A Treatise Upon Cable or Rope Traction; As Applied to the Working of Street and Other Railways. (REV. & Enl. from Engineering) by J. Bucknall Smith, C. E.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 Excerpt: ...of two movable jaws N N1,which engage or release the cable at the will of the operator, who, standing on the car platform O, works a hand-wheel connected with the screw p and mechanism p, p1, p, p3. The jaws of the gripping apparatus travel in the slotted tube beneath the road surface, and are opened and closed by vertically sliding plates or attachments n, n1, passing through the slot in the H2 100 Highgute Cars and Cable Gripperx. tube. It should be understood that immediately the cars are taken on to the road, the cable is pulled or guided into the "grips." When it is desired that a car should stop, the bite on the cable is released, so that it continues running inoperatively, until the grip is again closed. When the cars arrive at the termini or opposite the engine-house, the cable is conducted out of them in the same way as on the Californiastreet and Chicago lines, fee., U.S.A. The manner in which the gripping operations are performed will be readily understood from Figs. 60 and 61, the former being a part longitudinal section and the latter a transverse section of a car platform and under gearing, &c., as used on the Highgate line. The screw termination of the operating hand wheel spindle is shown &tp this works into a block-piece p1, carried by the forked termination of the lever p", the. other extremity of which is connected to a rod, terminating with a "wedge piece" ps, which works into a tapering hood-piece p attached to one of the gripper or stem-plates n. In this manner it will be seen that upon turning the handwheel in one direction or the other the lever p2 will be caused to push or pull the wedge p3 in or out of the hood-piece p4, and thus open or close the gripping jaws N and N'. The type of gripper is nothi...