US91424A - Improved railway-car axle - Google Patents

Description

D. M. CUMMlNGS.

Car Axle.

No. 91,424. Patented June 15, 1869.

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DANIEL M. CUMMINGS, OF EN'FIELD, NEW HAMPSHIRE, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, FRANCIS H. WELLS,-AND SALMON R. GODFREY.

Letters Patent No. 91,424, dated June 15,1869.

IMPROVED RAILWAY-CAR AXLE.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part of the same.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, DANIEL M. Oumvrmes, of Enfield, in the county of Grafton, and State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and improved Railway-Gar Axle; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, which form a portion of this specification.

One end ofmy improved car-axle is turned to a true tapering shape, as shown inv Figure 1 of the drawings.

' The sides of the tapering portion, 11, of the axle inwardly terminate at the abrupt side of the flange e, which radiates beyond the sides of the body of the axle.

A steel sleeve, (1, which is screw-cut on a portion of its outer periphery, is. fitted accurately on to the said tapering portion b of the axle, and is retained in said position by means of the screw-coupler c and the axle-flange e, in the manner shown in the drawings.

To prevent the possibility of the loosening of the sleeve (1 upon the axle, the coupler c is generally made of such a size that it must be expanded by heat before it can be secured to the aforesaid coupling position.

Radial screws f, passing through screw-apertures in the sides of the coupler 0, may also be employed for holding the said coupler and sleeve in their proper positions; but the shrinking of the coupler 0, upon the sleeve (1, is deemed a much more secure manner of holding the two in a fixed position.

Suficient space should be left between the inner end of the steel sleeve d and the axle-flange e, to enable the sleeve to be drawn inward, for,thc purpose of tightening the same upon the tapering portion b of the axle, whenever it may become loose thereon by frictional action.

If the coupler c be shrunk to its place on the sleeve (1, as a 'matter of course, it must be expanded by heat before it can be turned upon the sleeve, to produce the said tightening-effect.

The car-wheel is forced on to the steel-sleeve portion of my improved car-axle, in the usual manner of securing car-wheels to the solid ends of car-axles, and, being left at the usual distance from the end of the axle, the portion of said sleeve which projects beyond the wheel, forrns'a steel-bearing journal for the same,

as shown in fig.v 1.

Within the inner periphery of the hole in the head of the screw-coupler c, a groove, h, is usually formed, for the reception of any suitable packing-material, to exclude the dust from the frictional surfaces within the sleeve (1.

This mannerof combining a car-wheel with one end of a car-axle, it;will be perceived, permits the carwheel to be rotated upon the axle whenever such r0- iation may be desirable; and this it does without permitting the slightest degree of lateral vibration of the wheel upon the axle, whilst the arrangement also furnishes a steel-bearing journal for that end of the axle.

At its opposite end, a portion of the periphery of the axle is turned off, a steel sleeve, g, is shrunk upon the said reduced diameter of the same, and then the car-wheel is forced on to that end of the axle, all as shown in Figure 2.

The said steel sleeve 9 usually extends inward about halfway through the hub of the car-wheel, and the portion of the thimble outside of the car-wheel, forms a steel-bearing journal for the same.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. Securing the wheel-carrying sleeve (1 to the tapering axle-end b, by means of the inwardly screw-cut and flanged tubular coupler c, which acts conjointly with the screw-threads on the periphery of said.sleeve and with the radial flange e, on the car-axle, when the said wheel-carrying sleeve d extends outside the carwheel, and forms the journal-bearing surface at that end of the axle, all substantially as herein set forth.

2. Also, the journal-sleeve g, when the inner end of said sleeve extends only partially through the hub of the wheel, on that end of my improved car-axle, and is retained in its position by the severe pressure of the inner periphery of said hub upon portions of the axle and the sleeve, substantially asherein represented and described.

The foregoing specification of my improved railwaycar axle, signed and witnessed, this 24th day of Deccmber, 1868;

DANIEL M. CUMMINGS.

Witnesses:

B. H. Pmnnv, O. T Comes.

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