US304547A - oeel d - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

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UNTTBD STA-Tirs PATENT @Trina OREL D. onvis AND NELSON D. ADAMS, or Nnw vonk, N. Y1

GRIP ATTACHMENT FOR CABLE RAILWAYS.

APECIFECATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 304,547, dated September 2, 1884.

Application filed April 17, 1884. (No model.)

.To @ZZ whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that we, OREL D. ORvIs and NELSON B. ADAMS, citizens of the United States, residing in the city and county of New York, in the State of New York, have invented a new and useful improvement in Grip Attachments for Cable Railways, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings.

The grip attachments heretofore used or devised for cable-traction have had the gripping-surfaces of their jaws variously constructed. Sometimesthe gri pping-surfaces of both jaws have been composed of dies, or, in other words, their gripping-surfaces have been tired rela-tively to the jaws. Sometimes the said surfaces have both been composed of rollers, and, again, one jaw has been fitted with a die and the other with rollers. Sometimes, when rollers have been used in both jaws, friction devices or brakes have been appliedto the rollers. These several kinds of grip attachments have their advantages and disadvantages. The dies have the advantage of great holding power; but the rollers have the advantage of taking hold gradually and Start.

ing the car without jerking.

rlhe object of this invention is to combine the best qualities of the die-grip and the roller-grip.

In carrying out our invention we use a die in or on one jaw and rollers in the other jaw; and my invention consists in the combination, with one gripping-j aw furnished with a die or relatively-fixed gripping-surface and another grippingj aw furnished with gripping-rollers, of brake-wheels or brake-surfaces attached to the said rollers and brake-shoes so attached to the jaw, which is furnished with the die or relatively-fixed gripping-Surface, that by the pressure or force applied to press the jaws toward each other and make them grasp the cable the said brake-shoes are also pressed upon the said brake-wheels, for the purpose oi' checking and gradually stopping the revolution of the rollers produced by their contact with the moving cable.

In order to render the action of these brakeshoes upon the brake-'wheels or brake-Surfaces more gradual, and yet effective, our invention consists in the combination, with the said brake-shoes, of springs through which a part of the force applied to press the jaws toward each other is transmitted to the said shoes.A

4The invention is applicable in connection 55 with the system of subways and cars which is the subject of our Letters Patent No. 285,657, dated September 25, 1884, as well as to the system of cable-traction now in use, in which the cars running on a surface-track are diawn 6o by a cable in an underground tube or tunnel. It is also applicable to elevated railways having the cars drawn by acable above the track.

The drawings represent the method of application adapted either to oursaid system or 65 Fig. 7o

5 is a view corresponding with Fig. l, Show- 75 ing guide-wheels provided on the roller-jaw. A represents the upper part of the sub-way or underground tube, in which is the slot a,

communicating with the street-surface.

B is the cable placed underground in the 8 tube or sub-way.

E is the bottom ofthe car, to which is rigidly secured therigid hanger C, which passes through the said slot a. This hangerhas con- Structed upon its lower part the frame C', in 8 5 which are secured the axles e e of the rollers c c, the said frame and rollers constituting the lower and stationary jaw ofthe grip attachment. Ther said hanger also receives within it the upright sliding plate D, to the lower part 9o of which is attached the upper or movable jaw, D', of the grip attachment, which is fitted-with a die, d, which may be of hard or soft metal, wood, or other Suitable material, and which may be so iitted as to be conveniently removo5 able and renewable when worn out, the Said die constituting a gripping-surface, which is Xed relatively to the jaw D. The sliding plate D works within guides b b on the hanger,

and has connected with its upper end a handroo lever, F, or other contrivance arranged in or on the car, for the purpose of appl ying pressure to the movable jaw to grasp the cable, or of raising the said jaw to release the cable.

Each of the rollers c c of the lower and stationary gripping-jaw, C', is furnished with a brake-wheel or rotary brake-surface, f, which is preferably made of a separate circular castiron plate bolted or otherwise removably attached to the roller, so that when worn out, it may be removedV and replaced by a new one.

Over the brake-wheelsff there are attached to the upper and movable gripping-jaw, D, separate brake-shoes g L(/--one for each brakewheel. These shoes are attached to the jaw D by loose pins h 71 or otherwise, in such manner as to permit them a certain amount of independent movement, Vand each has applied between it and the jaw a spring, i t', which tends to press it toward its respective frictionwheel. Vhen Ythe jaw D is depressed to grip the cable between its die andthe rollers of the jaw C', the brakeshoes g g are brought into contact with the brake-wheels f f, and the power applied to depress the said jaw C acts to produce'the grip of the jaws upon the eable, and at the same time to apply the brakeshoes to the brake-wheels, for the purpose of checking andY gradually stopping the revolution of the rollers, and thereby producing gradually, yet surely and as promptly as desirable, a positive gripping action of the rollers on the cable, and the harder the grip is put on the tighter will the brake-slices be applied. The relation between the friction produced on the brake-wheels and the gripping-pressure applied to the jaw D will depend on the strength ofthe springs z', and will have to be determined by practice. \Vithout these springs itwould be hardly practicable to obtain aproper relation between the friction and pressure above mentioned, as with a rigid attachment of the brake-shoes to the said jaw, if the brake-wheels and brake-shoes should wear more than the gripping-surfaces, or the reverse, either the shoes would fail to suiiciently check the rotation of the rollers orwould check the said rotation without applying a proper degree of gripping pressure. lt may be here mentioned that the rollers may be in the movable jaw and the die in the iix'ed jaw of the grip,or that both the jaw containing the rollers and that furnished with the die might be movable toward and from each other; but in any case the brake-wheels will be attached to gripping-rollers, and the brake-shoes will be attached to that jaw which contains the die.

In order that, while the gripping-jaws are open, the cable may be retained between them ready to be gripped for drawing the car when desired, and that while the grip is out of operation its gripping-rollers c @and their axles may be relieved from wear, we provide in the lower jaw, C, as shown in Fig. 5, grooved guide-wheels 7c k, one at each end of the jaw, such wheels being either larger than the rollersv c c, or having their axles so arranged that their upper parts are so much higher than the upper parts of c c that the cable may be supported in their grooves out of contact with the rollers c c, as shown in Fig. 5.

We do not claim, broadly, a grip attach ment having rollers in one jaw and a die in another, nor do we claim the application of friction-brake devices to the gripping-rollers of a grip attachment.

Vhat we claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. The combination,'in a grip attachment for cable railways, of one jaw containing I gripping rollers, which alone constitute its gripping-surfaces, an opposite jaw having only a gripping-die or relatively-fixed gripping surface, brake-wheels attached to said I gripping-rollers, and brake-shoes attached to the jaw having the relatively-fixed grippingsurface, substantially as herein described.

2. rPhe combination of the grippingjaw having its gripping-surface composed entirely of rollers, the gripping-j aw having only a gripping-die or relatively-iixed gripping-surface, brake-wheels attached to said gripping-rollers, brake-shoes attached to the jaw having the gripping-die, and springs applied between the latter jaw and the brakeshoes, substantially as herein described.

OREL l). ORVIS. NELSON l. ADAMS.

XVi tnesses:

FRnDK HAYNEs, EMIL SCHWARTZ.

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