US440082A - Automatic brake-regulator - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

- G. WESTINGHOUSE, Jr; AUTOMATIC BRAKE REGULATOR.

No. 440,082. Patented Nov. 4, 1890 FIGJ.

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(No Model.)

G. WESTINGHOUSE, Jr. AUTOMATIC BRAKE REGULATOR.

No. 440,082. Patented Nov. 4, .1890.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE, JR, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

AUTOMATIC BRAK E- REG U LATO R.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 440,082, dated November 4, 1890. Application filed December 1, 1888- Serial No. 292,391. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE,

, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing at weight imposed upon the wheels to which the brakes are applied; and its object is to provide simple and effective means for automatically varying and adjusting the leverage of a lever through which braking power is transmitted to a car-wheel by and in correspondence with increase or dimunition of the load borne by the wheel.

To this end my invention, generallystated, consists in the combination of an adj ustinglever fulcrumed upon a truck member having no substantial degree of vertical movement, and having an arm coupled to a member of the truck or car-body, which is normally subj ect to vertical movement by variation of load, and a brake-lever coupled to the oppo site arm of the adj usting-lever and movable longitudinally relativelyto a connected brakebeam. The improvement claimed is hereinafter fully set forth.

It has been demonstrated by experience and is now well recognized that to attain maximum efliciency in the application of brakes to railroad-wheels the force with which they are applied should not be sufficiently great to cause the sliding of the wheels upon the rails, and, inasmuch as the power required to efiect the sliding of the wheels decreases proportionately with the decrease of load thereon, and vice versa, a corresponding diminution or increase, as the case may be, of braking-power becomes necessary to maintain the effectivenessof the braking mechanism of a car, which, under the conditions of the duty for which it is designed, varies materially in gross weight from time to time by reason of difference in weight of or the entire absence of load.

In sytems of continuous brakes (which are now largely in use in freight service) the application of power to the braking mechanism of the several cars of a train is uniform throughout, irrespective of theirdifference in load, and while in the use of hand-brakes variation in their application upon different cars, relatively to load, is not impossible it is necessarily a matter wholly dependent upon the good judgment, skill, and attention of the brakemen, and not one of determined and positive regulation.

My improvement is applicable with equal facility to continuous and to single or noncontinuous brake apparatus and without involvin g complicated or expensive elements or accessories effects automatic variation and regulation of applied braking-power in and by the action of thevariations of load by which such variation of braking-power is demanded;

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an end view in elevation of a car-truck and a partial transverse section through the frame of a car supported thereon, illustrating an application of my invention; Fig. 2, alongitudinal section through the truck; and Fig. 3, a view, partly in elevation and partly in section and on an enlarged scale, of the fulcrumsupporting pin of the adj usting-lever and the nuts thereon.

The application of my invention is herein exemplified in connection with a four-wh eeled swing-truck of the ordinary construction, having wheels 1 fixed upon axles 2, rotating in suitable boxes secured in side frames, which are connected by transoms 3, under which con struction the transoms are not subject to verti'cal movement, other than such slight degree thereof as is due to jar in passing over low joints or inequalities in the track. The carbody, of which only the body-bolster 4 and and other connected members of the truckframe, accordingly as the springs are compressed to a greater or less degree by increase or decrease of load carried by the car-body.

The brake-shoes 11, which are secured to brake-beams 12, are applied to the wheels in the braking operation by brake-levers 14 15, actuated by a brake-rod or pull-rod 16, which may be connected with the piston of a brakecylinder or with the chain of a hand-brake or other suitable means for effecting the application of braking-power. The live-lever 14 is, as in the ordinary arrangements, coupled at its upper end to the pull-rod 16, and has its opposite end connected by a lower brake rod or bar 17 to the lower end of the deadlever 15, which is pivoted adjacent to its upper end to a stop or guide 18, secured to one of the transoms 3.

A double-armed adjusting-lever 18 is fulcru-med on the transom adjacent to the livelever, its fulcrum-pin 19 being, for a purpose presently to be described, coupled to a yoke formed on the upper end of a pin or stem 20, which is supported by an arm or bracket 21, secured to the transom. A helical spring 22 surrounds the stem 20 and bears at its ends against the top of the bracket 21 and against a nut 23. engaging a thread on the stem, a lock-nut 24, engaging said thread, being also provided to secure the nut 23 in any adjusted position. Thespring 22 provides a support for the fulcrum-pin of the adj usting-lever, which is sufficiently elastic to compensate the jars and concussions induced in passing over low joints and inequalities of track, and thereby to maintain the fulcrum-pin in' substantially the same horizontal plane, or, in other words, to render it practically exempt from vertical movement. By means of the nut 23 and lock-nut 24 the fulcrum-pin 19 of the lever 18 may be varied and adjusted in vertical position, as may from time to time'be required. The adjusting-lever. 18 is coupled at or near one end to a bracket 25, bolted to the truck-bolster 6, or to a portion of the car-body which rests thereon, so that the bracket and the connected end of the adj usting-lever may be-raised and lowered with the bolster and car-body in the vertical movements of the latter due to the compression and extension of the truck-springs under increase and decrease of load of the car, respectively. The opposite arm of the adj usting-lever is in turn coupled bya rod or link 26 to the brake-lever 14, so that downward or upward movement of the end of the adj usting-lever, which is connected to the bracket 25, will, respectively, coincidentiy and proportionately raise or lower the brake-lever, in order to effect corresponding variation of its leverage on the brake-beam 12 and connected brake-shoes 11, through which the braking-power exerted upon the brake-lever is transmitted and applied to the Wheels. The brake-lever and brake-beam are coupled in any suitable manner adapted to admit of the longitudinal movement of the former relatively to the latter, which is required for such variation of leverage. In this instance the pin 27, by which the brake-lever is coupled to the brakebeam, and which is fixed in an arm 30, secured to the brake-beam,is pivoted in ablock or die 28, which is fitted freely in a longitudinal slot or guideway 29 in the brake-lever. As an equivalent construction the brake-lever maybe fitted to slide freely in the brake-beam bracket and to bear against lateral stops or abutments thereon. The raising and loweringof the brake -lever will consequently shorten and lengthen, respectively, its resistance-arn1-that is to say, the distance between its fulcrum-pivot on the lower brakerod 17 and the coupling-pivot 27 of the brakebeam and under equal exertion of brakingpower upon the brake-lever from the pullrod 16 will cause a greater or less pressure to be applied to the wheels in accordance with and proportionately to the greater or less weight which may be supported thereon.

While I have illustrated my improvement as applied only to the live-lever of the brake mechanism,it will be obvious that corresponding adjustment of leverage of the dead-lever may be correspondingly aifected by the employment in connection therewith of a construction similar or equivalent to that described and shown.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The combination, in abrake mechanism, of a brake beam and shoes, a brake-lever coupled thereto with the capacity of longitudinal movement relatively to said brake beam and shoes, and an adj usting-lever fulcrumed upon a truck member having no substantial degree of vertical movement and coupled at opposite ends to a car-body or to a member of a truck which is normally sub ject to vertical movement by variation of load, and to the brake-le ver, respectively, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, in a brake mechanism, of a brake-beam and connected brake-shoes, a brake-lever provided with a longitudinal slot or guideway, a block pivoted to the brake-beam and fitting said slot, a doublearmed adj usting-leverfulcrumed upon a truck member having no substantial degree of vertical movement, an arm or bracket which is secured to a portion of a car-body or to a truck member supporting the same and normally movable vertically therewith and is coupled to one arm of the adjusting-lever, and a rod or link coupling the opposite arm of the adjusting-lever to the brake-lever, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination,in abrake mechanism, of a brake beam and shoes, a brake-lever coupled thereto with the capacity of relative longitudinal movement, an adj usting-lever coupled to the brake-lever, and a spring interposed between the fulcrum of the adjust ing-lever and a truokmember having no subspectively, a rod or stem coupled by a fulstantial degree of vertical movement, sub- 'crum-pin to the adjusting-lever,anda spring stantially as set forth. supporting said rod or stem upon a truck 4. ihe combination, in abrake mechanism, member having no substantial degree of ver- 15 5 of a brake beam and shoes, a brake-lever I tical movement, substantially as set forth.

coupled thereto with the capacity of relative In testimony whereof I have hereunto set longitudinal movement, a double-armed admy hand.

justing-lever coupled at opposite ends to a GEO. WESTINGHOUSE, JR. oar-body or to a member of a truck which is Witnesses: 1o normally subject to vertical. movement by W. D. UPTEGRAFF,

variation of load and to the brake-lever, re- J. SNOWDEN BELL.

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