US498432A

US498432A - Car-vestibule

Info

Publication number: US498432A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1893-05-30
Anticipated expiration: 1910-05-30

Description

2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)

. L. J. HARRIS.

' GAR VBSTIBULE.

No. 498,432. Patented May 30,1s9s-.

IEIEIE] 5 No Model.) i V 2Sheets- Sheet 2.

' L. J. HARRIS.

GAR VESTIBULE. No. 498,432. Patented May30, 1893.

WlTNEEEEE- y INVQNTEI UNITED STAT-Es PATENT OFFICE.

LOUIE J. HARRIS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE W. BANCROFT, OF- CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

' CAR-.VESTIBULE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 498,432, dated May 30, 1893. Application filed November 24, 1890.: Serial No. 372,410. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known thatI, LOUIE J. HARRIS, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Mas: sachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car Vestibulesof which the following is a specification.

My invention has relation to car vestibules', its obj cct being to provide such improvements as will secure a fixed relationship, as to p osireference marked thereon, forming a part of this specification, the same letters designating the same parts or features, as the case may be, wherever they occur- Of the drawings Figure 1 is a side view of the end portions of two railway cars or coaches, coupled, and equipped with the improved vestibule forming the subject of this application. Fig. 2 is an end view of one of the cars shown in Fig. 1, one of the vestibule doors being represented as opened and the other as closed. Fig. 3 is a central horizontal sectional view of one of the cars shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a sectional detail taken on the line at, 4 of Fig. 5. Fig. 5 is a horizontal sectional detail showing the manner of connecting the compressed air pipes with the flexible connecting portions between the face plates and the end of the permanent portion of the vestibule. Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional view showing the structure of the upper horizontal part of the flexible connection and the manner of attaching a safety or escape valve therewith. Fig.7 is a sectional detailof a modification hereinafter more fully explained.

In the drawings a designates the body of the car; I), the platform at each end of the car.

-c designates the portion of the roof which projects over the platform, and between which and the said platform the posts d e extend which support the permanent portion of the vestibule.

, f designates the flexible portion of the vestibule which is of the usual bellows-like form, and may be composed of any material suitable for the purpose.

, g designates the face plate connected with the outer end or edgesof the flexible portion, the inner end of the latter being connected with the posts d,and the framing attached to. or forming a part of the roof. The outer surface ofeach face plate is corrugated, as is clearly represented at h, Fig. 5, so that when two face plates are brought together and maintained in this position by pressure, there will be little or no liability of one slippingupon the other from the fact that the ribs or projections of one plate will rest in the grooves or depressions of the other and thus offer resistance to lateral'displacement. The flexible portion of each vestibule is made airtight, and connected with each side of the said flexible portion is anair piped branching out from a main air-pipe j.

The means just described are provided for the purpose of inflating the flexible portions with compressed air which is forced through the mainj and branches '5 'i in order to hold the face plates of adjacent cars together with a yielding pressure.

k is designate check valves in the branches M which prevent the return of the air back through the main j.

Z (Fig. 6) designates a short pipe leading out from the upper horizontal portion. It may be under the hood or roof projecting over the platform, which pipe Z is provided with an escape or safety valve m, so that if undue pressure should be brought upon the air in the flexible portion, the said air may escape through the valve m.

The operation of this part of the invention is as follows: When two cars are brought together and coupled, air may be admitted through the main j and branches i i so as to hold the face plates together; and supposing that a pressure of eighty pounds to the square inch is required to keepthesaidface platesin proper relative position, the escape valve will be set or adjusted so as to allow the escape of air when the pressure shall exceed eighty pounds to the squareinch,while the pressure in the main j will be eighty pounds to the square inch, or thereabout. Should undue pressure he broughtto bear on the flexible portion by the motion of the cars, air will escapethrough the escape valve, and the instant the flexible portion is relieved it will be inflated through the mainj and branches it to the extent of eighty pounds pressure to the square inch. By this construction and arrangement of parts it will be seen that the face plates of adjacent coupler cars may be held securely together so that one willnot slip or move upon the other, while at the same time each car may move independently of the other radially from an imaginary line drawn through the longitudinal centers of the car bodies.

designates the vestibule doors, each divided vertically into two parts hinged together, the two hingedly-connected parts being hinged at their inner edges to the posts d.

In hinging the two parts of the doors n together, and hinging the doors to the posts d, I prefer to. employ the hinge shown and described in United States Letters Patent No. 418,021, granted to me December 24, 1889, so that when the part of one door is folded upon the other part one may lie flat upon the other and the edges may be flush, one with theother, and so that when the doors are folded back the exposed face may be flush with the face of the part to which it is hinged.

0 designates recesses formed in the end of the car outside of the vestibule and on each side of the latter, into which recesses the doors when opened may be folded.

The various parts of the car not particularly described herein, may be of ordinaryor suitable construction. The buffer 19 is herein shown as extended through the lower horizontal portion of the face plate, and as pressed outward by a spring q surrounding its stem 7' and hearing at one end against the buffer and at the other against the support for the said stem.

It is obvious that changes may be made in the form and arrangement of parts comprising the invention without departing from the nature or spirit thereof; for example,instead of making the flexible portion f air-tight and inflating the same, as described, I may attach a cylinder 8 to the part c, arrange a piston t in said cylinder, and connect the piston with a rod u pivoted, or otherwise attached, to-the face plate g, as shown in Fig. '7. With this construction I may connect the branch pipe 1', and pipe Z having the escape-valve m, with the cylinder, so as to force air into the latter instead of into the flexible portion f; and the cylinder 8 may be connected with the face plate and the rod a with the part c.

Having thus described my invention and explained a way of constructing and using the same, I declare that what I claim is 1. A vestibule for cars, the sides of each section of which are composed of two thicknesses of air-tight material separated from each other by an air space, the whole being I formed into bellows shape and provided with an air supply pipe whereby air is introduced between the two thicknesses of the sides of the vestibule, as set forth.

2. A vestibule for cars, the sides of each section of which are composed of two thicknesses of air-tight material separated from each other by an air space, the whole being formed into bellows shape and provided with an air-supply pipe, whereby air is introduced between the two thicknesses of the sides of the vestibule, and an escape valve, as set forth.

3. A vestibule for cars having a face plate attached to the outer end of the section of the vestibule composed of a hollow tube of air-tight material havinga flat outer face, and an air supply pipe or tube for introducing air thereto, as set forth.

4:. A vestibule for cars having a face-plate attached to the outer end of the section of the vestibule, composed of a hollow tube of air-tight material having afiat outer face,the

latter being corrugated, as described, and an air supply pipe or tube for introducing air thereto, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses, this 8th day of November, A. D. 1890.

LOUIE J. HARRIS.

Witnesses:

ARTHUR W. CROSSLEY, A. D. HARRISON.