US821352A - Traction-increasing device for street-cars. - Google Patents

Description

No. 821,352. PATENTED MAY 22, 1906. H. H. POX. TRACTION INCREASING DEVICE FOR STREET CARS.

APPLICATION FILED DEE) 5.1905.

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HARRY H. FOX, ()F DUQUESNE JUNCTION, PENNSYLVANIA.

TRACTION-INCREASING DEVICE FOR STREET "CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

ratented May 22,1906.

Application filed December 5, 1905- Serial No. 290,4:45-

To a, whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY I-I. FoX, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Duquesne Junction, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Traction-Increasing Devices for Street- Cars, of which the following is a speoificati on,

reference being had therein to the acco1npanying drawings.

This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in traction-increasing devices for street-cars, and more particularly to an electrically-operated traction-increasing device.

The primary object of this invention is to employ the source of electrical energy employed for operating the car as a traction-increasing medium, and in accomplishing this result I entirely dispense with wheel-brakes, track friction-brakes, and brakes heretofore used for retarding and eventually stopping the car, as my improvement will serve to bring the car to a stop without the aid of braking devices. To this end I employ electromagnets, which are carried below the bottom of the car and have their cores arranged in close proximity to the rails over which the car travels. Upon energizing the electroinagnets by passing an electric current Hthrough the same the cores of said magnets are strongly magnetized, and the attraction established between the magnetized cores and the rails over which the car travels serves to retard the movement of the car and eventually stop the same. I employ a conventional form of electromagnets which are suitably housed beneath the car and employ the ordinary controllers of a car for governing the operation of the electromagnets.

The detail construction of my invention will be hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and, referring to the drawings accompanying this application, like numerals of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, in which Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a car equipped with my improvement. Fig. 2 is an end view of the same, and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the circuit employed in connection with the electromagnets.

In the accompanying drawings the refer ence-numeral 1 designates the body of the car, 2 2 the platforms thereof, which carry controller 3, and {1 the running-gear of the car.

My invention resides in placing two powerful electromagnets 5 5 at each end of the car, said electromagnets being of a conven tional form having cores 6 6, which are controlled by an electric current passing through windings of insulated wire which surround said cores. The cores are preferably made of soft iron, which only remains magnetized while a current is flowing through the wire windings of the magnets.

The electromagnets at each end of the car are identical in construction. Therefore I deem it only necessary to describe the construction of one set of magnets. The mag nets are supported in a strap or yoke 7, connected to the body of the car, as at 8 8. The magnets are located above the rails 9 9, upon which the car travels, and the strap or yoke which supports said magnets may be suitably braced, as at 10 10.

In Fig. 3 of the drawings I have illustrated the wiring of said magnets, where it will be observed that the magnets are connected. together by a wire 11, While a wire 12 leads from one of said magnets to the source of electrical energy 14, and a wire 15 from the other of said magnets leads to a switch 16. Another wire 17 leads from the source of electrical energy 14 to the switch 16, where alever or key 18 controls the magnetization of the electromagnets6 6.

When the lever or key 18, which is carried by the controller 3, or located adjacent thereto, is manipulated to energize the magnets 5 5, a current of electricity passes through said magnets which magnetizes the cores 6 6 and causes an attraction to be established between the rails of the track and said cores. The energizing of the electromagnets will cause the rails to be strongly attracted by the magnets, and the attractive force thus produced will tend to draw the cars down so strongly as to retard their movement and eventually result in the stopping of the cars.

In order that my improved traction-increasing device will properly operate, it is necessary that the key or lever 18 be manipulated to establish circuit through the electromagnets, and thereby establish a mutual attraction between said. magnets and the rails up on which the car travels.

.It is obvious that various means, such as a rheostat, may be employed for governing the amount of electrical energy passing into the electromagnets.

Such changes in the construction and opbase, one magnet of each pair being over one rail and the other magnet of the same pair being over the other rail, the said magnets being included in the said operating-circuit.

2. The combination With a car and the operating electric circuit thereof, of a yoke attached to the bottom of the car at each end thereof, and extending laterally beyond the Wheels, a pair of electromagnets mounted in each yoke with one magnet over one rail and the other magnet over the opposite rail, said magnets being in circuit With the operatingcircuit of the car.

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

HARRY H. FOX.

WVitnesses H. O. EVERT, E. E. POTTER.

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