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Report of the Committee on Science and the Arts on Ainsworth's automatic safety-switch for railroads

1879; Elsevier BV; Volume: 107; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0016-0032(79)90588-x

1879-2693

O.B. Colton, Thos. Shaw, Wm.D. Marks, Coleman Sellers,

Safety Systems Engineering in Autonomy

The Committee on Science and the Arts, constituted by the Franklin Institute. of the State of Pennsylvania, to whom WJH referred for examination A&worth's Automatic Safety-switch for Railroads, report that they have carefully examined the switch itself and the inventor's plans, specifications and model, and find that this switch belongs, generally speaking, to the same cl \ * : ss as the Lorcnz or English switch, but differs from all other switches known to your commit&c in several important respects.The invention nnty be tlividc~l, for the purpnses of this report,, into two separate parts : the switch proper and the switch stand, or mechanism for moving the switch.Referring to the a(ywmpanying cut, (No.I), it will bc seen that in this switch the outer rttil of thc'main line, 9 A (the rail farthest from the &ling), is unbroken or continuous; while the immr rail of the nrwin line, A'#, is bent slightly at tl, resumes its former course at "I', and continues to 8, the amount of the deflection, d 8, being equal to the width of the head of t,he rail.At d2 t,he rail bends again, and from thence continues in a long curve, forming the inner rail of the siding.These rails (A S' and A2 B') are fixed ancl continuous ; hut between them are two' pointed rails (C B and A" E:'), j ' omed rigidly together by proper rods, so that when one point is against the nearest' rail the other point will stancI off from its rail a dismnce of four (A") inchw.These moveable rails or points are so placed that E' is considerably in advance of C, and both are shaped to fit .against the fixed rails at one extremity, and are secured at t'heir other ends by fish plates, so t,hat a movement of these rails in one direction or the ot'her will cause an approaching train to continue on the main lint or bc shmned into the siding.In addition to the principal parts already enun~erated, there is also furnished a guard rail, C' D.It will be seen that the switch tail, E E', has its point advanced such a distance before the point of the other switch rail (C c), that it, will catch the flange of an approaching wheel and determine its direction before the other wheel on the same axle has reached the other point ; an& moreover, as this projecting rail is com-