US914335A - Automatically-adjustable headlight for locomotives. - Google Patents

Description

W. M. COOPER. AUTOMATIUALLY ADJUSTABLE HEADLIGHT FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

rum-r101! FILED APR. 20. 1908.

914,335, Patented Mar. 2, 1909.

I K -Qm I] X 8 I L mag I 5 /mdvziar .f v wa W ffz'izawla' UNTTE TATS ATENT FTiCE.

WILLIAM M. COOPER, OF KENNEDALE, TEXAS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO W. A. MCENTIRE, OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS, AND ONE-THIRD TO .TNO. F. MCENTIRE, OF KENNEDALE,

TEXAS.

AUTOMATICALLY-ADJUSTABLE HEADLIGHT FOR LOCOMOTIVES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM M. COOPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kennedale, in the county of Tarrant and State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatically- Adjustable Headlights for Locomotives, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to head lights for locomotive engines and for electric cars and similar purposes, and the object is to provide simple devices which will automatically turn the search light of a locomotive or car so that the light will be thrown on the track in turning curves in the tracks or so that the search light will follow the track when the engine or car is turning a curve in the track.

Other objects and advantages will be fully explained in the following description and the invention will be more particularly pointed out in the claims.

Reference is had to the accompanying drawings which form a part of this application and specification.

Figure l is a front elevation of the head light. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section, taken on the line acac of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the balancing tube. Fig. 4c is a detail view of one of the gages for determining the degrees of rotation of the headlight.

Similar characters of reference are used to indicate the same parts throughout the several views.

A metal frame, composed of uprights 1 and cross-beams 2 attached thereto, is provided for the oscillating frame 3 which carries the headlight 1. The headlight is pivotally mounted on a bar or support 5 by a pivotal oint 6 which engages a socket 7. The headlight is held in place at the top by a pivotal connection 8 which is carried by a screw-threaded hand bolt 9 operating through the beam 2. The headlight is thus free to oscillate. The stationary frame for holding the headlight frame may be bolted or secured to a locomotive in the usual place for headlights or it may be bolted to the front end of a car. The headlight is caused to oscillate by some easily mobile agent, preferably by quicksilver 10 which is placed in a curved tube 11. This tube is curved, and when the quicksilver is laced in the tube the tube is hermetica y sealed by plugs 12. The quicksilver is very sensitive Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 20, 1908.

Patented March 2, 1909.

Serial No. 428,157.

to motion and gravity and when one side of the headlight or car is tilted, as when running on a curve in the track, the quicksilver will quickly run toward the lower side. This will cause the headlight to turn automatically on its pivotal support and cause the light to follow the track. In order to operate efficiently it is necessary that the curvature of the tube be the same as the; of a circle, and the tube must be less than a circle, as shown in Fig. 2, or the oscillation would be too great, or rather the movement of the quicksilver in the tube would be too great, that is, it would move too far around the curve in the tube. The centrifugal force developed when a locomotive is turning a curve will affect the mercury or quicksilver in the tube, more or less, but in practice the speed of the locomotive is not suflicient to prevent the device from o crating. The tube 11 may be attached to t e headlight casing 3 in any suitable manner.

The head light may be limited in its turning or oscillating motion by buffers 13 which are adjustably mounted in the cross-beams 2 by hand screws 14. The turning can thus be limited so that the oscillation will be 30 or 45 or whatever limit may be desirable. If the head light turns too freely, as it might do when the engine locomotive or car would strike slight irregularities in the track, friction brakes may be used. The friction brakes 15 are pivotally mounted in the support or bar 5. These brakes may be weighted more or less at the lower end 16.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is,

1. A head light for locomotives comprising a stationary frame, an oscillating frame pivotally mounted therein and carrying a light, and a crescent tube partly filled with a mobile element and carried by said oscillating frame for causing the oscillating frame to turn automatically.

2. A head light for locomotives comprising a stationary frame, an oscillating frame mounted therein and carrying a light, and a tube concentrically arranged about the pivot of and carried by said oscillating frame and carrying means for causing said oscillating frame to turn automatically.

3. A head light for locomotives comprising a stationary frame, an oscillating frame mounted therein and carrying a light, and a curved, tube attached to saidv oscillating frame and carrying therein an agent for causing the head light to turn automatically.

4. A head light for locomotives comprising a stationary frame, a rotatable frame mounted therein and carrying alight, andacurved tube carrying quicksilver hermetically sealed therein attached to said rotatable frame.

5. A head light for locomotives and the like comprising a stationary frame, a rotatableframe' mounted therein and carrying a; light,.means carried'by said rotatable frame for causing the same to turn automatically and friction brakes carried by said stationary 15' frame for limiting the turning of said rotatable frame.

Intestimony whereof, I set my hand in the presence of two Witnesses, this thirty-first day of March, 1908.

his WILLIAM M. v COOPER.

' mark l/Vitnesses:

A. L. JACKSON, J. W. STITT.

Images