CONTINUOUS BAILWAY BRAKES. 



169 



them, and described them in a paper read before the Society 

 of Arts in 1801. This brake was applied to a common cart 

 running on rails. A description of it will be found in Mr. 

 M. Reynolds's work on Continuous Brakes. 



In Le Caan's brake the brake blocks surround about half 

 the circumference of the wheel ; in the modern brake the 

 proportion of the circumference to be braked is equally 

 shared by two brake-blocks, between which the wheel is 

 gripped. 



Very simple forms of brakes sufficed for the earliest 

 railway trains ; but with the growth and extension of the 

 railway system, improved means were required for the more 

 complete control of trains ; and as the usual speed and the 

 weight and number of trains to be managed increased 

 rapidly, and the demand thus became urgent, inventors 

 were stimulated to bring out many mechanisms for which 

 they claimed increased efficiency in arresting trains. 



Railway engineers and many others connected with the 

 design and manufacture of rolling stock, when questioned 

 on the subject, say this has been their experience ; but it is 

 not until one has had occasion oneself to search the records 

 of railway bi-ako inventions that one realizes properly the 

 amount of ingenuity that has been devoted to designing 

 railway brakes, and the great number of inventions of which 

 It has been productive. 



About 1875, the year when the Newark brake trials were 

 undertaken by the principal English railway companies at 

 the instigation of the J3oard of Trade, tlie stream of inven- 

 tions received a natural check ; not because inventive brains 

 were exhausted, but because the conditions a perfect brake 

 should satisfy had come to be more fully understood, and 

 the difficulty of designing a mechanism that would comply 

 With these conditions more perfectly realized. At the 



