US1294010A - Uncoupling device. - Google Patents

Description

T. H. WlLLlAMS. UNCOUPUNG DEVlCE. canon m:

1,294,010. Patented Feb. 11,1919.

2 SH ETS-$HEET l- T. H. WILLIAMS. UNCOUPUNG DEVKIE. APPLICATWN HLED AUGJ3. 19H.

Patented Feb.'11,1919.

i fl 'f t 2 sums-sum 2 THERON H. WILLIAMS, CHICAGO,

ILLINOT- UNCOUPLING- DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented eb. it. 13.,

Application filed August 13, 1917. Serial No. 185,848.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Tnnnon H. YVILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States, residing in Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented. a new and useful Improvement in Uncoupling Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to uncoupling devices provided to operate the coupler lock of the couplers of railway cars and the like.

My invention has for an object the provision of an uncoupling device eliminating the ordinary chain and cleviee coupler-connection, which has been the source of much ii'iconveniencc, expense and annoyance, and providing a readily applied and securely attached one-piececonnection operable with the ordinary and unaltered crank-lever and coupler pin and yet freely. accommodating itself to the variable positioning of the coupler-pin without special fitting to a different draft-riggings and without tending to either cramp or twist either the connected crankarm or coupler-pin in any position of rest or movement, and acting to lift the pin by direct pull but allowing an extreme range for the full dropping back of the lifted pin into locking position.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent as it is better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawing illustrating a preferred embodiment thereof without excludng other en'ibodiments that are within the scope of the claims hereinafter made and dilferentiated from the prior art.

On the drawings,

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the part of a car end showing the coupler and an uncouplingdevice embodying. my present in- Vention, the parts being arranged in locked or normal operative position;

Fig. 2 is a similar view coupler unlocked and the vatcd position;

Fig. 3 is a similar view showing the parts in lock-set position with the operating rod or lever returned to normal position; and

Fig. 4 is a large-scale view of the connection member or connector.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention I have shown on the drawing a car end, generally designated at 4, from which a coupler 5 of ordinary construction extends. This coupler is provided with a knuckle 6 showing the locking pm in clcand knuckle locking pin '2' adapted to be lifted to bring the knuckle to uncoupled pt sition. The locking pin is provided with. an eye 8 of standard form, in whi h eve an an uncoupling device is adapted to he f to manipulate the knuckle. The standard ordinary form of operatmg rod or lever t is shown mounted in the customary 10 and having the operating" arm 11 rlifting arm 12. The end of the liftln 12 is provided with the ordinary (g.. in disposed horizontally in suliistanl'ial parallelism with the eye 8 of the couplcrqiiin in accordance with the usual practice. More particular description oi the coupler and the operating rod are not believed to be necessary here, since these devices, above described, are all shown in the ordinaru or standard form now enerally employed consequently well mown to all pc familiar with the art.

he lifting arm 12 oi. the ope mtinp lever is connected by a loop connector 1% in which, both alone and in combination with other 5% affected parts, my present invention is illustratively en'ibodied. This connector is. rigid and consists of a single piece of ordinary, eavy rod bent as will now be indicated. One end 15 is bent to form an eye and insorted through the horizontally disposed eye 13 in the arm 12, the final portion of the bend, to close the aforesaid eye to the term shown in Fig. *1, being given by a clenching" tool or a few haminer-blows after the said rcbcnt end' 15 is put through the eye in the crank arm 12. The rest of the connector rod is bent at and beyond a middle point 16 to give it an asynunel'ric bow-t .'n-m, the part 17 between the eye 15 and the recurving point 16 being straight, and the part 19 between the recurvingpoint 16 and the other end 18 being bowed outwardly, with the curve of the bow more abrupt toward the end 18 and sloping more gradually to ward the recurring at 16. The end 18 is extended beyond and rcbeiit away from the loop 15 as indicated on the drawings, to provide a retaining means that prevents the bow from slipping out of the eye of the coupler-pin in service. The connector is assembled with the other parts by threading the end 18 through the eye 8 oi the coupler-pin while holding the bow substantially horizontally, and then the pi'isitionhig is so shifted that the eye 15, which for this pose is left open, as above noted, may be mall...

put

\being permitted by through the eye 13 of and then the eye 15 is closed, as also above noted, to complete the assembling; and thus the rod or connector becomes pern'ianently attached to the lifting-arm l2 and cannot be removed unless some suitable and powerful tool be employed to open the eye 15, and the coupler-pin cannot slip over the reheat end 18 in any position into which the bow can be shifted in service.

Viewing Fig. 1, in which the parts are arranged in the position they have when the cougler'is in action, it will be noted that an upward movement of the lifting arm 11 will cause a ,direct-pull'lifting of the coupler pin through the agency of the connector, the portion 16 of the rod engaging in the eye of the locking pin. The pull of the upward movement of the arm 12 is transmitted by the straight part 17 of the rod to release the coupler, the movement being from the position shown in Fig. 1 to that shown in Fig. A release or lowering of the lifting arm ll. will permit the parts to assume the lockset position shown in Fig. 3, the operating lever returning to normal position and the locking pin. moving down until it rests upon the tail of the knuckle. lhis movement changes the relative position of the operating arm 12 of the lever and the upper end of the coupler lock, this changed relation p a sliding of the bowed art 19 of the connector through the eye 15 of the coupler locking pin, this movement being within. the limit determined. by the rebent end of the rod. The asymmetric bowed form, with the bow soreading toward its end away from the normal position of the coupler pin, prevents the rod from cramping in the eye of the pin and permits its free sliding in any position of the pin, and the lifted pin cannot dead center in the narrow recurving at 16 and so cannot hold the connector in. its lifted position or block the dropping of the hand lever to normal, and also cannot dead center on the abrupt curve near the end 18 and so cannot hold the pin from dropping from the position shown in Fig. 3 to that shown in Fig. 1. lVhen the car provided with the coupler devices disposed as in Fig. 3 couples to an adjacent car, the locking pin drops infront of the knuckle tail, sliding back along the connector curve 19 to the position shown in Fig. 1. The movement of the coupler across the car body as the connected cars travel in service is permitted also by the sliding connection bctwcen the coupler lock and connector, and the pivotal connection between the connector and operating lever. The form given the rod is such that only under upward pull of the operating rod in uncoupling is there a fixed relation between the parts, and the shape of the connector permits it to turn freely about its connection the operating arm,

with the operating lever and to slide freely through the eye of the locking pin permitting the other movements.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing its most material advantages.

1 claim:

1. In an un oupling device, in combination: a hand-operated crank-lever and a bow-formed connector having a straight arm with its end movably secured through said lever and having a bowed arm adapted to slidably engage through the eye of the coupler pin.

2. An uncoupling-device connector member of bow form and having a straight arm with its end bent for pivotal engagement and having the other arm curved for sliding on gagement, and adapted to form a freely selfaccominodating connection directly linking a coupler pin with its operating lever.

3. An uncoupling-device connector member of asymmetric bow formand having a straight arm with its end bent for pivotal engagement and having the other arm asymmetrically curved for sliding engagement, and adapted to form a freely self-accomodating connection directly linking a coupler pin with its operating lever.

' l. An uncoupling-device connector member of elongated looped form and having the two arms disposed asymmetrically in re spect of each other, to allow for such movable engagement with a coupler pin and its operating lever that one arm may slide freely without dead centering in respect of the other.

5. The combination of a standard car coupler and an uncoupling device, the latter comprising, only two movable members, an

operating lever having an eye disposed horizontally in substantial parallelism with the eye of the knuckle locking pin, and a rigid member freely depending from and directly connecting said lever and said pin and pivoted in one of said eyes and slidably engaged in the other, such sliding engagement accommodating the back and forth and the up and down as well as lateral displacements of the knuckle locking pin in respect of the operating lever.

6. The combination of a standard car coupler and an uncoupling device, comprisin an operating lever having an eye in its end and a rod bent into bow-form having one end pivotally engaged in the eye of said lever and the other end disposed in the eye of the locking pin.

7. The combination of a standard car coupier and an uncoupling device, comprising an operating lever having an eye in its end, and a rod bent into bow-form having one end pivotally engaged in the eye of said lever and the other end disposed in the eye of the locking pin, the free end of said rod eing bent to prevent its Withdrawal from the locking pin.

8. The combination of a car coupler having a knuckle lock provided With an eye in its end, an uncoupling lever also having an eye in its end, and a member connecting said eyes and comprising only a single rod bent to loop form and having the end of one arm of the loop secured to one of said eyes and the body of the other arm of the loop slidably disposed in the other of said eyes.

9. A connecting member for an uncoupling device, comprising a rod bent into bowform, the curved arm of the bow being adapted for insertion through the eye of a. knuckle locking pin and the straight arm of the bow having one end adapted for insertion through the eye of a standard uncoupling lever andbendable thereafter to lock the connecting member in place.

10. A connecting member for an uncoupling device, comprising a rod bent to general loop form, one arm being of curved form with a recurved retaining end adapted for insertion through the eye of a knuckle locking 30 pin and the other arm of the loop having a curved end adapted for insertion through the eye of a standard uncoupling lever and bendable thereafter to lock the connecting member in place.

In testimony whereof I have-hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

THERON H. 'WILLIAMS.

Witnesses:

HENRY Lovn CLARKE, M. EDNA BARRY.

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