IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGE SPRINGS
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles William Bell at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition,
on the 6th May 1853.
(Void by reason of notice to proceel not having been given within the
time prescribed by the Act.)
I, CHARLES WILLIAM BELL, of the City of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Physician, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGE SPRINGS" to be as follows:-
Instead of the various kinds of springs now in use for wheeled
vehicles, all of which have their action direct, and nearly vertical,
between the weight and support, thus making very imperfect provision
for controlling the horizontal motions of the body of the carriage, I
propose to provide both for the horizontal and vertical motion, so that
it will be impossible so to place the spring as to maintain a direct
vertical bearing between a fixed point in the body and a fixed point in
the under carriage or axle, as in the ordinary forms of carriage springs.

page_text: J propose to accomplish these objects by using rigid levers bearing
upon elastic fulcra, or rigid levers combined with elastic springs, in
such a manner that by their conjoint action they shall yield to and
control the motions communicated from the bed and axles to the body
of the carriage in a similar manner to the motion of the parallel ruler.
"I propose to use the levers of any convenient form or shape, each of
which shall have two points of bearing, one connected by a hinge or
joint with the body of the carriage, the other by a joint with the under
carriage, or direct with the axle, acting much in the same manner as
the connecting bars of the parallel ruler, so as to confine the motion of
the body to a gliding horizontal as well as a vertical motion, in place of
the perpendicular jerk that results from a spring acting vertically.
These levers may be single or double in the position usually occupied
by the carriage springs, or they may be reduplicated one above another
in the manuer of the double parallel ruler; as, for example, one between
the body and lock or fore carriage, and one between the lock or fore
carriage and axle, acting in opposite directions. These levers act
upon elastic fulcra or springs more or less fixed to them; the points.
upon which these fulcra are made to bear on the lever will vary accord-
ing to the strength of the spring employed, and the load to be sup-
ported.
The springs may be of various forms and materials, but I prefer
those which are the stiffest and quickest in their reaction, and least
subject to large compression, as vulcanized india-rubber, the stiff spiral
spring used in railway buffers, or the oval steel spring; although by a
inodification of their application even the lightest springs may be ren-
dered applicable. Where one lever acting on one spring is used as a
substitute for one ordinary, simple, or compound vertical spring, the
spring employed must rest at one of its two points of bearing on some
point of the lever, and the other point of bearing must abutt against
either the body or under carriage, or both. But these points of bearing
of the spring will vary according to the proportionate strength or resist-
ance of the spring to the load and the modes of applying the force of
the spring so as to sustain the lever at a sufficient angle to the hori-
zontal plane against the weight are so various that I consider it

page_text: unnecessary to give further detail in this my-Provisional-Specification-
I would, however, observe that this Invention would be incomplete
without the means of controlling the upward as well as the downward
motion of the load, which I accomplish by a counteracting spring upon
the lever. I also adjust the bearing of the spring on a greater or less
length of leverage, so as to adapt their combined action to sustain a
load much lighter, or much heavier, than the carriage is ordinarily
used to carry. 7