CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON CARRIAGES, WHICH MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO SHIPS, BOATS, AND OTHER PURPOSES WHERE LOCOMOTION IS REQUIRED
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
JOHNSTON, of Hillhouse, in the County of Edinburgh, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of July, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander
Johnston, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that I,
the said Alexander Johnston, iny exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alexander Johnston, my exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON CARRIAGES, WHICH MAY ALSO BE APPLIED TO SHIPS,
BOATS, AND OTHER PURPOSES WHERE LOCOMOTION IS REQUIRED;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Alexander Johnston,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Johnston, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
consists in the application of guide wheels or rollers to railway and other

page_text: carriages, attached to the sides of each carriage, and placed so as to act against
the side or edge of the rails, in order to prevent or diminish the friction and
consequent loss of the moving power, stripping or injuring the rails, and other
disadvantages arising from the flanges rubbing on the rails. In the case of
railway carriages and locomotive engines having four or six wheels, two guide
rollers may be placed near to the rail on each side of the carriage, secured
upon the ends of stays (or arms) made to reach to the opposite side of the
under part of the carriage, and there fixed in any convenient way. These
stays may also have lateral or cross stays to steady them, attached either to the
axle trees or the bottom of the carriage. In passenger and other railway
carriages having springs, the stays which hold the guide rollers with their
lateral cross stays may be fixed to a horizontal bar or stay, attached to and
connecting the axle boxes on each side of the carriage, and thus avoid the
motion caused by the action of the springs. These horizontal bars may also
be used to supply the place of the connecting rods between the axle boxes at
present in use. The rollers may be inserted and held in forks formed
in the ends of the stays, and be made to turn on a pin or axle. These
pins may be made to run in a socket at the lower end, and may have a
socket on the upper end turning on a male pivot fixed in the upper arm
of the fork of the stays, these sockets being so constructed as to hold a supply
of oil for lubrication. The stays should also be inclined upwards, and, if
necessary, curved or bent to hold the guide rollers in a similar position, to enable
them to pass points and switches in the line of railway. The rollers may be
made of any suitable size, from a few inches to any larger diameter, and may
be placed some distance from the middle of the carriage between the axles, or
beyond them and nearer to the front and back ends of the carriage; as may
be preferred. These rollers, being intended to supersede or form a substitute
for flanges, may also be placed somewhat nearer to the rails than the medium
distance of the ordinary flanges as at present in use, but so as to allow
sufficient play to the carriage. The rollers should also be of such thickness
and breadth in the peripheries and so placed as to have sufficient bearing
when acting on the rails. The rollers, being placed in an inclined position,
may be made similar to the base of a cone, and thus present a vertical surface
to the rail. A similar apparatus may also be applied to carts and other
vehicles to adapt them for being used also on railways wholly or partially laid
on common roads; carts having two wheels, two (instead of four) guide rollers
may be used, one on each side, and in carriages having four wheels an addi-
tional pair may be applied, one whereof being so placed as to guide the hinder
and the other the fore wheels. In either case the rollers may be affixed on

page_text: stays as already described with reference to railway carriages, but with the
difference, whether two or more rollers are used, that there should be suitable
provision made by the use of joints, with levers or other suitable apparatus, to
admit of the rollers with their stays being easily lifted and held up free of the
ground when the carriage leaves the rails and travels on an ordinary road, and
again to be let down when entering on another portion of line of railway.
By applying the above-described apparatus to carts and other carriages, rails
may be laid down along either side of the steeper parts of turnpike and other
roads or streets, to afford greater facility of ascending them with loads.
Carriages having broad wheels may also, for the better suiting them to have
the guide rollers applied beneficially, have the tires made somewhat hollow,
which will dispose them to remain on the rails without any sensible incon-
venience to their being used on ordinary roads or upon rails adapted for
narrow wheels, and which rails may be somewhat broader than the tires of the
narrow wheels, and slightly hollow along the line on the top. Railway carriages
may also by the before-described apparatus be adapted to travel either on rails
or on ordinary roads, and admit of having their wheels made of a simpler and
less expensive construction, the flanges not being required.
The guiding
apparatus may likewise be applied to railway carriages having flanges as at
present in use by placing the guide rollers somewhat nearer to the rails than
the medium distance of the flanges, as before described. Railway carriages
may also, by means of the guide rollers before described, have their motion
promoted instead of retarded, as at present constructed, by a side wind, and
for that purpose they may be fitted up with sails, where this can be done.
without interfering with bridges in the line of railway.
In conclusion, I would have it understood that I have in the foregoing
description given such a detail of my improvements as will enable any compe-
tent workman fully to understand their application to carriages moving either
on railroads or op lines of rail laid upon common roads or streets; and as these
improvements are susceptible of various modifications without departing from
my Invention; I have deemed it unnecessary to give any illustrative Drawings,
as these must depend entirely upon the nature of the rails, the weight of the
carriages, and other circumstances, and may be so arranged as to apply either
to the inner or outer edges of the rails indifferently, or to both edges of only
one of the rails, as may be preferred; nor do I confine myself to the materials
that may be used therein. And I claim the exclusive use of rollers for the
purposes above described, either on railroads or lines of rails laid upon common
roads or streets; and although in the latter case I have suggested that the rails

page_text: be formed hollow along the line, yet I do not claim under my Patent any
right to such or any other description of rails, these forming no part of my
Invention; nor do I claim any right to the exclusive use of sails for propelling
carriages, nor any other thing or process herein mentioned or described,
except the use of guide rollers as above described and claimed by me.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Johnston, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.

page_text: Enroned the 23rd January 1945.
En the Matter of a Patent granted to Alexander Johnston, of Hillhouse,
in the County of Edinburgh, Esquire, for his Invention of "Certain
Improvements on Carriages which may also be applied to Ships,
Boats, and other Purposes where Locomotion is required," bearing
date at Westminster the Twenty-third day of July, One thousand
eight hundred and forty-two.
DISCLAIMER AND MEMORANDUM OF ALTERATION proposed to be
entered by the said Alexander Johnston with the Clerk of the Patents
of England, pursuant to an Act passed in the fifth and sixth year of the
reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, intituled "An Act
to amend the Law touching Letters Patents for Inventions."
I, the said Alexander Johnston, do declare that since I obtained the said
Letters Patent I have discovered that the Invention which was intended to
have been described under that part of the title which is contained in the
following words, "which may also be applied to ships, boats, and other
purposes where locomotion is required," is not of such practical utility as
would make it desirable to retain it in the said Patent, for which reason I am
desirous to and do hereby disclaim all that part of the title which is contained
in the following words, "which may also be applied to ships, boats, and other
purposes where locomotion is required."
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Johnston, have hereunto set
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
my
ALEX JOHNSTON. (L.S.)
To the Clerk of the Patents of England.
This is to certify that the above-named Alexander Johnston, of Hillhouse,
in the County of Edinburgh, Esquire, has applied to me for leave to enter with
you the above-written Disclaimer and Memorandum of Alteration of part of
the title and Specification of a certain Invention for which Letters Patent
were duly granted him under the Great Seal of Great Britain, dated at West-
minster the Twenty-third day of July, One thousand eight hundred & forty-
two; and having considered of the said application, and no objection having
been made to the same, I have accordingly granted leave to the said Alexander
Johnston to file his said Disclaimer & Memorandum of Alteration, pursuant

page_text: to the Statute passed in the fifth & sixth years of the reign of His late Majesty
King William the Fourth, entitled "An Act to amend the Law touching
Letters Patent for Inventions."
Chancery Lane, this 21st day of Jan: 1843,
before me,
R. RICHARDS,
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that, on the oath of William Henry Ritchie,
the Specification aforesaid was enrolled word for word as above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-third day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-three.