IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES.
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Woodlands Makinson, of Westminster, in
the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and William Fothergill Batho,
of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Mechanical Engineer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES.
Makinson and William Fothergill Batho at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 28th February 1862.
We, ALEXANDER WOODLANDS MAKINSON, of Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, and WILLIAM FOTHERGILL BATHO, of Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," to be as
follows:-
Our improvements consist in a new arrangement and combination of parts
forming a single cylinder locomotive engine, the object of which is to avoid the
oscillatory motion which occurs in locomotive engines of the present construc-
tion when running at great speed. We use one cylinder only, which we so
place that its longitudinal section shall coincide with that of the engine, both
taken centrally. We make provision for applying to the rim of one or both
driving wheels a pressure equal to that necessary to start the train from a
state of rest. This pressure we apply by special arrangements, and those we
prefer we now describe, although there may be other arrangements for applying
this pressure. A shaft fixed on standards attached to the foot plate or any
convenient part of the engine, so as to be of easy access, we cause to revolve
by applying either manual or steam power. On this shaft is a worm which

page_text: gears either directly or through the intervention of a pinion with teeth in the
tyre of the driving wheel; or power, either manual or steam, may be trans-
mitted through grooved or toothed wheels and pinions to a pair of discs on
either side the driving wheels, which discs are made to clutch the driving
wheel when required; either arrangement may be thrown in or out of gear
with the driving wheel at pleasure. We apply counterweights equal to the
weight of the piston and reciprocating parts, to which we give not a revolving
but a reciprocating motion, in an opposite direction to that of the piston, but as
nearly as possible of the same range, as well as revolving counterweights equal
to the weight of the crank and revolving parts in the driving axle, and applied
at the same distance from the centre of the axle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson and William Fothergill
Batho in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th August 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXANDER
WOODLANDS MAKINSON, of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, and WILLIAM FOTHERGILL BATHO, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Mechanical Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson and William Fothergill Batho,
Her special licence that we, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson and
William Fothergill Batho, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson and William
Fothergill Batho, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Alexander Woodlands Makinson and William Fothergill Batho, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or
one of our or their hands and. seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be

page_text: performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson
and William Fothergill Batho, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particu
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statenient (that is to
say):
The object of our Invention is to reduce the oscillatory motion which occurs
in locomotive engines of the ordinary construction when running at speed, to
reduce in number and simplify the working parts of the engine, and to reduce
the friction and resistances to onward motion. To effect this object and to
adapt the engine to the requirements of actual traffic, we construct the engine
with one cylinder only, which we place in the mid section of the engine; we
counterbalance the reciprocating parts of the engine, the piston, piston rod;:
cross head, and half the weight of the connecting rod, by weights having a
reciprocating motion in an opposite direction to that of those parts, and wo
enable the driver of the engine readily to start the engine at whatever part
of the stroke the piston may be. The manner of doing this is explained in
detail by the Sheet of Drawings hereto attached, and by the following
explanation of them :-
Fig. 1 is an elevation of so much of the engine as is necessary to explain'
our Invention; Fig. 2 is a plan; and Fig. 3, a cross section.. The same
letters are used to denote the same parts in all the Figures.
A is the cylinder, having its centre line in the centre line of the engine;
B is a wrought-iron piece.shrunk on to the cross head, and having one arm
extending over and another under each set of slide bars; these arms actuate
the levers C, C, through the connecting rods D, D; the levers C, C, have their
fulcrumns at E, E, which are supported by the bars F, F; these bars are
attached to the cylinder cover at the one end, and to the boiler bracket at the
other. The levers C, C, are connected at their other ends to the counterweights
G, G, by means of connecting rods D', D', similar to D, D. These counter-
weights are carried by and slide in brackets attached to the frame of the
engine, or in any other convenient manner; they are in weight about equal to
the weight of the piston, piston rod, and attachments, cross head, and half the
connecting rod, and have a reciprocating motion equal to but in opposite
directions to the piston. Their vis inertia throws upon the inside framing
F, F, and F, F', and through them upon the driving axle pressures,
which counteract the pressures thrown upon it by the vis inertia of the

page_text: piston, piston rod, cross head, and half of the connecting rod, &c. The
crank and other half of the connecting rod may be balanced in the usual way
by the revolving weights. The apparatus we prefer for starting the engine,
which needs only to be employed when the piston is at or near the end of the
stroke, consists of the friction discs H, H', which are carried by the swing
frame 1, and are brought into gear with the tyre, and under pressure by means
of the hand wheel I', placed within easy reach of the engine driver. This hand
wheel is fixed on and revolves with the shaft K, which communicates motion
through the bell crank L and connecting rods M to the swing frame I. The
discs H, H, are made of wrought iron case-hardened or of steel. They are
not parallel to each other in their working faces where they embrace the
driving wheel, but are slightly inclined. The tyre of the driving wheel is
turned down on its edges to the same inclination or wedge shape. The disc.
wheel H is made with a shank or spindle, which is turned and works freely in
a hole bored in the swing frame to receive it; this shank or spindle is made
long enough to project through the swing frame and receive the other disc H',,
which is keyed securely on to it. On the periphery of this disc are cut teeth,
into which the worm N works, and through which motion is given to the discs,
and thence to the driving wheel, by means of turning the hand wheel O, which
is keyed on to the same shaft P as tho worm N.
Having now described the nature and particulars of our said Invention, wo
desire it to be understood that we claim the general arrangement and com-
bination of parts forming a single cylinder locomotive engine, as herein
described and illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson, for
and on behalf of myself and the said William Fothergill Batho, have.
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
EDWARD T. HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
123, Chancery Lane,
London.
A. W. MAKINSON. (L.S.)