US478910A - Automatic trap for cable-conduits - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1.

I. BISHOP & A. F. L. BELL.

AUTOMATIC TRAP FOR CABLE GONDUITS.

No. 478,910. Patented July 12, 1892.

R g? g Q T "#L I E W My UNITED STATES PATENT FFICE.

IRA BISHOP AND ARTHUR F. L. BELL, OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.

AUTOMATIC TRAP F OR CABLE-CONDUITS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 478,910, dated'July 12, 1892.

Application filed January 29, 1892. Serial No. 419,709- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, IRA BISHOP and AR- THUR F. L. BELL, citizens of the United States, residing in the city and county of San Fran- 01800, State of California, have invented an Improvement in Automatic Traps for Cable- Railway Tubes; and we hereby declare the following'to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

Our invention relates to the class of cable railways, and especially to the traps or openlngs in the tubes or tunnels thereof and through which the grips are intended to be removed from and replaced in the tube or tunnel.

Our invention consists, essentially, in openings into the tube or tunnel, controlled by doors or covers, and suitable connections therewith actuated by the car to operate said doors or covers to expose and to close said openings.

It also consists in novel guides within the tube or tunnel to direct the descending grip to position over the cable.

It also consists in the novel constructions, combinations, and arrangements hereinafter fully described, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

It is usual in cable railways to provide openings in the top of the tube or tunnel at suitable intervals, through which the grip can be removed and replaced. The necessity for using these openings has not heretofore been very great, because the reasons for removing the grip have been few, such as to readjust or to repairit. Consequently the doors or covers of the openings have always been manipulated by hand; but in some roads the grip has to be removed oftener and for other reasonsas, for example, where there are sections of the road over which the car travels by gravity and there is no need to keep the grip in the tube, or, in fact, where there is no tube at all. In such cases, therefore, the grip has to be removed and replaced, it may be, several times during each trip. It then becomes of importance to provide means for easily uncovering said openings; and it is the object of our invention to provide such means. This object we attain by the provision of means for automatically accomplishing the result, which re suit is due to the arrival of the car itself at points 6.

the point where it is necessary to uncover the tube or tunnel.

Referring to the accompanying drawings for a more complete explanation of our invention, Figure 1 is a cross-section of a cablerailway tube, showing our automatic griptrap. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of same.

A is the tube or tunnel of a cable railway.

B are the slot-irons in its top, and C are the ordinary track-rails of the road-bed.

At the point where an opening (designated by a) is to be the ordinary slot-irons are omitted, and in their places are substituted the plates D, which at this place not only form the slot, but also constitute the doors or covers of the opening.

Above the plates D on each side may be placed longitudinal separated stringers X, which are on the roadway level and serve as a partial roof or housing over the plates, and to these stringers brace-strips Y may be secured.

The cover or door plates are carried upon the tops of levers E, which are pivoted at the To the lower end of one of these levers, here shown as the one on the right, is connected an arm F, the outer end of which carries a weight W. The normal action of this weight is to keep the lever E in an upright position, in which its door-plate is held inwardly to close the opening, and said lever is limited in its inward movement by the weight resting in the bottom of the pit or of any support therein.

G is a'three-armed bell-crank lever pivoted at g. The upper arm of this lever is connected with the left-hand lever E by a link 11, the connection being an adjustable one, as shown. The inner arm of lever G is connected with the weighted arm F by a link I. Thus the action of the weight W is to keep the left-hand lever E in an upright position to hold its door or cover plate D closed over the opening, and said lever E is limited by the weight, resting as before mentioned. Thus the normal position of the door or cover plates is a closed one in which they continue the slot and cover the opening or trap into the tube or tunnel, and when moved from this position they will return to it as soon as the moving cause is withdrawn.

The power for operating the plates D is the car itself. Any suitable connection may be employed to effect this, and said connections may be operated by any portion of the car, as by contact with its grip or with a projection or arm on the car; but we prefer to operate through the wheels of the car, as follows: liehind and separated from one of the trackrails O is a guide-rail .I, which is bolted to the rail near each end. In the space or pocket formed between the track-rail and the guiderail is seated a presser-lever K, which at one end is pivoted at 7;. This lever rises above the track and guide rails in a gradually-increasing inclined plane to its free end, so that the wheels of the car will run it down and dcpress it. On the under side of this presserlever at a suitable point is a lug 7.2, and with this is connected a link L, the lower end of which is connected to the outer arm of the lever G.

In the drawings the plates D are shown as being below the slot-irons; but this is not essential and is only due to the presence of the roof-stringers X, under which they work, said stringers being on the road-level. If these stringers were not present, the cover-plates D could be placed on alevel with the slot-irons.

The operation is as follows: Then the car reaches the presser-levcr K, its wheels depress said lever, and through the lever G and its connections the two upright levers E are thrown backwardly, thereby separating the door or cover plates D and exposing the opening in the top of the tube or tunnel, through which the grip can be removed or can be replaced, if previously removed. As soon as the car passes from and relieves the presserlever the weight \V will return the parts to their normal position.

It is well in replacing the grip to provide some means for accurately guidingit down to position to take the cable. These means c011- sist of the fixed separated guide-bars M, located and supported suitably in the tube or tunnel. The descending grip N is received between and guided properly by these bars to position over the cable 0.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening for the removal and insertion of the grip from and into said tube or tunnel, a door or cover controlling said opening, and connections with said door or cover actuated by the car to operate it and cause it to expose and cover said opening, substantially as herein described.

2. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top for the removal and insertion of the grip-frame from andinto said tube or tunnel, a swinging door or cover controlling said opening, and connections with said door or cover actuated by the car to swing the door or coveropen and closed, substantially as herein described.

In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top for the removal and insertion of the grip-frame from and into said tube or tunnel, a door or cover controlling said opening, a lever in the road- Way actuated by the car, and connections between said lever and the door or cover, whereby the latter is operated to expose and cover the opening, substantially as herein described.

4. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top, the opposing plates D, separated to form the slot and constituting the door or cover of the opening, and connections actuated by the car to throw said plates from and toward each other to expose and cover the opening, substantially as herein described.

5. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top, the opposing plates D, separated to form the slot and constituting the door or cover of said opening, a lever in the roadway above actuated by the car, and connections between said lever and the plates D to throw them from and toward each other to expose and cover the opening, substantially as herein described.

6. In a cable railway having a tube or turnnel provided with an opening in its top, the combination of the opposing separated plates D, controlling said opening, the pivoted levers E, upon which said plates are carried, connections with said levers actuated by the car for moving them from each other to cause their plates D to expose the opening, and a weight to return them to cover the opening, substantially as herein described.

7. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top, the combination of the opposing separated plates D, controlling said opening, the pivoted levers E, by which said plates are carried, a lever above actuated by the car, and connections between said lever and the levers E, whereby the latter are separated to cause their plates to expose the opening, and a weight to return them to close the opening, substantially as herein described.

8. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top, the combination of the opposing separated plates D, controlling said opening, the pivoted levers E, by which said plates are carried, the weighted arm F, connected with one of said levers, the bell-crank lever connected with said weighted arm and with the other of said levers, and connections with said bell-crank lever actuated by the car above to operate it, substantially as herein described.

9. In a cable railway having a tube or tunnel provided with an opening in its top, the combination of the opposing plates D, controlling said opening, the pivoted levers E, by which said plates are carried, the weighted arm F, connected with one of said levers, the bell-crank lever connected with said weighted arm and with the other of said levers, the pivoted resser-lever in the roadway above, tion to take the cable, substantially as herein adapted to be actuated by the car-wheels, and described. the link connectingsaid presser-lever with In witness whereof we have hereunto set the bell-crank lever, substantially as herein our hands.

5 described.

. 10 I N n h (r t b t IRA BISHOP.

n a ca erai (i y a ,V1Il 2t u eor un ARTHUR F. L. BELL. nel provided with an openingin its top to per-- mit the removal and insertion of the grip, the Witnesses: fixed separated guide-bars in said tube or tun- B. F. WILKINSON,

I o nel for directing the descending grip to posi- S. MOADAMS.

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