CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE POWER
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Philippe Gabriel Bellet and Charles Mario
Philippe de Rouvre, of No. 27, Rue Mademoiselle, Versailles, Seine et
Oise, in the, Empire of France, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE POWER."
Sealed the 7th April 1865, and dated the 29th October 1864.
5
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Philippe Gabriel
Bellet and Charles Marie Philippe de Rouvre at the Office of the
1. Commissioners of Patents,; with their Petition, on the 29th October
1864.
We, LOUIS PHILIPPE GABRIEL BELLET and CHARLES MARTE PHILIPPE DE
ROUVRE, of No. 27, Rue Mademoiselle, Versailles, Seine et Oise, in the Empire
of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE POWER," to
be as follows, that is to say: -
Q Our Invention consists in the construction of a locomotive to run on rails
in a tunnel for the transmission of letters and for carrying passengers and
merchandise from one place to another.

page_text: The locomotive consists chiefly of a box or carriage supported on two pairs
of wheels; the motive wheels carry a certain number of electro-magnets, the
polar surfaces of which are flush with the felloes, and the opposite extremities
of which rest on the spokes and on the nave. Each of the bobbins sur-
rounding the magnets is in contact by one of its poles with a brass circle,
through which the current continually passes; the other pole is in contact
with a commutator, wedged on the axle by means of a non-conducting sub-
stance. Opposite each wheel is placed one of ese commutators, the
circular surface of which is composed of a series of segments, alternately con-
ductors and non-conductors, and on which rests a hammer in communication
with the current. The commutators are wedged on the nave in such a
manner that the isolating segment is placed with the conducting axis so that
the current travels from one wheel to another, and to enable the electro-
magnetising and therefore the attraction from the rail to be alternately
exercised for each revolution of the wheel a number of times, double the
number of the electro-magnets of one of the wheels. The current is created
by two threads stretching on the rail, and on which turn two small rollers,
one thread being attached to the brass receiver fixed on the axis of the wheel,
the other to two hammers, distributing alternately the current to the two
wheels by means of the commutators herein-before described.
Our system is also applicable to any locomotive in which the attractive
point is on the felloe of the wheel, and which possesses a transmitting power
of motion on a rail serving as armatures to the wheels.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Louis Philippe Gabriel Bellet and Charles Marie 2
Philippe de Rouvre in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th April
1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, LOUIS
PHILIPPE GABRIEL BELLET and CHARLES MARIE PHILIPPE DE ROUVRE, of
of No. 27, Rue Mademoiselle, Versailles, Seine et Oise, in the Empire of 3
France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year

page_text: of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Louis Philippe Gabriel Bellet and Charles Marie Philippe
de Rouvre, Her special licence that we, the said Louis Philippe Gabriel
Bellet and Charles Marie Philippe de Rouvre, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Louis Philippe Gabriel Bellet
and Charles Marie Philippe de Rouvre, 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 law-
fully 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY AS A MOTIVE
POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Louis Philippc
Gabriel Bellet and Charles Marie Philippe de Rouvre, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 Louis Philippe Gabriel Bellet and
Charles Marie Philippe de Rouvre, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be parti-
cularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference
being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists in the application of a certain principle, herein-after
described, for the construction of a locomotive to run on railways for the
transmission of letters, the carrying of passengers and merchandise from one
place to another.
And in order that our Invention may be better understood, we will
proceed to describe the same by reference to the annexed Drawing,
and to the figures and letters of reference marked thereon, that is to
say,-
Let O, Figure 1, represent a circle set on an undefined plane M, N; now
if on any point of its circumference, say, at c, for instance, we place a weight
sufficiently heavy to disturb the equilibrium in which the circle is set, the
weight will
I go down to the point E, where the circumference will be tangent
to the plane M, N, On account of such motion the center will be moved

page_text: in the direction of the arrow 0, 0', a distance exactly equal to F, E, and will
reach o¹.
Let us suppose now that the weight placed at C be replaced by an
attractive force acting from c to E, the effect produced will be the same.
Therefore, if within the circle we place from 0 to Can electro-magnet
arranged in such a manner that its polar surfaces be at C, and if on the other
hand the permanent plane M, N, be of iron so as to serve as an armature at
the moment that a voltaic current shall be made to pass in the electro-magnet
this latter will be attracted on the plane M, N, and the circle c will be
thrown, as herein-before described in the direction represented by the arrow.
These premises being understood, the force of our electro-magnet locomotive
consists mainly in the setting a pair of motive wheels on the hind part of the
frame of a carriage similar to the Crampton wheels of a locomotive. The
diameter varies according to the speed required and the use of the engine.
Each of them must be prepared with a number of electro-magnets, fitted
according to the radii of the circle, and their neutral points be near the
nave, at the moment the polar surface passes through the thickness of
the fellies and is externally on the same level. These wheels are
provided with flanges, and are made to run on iron rails, which serve for
armature. A commutator set on the axle of the motive wheels directs the
current, by which the electro-magnets are made to operate, to pass successively
on each of the latter, and consequently they operate alternately from the
point c, Figure 1, until the moment when the said electro-magnets are in
contact with the plane M, N, that is to say, with the rail. At that moment
the current is broken by 'the commutator, and the electro-magnet then in
contact loses its force, whilst the following one, which is at the point C,
receiving in its turn the magnetizing is attracted forward on the rail and
operates in its turn up to the point of contact, where the current is again
interrupted, and so on. By these means it will be seen that the wheel will
advance a space equal to E, F, at each attraction.
The locomotive herein-after described is especially adapted for the service
of the Post Office for carrying letters and similar parcels. And in large towns
by a proper system of underground railways uniting together the main post
office stations our Invention will render the greatest services.
With engines of a larger dimension, and by employing this railway, it will
afford the facility of communication between the most important towns of a
country by carrying the letters with a speed hitherto unknown.
Figures 2, 3, and 4 of the Drawing represent a locomotive as an application

page_text: of our Invention. The same letters of reference in each. of the three Figures
show parts which are similar. Figure 2 is a lateral elevation of the apparatus;
Figure 3 is the plan, and Figure 4 section of the wheel.
The locomotive is composed of two fore wheels R of small dimension, and of
two hind wheels R' of a larger diameter. These last wheels are in reality the
force and the motive power. These two sets of wheels are united together by
a frame c. Each motive wheel R' is composed, firstly, of an iron boss M, in
which are made twenty holes, serving for the setting of a similar number of
very short brass rods I); secondly, of twenty electro-magnets E, having one
of their extremities supported by the shoulders of the radii, and the opposite
extremities being on the level of the external part of the felly. The disposition
of the electro-magnets is so arranged that their bobbins rest internally on the
felly, whilst their polar surfaces cross through the felly externally, and is level
with it. The motive wheels are keyed on the axletree for the purpose of
crossing between them their radii, and therefore the electro-magnets which
compose them. Such position of the wheels on the axletree produces on the
rail an attraction for each fortieth part of the circumference run over. The
axletree by which the two motive wheels are connected carries the distributor o,
consisting of a commutator similar to those employed in apparatus for natural
philosophy. It is composed of two hardened caoutchouc discs, on the
circumference of which are alternately set twenty ivory and twenty platina
plates. On each of these latter is placed a rod, on which is fixed one of the
wires of the electro-magnets, and corresponds to it in the wheel between the
two circles, another entirely of platina having a smaller diameter is placed
and carries on its sides forty brass rods, each of them corresponding to an
electro-magnetic wire. This distributor keyed on the axletree is completely
isolated by the adjunction of the caoutchouc herein-before described. Under-
neath the circles a division plate F supported by two cross pieces T is placed,
and carries the spring hammers V of the commutator.
This division plate
consists of an ivory plate having two slide bars, through which pass the stems
of the hammers. By this means and with adjusting screws their length is
regulated. These two hammers are composed of steel springs having their
extremity provided with a brass prism, the stopper of which is in permanent
contact with the circumference of the distributor circles. A brass plate
connects these hammers together, and the electric current can thereby pass
from one to the other; they are in communication by a bolt and a moveable
rod with a grooved roller G, serving to bring them the current. Another
roller is in direct communication with a spring bearing on the brass circle of

page_text: the distributor. In the centre of the two rails forming the line are two
metallic wires H, similar to telegraphic wires, and on which run the brass
rollers herein-before referred to. These wires are in direct communication
with a battery placed at one extremity of the line. By such arrangements we
avoid, firstly, the inconveniencies of having a battery close to the passage of
letters and parcels; secondly, the difficulties of properly handling a large
number of voltaic apparatuses, and the expenses attending the transport of
considerable dead weight. It will be therefore required to fitat fixed stations
a battery, as is done for the telegraphic lines, and which battery by means of
the conductors will supply with electric current the apparatus during their
transit.
By the arrangements herein-before described the current produced by the
.battery runs through one of the conductor wires, passes on its grooved roller G,
with which it is in contact, crosses the division plate F to reach the hammer V
in juxtaposition with one of the distributor platina plates. The current then
follows the wire conducting to an electro-magnet E, and egressing through
the second electrode of that magnet, passes the platina disk Q through the
spring in contact with it, and returns to the battery by following the second
roller and the conductor wire opposite to the one it had started from. As we
have herein-before described the force instantaneously produced in the electro-
magnets causes on each attraction a displacement of the wheel, and con-
sequently a corresponding motion of the distributor circles. On account of
this movement the hammer in contact with a platina plate is moved on an
ivory plate. The current being now stopped on that side passes through the
opposite hammer, which in consequence of the crossing of the radii, as herein-
before described, is in contact with a metallic plate. The electric current
travels alternately from one motive wheel to the other, and each of these
wheels is behind the other at a distance of one-fortieth part of their circum-
ference. To stop one of these apparatus when travelling it suffices to break
by any means whatever the electric current giving the impulse to the engine.
The electro-magnets will cease to work, and the locomotive will be soon
stopped.
.
And having now described the nature of our Invention, and the best mode
of putting the same into execution, we declare that we do not restrict
ourselves to the precise details herein-before laid down, provided the principle
of our Invention be retained; but what we claim and intend to be protected
by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, every kind of locomotive
deriving its motive power from one or more attractive points produced on the

page_text: circumference of the fellies of wheels, the attraction taking place between
these points and the plane on which the wheels are running, as herein-before
described, reference being had to the letters and figures of the Drawing.
In witness whereof, we the said Louis Philippe Gabriel Bellet and
Charles Marie Philippe de Rouvre, have hereunto set our hands and
seals, this Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
0 Witness,
H³. GILBEE,
No. 10, Rue de la Fidélité,
27th April 1865.
Paris.
L. P. G. BELLET.
(L.B.)
C. M. P. DE ROUVRE, (L.S.)