US55663A - Improvement in railway-cars for preventing accidents - Google Patents

Description

F. W. JENKINS. Car-Track Clearer.

Patentedlune 19, 1866.

O-IJI'NOGHAFNEHK WASHINGTON. D. C.

PATENT OFFICE*a F. W. JENKINS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-CARS FOR PREVENTING ACCIDENTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 55,663, dated June 19, 1866.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that 1, F. W. JENKINS, olBrooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented anew and useful Improve- Inent in Railway-Gars, and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same, reference being had to the accom pany-v ing drawings, forming part of this specification.

The present invention relates to an attachment for street-railway ears, although it can be applied with advantage to other railwaycars, the object of which is to prevent the oeeurrence of accidents to the life and limbs of persons who, by carelessness or mischance, happen to fall under the cars, across the rails, and in front of the car-wheels while the ears are in motion; and it consists in hanging the upper end of a vertical roller in and to the bottom or under side of the car and in front of each wheel of the same, or such ones as may be deemed necessary or desirable, which rollers extend nearly to the rails of the railway upon which such wheels run, and are so hung as not only to turn in their bearings of the car-bottom at their upper ends, but also to play up and down in a vertical plane, so as to accommodate themselves to the rocking motion of the cars, whereby in case any person should by accident fall across the rails of the railway and in front of the car as it is passing over them, such person, by the action and rotation of said rollers, as they strike and come in contact with him, will be immediately thrown off and to one side of the rails without producing but little, if any, bodily injury.

ln accompanying plate of drawings my improvements are illustrated, Figure 1 being a side elevation of the platform of a car with them applied to it, and Fi g. 2 a partial verticalv section taken in the plane of the linexx, Fig. 1.

Similar letters ot' reference indicate like parts.

A in the drawings represents the platform of a car, supported upon wheels B at each end, which Wheels are hung to the carin the usual manner for street or other railway cars; O, a roller placed directly in front of the wheels B, which roller at its ripper end is hung in the bottom or under side of the platform of the car, so as to freely turn or revolve therein, and is to extend downward nearly to the top of the rail over which the wheel before which it is hung moves. This roller in the direction of its length is made of the shape of a trun cated cone, with the larger base at its lower end, and in addition to being hung so as to revolve in its bearin gs upon the under side of the car, which bearing in the present instance is a cap or tube, D, is arranged so as to play in and out ofthe said cap in a vertical direction or plane, moving upon the center spindle, E,of such cap, in order to accommodate itself to the rocking motion of the car as it moves over the rails.

In addition to the roller O, hung to the under side of the car, as explained, I intend to similarly hang one in front of each wheel of the car, whatever the direction may be in which the ear moves, each roller being hung in such a position upon the car as to offer no obstruction to the operation of the brakes or any other necessary parts of the car.

By hanging a roller in front of each carwheel, as explained, it is plainly apparent that, if any person should by mischa-nce or accident fall upon the rails in front of the car, the roller as it strikes the person will be revolved or rota-ted in its bearings, and by this means have a great tendency to throw the person immediately olf and to one side of the rails, and thus away from the car-wheels, thereby preventing any injury either to thelit'e or limbs of the person, the said action of the roller producing but slight it any injury to the person.

One of the principal objects in having the rollers of a length to nearly reach the rail is to prevent any possibility of a persons limbsV working under the same; and therefore, in order to secure this result, the roller Inust be allowed a play in a vertical direction, as explained, or otherwise the rocking Inotion of the car would strain the rollers and be inclined to break or snap them.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is .I

l. A rolleror rollers hung in avertical plane in front ofthe wheels of a railway-car, and so as to turn thereon, substantially as and for the purpose described.

2. So hanging the roller O to railway-oars that it can have a play in a vertical direction, substantially as described, and for the pur-A pose specified.

FRANK W. JENKINS.

Vitnesses W. A. PERRY, CORNELIUS TRAVIS.

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