IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELED CARRIAGES AND IN CARRIAGES AND OTHER VEHICLES."
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John George Harrison at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd June 1883.
JOHN GEORGE HARRISON of Birmingham in the County of Warwick Manager
of Works. "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELED CARRIAGES AND IN
CARRIAGES AND OTHER VEHICLES."
"
WHEELS FOR
My invention consists first in the construction of the folding heads of wheeled
carriages, as hereinafter described.
The folding head is thrown back to open the carriage, and again closed
automatically and retained respectively in its open and closed positions, in a
simple and efficient manner.
The parts or fittings of the carriage head described, consisting essentially of a
jointed stile, or falling pillar, jointed at its bottom, and situated at each side of
the carriage frame. At the top or upper part of the falling pillar a bracket or
plate is situated, the said plate has a slot or longitudinal opening formed therein,
The cant rail carrying
and making an angle to the plane of the falling pillar.
the carriage head or roof is jointed by a plate to the slotted bracket described.
A connecting rod is connected at its upper end to a link, jointed excentrically
to the jointed plate carrying the cant rail, the other or lower end of the connecting
rod is attached to the carriage frame, by an elbow joint and bracket.
The pin or joint connecting the end of the link with the connecting rod is
prolonged on one side, and constitutes a pin or stud with a head upon its end,
which said pin or stud traverses the slot in the bracket plate in order to give the
necessary motion through the link to the cant rail and with it, the roof of the
carriage. A coiled or helical spring passes from the pin or stud, or from the link
to the sides of the frame of the carriage, and attached thereto between the joint of
The combined result
the falling pillar and the elbow joint of the connecting rod.
of the arrangement described, is that when the falling pillar or stile is upright or
vertical, the cant rail is at right angles thereto, with the head of the carriage
closed, and retained in that position by the tension of the spring acting incidentally
through the mechanism described. On throwing back the head to open the
carriage, the neck of the pin or stud on the end of the link and connecting rod
travels, or moves up the slot in the bracket plate, and thereby automatically
raises the cant rail on its joint, until it is in a line with the falling pillar, therefore
the pin or necked stud is compelled to take a determinate course by being confined
within the slot or opening described and consequently the cant rail and with it
the roof of the carriage is raised and opened with great certainty and precision.
By the complete throwing back of the falling pillar and parts carried by it
beyond the main centres of the falling pillar and connecting rod, the folding head
of the carriage is completely opened and supported or held in its open and collapsed

page_text: condition, by the combined action of the spring in virtue of the positions of the
various centres of the parts of the mechanism described.
My invention consists secondly in the construction of the wheels of carriages
and other vehicles, in order to reduce to a minimum the concussion, shock or
jarring imparted to the spokes and through the wheel axle to the vehicle,
consequent upon the wheels of the vehicles encountering or passing over obstacles
or inequalities on their line of traction.
The object of my invention consists in interposing between the axle box and
the hub or spoke carrier of the wheel a yielding or elastic medium preferably of
vulcanised india-rubber, in order to perfectly isolate the rigid materials composing the
axle box and axle from the hub and spokes and other parts of the wheel. So that the
part of the hub immediately surrounding the axle box yields. or.complys to any.
sudden impact or concussion imparted to the wheel by passing over or coming in
contact with any obstacle on the path of traction.
The sleeve or axle box of the axle has an undercut shoulder formed thereon near
the cap end, and on the plain part of the other end of the box a short_length of
screw thread is formed. The rubber band constituting the tremor or shock isolating
material is of a cruciform shape in cross section, that is to say; it consists of a central
or principal band of the breadth of the hub or nave, and having on either-side the
said band undercut narrower bands or rings with V edges, and the whole made in
one-piece, the said V projecting edges of the elastic cushion or pad, takes into
corresponding cavities or undercuts formed in, or on the axle box and parts
constituting the hub or spoke carrier of the wheel-The hub or spoke carrier is -
composed of two rings or annular boxes with undercut shoulders or cavities formed
on the opposite ends of the respective rings or bands, the undercuts being suitably
formed to receive the V edges of the yielding cushion or rubber pad... A.nut.
with an undercut front edge screws upon the screwed part of the axle box
described.
• So that when the whole of the parts are connected together and the nut on the
axle box screwed home, the axle box, yielding cushion, compound_hub_or_spoke
carrier and screw nut are connected together and cannot be detached or
disconnected by lateral or vertical displacement; the edges of the central band of
the elastic cushion being exposed on the two faces of the hub. Holes or cavities
are formed at equal distances around the periphery of the compound hub for the
shanks of the spokes or radii of the wheel to fit into. The said shanks of the
spokes passing both through the outer and inner ring constituting the periphery
of the hub.
By the combined arrangement described the axle box and axle of the wheel
is completely isolated by a yielding material or by a stratum of yielding
material from the spokes, spoke band or compound hub periphery and other parts
of the wheel, thereby reducing or entirely preventing tremor, rattling or shocks
being created in the wheel or wheels; and also the carriage or other vehicle to
which the said wheel or wheels are, or may be attached.
Instead of the undercut flange-nut screwed upon the axle box as before
described, the said undercut flange for holding the rubber pad in its place may be 4
formed in one piece with the axle box instead of being detachable.
And further instead of the hub or spoke ring being made as before described, it
may be formed in two parts or halves bolted together by nuts or screws passing
through the spoke flange of the hub.
The elastic pad or yielding medium described may be made in halves, or in
sectional parts instead of in one piece as before described.