US522099A - Life-guard for cars - Google Patents

Description

(NoModeL) J. J. BEALS. LIFE GUARD FOR GARS.

No. 522,099. Patented June 26, 1894.

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PJW w UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH J. BEALS, OF CAMBRIDGE, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO WALLACE L. BROADBENT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

LIFE-GUARD FOR CARS SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 522,099,'dated June 26, 1894.

Application filed December 26,1893. Serial No. 494,709. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOSEPH J. 13mm, of Cambridge, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Life-Guards for Street-Railway Cars, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification,like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention relates, to a life guard for street railway cars the object being to produce a life saving appliance that will not interfere in any way with the running of the car and will effectually guard against the per son being struck by the car body or run over by the wheels.

The invention is embodied in a guard composed of a flexible net work and means for supporting the same in inclined position extending from the top of the dash board of the car to the surface of the ground at some distance in advance of the dash board, the said net work being connected at its upper end with the dash board or witha suitable frame securely fastened thereto, and said not work being connected at its lower end with a frame or stretcher adapted to lie close to the surface of the ground and beingitself connected by pivoted arms with the sill of the car or some part of the rigid frame work of the car body at or near the lower end of the dash board. The frame at the lower end of the net is so constructedas to run easily on the surface of the ground or pavement in case it comes in contact therewith, and by having the said frame pivotally connected by the arms with the car body it can rise and fall if necessary to accommodate itself to an irregular surface or to accommodate the rocking motion of the car body in case it becomes excessive. The frames at the lower and upper ends of the net are connected by a guy rope preferably of steel or other metallic cable, which cable extends down along each side edge of the net, across the bottom thereof, and has its ends connected at the top frame by a turn buckle by which its length may be adjusted to determine thelimit of the descent of the frame at the lower end of the net. This guy rope not only thus sustains the frame work at the lower end of the net but also conside of it by short links a.

tributes to the maintenance of the net in' stretched condition. Additional flexible and elastic supports extend from the top to the bottom frames at the rear of the net, in order to give the same additional support in case a heavy body falls upon or comes in contact with its front surface.

There are other features that contribute to the efficient operation of the apparatus which will be described more fully hereinafter.

- Figure 1 is a perspective view of the front portion of a street railwaycar provided with .a life guard embodying this invention; Fig. 2

an elevation of a portion of th'emechanism at the rear or platform side of the dash board tobe hereinafter described; Fig. 3 an enlarged sectional detail of the framework at the top and bottom of the net and parts co-operating therewith; Fig. 4 a plan View of the top frame of the life guard, and Fig. 5 an enlarged detail showing the construction of the network.

The life guardforming the subject of this invention comprises a net work 0. preferably made of steel wire of the construction shown in Fig. 5, consisting of diamond shaped loops or meshes a enchained together in lineup anddown the net as indicated at a and each loop being connected with the loops at each This construction produces a net work of great flexibility but without tendency to stretch so as to become baggy or out of shape. The upper end of this net workis connected with a frame 1) adapted to be securely fastened to the upper part of the dashboard A of the car, and its lower end is connected as will be described with a cross bar or stretcher c which may be a metal rod or tube, preferably covered with rubber to soften the efiect of any blow which may be struck by it. The said cross bar 0 forms a part of a frame comprising a second cross bar 0 slightly at the rear of the cross bar a and having strung upon it a number of rolls d which may be made of hard wood and are preferably spherical in shape so as to run easily over an uneven surface in case they come in contact therewith owing to any irregularity in the road bed or to excessive up and down motion of the end of the car. The said frame 0, o ,.is sustained at some distance in advance of the dash board by means of arms 6 having their lower ends conneeted,or as herein shown made integralwith the cross bar of said frame and pivotally connected as at c with the sill of the car body, or as herein shown with the transverse beam 13 bracketed below the end of the platform of the ear. The net is thus sustained in inclined position extending from a point at or near the road surface and a short distance in advance of the car, rearwardly and upwardly to the top of the dash board A and thus affording a complete screen to prevent any part of the car from striking a person on the track. In order to insure a more thorough support for the net and to relieve the net work itself from tensile strain a guy rope preferably of steel is provided as shown at f extending from the corners of the .top frame I) to the cross bar 0 at the lower end of the net, and along the said cross bar as shown at f Fig. 3, the upper ends of said guy rope being connected together at the rear of the cross bar of the frame 11 preferably by a turn buckle f (see Fig. 4) or adjusting device by which the said rope may have its length adjusted in order to support the cross bar 0 at the proper position with relation to the road surface. The proper adjustment of the guy rope f will cause the frame 0, 0 at the lower end of the net to travel along close to the road surface without coming in actual contact with it, except at points where the road surface rises above the normal level or except when the end of the car plunges downward, at which times the rolls d will'engage the road surface and prevent the frame from dragging thereon. The edges of the net (1 are connected with the said guy rope f and the bottom of the net is connected with the transverse portion f of said guy rope which is itself securely fastened to the cross bar a from point to point throughout its length. The braces or supporting arms 6 incline downward from the car toward the frame 0, 0 as shown, and consequently the tendency of any heavy body striking near the bar 0 or lower end of the net is to force the same nearer to the ground and there is therefore no danger of the guard rising up upon and passing over a recumbent person. If, however, abody collides with more or less violence with the middle part of the net, the tendency is for the net to curve backward thus drawing the lower end up from the ground and forming a kind of purse or bag to catch and retain the body struck by the middle part of the net. In order to guard against too great a collapse of the net under such circumstances, a number of flexible and elastic supports are stretched from top to bottom at the rear of the net as best shown in Fig. 3, said supports being shown in this instance as consisting of wire ropes 9' connected at their lower end either with the cross bar 0 or preferably as shown with the cross bar 0 and at the upper end with the cross bar of the frame I) said supports having a longitudinal elastic or spring portion 9 to render them somewhat yielding, while at the same time they afford an efficient support to prevent the middle portion of the net a from sagging inward.

The parts thus far described are automatic in their action either to take up a recumbent body from the road surface or to catch and retain a person who may be standing or erect when struck by the advancing net, which opposes a yielding resistance to the inertia of the body and thus catches the same, without violence, and atthe same time by its yielding forms a pocket or bag to prevent the body from being thrown out by the reaction after the inertia is overcome. In order to secure this retaining action of the not upon a body caught by it, means are provided for quickly raising the lower frame work 0, 0 or for retaining it raised in case it has been automatically raised by the collapse of the net when striking the body. For this purpose a lifting device is used consisting of a rope h shown in this instance as having one end made fast at ]L2 to the top frame I) from which the said rope extends down around a pulley 7L3 near the forward end of the arm e and thence up to the top of the dash board and over a pulley 72 see Fig. 2, and thence to the middle of the dash board and over a pulley h where the end of the rope may be connected with a weight t'. Two such lifting ropes are shown, one at each side of the apparatus, both meeting and connected with the single weightvl at the middle of the dash board, as best shown in Fig. 2. The said weight may run in a casing (not shown) and is preferably provided at its lower end with a stirrup i so that the attendant on the platform may if necessary depress the said weight and thus through the ropes h lift the lower frame 0, c and thus retain the net in partially collapsed or bag-like condition.

In case the lower frame 0, 0 is thrown up by the impact of the body against the middle portion of the net as before described the weight t' will quickly descend and will afford a resistance to the return of the frame 0, 0 to its normal position and as shown in this instance a catch 70 is provided to engage with the top of the weight when it is thus dropped by the rising of the lower part of the net, so that it will retain the net in collapsed or baglike form until the said catch is released. Thus the net insures the catching of a person without severe shock and retaining the said person securely in the not until the car can be stopped.

The net is of such construction that it can be readily seized by a person struck by it, thus making it easy for a person to avoid injury, and even without voluntary action on the part of the person struck, it operates effectively to catch the person without strikin g a violent blow, and without throwing the person off violently to the ground to be possibly struck asecond time.

The frame 0, 0 with its supporting braces e may be folded up close to the dash board when the apparatus is not in use, and the said frame may be 'easily raised by the attendant on the car if necessary to pass over any small obstruction on the road bed.

The net is so open as not to obscure materially any signs that may be painted on the dash board, or the light of the head lamp commonly used at night in the front dash board of the car, and there is ample room for such headlight between the net and the dashboard.

I claim 1. The net a adapted to be connected at its upper end with the car body, and the frame or stretcher connected with the lower end thereof, and braces extending from said stretcher to the car body combined with the guy. rope extending along the side edges and across the bottom ofv the net and having its ends adj ustably connected together near the upper end of the net, substantially asand for the purpose described.

2. The net connected at its upper end with the car body, and the frame and stretcher connected with the lower end ofthe said net, and pivoted braces extending therefrom to the car body, combined with the lifting ropes for said stretcher and weight connected therewith, substantially as and for the purpose de- 30 scribed. I

3. The net connected at its upper end with the car body and the frame and stretcher connected with the lower end of the said net, and pivoted braces extending therefrom to the car body, combined with the'lifting ropes for said stretcher and weight connected therewith, and the catch cooperating with said weight, substantially as and for the purpose described.

4. A life guard for street railway carscomprising net supporting frames one near the top of the dash board and the other near the ground in advance of the former, combined with a net composed of diamond shaped wire loops enchained together in line up and down the net and each loop of a given line of loops being connected by short links with the loops of the adjacent lines at each side thereof, substantially as described.

' In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOSEPH J. BEALS. Witnesses:

J 0s. P. LIVERMORE,

M. E. HILL.

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