US444034A - Sand-box for cars - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 W. V. H. WILLSON. SAND BOX FOR CARS.

No. 444,034. 1 Patented Jan. 6, 1891.

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W. V. H. WILLSON. SAND BOX FOR 0411s.

Patented Jan. 6, 18914 ZZZZ%;

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UNITED STATES PATENT "FFICE.

WALTER VANDER HEYDEN WILLSON, OF TROY, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO HERBERT F. ASHTON, OF VEST TROY, NEYV YORK.

FOR CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 444,034, dated January 6, 1891.

Application filed September 25, 1890. Serial No. 366,093. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER VANDER HEY- DEN WILLsON, of the cit-y of Troy, county of Rensselaer, and State of New York, have inventeda newandusefullmprovementin Sand- Boxes for Cars, and of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements upon that class of apparatus which is used to supto ply sand to the tracks of electro-motor and other cars when the tracks are slippery, so as to'increase the traction capacity of the wheels.

My invention consists (as will be more fully I 5 detailed hereinafter in connection with its illustration) in the combination, with ahop per or box provided with a discharge-passage at its lower end and adapted to receive and contain sand, of a wheel having a shaft with bearings 011 which to turn within said box or hopper and provided with buckets, with said wheel so arranged with relation to the interior of the box or hopper that the outer edge of the buckets will be so close to the sides 2 5 thereof as to prevent sand from passing through the opening in the bottom of the hopper when the wheel is at rest, and when the latter is turned that each bucket will deliver to the bottom opening of the hopper the 0 sand which it holds, so as to have it pass therefrom into a chute leading to a point over the track.

Accompanying this specification to form a part of it there are two plates of drawings 3 5 containing four figures illustrating myinvention, with the same designation of parts by letter-reference used in all of them.

Of theillustrations, Figure 1- is a top view of the apparatus containing my invention, with the latter shown as applied to the under side of a car with the floor of the latter and that of one of its end platforms shown as removed. Fig. 2 is a section takenlongitudinallythrough the car-floor and one of the end platformfloors, showing in elevation one of my sand-- boxes located within and at one end of the car where it would be beneath one of the carseats were the latter shown. This view shows a means for operating the sand-wheels. Fi 3 shows a section taken on the line 00 00 of Fi l, with the parts increased in size.

Fig. 4 shows a modification in which one sand-box is used beneath the car-bottom, said box being provided with branch chutes leading from the main discharge at the hopper-bottom to each of the rails of the track, with the carbottom shown in cross-section, the hopper shown in central longitudinal section, with the wheels and gears operating the shaft of the latter shown in elevation.

The several parts of the mechanism thus illustrated are designated by letter reference and the function of the parts is described as follows:

The letter B designates the car-bottom, C the car-wheels, and T the track.

The letter H designates the hopper, having a bottom opening 0, as shown at Fig. 3.

The letter I designates the sand-wheels, of which, as shown at Fig. 2, there are two upon one shaft S to be operated connectedly. These wheels are each made with buckets B and each of these sand-wheels is arranged within a hopper, so that the ends of the bucketarms a thereof Will, as the wheel revolves, pass close to the inner wall E of the hopper H, so that when the wheel is at rest no sand will pass down between the ends of the bracket arms and the hopper-bottom, but so that when the wheel is turned each of the brackets upon the wheel when going down will discharge the sand they hold into the opening 0, to pass through the latter to the chute 0 when the sand is distributed on the track. To insure the delivery of the sand in measured quantities, the lower part of the hopper is rounded out at E semicircularly to correspond to the traverse made by the outer edges of the radially-arranged buckets, and so as to leave just enough space between the edges of the buckets and the bottom E for the latter to pass, but so as to prevent the sand from passing between the bucket-arms and the rounded surface of the hopper. lVhereafree passage of the sand occurs, as when a valve is opened 5 at the bottom, the amount of sand passing down is irregular, and often the box becomes exhausted of its contents before the trip of a car is completed from such an irregularmeans of delivery, but by using buckets that fill [0O with and empty the sand as the sand-wheel is rotated the measure of sand titiiVOl'tHi is regulated.

To operate the wheel any well-known means may be employed, that shown being a crank A on the vertical shaft 5, having a beveled gear G on its lower end, where, beneath the end platform floor F, this beveled gearwheel G meshes into another beveled gearwheel G on the end of the shaft with the other end of the latter opposite to that on which the gear-wheel G is located, being eonstructcd with a worm-gear \V which meshes into a gear-wheel (i on the shaft 5*.

In the modification shown at Fig. ithe shaft S of the sand-wheel \V is operated by a beveled gear g on the shaft in, and this gearwheel meshes into a beveled gear-wheel 011 the shaft S to con'imunicate motion to said sand-wheel. When one sand-wheel and hop per are used on the actuatin -shaft S and located centrally, as shown at Fig. i, the hopper discharges the sand into two chutes 0, one of which runs to each side of the car to distribute sand to each of the rails forming the track. When it is desired to operate the mechanism thus described,the shaft S of the bucket-wheel is turned by the crank on the vertical shaft S, which, by means of the geared connection the lower end of the latter makes with the shaft S and the worm-gear connection the latter shaft makes with the shaft (F, on which one or two sets of like apparatus. as shown. As the wheel \V is turned so as to revolve within the sand A contained in the hopper, the buckets becomefilled and are each emptied through the opening 0 as the buckets each pass over thelatter, with the outer edges of the buckets closing against the interior walls E of the hopper to prevent the escape of any sand from the hopper other than that delivered by the buckets, with the sand so set free by the latter passing into a chute to be dropped upon the track.

The sand-box and combined bucket-wheel tliusillustrated can be applied to the bottom of the car, as shown at Fig. 1,01 it can be arranged to have the hopper part project up into the car, as shown at Fig. 2, and in a position where the body of said hopper would be beneath one of the seats. The hopper is preferably made of galvanized sheet iron, and the buckets or the wheel are preferably made of sheet metal.

As the operation of the hopper made as described, in combination with a bucket-wheel arranged to be turned therein, would perform the same cooperative function whether the shaft of the bucket-wheel was operated by the mechanism which 1 illustrate and de scribe or some other mechanism that would operate the wheel to turn in the hopper in the same manner, hence I do not limit my 1 invention of the combined hopper and wheel, i as I illustrate and describe them to the par- 4 ticular means shown to operate said wheel.

I am aware that a sand-delivery box has been patented in which a rotating valve was arranged in the bottom of a hopper-opening and constructed to turn with a shaft below the la ter, and so that when said valve was open the sand could run down in a free passsage from the hopper to the chute, with the valve-shaft of this older device provided with a pinion that meshed into a pinion upon an agitator shaft, which latter was arranged within the hopper, the whole being operated by a rack that meshed into the pinion on the valve-shaft and by which, when the rack was reeiprocated, the agitator and the valve were rcciprocatingly rotated with the valve when open, furnishing a free passage of the sand from the hopper to the chute. This device -differs from mine in the fact that I use no valve to open and close an opening in the bottom of the hopper.

Having thus described my invention, what i. claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

1. In an apparatus for distributing sand to a car-track, the combination, with a hopper adapted to contain sand and constructed with a rounded-out bottom having a dischargeopeniug, of a wheel having perimctral buckets, with said wheel constructed to be rotated within said hopper and the rounded bottom thereof, and said buckets constructed to deliver sand to said bottom-opening when said wheel is rotated and to prevent the delivery of the sand through said opening when the wheel is at rest, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In an apparatus for distributing sand to a car-track, the combination, with a hopper adapted to contain sand and provided with a rounded-out bottom provided with an openingand connected coliveyingcliute, of a sandwheel having perimetral buckets, with said wheel constructed to be rotated within said hopper and the rounded bottom thereof, and said buckets constructed to deliver sand to said bottom-opening and chute when said wheel is rotated and to prevent the delivery of sand through said opening when the wheel is at rest, substantially in the manner as and for the purposes set forth.

Signed at Troy, New York, this 19th day of July, 1890, andiu the prescnceof the two witmesses whose names are hereto written.

WALTER YANltllR lllllDllN WILLSUX.

Witnesses:

CHARLES BRIN'J NALL, W. E. HAGAN.

ICC

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