Boyden Power-Brake Co. v. Westinghouse Westinghouse v. Boyden Power-Brake Co.

after stating- the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

The history of arresting the speed of railway trains by the application óf compressed air is one to which the records of the Patent Office bear frequent witness, of á gradual progress from rude and imperfect, beginnings, step by step, to a final consummation, which, in respect to this invention, had not been reached when the patent in suit was taken out, and which, it-is quite possible, has not been reached to this day. It is not disputed that the most important steps in this direction have been taken by Westinghouse himself.

The original substitution of the air-bráke for the old handbrake was itself almost a revolution, but the main difficulty seems to have, arisen in the subsequent' ■ extension of that system to long trains of freight cars, in securing a simultaneous application of brakes to each of perhaps forty or fifty cars in .such a train, and • finally in bringing about the instantaneous as well as simultaneous application of such brakes in cases s of emergency, when the speediest possible stoppage of the train is desired to avoid a catastrophe.

Patent No. 88,929, issued April 13, 1869, appears to have been the earliest of the Westinghouse series. This brake, known as the straight-air brake, consisted of an air-compressing pump, operated by steam from the locomotive boiler, by which air was' compressed into a reservoir, located under the locomotive, to a pressure of about eighty pounds to the square inch. This reservoir, being still in use, is now known as. the main reservoir. From this reservoir an air-pipe, usually called the train-pipe, led into the cab, where the Supply of air was regulated by an “ engineer’s valve,” thence down and back under the tender and cars, being united between the cars by a flexible hose with metal couplings, rendering the train-pipe continuous. These .couplings were automatically *546detachable; that is, while they kept their grip upon each other under the ordinary strains incident to the running of the train, they would readily pull apart under unusual strains, as when the car coupling broke and the train pulled in two.

From the train-pipe of each car, a branch pipe connected with -the forward end of a cylinder, called the “brake-cylinder,” which contained a piston, the stem of which wá's connected with the brake levers of the car. This piston was moved and the brakes applied, by means of compressed air admitted through the train-pipe and its branches, into the forward end of the brake-cylinder. When the brakes were to be applied, the engineer opened his valve, admitted the compressed air into the train-pipes and brake-cylinders, whereby the levers were operated and the brakes applied. To release the brakes, ne reversed the valve, whereby the compressed air escaped from the brake-cylinders, flowed forward along the train-pipe to the escape port of the engineer’s valve, thence into the atmosphere. Upon the release of the compressed air, the pistons of the brake-cylinders were forced forward again by means of springs, and the brake-shoes removed from the wheels. By means of this apparatus, the train might be wholly stopped or slowed down by a full or partial application of the brakes. As between a full stop and a partial stop, or slow speed, there was only a question of the amount of air to be released from the main reservoir. The validity of this patent was sustained by the Circuit Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Mr. Justice Swayne and Judge Welker sitting, in 1 Westinghouse v. The Air Brake Company, 9 Official Gazette, 538. The court said, in its opinion, that while Westinghouse was not the first to conceive the idea of operating railway brakes by air pressure, such fact did not detract at all from his merits or rights as á successful inventor; that the new elements introduced by him “ fully substantiated his pretensions as an original and meritorious inventor, and entitled him as such to the amplest protection of the law ; ” and that it appeared from the record and briefs that he was the first to put an air-brake into successful actual use.

While the application of this brake to short trains was *547reasonably successful, the time required for the air to pass from the locomotive to the rear cars of a long train (about one second per car) rendered it impossible to stop the train with the requisite celerity, since in a train of ten cars it would be ten seconds before the brakes could be applied to the rear car, and to a freight train of fifty cars nearly a minute. While the speed of the foremost car would be checked at once, those in the rear would proceed at unabated speed, and in their sudden contact with, the forward cars would produce such shocks as to often cause damage. As a train mov-'. ing at the rate of fifty miles an hour makes over seventy feet per second, a train of fifty cars would run half a mile before the brakes could be applied, to the rear car. So, too, if the rear end of the train became detached from the forward end by the rupture of the train-pipe or couplings, the brakes could not be applied at all, since the compressed air admitted to the train-pipe by opening the engineer’s valve would escape into the atmosphere without operating the brakes, or if the brakes were already applied, they would be instantly released when such rupture occurred.

The first step taken toward the removal of these defects resulted in what is known as “ the automatic brake” described first in patent No. 124,404 in a crude form, ánd, after several improvements, finally culminating in patent No. 220,556 of .1880. The salient features of this brake were an auxiliary reservoir beneath each car for the reception and storage of compressed air from the main reservoir, and a triple-valve, so •called, automatically controlling the flow of compressed air in three directions, by opening and closing, at the proper times, three ports or valve openings, viz.: 1. A port or valve known as the “feeding-in valve ” from-the train-pipe to thp/auxiliary reservoir, allowing the auxiliary reservoir to fill so as to be ready when-the brakes were applied-; 2. A port or valve from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake-cylinder, which allowed a flow of compressed air to apply the brakes, and was called the “main valve ;” 3. A port or valve from the brake-cylinder to the open air, denominated the “ release-valve,” to- be opened when it was desired to release the brakes.

*548The operation of these valves was as follows: Before the train starts, compressed air from the main reservoir is permitted to flow back through the train-pipe, and through valve No. 1, for the purpose of charging the auxiliary reservoir beneath each car with a full working pressure of air. When it is desired to apply the brakes, the engineer’s valve is shifted, and.the air in the train-pipe is allowed to escape into the atmosphere at the engine. Thereupon the compressed air in the auxiliary reservoir closes valve No. 1, leading to the terin-pipe, and opens the main valve No. 2, from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake-cylinder, whereby the piston of that cylinder operates upon the brake-levérs and applies the brakes. By this use of the auxiliary reservoirs a practically simultaneous application of the brakes is secured for each car. This application of the brakes is secured, not by direct application of compressed air from the engine through the train-pipe, but by a reverse action, whereby the air is allowed to escape from the train-pipe toward the engine, the pressure being applied by the air escaping from the auxiliary reservoirs. It also results that, if a train should pull in two, or a car become detached, the same escape of air occurs, the same action takes place automatically at the broken part, and the same result follows by the escape of the compressed air through the. separated couplings. When it is desired to release the brakes, the engineer’s valve is again shifted, and the compressed air not only opens valve No. 1 from the train-pipe to-the auxiliary reservoir, but valve No. 3 from the brake-cylinder to the open air, which allows the air from the brake-cylinder to escape and thus release the brake.

From this description it will be seen that the action of the automatic brake was, in fact, the converse of that of the straight air-brake, and that the result was to obviate the most serious defects which had attended the employment, of the former.

This automatic brake appears, in its perfected form, in patent No. 220,556, although this patent was but the culmination of a series of experiments, each successive step in which appears in the prior patents. Thus in patent No. 124,404, (1872,) *549is introduced the auxiliary reservoir beneath each car in connection with a double line of brake-pipes and a single cock ■with suitable ports for charging the reservoir and for operating the brakes — a device which was obviously the foundation of the triple-valve, which first made its appearance in patent No'. 141,685, (1873,) in which the main valve, which admitted air from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake-cylinder, was of the poppet form; and as a poppet-valve can govern only one port, separate valves had to be. provided for feeding in the air from the train-pipe to the auxiliary reservoir, and for discharging the air from the brake-cylinder to release the brakes. In subsequent patents, No. 144,006, (1873,) and No. 163,242, (issued in 1875 to C. H. Perkins and assigned to Westinghouse,) Mr. Westinghouse improved upon his prior devices by substituting a sliding-piston valve for the poppet form of main valve previously used by him. This enabled the piston to perform the feed-valve function of admitting air from the train-pipe to the auxiliary reservoir; the main-valve function of admitting air. from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake-cylinder to apply the brakes, and the release-valve function of discharging the air from the cylinder to release the brakes. In patent No. 168,359, (1875,) a piston actuating a slide-valve was substituted for the piston-valve, and, after a series of experiments, which did not seem to have been successful, he introduced into patent No. 217,838 the idea of venting the train-pipe, not only at the locomotive, but also under each car, in order to quicken the application of the brakes. Prior to this time, “ when the engineer desired to apply his brakes with full force he operated the valve at the engine and opened the port wide, letting the compressed air out of the train-pipe at the locomotive, then its only vent. The air, as before said, had to travel from the rear cars along the cars forward to the engine before it could lessen the pressure of the train-pipe air, . . . and before the brake-'cybnder could be operated with air from the auxiliary reservoirs. In a train of fifty cars it would have to travel nearly half a mile to get out at the engine.” He embodied in patent No. 220,556, (1879;) the most complete form of the automatic brake, and as stated by the *550court below, “ the ordinary work of braking was performed by a partial traverse of its chamber by the triple-valve piston graduated according to the purpose desired, at the will of the engineer, and emergency work was done by an extreme traverse of the piston to the end of its chamber.”

While the automatic brake had thus obviated the most important defects of the old or straight air-brake, and come into general use upon passenger trains throughout the country, it was found, in practice upon long freight trains, that the air from the auxiliary reservoirs did. not act with sufficient promptness upon the brakes'of the rear cars, where a particularly speedy- action was required, and that it would be necessary to devise some other means for cases of special emergency. In the business of transporting freight over long distances, the tendency has been in the direction of increasing the load by using stronger and heavier cars and larger locomotives. Upon a long train of this kind, composed of thirty to fifty cars, a demand was made for quicker action in cases of emergency than .had yet .been contemplated, although for ordinary work, such as checking the. speed of a train while running, holding it at a slow speed on a down grade, and also for making the ordinary, station stops, the automatic brake was still sufficient, and produced satisfactory results even in the equipment of long and' heavy trains. But however effective for ordinary purposes, the automatic brake did not sufficiently provide for certain emergencies, requiring prompt •action, and, therefore, failed in a single important particular.

Upon examination of these defects it was found that they could only be remedied by securing, (1) in cases of emergency,' a more abundant discharge .of compressed air into the brake-cylinder ; and (2) an escape of air near to each triple-valve without requiring the escaping air to travel all the way back to the engine. The latter device having been already embodied in patent No. 217,838, these features Mr. Westinghouse introduced into the patent in suit, by which a passage was opened directly from the train-pipe- filled from the main reservoir on.the engine,'to the brake-cylinder through which, in cases of emergency, the train-pipe air, instead of being dis*551charged into the atmosphere, could pour directly from the train-pipe into the brake-cylinder. This operation . resulted in charging the brake-cylinder and applying the brakes more quickly than before, and also, by reason of the fact that the filling of the brake-cylinder from the train-pipe on one car made what was, in effect, a local vent for the release of pressure sufficient to operate the valve on the next car behind, each successive valve operated more quickly than when a diminution of pressure was caused by an escape of air only at the locomotive. The direct passage of the air from the. train-pipe to the brake-cylinder was effected by a valve (41), colored red in the' above diagrams, which is never opened except in cases of emergency. In ordinary .cases, when' the brakes are desired to be applied, sufficient air is released from the train-pipe to open the passage from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake-cylinder by what is called a preliminary traverse of the piston (12), but when a quick action is required sufficient air is drawn from the train-pipe, not only to open this passage, but by a further traverse of the piston, to shove valve 41 off its port, and introduce air directly from the train-pipe to the brake-cylinder, as shown in the following drawings.