US281672A - Feancis b - Google Patents

Description

(NE Model EB. CROGKER, 0. G. CURTIS, a s! s. WEEELEE.

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UNITED STATES- i PATENT OF ICE.

FRANCIS B. CRCCKER, CHARLES e. C RTI AND sCHUYLER S. WHEELER,

. on NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRI RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 281,672, dated July 24, 1883.

Application filed April 6, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, FRANCIS B. ORCCKER, CHARLES G. CURTIS, and SCHUYLER S. WHEELER, citizens of the United States, residing at New York, in. the county and State of NewYork, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electric Railways, of which the following is a specification. Our invention relates to electric-railway trains which are propelled upon tracks in the well-known manner by means of electric currents conveyed to them through the rails of the tracks or through special conductors laid parallel to them, and the cars of which are provided with electric brakes constructed to be operated by the propelling-current derived from the track-rails, the object of the invention being so to arrange the brakes of the entire train that they may be applied and -per fectly controlled by the engineer from the 10- comotive; that in the making up of the train or coupling of the cars together and to the locomotive it shall only be necessary to make a Single electrical connection or coupling between each car and the next in front, in order to put the brake apparatus in an operative condition, and that the rear cars of the train, as many as desired, may be removed or uncoupled by simply breaking this single electrical connection without interfering with the operation of the brakes of the cars in front.

Our invention consists in furnishing each car with a single electrical conductor extending from end to end and adapted to be electrically connected with the corresponding conductor of the adjoining car and with the locomotive by means of electric couplers or other devices for making electrical connection quickly, so as to form one continuous conductor, extending through the entire train, which derives the current for operating the brakes from the locomotive, and in connecting the electric brakes of the train to this conductor and to the current supplying the rails of the track in such a manner that the brakes of each car will be operated on a branch or derived circuit from the said continuous conductor under the control of the engineer, as hereinafter more to which our invention applies a very powerline of the road by stationary dynamo-electric machines, driven by large steam-engines or other sources of power, and this current is conveyed to the moving trains through the rails of. the track, with which they maintain a constant electrical connection. Under this ar-' rangement the trains are operated in multiple arc that is, each train derives its propelling-current by a branch-circuit from the conducting-rails. Suppose, for example, we have a railroad ten miles long operated by this system, upon which there are five trains being propelled by the current from the rails at the same time. Then each train would receive one-fifth of the entire current. If one of these five trains be stopped, and the circuit through it be broken, the current with which it was fed when in motion will then be added to that already furnished to the other four trains, and unless some regulating arrangement is provided at the central generating-station to reduce the amount of current generated under such conditions, a very objectionable increase in the strength of the current actuating each train, and consequently in its speed, will result. If, on the contrary, another train be added to the five already in operation, the effect will be to distribute among six trains the current previously fed to five, in which case an equally objectionable diminution in the strength of current and in the speed of the train will follow. Consequently whenever the total electrical resistance of the system is altered by the addition or removal of trains from circuit the amount of electrical energy produced at the generating-station must be so regulated that it will be correspondingly increased or diminished, in order to keep constant the amount of current supplied to each branch circuit.

Ina multiple-arc system it is well known that this effect is obtained by constructing the generating apparatus so as to maintain a constant electro-motive force, whatever change in the total resistance of the system may occur, in which case the amount of current generated depends solely upon the resistance of the system, and is inverselyproportional to the combined resistances of all the branch circuits; hence in an electric railway thus organized the amount of current obtainable from the main conductingarails for propelling the trains, ap plying the brakes, or for any other purpose is practically unlimited, circuits may be added without affecting those already in operation, and the amount of current flowing through any of these derived or branch circuits being dependent solely upon the electrical resistance of the same, it is only necessary to make its resistance more or less, in order to obtain a weak or a strong current through it.

In the accompanying drawing, which represents an electric railroad train with the brakes arranged according to our invention, A represents an electric locomotive, which may be of any suitable form, constructed to be propelled by an electric current, with which it is supplied through the insulated central rail, D, which is simply a conducting-rail, the ordinary rails of the track E constituting the return-comluctor in the well-known manner. his particular method of conveying the elec tric current to the train is, however, not essential to our invention, the simpler plan of employing one rail of the track for the direct and the other rail for the return conductor, or any other method being equally applicable.

The locomotive A consists of an electric motor, F, suitably mounted upon the platform G, the armature a of which is mechanically connected to the driving-wheels Z by gearing, or in any other well-known manner. The current for actuating this motor enters from the rails E E by the brush H, whence it passes to the point I, and thence to the switch K, which regulates the flow of the current through, and consequently the power of, the motor, and which may be arranged to secure this result in the most efficient manner, as particularly set forth and described in a pending application filed by us in the Patent Office on the 23d day of March, 1882, thence through the conductor J, through the motor F, conductor I), and brush L to the central conducting-rail, D, thus completing the circuit through the motor, and so propelling the ear in the well-known manner.

In order to operate the brakes acting on the wheels of the cars, under the control of the engineer, according to our invention, a circuit is formed from the point I to the switch M, which is arranged so that more or less additional resistance 1' r r may be introduced into the circuit of the brakes by turning it so as to connect with the points 0, f, g, or h, by which means the strength of current, and therefore the power of the brakes, is put under the control of the engineer, thence through the conductor 1', which is connected through an elec tric coupling, 7., with the point Z on the car 13, thence through the conductor m to the rear ot'car l3, and thence through another coupling, k, to the next car, 0, and so on through the entire train. At the point a on this 0011- ductor, under the car B, a branch connection is made to one end of the electric brake N, the other end, 0, being connected to the next brake, O, of the same car, from which the circuit leads through the brush P to the return conducting -rail D, thus completing a circuit through these brakes. Similarly on the car 0 a branch circuit is formed through its brakes and the connecting-brush I, as shown,

to the return conducting-rail D. The brakes of all the other cars, as many as desired, be ing connected in the same manner, whenever the switch M is turned so as to connect with any of the switch-points c, f, g, or 71/, and thereby close the brake-circuit, a current flows to the point a, where it splits, part flowing on through the conductor m to the rear cars, and part flowing through the brakes N and O and the brush P to the return conducting-rail D, which completes the track-circuit. At the corresponding point on the car 0 the current again splits, part flowing to the rear cars and part flowing through its brakes, as in the car 13. Thus the brakes of the entire train are operated in multiple are, those of each car being on a branch circuit derived from the main brake-circuit, and therefore the operation of the brakes of any car is not affected by the addition or removal of cars behind it, and should thebrakes of any car become deranged from any cause, so as to break their circuit, they would not interfere with the working of the others so long as the main brake-circuit remained intact.

By our invention the brakes may be ar 'anged so as to be applied from the locomotive, and their power perfectly controlled by means of the resistance-switch M, which regulates the strength of current flowing through the brakecircuit, and nothing is required to be done in coupling the ears together or to the locomotive but to make a single electrical connection or coupling. The electric brakes herein shown consist simply of electro-magnets N O, &c., the poles of which. are fitted with iron shoes, designed to attract themselves against the treads of the iron wheels, and resist rotation by friction in the well-known manner; but it is evident that any form of electric brakes designed to act upon the wheels in any manner, and to resist their rotation through the influence of the electric current, is just as applicable to our invention, and each brake on each car may, if desired, be placed on a separate branch circuit.

Connections to the conducting-rails may be formed through the treads of the wheels, or in any other well-known manner, instead of by means of the special connecting-brushes P H, &c.

It is evident that any suitable means for controlling the strength of the current which flows through the main brake circuit or conductor extending through the train may be employed, instead of the resistance-switch M herein shown, without departing from our invention.

Having now described our invention, what we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is I The combination, with an electric-railway train, substantially as set forth, of a continuous electrical conductor extending through the train and electrically connected in the locomotive to a device whereby it may be put in electrical connection with one of the currentsupplying conductors of the track, electric brakes acting upon the wheels of the cars and adapted to be operated by electric currents which are conveyed to them through secondary branch circuits derived from the said continuous or main branch conductor extending through the train, the said secondary branch circuitsbeing separately connected in each 20 means whereby the strength of current flowing through the said brakes may be controlled, 2 5

substantially as described.

Signed the 3d day of April, 1882.

FRANCIS B. OROOKER.

CHARLES e. CURTIS. SGHUYLER s. WHEELER.

WVitnesses:

GEO. D. Owens, HERBERT N. 'CURTIs.

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