US368522A - William p - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

W. P. ELLIOTT.

- GATE.

' No. 368,522. Patented Aug. 1.6, 1887.

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VILLIAM P. ELLIOTT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

GATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 368,522, dated August 16, 1887.

Application filed June 16, 1887. Serial No. 241,516; (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that l, VILLIAM P. ELLIOTT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Gates; and l hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,v and exact description of the same.

My invention relates to an improvement in the class of gates most commonly employed to form the barriers at railroad-crossings, which barriers are produced by vertically-swinging y bars or arms on posts, two of which arms, ar-

ranged to be swung toward and from each other, ordinarily constitute a gate, and they are actuated to be raised and lowered by fluidpressure, preferably air-pressure, exerted from a pump against piston or collapsible receiver mechanism connected with the gate-bars.

In gates of the class named difficulty is enr countered in producing uniform or simultaneous action of the members forming each pair of gate-bars, owing to differences in the amount of friction in the movements of the respective arms, or to other differences in the construction of the mechanisms ofthe two, and also and particularly to the force of the wind, which, when it blows in the direction of the plane of movement of the bars,tends to hasten the descent or rise of one, while it impedes that of the other.

Various means have been devised for overcoming the difficulty referred to,involving the mechanical tying together below the surface of the ground or overhead of the gate-bars forming a pair,or the arrangement of the tluidpressure mechanism in a manner to produce resistance in operating the bars in one direction-t. c., either to raise or lower themMby the fluid introduced intothe pressure mech anism in operating them in the opposite direction.

I desire,byI means of my invention,to avoid the mechanical tying together in contradistinction to arranging the fluid-pressure mechanism, as last aforesaid, of the gate-bars, and the objections attending such tying mechanism, and my presentinvention is in the nature of an improvementin the said lastnamed manner of producing simultaneous movement of the gate-bars.

It is my object to provide a very simple and effective mechanism for the purpose, and to this end my invention consists in the general construction of my improvement, as also in details of construction and combinations of parts, all as hereinafter more fully set forth.

The drawingis a broken diagrammatic View of a gate provided with my improvements,and having the sides of the hollow posts removed to display the mechanism within them.

A and Aare hollow gate-posts to be located at opposite sides of a street or railway crossing on the same side of a railway-track. The posts carry, respectively, the swinging barsB and B, supported on the rock-shafts r and r', carrying each a double bifurcated pulleysection, C, of the construction set forth in the joint application of A. Farrar and myself for an improvement in gates, Serial No. 225,957, filed January 31, 1887. On opposite sides of theaxis of each gate-bar,within the post carrying it, are cylinders-D and E in the post A and D and E in the post AMeach communicating eontrollably from its upper end by a pipe, t, with an air-pump. (Not shown.) Vithin the cylinders, which are closed at both ends,V are pistons F, the rods F of which project through and beyond the lower ends of the cylinders, where the latter are provided with narrow eX- tensions or nipples q, forming guides for the rods, which fit them so closely as to cause the lubricatingoil to afford sufficiently eective packing to prevent escape of the air to an extent that will materially affect the operation of my improvement, hereinafter described. If

desired or required, however, suitable stuffing-boxes may be provided. The lower ends of the rods have cross-heads p secured to them, from which they are connected by chains o or other suitable means with the segments, all as described in the aforesaid joint application, from which the mechanism thus far described differs only in construction of the cylinders, whereby they are closed at both ends from communication with the surrounding atmos phere.

The piston-rods of the cylinders D and E are connected together from their cross-heads by a cable, n, or equivalent means, passing around pulleys fm, supported in the post A, near its base, below the lower limit of play of ICO the rods, and preferably of the kind movable on anti-friction rollers, and the piston-rods of the cylinders D' and E are similarly connected by a chain, n', 'or equivalent means, passing around pulleys m', supported and constructed like the pulleys m.

The cylinder D in the postA communicates from its lower end through a pipe, Z, embedded between the posts in the ground, as shown, with the corresponding end of the cylinder E' in the post A', and the cylinder Din the post A' communicates similarly, through a pipe, Z', with the cylinder E in the post A.

As shown in the drawing, the gate-bars are raised, the parts of the mechanism being in the positions to which they are moved by raising the bars. To lower them, the cylinders E and E' are caused to communicate through their pipes t with the air-pump, and the cylinders D and D through their pipes t' with the open air. By operating the pump, air is compressed against the upper sides of the pistons in the first-named cylinders, forcing them down, and consequently lowering the gate-bars, and the air previously introduced below the pistons in the cylinders E and E'in raising'the arms is forced by the pressure of the pistons therein through the pipes t and t against the under sides of the pistons in the cylinders D' and D, thereby forcing them upward, and causing the piston in the cylinder D', owing to its connection with that in the cylinder E', to pull the last-named piston down, and the piston in the cylinder D, owing to its connection with that in the cylinder E', to pull that piston down. If, therefore, to illustrate, the barB works more easily than the bar B', or, say, while the bars are being lowered the wind is blowing in the direction of the falling movement of the bar B, the tendency will be for the lastnamed bar to fall faster than the bar B', but the pressure of the exhaust-air from the cylinder E against the piston in the cylinder D' will meet at the latter with the resistance of the force impeding the descent of the bar B', and as it cannot enter the cylinder D faster (or much faster) than the rise of the piston therein will permit, the piston in the cylinder E cannot fall faster than that in the cylinder D rises; hence the two bars must fall simultaneously, or, allowing for leakage and elasticity of the air, almost simultaneously. Ihe pressure from the cylinder E' by the descent of its piston against that of the cylinder D to raise it obviously increases the force which operates against the piston in the cylinder D to raise it. The effect is the same whichever of the gate-bars is impeded or hastened in either of its movements.

The piston-heads are preferably, to insure the prevention of. leakage around them, of the double form shown, and the lower ends of the cylinders are provided with plugs 7c, to permit the discharge of the fluid contents below the pistons when desired.

The lookin g mechanism G illustrated is substantially like that shown and described in Letters Patent No. 855,518, dated January 4, 1887, and is not therefore described in detail in the present connection. I prefer to support the diaphragm devices h in the posts, as shown, sufficiently high to avoid the possibility of access to them of water, unless, of course, under very extraordinary circumstances, and when so supported the latch portion g is rigidly connected with the diaphragm by means of an iron rod, f.

As it is desirable to provide for the locking of the gate-bars in their raised positions at different angles, I provide two hooks orshoulders, e, on the latch portion g, either of which may be caused to engage with the adjacent cross-head, depending upon the angle at which it is desired that the bar shall extend when in its raised condition. v

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. In a gate having swinging bars on posts and actuated by fluid-pressure, the combination, with the bars, of two cylinders at each post, having their pistons connected together, and with the bar on opposite sides of its axis, conduits connecting the cylinders with the pressureesupply, and conduits connecting them with cach other in pairs from one post to another, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. In a gate having swinging bars B and B on posts A and A' and actuated by duid-pressure, the combination, with the bars, of cylinders D and E at the post A, having their pistons connected together, and with the bar B on opposite sides of its axis, cylinders E' and D' at the post A', having their pistons connected together, and with the bar B on opposite sides o'f its axis, conduitsl and Z', leading,

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respectively, from corresponding sides of the pistons in the cylinders D and E to the same sides of the pistons in the cylinders E and D', to afford communication between the cylinders D and E' and E and D', and conduits leading from the cylinders to the airpressure supply on the opposite sides of their pistons, substantially as described. i

WILLIAM l?. ELLIOTT. In presence of WM. R. SITLER, CHARLES W FLANAGAN.

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