US521500A - Cable street-railway - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

P. HOOH. CABLE STREET RAILWAY.

' No. 521,500, Patented June 19, 1894 the street.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

FRED HOCH, or WAUWATOSA, WISCONSIN.

CABLE STREET- RAILWAY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 521,500, dated. June 19, 1894.

Application 'filed October 27, 1893. Serial No. 489,284. (No model.)

To alZ whom it may concern.-

Be it lrnown that I, FRED HooH, of Wauwatosa, 1n the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Street-Railways, of which the following is a description, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, which are a part of this specification.

In that class of street railways, in which the cars are driven by means of continuously runnlng cables, to which the car is gripped, and thereby runs along on its track, the cable is usually run in a conduit below the surface of the ground by means of power supplied from some source adjacent to the railway. In such railways where the cars are transported by means of an endless cable, some special independent or auxiliary means are required for taking the cars across any swing or elevating bridge that occurs in the line of the road.-

The object of the invention is to provide simple mechanism, entirely independent of the principal cable line, for taking the cars across such bridges.

Myinvention consists of the apparatus hereinafter described and claimed, and its several parts, or their equivalents.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is an outline in plan of the floor of a swing bridge and fragments of the abutments thereto showing therewith railway tracks, and my improved means for driving cars thereon across the bridge. Fig. 2, is a side elevation of the swing bridge and its support and abutments, parts being 1n section and parts being broken away for convenience of illustratiomin connection with my improved means for driving cars across the bridge. tion.

In the drawings,Ais a swing bridge mounted centrally and swiveled on the pier B.

O C are abutments with the top surface of which the floor of the bridge is coincident when the bridge is in place as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The railway tracks D andE on the bridge register and are continuous with the street tracks D and E on the abutments, when the bridge is in position, in line with The cars running on the tracks D and E on the street are driven by the ca- Fig. 3, is a detail of the construcbles F F which are located between the rails of the tracks D and the rails of the tracks E, and usually below the surface of the street in conduits therefor, and to which the cars are gripped by mechanism in common use. These cables F, for obvious reasons do not extend across the bridge, but extend only to the edge of the abutments running thereto in connection with one railway track, and therefrom in connection with the other track.

As a means for transporting the cars across the bridge I provide an endless cable G the two principal lines of which run substantially across the bridge, one lin'e in one direction and the other line in the other direction, in

lines coincident with and substantially continuous of the lines of the cables F F, when the bridge is in position across the intervening space between the abutments. At one end of the bridge the cable runs on and about grooved wheels or pulleys H H, and at the other extremity of the bridge it runs about the correspondingwheels H H and also, intermediateof these wheels H, it runs about the wheels I I and therefrom runs inwardly and forms a loop which extends to, winds about and runs on the horizontal drum K fixed on the horizontal shaft L journaled in suitable boxes therefor fixed on the frame of the bridge. As the wheelsl I, are alittle dis tance apart, and as the cable runs several times about the horizontal drum K, so that one line of the cable extends from the top of the drum to one of the wheels I and the other line of the cable extends from the bottom of the drum to the other wheel I, the lines of the cable, running in opposite directions, are kept at a distance apart, in, no place crossing each other or coming near enough to contact and thus wear or engage each other. Also the small wheels H and H are provided to carry the cable at the extremities of its travel, and these are located close to the ends of the bridge, so that the straight lines of the cable, longitudinally of the bridge, can be carried near tothe ends of the bridge, which could not be accomplished if a single large wheel were used about which to runthe cable at each end of the bridge. My construction obviates anythingrnore than a very short space between the abutment and the point at which the grip can take up or drop the cable on the bridge. The shaft L is driven by any convenient means, which may be an independent engine, or in cases where the bridge is swung or moved by an engine thereon, the cable may be operated by the same means. For driving the cable, I have in this instance shown a pulley M fixed on the shaft L, and a beltNrunning thereon from a shaftO driven by the power supply in the house P on the bridge, by which power supply the bridge is swung. The cable G is supported at such points as is found necessary on idle wheels R, which wheels are journaled in the frame of the bridge.

In the drawings I have shown the drum K as being located at the center of the bridge, but this is not important, as if found more convenient in construction, the drum may be located nearer one end of the bridge. But in any case the cable, the drum for driving it and the motor or engine for supplying the power to drive the drum and cable, are located on the bridge and are independent of the main line of the cable, and of any power obtained therefrom.

On account of the liability to contraction and expansion in the cable, which is usually a twisted steel rope,it is desirable to provide means for retaining the cable on the vertically journaled wheels II and I under all circumstances, and for this purpose the device shown in Fig. 3 may be used. In this device the wheel H is mounted in a fixed sheave or frame S, and an antifriction and retaining roller T is placed on the outside of the wheel near to it and so as to retain the cable in place in the groove in the wheel.

I have shown and described my improved device, in connection with a swing bridge, but the device can be used with any form of independent movable bridge the position of which is changed either by swinging it or clevating it or otherwise moving it from its position continuously with the street.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. The combination with a movable bridge having two longitudinal lines of railway in two sets, one set at each end of the bridge,

the pulleys of each set being at a distance apart, two intermediate pulleys I I at one end of the bridge about which also the cable runs, idle wheels supporting, the cable medially, a horizontal drum j ournaled in the bridge about which drum the cable runs in a loop intermediate of the pulleys I I, one line of the ca ble extending from a pulley I to the top of the drum and the other line extending from the other pulley I to the bottom of the drum, the two lines of the cable being so disposed as not to cross or contact with each other, and means on the bridge for driving the drum, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a movable bridge, pulleys axled vertically therein, an endless cable running about the pulleys adapted to take cars across the bridge, and rollers '1 so placed near to the pulleys as to retain the cable in place thereon when lengthened and loose on the pulleys by expansion under heat or otherwise, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

FRED IIOCII.

Witnesses:

O. '1. BENEDICT, ARTHUR L. MoRsELL.

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