US683839A - Contact-shoe carrier. - Google Patents

Description

No. 683,839. Patented Oct. I, [90L J. F. BJUBLUND.

CONTACT SHOE CARRIER.

(Application filed Dec. 6, 1900.)

(No Model.)

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STATES 'I'ATENT Fries;

CONTACT-SHOE CARRIER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 683,839, dated October 1, 1901.

Application filed December 5, 1900. Serial No. 38,851. (No model.)

To a whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN F. BJURLUND, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Richmond Hill, borough of Queens, city and State of New York, have in.- vented certain new and useful Improvements in Contact-Shoe Carriers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists of a carrier for contact-shoes in third-rail electric-railway systems comprising the combination,with a suitable bracket adj ustably connected with a side beam of the car truck or body and offset in the pendent part, and thus adapted to carry the shoe under the protective overhanging cover of the conducting-rail, of an elastic plate connecting the shoe and the bracket in a manner affording a simple and effective means of carrying the shoe, so as to maintain the contactwithout interruption in consequence of irregularities of the contact-rail surfaces relatively to the surfaces of the wheel-carrying rails and. of the rebounding of the cars in rapid motion, said elastic plate being constructed and arranged as hereinafter described, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation of a car-truck, part of a car, and part of a rail, showing my improved contact-shoe carrier applied, the protective case for the conducting-rail being omitted. Fig. 2 is a detail in transverse section of the third rail and its protective cover and of parts of the carrier. Fig. 3 is a detail in side elevation on a larger scale than in Fig,

1 for greater clearness. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the plate by which the shoe is connected to the bracket.

A represents the third rail or conductingrail; a, a couple of wheels of a truck; I), a side beam of the truck; 0, part of the body of a car, and D the bolster by which the body is mounted on the truck. In this example of my invention 1 represent the carrier as attached to the truck-beam b; but it is to be understood that the carrier may be attached to any other suitable part of the car. It comprises the head a for connecting to said beam the ofiset part at for clearing the upper edge of the protective cover e of the conductingrail and the arm f, reaching under the said cover for supporting the contact-shoe 9 over the rail A under said cover. The head 0 of the bracket has slot-holes h for the attaching-bolts i, and stud-pins j, projecting from the inside into corresponding recesses in the surface of the metal beam b, for reinforcing the power of the bolts in supporting the bracket against dropping, said beam being provided with a line of such recesses in excess of the number of studs, enabling the bracket to be set up or down, as required, The well-known system of counterpart ribs and grooves in the surfaces of the head and beam, respectively, may be employed instead.

For connecting the shoe g to the part of the arm f reaching under the cover 6 I take a piece of sheet spring-steel of the form repre-- sented in Fig. 4:-say about twice the width of the rail Aand from two to three times, or thereabout, as long as it is wide-and make two parallel slots is lengthwise, so as to separate marginal portions Z from the middle por tion m, which in their aggregate width are about equal to the width of the middle portion, and the slots are terminated short of the ends of the plate, so that end margins a remain of equal width as the side margins or thereabout. I attach the middle portion m of said plate at its middle to the under side of arm f, so that it ranges over the rail A and lengthwise of it, and to the under side of the two marginal parts I I attach the shoe 9, so that it ranges lengthwise with the rail; but it is immaterial whether it be the middle part that is attached to the bracket and the mar ginal parts attached to the shoe or the re-' verse. Before attaching the plate, however, I shape it so as to constitute an elliptic spring, whereof the middle portion forms one member and the two marginal portions Z form the other member, the middle part being set upward and the marginal parts being set downward, and the set of the spring is such that the shoe will be pressed on the rail with as much force and under such range of the spring as will normally keep the shoe in contact with the rail subject to the inequalities of the rail and the rebounding action of the car, and I also prefer to connect the shoe to the arm f 100 by a flexible wire braid p, which will limit the drop of the shoe when passing gaps in the conducting-rail and when a shoe of one side of the car is carried on the side of the track not having the conducting rail. The chain also serves, together with the spring-plate, for conducting the electric current from the rail to the supporting-bracket, from which suitable conductors (not necessary to be shown) may connect with the motor or motors. This affords a very simple and cheap construction, and the two members of one leaf afford a broader base for more stable connection with the bracket than is afforded by the elliptic springs of ordinary construction.

Any suitable means may be provided for connecting the bracket so that the shoe may be lifted off the conducting-rail when required; but my present invention does not include any such means.

It is to be understood that the carrier may be arranged to present the contact-shoe to one side of the conducting-rail or against the under side of the rail in case the rail be elevated, and I do not limit myself to contact with the upper side of the rail only. It will also be seen that such a carrier will, with strong tension of the spring, serve Well as a scraper or brush to remove ice when deposited on the rail in the form of sleet.

\Vhat I claim as my invention is-- The combination with the contact-shoe and supporting-bracket, of an elliptic spring consisting of a sheet-1netal plate having two parallel lengthwise slots intermediate of the ends forming three members of the intermediate portion, the two marginal members being shaped to form one leaf or half part, and the middle member shaped to form the other leaf or half part of an elliptic spring, and one half attached to the supporting-bracket, and the other having the contact-shoe attached to it.

Signed at New York city this 10th day of October, 1900.

JOHN F. BJURLUND. Vitnesses:

A. P. THAYER, (J. SEnGWIoK.

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