A New Servo-braking Mechanism.
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WE propose later to deal with any outstanding featurps of the exhibits at Olympia, but would like now to draw attention to the new servo-braking mechanism known as the Athimon and shown on the stand of Hall, Lewis and Co., Ltd. (No. 146 in the section devoted to carriage work). This brake
mechanism utilizes as an auxiliary force the gradual release of a powerful leaf spring contained in a small box devised for attachment to the chassis frame. Taking the ordinary layout of a brake system, it is common knowledge that, after the shoes are brought into contact with the drums by the pressure of the driver's foot upon the pedal, the extra pressure contained in the further movenient of the pedal is partly lost in the "spring" or " give " of the operating gear and only a part of the pressure thus applied by the driver is really converted into braking effort.
The idea of the Athimon servo mechanism is to counteract or balance out the energy which is thus lost in the distortion of the brake gear (that is to say, the rods, cross-tubes, joints and levers), leaving nearly all of the energy exerted by the driver available for securing contact between shoes and drums. The adjustment of the main pull rod, that is to say, the rod which extends from the pedal, is quite automatic in attion. a ratchet and pawl arrangement being interposed in the primary moving elements.
We are able to give a partly sectioned view of the apparatus, but we wish to go into the mechanism much more fully than time has so far allowed, in order to be able to explain it clearly.