Grinding brake
A drag brake is a brake in which a brake pad acts directly on the running surface of a wheel .
The material of the brake pad is selected depending on the material of the wheel - rubber pads are used for bicycle drag brakes , which are rarely used today, while brake pads made of soft wood such as poplar or spruce are used for carriage drag brakes on historic carriages that act on iron-tyred wheels. Cast iron brake blocks were also used in light carriages, but also on large Swiss stagecoaches, but these had the disadvantage of producing quite a lot of noise, as is also known today from older railway brakes.
The wheels of Freiherr Karl von Drais were already equipped with a sliding brake.
Sliding brakes are rarely used on vehicles these days . However, they are still popular, for example, on fishing, where a brake block resting on the spool is supposed to prevent the spool from turning faster than the line runs out towards the end of the cast when the bait is slowing down. Most rollators and luggage trolleys are also equipped with drag brakes .