US757786A - Trolley. - Google Patents

Description

PATENTED APR. 19, 1904.

0. E, SMITH.

TEOLLEY.

APPLIOATION FILED SEPT. 25, 1903.

N0 MODEL.

UNITED STATES Patented April 19,1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

CYRUS E. SMITH, OF FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TO CHARLES S. CANFIELD, OF FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS.

TROLLEY.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 757,786, dated April 19, 1904.

Application filed September 25, 1903. Serial No. 174,634; (No model.)

To all whom 2325 may concern.-

'Be it known that I, CYRUS E. SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Fall River,

in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Trolley, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a novel trolley for electricallypropelled vehicles.

The object of the invention is to improve the mounting of the trolley at the upper end of the trolley-pole by providing means which while permitting the trolley-Wheel to move freely on a vertical axis independently of the pole to accommodate deflections and curves in the wire will automatically restore said Wheel to its proper position in alinement with the pole when the wheel leaves the wire, whereby the wheel may be easily replaced in contact with the wire by the manipulation of the trolley-pole in the usual manner.

To the accomplishment of this object the invention resides in the construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, illustrated in the accompanying drawings, and succinctly defined in the appended claims.

In said drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a trolley constructed and mounted in accordance with my invention and showing in dotted lines the positions assumed by certain of the parts when the trolley-wheel is turned at an angle to its normal position. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation of the subject-matter of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a bottom plan view of a portion of the structure. Fig. l is a side elevation of my trolley, showing a somewhat different form of guard; and Fig. 5 is a similar view illustrating a different form of spring for urging the trolley-wheel upwardly.

Like characters of reference designate corresponding parts in the several figures of the drawings.

1 indicates a portion of a trolley-pole constructed to form a guard 2 and carrying at its extremity a bearing sleeve 3, preferably formed integral with the pole. This bearingsleeve 3 is disposed vertically and is designed to receive the shank 4 of the harp or fork 5, within which latter the trolley proper or trolley-wheel 6 is mounted upon a short shaft 7, as usual. The major portion of the bore 8 of the sleeve 3 is enlarged to form aspring-socket 9, inclosing a spiral spring 10, encircling the shank 4 and bearing at one end against the bottom of the socket9 and at its opposite end against an enlargement 11, formed at the upper end of the shank 4. y

The springlO is designed to urge the trolleywheel into engagement with the wire and to accommodate independently of the pole such vertical movement of the wheel as is occasioned by slight vertical deflectionsof the wire. Besides the function just ascribed to the spring 10 it is also designed to assist in turning the trolley-wheel into alinement with the pole whenever the wheel leaves the wire, and as said spring is necessarily reactive it follows that it also. possesses more or less resistance to the rotary movement of the harp, which is necessary to permit the wheel to follow the horizontal deflections of the wire, although it will of course be understood that this resistance is merely sufficient to prevent undue movement of the harp when a sudden deflection of the wire is encountered and is not suflicient to prevent the trolley from following around turnouts, curves, and the like. The shank 4 extends entirely through the bearing-sleeve 3 and is provided with a diametrical pin 12, the opposite ends of which are designed when the harp is turned to move in contact with a cam 13, formed in the bottom of the bearing-sleeve, which cam 13 comprises four inclined faces a, 7), c, and d. These faces are so disposed that depressions c are produced at diametrically opposite points and on a diametrical line at right angles to the pole and also diametrically disposed elevations f in alinement with said pole.

The pin 12 is parallel with the short shaft 7 of the trolley and when disposed in the depressions 0 serves to yieldingly retain the trolley-wheel in alinement with the pole. If,

however, a horizontal deflection of the wire is encountered, the harp rotates partially and causes the opposite ends of the pin 12 to travel up the inclined faces a and 0, for instance.

This movement of the pin is necessarily accompanied by a longitudinal movement of the harp-shank 4, and such movement is resisted by the spring 10. The deflection of the wheel to accommodate deflections in the wire will therefore be resisted to a sufficient extent to prevent undue movement or deflection of the wheel when an abrupt deflection of the wire is encountered.

If now the trolley should leave the wire, the spring 10 will urge the shank 4: upwardly, causing theends of the pin 12 to travel back to the bottoms of the depressions, and thereby turning the shank to present the trolley in alinement with the pole. With the trolley thus positioned it may be restored to the wire in the usual manner by the ordinary manipulation of the trolley-pole.

The guard 2, formed onthe pole 1 adjacent to the trolley-wheel, is designed to guard the latter and to prevent the wheel-supporting structure from being brought into violent contact with guy-wires. A modified form of this guard is shown in Fig. i of the drawings, wherein the pole is shown straight and equipped with a separate guard 2. i

In the preferred form of my invention (best illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawings) I have shown a spiral spring inclosed in the bearingsleeve. It is not to be understood, however, that this is an essential construction, since I believe it to be broadly new to provide reactive means for urging the shank of the harp in combination with means for compelling the harp to rotate when moved in a longitudinal direction. For instance, in Fig. 5 of the drawings I have shown a bar-spring 10 secured at one end to the trolley-pole, as indicated at 10", and having an upturned end 10 extended into an axial socket 10 in the lower extremity of the shank4. This is an entirely practicable form of the invention, since it will be seen that the structure as may fall fairly within the scope of the protection prayed.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure 1 by Letters Patent, is

-ing a bearing-sleeve, said sleeve having an apertured bottom wall, and a cam formed at the lower end of the sleeve and comprising two depressions terminating at the same points; of a harp provided with a shank formed with an enlargement at its upper end and having its lower end passed through the apertured bottom wall of the sleeve, a spring engaging a fixed part at one end and having its opposite end in engagement with the shank to urge the latter upwardly, and diametrically-op.-

posed projections extending from the lower end of the shank and engaging the cam.

3. The combination with a trolley-pole provided with a depending end to form a guard, and with a bearing-sleeve at the extremity of said depending end; of a harp having a shank passed through the bearing-sleeve and provided with a radial projection at its lower end, a cam formed in the lower end face of the bearing-sleeve, and a spring urging the harpshank in an upward direction to engage the projection with the cam.

4. The combinationwith a trolley-pole having a bearing-sleeve, said sleeve being formed at its lower end with a cam; of a harp pro vided with a shank mounted in said sleeve for both rotary and longitudinal movement, a projection extending laterally from the shank and engaging the cam, a trolley-wheel mounted in the harp, and a spring arranged to urge the shank longitudinally to effect the rotary movement of the harp through the cooperation of the projection and the cam to aline the wheel with the pole.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

CYRUS E. SMITH.

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