US12680A - Railroad-cab - Google Patents

Description

J. H. JONES.

Car- Coupling.

- Patented Apr. 10, 1855 Toy all l JAMES Jones, on SCIO, NEW YORK.

RAILROAD-CAR couPLinG.

i 1 Specification of Letters Patent No. 12,680, dated April 10, 1855.

Be it known th at I JAMES Joints, of

f I which the coupling termed, separated, and FigflQ, represents the same two parts con-' nectediso as to form the coupling-) ifSimilar*lettersifin the figures 'denote like parts.

1 Various forms of ear couplings that are intended to1be self connecting have been devised, but in nonejojf them are found the ele= fment which I claim, link coupling ap -J preaches it nearest, but even these must be straightened up orlat least examined to see that they arestraightgbefore the cars are. run uptobe coupledl But I do not usea ,Clllik at all, so that this? class of couplings cannotbe considered the same as mine.

mManyother couplings have been essayed which have a maleandmfemale head, catch- 1 ing intoeach other, :and holding by shoulders and springs. Thiskind also requires ipersonalinspectionflor attention before they are coupled, asftwomale, or two female heads may come together, in which case there isno coupling formed. In my inven- 1 tion bothheads are; male heads, and will "couple regardless of whichends of the cars come together, and doafnot require any pre vious arrangement or inspection as they; are

always ready tocouple. v j The nature of myinvention consists in making a car coupling of two pieces without qalink, eachpart or half being so formed, asfthat the two will always couplewhen I 7 brought together regardless of the particularx ends of the carsfiwhich are brought together.

enable others skilledin the art to make and usewmy invention, I will proceed I to describe the same with reference to the drawings. v j 3 1 A, A,represent;two parts of thecoupling which may be exactlyfalike in every particular, and may be. made of any suitable material. 0,0, arethe jaws on each, which when the cars are run together, interlock,

. TED'S ATE PA T OFFICE" h and are held together by the springs D, D.

These springs D, D, do not simply serve the purpose of holding the shoulders of the jaws together, but also serve as guides for directingthe jaws together, until the jaws pass each other, when the spring throws them together and holds them in place. The inchned planes on these jaws must stand vertically, and facing each other, or nearly so; If placedhorizontally the same difficulty would exist, that does with the male and female head, for in this case both planes may beidown or up, and nocoupling could beefiiected without first changing one of the pair. It is to avoid this personal inspection of the. position of the parts that I aim, and I have so contrived the two partsthatthe engineer may back up his train to a single car and couple it, without any previous arrangement of the coupling.

i E, E, are the holes for the bolts to pass through, by which the cars are drawn. These holes I have made so that my coupling maybe used on any of the ordinary draw heads. But it may be a permanent fixture on cars when built specially with a view to their use, in which latter case there would be nothing which could be carried away, as in ordinary couplings.

A few of these couplings should also be carried with a curve or bend in the shank F, so as to unite cars which may be of variable height, as isnow'done with links when used. Having thus fully described the nature of my invention I would state that, I am aware thata patent was granted to Joseph D. Alvord on the 18th September 1849, for a car shackle in which two horizontally placed hooks, one at each end of the car, attached to the hunter, so formed, and so attached, that on bringing the cars together,

the hooks will fall, into socket-s into the respective opposite cars. This I do not claim as my invention is an improvement upon Alvords. Nor do I claim a car coupling wherein a link, or itssubstitute is used at all. Neither do I claim a car coupling wherein a male and female catch are used, because they require to be changed at times, as two male, or two female catches will not form the coupling, but

What I do claim as of my invention, and the particular ends of the cars which may be desire to secure by Letters Patent, brought together, substantially as described.

A car coupling without a link, which may be a permanent fixture on the car, and each JONES 5 half so formed as that the jaws or hooks will Witnesses:

always couple or catch, the one with the A. B. STOUGHTON,

other, when brought together, regardless of THOMAS H. UPPERMAN.

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