US560317A - Car-fender - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY ISKE AND ALBERT ISKE, or LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA.

CAR-FENDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 560,317, dated May 19, 1896.

Application filed May 1,1895- Serial No. 547,762. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, ANTHONY ISKE and ALBERT IsKE, citizens of the United States, residing at Lancaster, in the county of Lancaster and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Fenders; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invent-ion relates especially to carfenders of the kind having a tilting guardpiece in front with chains or equivalent devices attached thereto for receiving the body of a person caught thereon.

The chief objects of the said invention are to guard against injury as a result of a child or other person failing to be caught by the said tilting board and passing under front of the fender before the wheels; to provide for the easy transfer of the fender from one end of the car to the other without lessening its strength or security of position while in use, and to improve the operation of the fender and its adaptation to different sizes and makes of cars as well as to the requirements of any particular line.

To these ends our invention consists in the construction and combination of parts hereinafter more particularly set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 represents a perspective view of a fender embodying our invention detachably applied to the front of a car. Fig. 2 represents an elevation of the same from the opposite side, showing the hinged guard-piece tilted upward.

A designates the front end of a car provided, as usual, with a buffer or dead-wood A. The latter has two plates B attached to it, extending vertically above it in a plane parallel to that of the car-front and at such an interval as to allow the supporting-bar G of the fender to fit snugly between the said front and the said plates. Two studs or stops C project from the said bar on the outer sides of the said plates and prevent the said bar from moving endwise. Thus fixed the fender cannot be dislodged without lifting the said supportingbar vertically out of its place,

and while in use will be held very securely; but when it is needed for use at the other end of the car or must be taken off forrepairs the absence of any other fastening makes the removal the work of a moment. This supporting-bar is provided at the ends with two pairs of outwardly-extendin g guide-plates D, correspondingly slotted at d to receive two vertical arms E E, which are adjustable up and down through the said slots against the ends of the saidbar and held at any point of such adjustment by pins 6, which may be shifted from one to another of holes 6, arranged in series in the said arms, each of these two pins entering one end of the said bar. The lower ends of these arms are bent forward and pivotally connected to lugs f on the rear part of fender-frame F, so that the fender as a whole is raised or lowered with the said arms and made fast with its pivotal line higher or lower, as the height of the butfer or dead-wood and other considerations may require. The inclination of the forward part of the said frame F is regulated by a pawl G, which is pivoted to arm E just above the downward and forward bend c of the latter, the said pawl engaging a toothed rack H on the raised rear part of the proximate side bar of the said frame. The said pawl has a series of holes h formed therein to allow the attachment of a spring I, which holds it down, the upper end of the said spring being shifted from one of the said holes to another to vary the tension, and its lower end being inserted through a hole 6 in the lower part of arm E.

The frame F has in side view approximately the shape of an interrogation-point laid down with the convexity upward, the said rack being on this convexity back of its middle point, and the said frame being pivoted a little in front of the latter. The said frame consists of four light strong bars, preferably of metal,

corresponding to its outline, and two cross-' bars F F, which extend from side to side of the frame and brace it, the bar F being arranged at the front of the raised and curved rear part, and the bar l being arranged a little behind the front bar F of the frame, but on a slightly higher level. A wire-netting J is attached to the said frame, and covers the space within it except the interval between the bars F and F It conforms in cross-section to the shape of the frame already stated, and forms with itat the rear a rigid semicylinder F, with interior space enough to receive without undue pressure the body of a person over whom the front of the said frame may pass. The rear bar F of the said frame being held obliquely forward just above the rails will pass under the said person and prevent the wheels from injuring him or her before the ear canbe stopped, the.

said person being carried forward meanwhile in the rear part of the said cylinder; but this provision, though very important, is intended only for the case of the forward part of the fender failing toperfectly perform its duty. The person struck is ordinarily expected to be picked up byor fall over a hinged wooden guard-piece K and to rest on the yielding chains or ropes L, which extend therefrom to the supporting-bar G aforesaid. This guard-piece is rounded at its forward edge and fits into a downward offset 7a of the fender-frame, so that itwill normally lie flush with the cross-barF to whiehit is attached. This gnard-piece passes under the person struck, tripping or tilting him backward on the said chains, which will be so drawn by his weight and the force of his fall that they willlift the said guard-piece on its hinges, thus addingto the security of his position and holding him in a kind of flexible pocket or couch. Experience shows, however, that this does not invariably happen, for the person may fall forward or sidewise, and some obstruction may lift the front of the fender over him. In such case the downwardly and forwardly curving construction of the rear part of the fender-frame becomes vitally important. To prevent the bar F from scratching the rails or being scratched by them, it has a rounded wooden shoe M attached to its under and rearside. A chain N, attached at its upper end to the upright arm E and at its lower end to the forward part of the frame F, prevents the latter from scraping along the rails. No part of the said frame will touch them unless by accident. The

chief use of the said shoe will be when there is the weight of a human body on the said rear bar depressing it, or when in adjusting the inclination of the fender its rearend is lowered more than has been intended.

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

1. A pivotally-mounted cal-fender having its ends on opposite sides of its pivotal point each provided with means to receive and hold an obstruction on the track, said ends being arranged when said fender is rocked on its pivot to be alternately lowered adjacent to the track in position to receive an obstruction thereon substantially as set forth.

2. A car-fender provided with a supportingbar having stops on its forward face, in combination with a buffer or dead-wood and plates raised above the level of the said buffer, leaving space for the said bar between the said plates and the end of the car, the said stops being in contact withthe outer edges of the said plates to prevent endwise motion substantially as setforth.

3. In combinationwith a car-fender frame and the wiremettingwhich covers the greater portion of the space within the same, a hinged guard-piece, which fits into a space of the said frame uncovered by the said netting and is connected by chains to. a support, in order that a person struck and tripped by the said guard-piece may fall on thesaid chains and draw the said guard-piece up after him substantially as set forth.

4. A ear-fender frame shaped so as to have a raised rear semicylindrical part and an inclined fiat forward part and provided with a wire-netting and cross-bars 1*"-F arranged as shown, in combination with a relatively-fixed supporting-bar, arms between the said bar and frame, to which the latter is pivoted, a guard-piece hinged to the said bar F and normally resting on the front of the said frame and chains connecting the said guardpiece to the said supporting-bar substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof we aflix our signa- I tures in presence of two witnesses.

ANTHONY ISKE. ALBERT ISKE. \Vitnesses:

JOHN \V. BAKER, GEORGE REIsLEv.

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