US310197A - James goodfellow - Google Patents

Description

GAR STARTER.

Patented Jan. 6, 1885.

J. GOODPELLOW.

(No Model.)

UNTT D STATES PATENT O FICE.

JAMES GOODFELLO\V, OF NE\V YORK, N. Y.

CAR-STARTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 310,197, dated January 6, 1885.

Application filed May I, 1854.

Be it known that 1, JAMES GooDrnLLow, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county of New York and State of Xew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gar-Starters, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to certain mechanism for effecting the automatic starting of a car, and it is particularly adapted to streetcars of the ordinary construction. It is well known that a street-car, particularly when loaded, is very difficult to start, but moves easily when the momentum is acquired, and that the hardest work on the horses is in starting the car. My object is to produce by this invention mechanism adapted to be readily applied to old as well as new cars without necessitating any peculiar construction of the car itself, by means of which the car will be automatically started and the horses relieved to a large extent of the constantly-recurring severe strain incident to starting a car.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my said invention, I will now proceed to describe the same, by reference to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a longitudinat section, Fig. 2 a bottom plan view, and Fig. 3 a cross-section, of a car embodying my improvements.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures. I

A designates the frame of the car; B, the axles, and O the wheels, which are all. of the usual construction.

a designates the connecting-rod of my starting mechanism, supportedin plates 6 b attached to and depending from the frame of the car. The outer end of this rod a is adapted to be removably connected to the traces of the horses, and to its inner end one end of a chain, c, or its equivalent, is fastened. The other end of this chain c is fastened preferably to the under side of an arm, d, one end of which is centrally fixed to a shaft, 0, which extends across the rear end of the car and has bearings in the sides of its frame A. The other end of this arm (Z has fixed to its under side a downwardly-extending arm, terminating in a hook-shaped end.

9 designates a spring, one end of which is (No model.)

fast to frame A, and the other to the outer end of the arm (I.

Fixed to each end of the shaft a is a pinion,

h, which is always in mesh with a rack-bar, '1',

across from one to the other, the ends of the,

rod 70 having bearings in the feet j, and being fixed thereto by a shaft-pin or in other suitable manner.

I Z designate a pair of arms depending from the rear end of the frame A, for supporting weighted cams mm, which are pivoted to the lower ends of the arms Z Z.

The operation is as follows, viz: As the horses move forward the pull first straightens out the chain 0, thereby swinging the arm (I inward, and rotating the shaft 6 and its pinions h, which in turn move the rack-bars i downward, and the feet j are swung forward and straightened out until they bear ou'the track, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. l, and

' raise the rear end of the car-frame, by means of which the car is impelled forward by its own gravity, and as the car moves away from the feet j the weighted cams on m, the points of which bear under the red It, act upon the rod and swing the feet back into the position shown by full lines in Fig. l. XVhen the strain on the rod c and its connections is released by the horses slacking up, or in going downhill, the spring 9 acts to hold the arm (I up, so that the hook-shaped end of the arm f bears under the rod k. It will thus be seen that when the car is in motion the feet j will always be held up above the traekthat is to say, by the cams when the horses are pulling, and by the hookshaped arm when the pull on the rod a and its connections is slackened. It will also be seen that after the momentum of the car ceases, the pull of the horses to start it will, as stated, always operate the swinging feet automatically to start the car by its own gravity, and thereby take the strain of pulling the load at the start from the horses.

I have found in practice that two men pulling on the rod a can by this mechanism start a street-car of the ordinary construction when carrying a load of fifty passengers.

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. A pair of movable feet or props for starting a car, supported from the ear-frame, in combination wit-l1 mechanism whereby said feet or props may be automatically swung forward and straightened to raise the rear end of the frame and impel the car forward by its own gravity, substantially as herein shown and described.

2. In a carstarter of substantially the construction described, the weighted cams m m, for holding the swinging feet above the track when the car is in motion, as set forth.

3. In a car-starter of substantially the construction described, the hook-shaped arm f, for holding the swinging feet above the track while the car is in motion and after the pull on the rod a is slaekened, as set forth.

4. In a car-starter, a pair of swinging feet, each swiveled to a raek-bar which is in mesh with a pinion mounted on a shaft, in combi nation with a chain fixedly connected to said shaft and a rod fixed to said chain, so that when the horses move forward the shaft is rotated and said feet are swung forward and straightened to bear on the track and raise the rear end of the frame of the car, whereby the car is impelled forward by its own gravity, substantially as herein shown and described.

In a car-starter, a pair of swinging feet, each swiveled to the lower end of a rack-bar arranged to move vertically in the sides of the car-frame and in mesh with a pinion mounted on a shaft, an arm fixed to said shaft, a chain fixed to said arm, and a rod fixed to said chain, in combination with a hook-shaped arm and a pair of weighted cams, substantially as herein shown and described, for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 2d day of April, A. D. 1884.

- JAMES GOODFELLO\V. Witnesses:

GEO. M. Banner, ARTHUR 0. Vans.

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