle box, but it may be entirely above the axle box, as seen in Fig. 3, with but slight modification of the connecting parts but without change in the action of the springs (both plans of arranging the springs being also seen in Fig. 1). So long as the springs are connected by one of their ends to the car frame, which is movable, or supports said frame, and to the journals or boxes, which have a uniform vertical height, and elongate or extend longitudinally by the weight or force upon them, and contact in a longitudinal direction by the removal of such weight or force, I should consider it as involving my invention.

In the modification shown in Fig. 3, and to the left of Fig'. 1, the only change necessary to so apply the springs consists in the rod f, its lower end resting on the axle box B, and its upper end supporting the plate a to which the upper ends of the springs E are connected, as in the other plan, the under plate resting against the pedestal, or Which would be the same thing, the frame, simply reversing the devices but leaving the action of the spring the same` Any number of these leaves or plates can be used according to the duty they have to perform, and any number of the springs may be applied to the car or carriage, such duplication of parts or entireties being contemplated. The buffers may be connected to the car frames by these f springs, and Work in precisely the same manner; or common carriages may be hung on springs of this kind.

Having thus fully described the nature and object of my invention, and shown how

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