Improvements in and Connected with Railway Carriage Axles.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Jan., 1887
Complete Left, 28th Oct., 1887
Complete Accepted, 29th Nov., 1887
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with Railway Carriage Axles.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of 53, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents, do hereby
declare the nature of this Invention (a communication to me from abroad by William
John Murray of Jolon in the County of Monterey and State of California United
States of America Blacksmith) to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object to avoid undue torsional strain upon the axle, and
also the wearing away of the wheels due to slipping upon the rails. The axle is
divided at the middle, the abutting ends being formed with flanges or heads which are
enclosed in bearings or boxes, the lower half of which is formed with an oil receptacle
to which oil is conveyed by ducts in the upper half supplied through pipes extending
to the sides of the vehicle and closed by caps. The wheels mounted on the separate
sections of the axle may turn independently and so that wheels with cylindrical treads
may be used instead of the conical treads used when the wheels are rigidly connected
by an undivided axle. The central bearings are carried by a central longitudinal
beam which is braced and supported against the side thrust of the divided axle.
Dated this 3rd day of January 1887.
A. MELVILLE CLARK.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and Connected with Railway Carriage Axles.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of
53. Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention (a communication to me from
abroad by William John Murray of Jolon in the County of Monterey and State of
California United States of America, Blacksmith), and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
The Invention consists in the peculiar construction and arrangement of parts, as
hereinafter fully described and pointed out in the claims.
Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this
specification in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all
the figures.
Figure 1 is a plan view of a car truck provided with the improved axle. Figure 2
is a side view of the same, certain portions of the truck being shewn in section taken
on line figure 1, and figure 3 is a cross-sectional view taken on line y-y
figure 1.
The axle forming the subject matter of this application and illustrated in the drawings
above referred to consists essentially of two similar sections A, A', the inner ends of
each section being formed with a flange or collar a. The wheels B, B, are secured to
the sections of the axle in the ordinary manner, and the outer end of each section is
mounted in bearings C of ordinary construction. The inner ends of each section of
the axle, however, which ends abut the one against the other, are mounted in
boxes D, D', that are carried by the central longitudinal beam E, of the truck, the
lower box D being formed with an oil receptacle c, oil being delivered thereto through
ducts e, e,
formed in the box D', and said ducts being fed by pipes F, F, which lead
to and are supported by the outer timbers G of the truck, each pipe F being
closed by a cap which prevents the entrance of cinders, dust, or matter of any
kind which would be liable to enter and clog the pipes if their open ends were
not protected as described.
The longitudinal timber E is braced and supported against the side thrust
of the axle by means of bracing irons H, H, that are bolted to the timber
and also to the truck frame, each iron being formed with branch arms h, h, h², h²,
which said branch arms are bolted to the truck timbers, as clearly shown in the
drawings.
From the construction described it will be readily understood that each truck wheel
will be free to turn at any rate of speed desired, so that in passing around curves, the
speed of each wheel will correspond with the distance it has to travel, it being, of course
undarstood that the wheels upon the outer rail necessarily travel faster than do the
wheels upon the inner rail; and by constructing the axle as described, I am able to use

page_text: a wheel the tread of which is parallel with the axis of the wheel instead of being
tapering toward the end of the axle, as is the case with wheels that are rigidly connected
to an undivided axle.
The advantage of this construction is very great in view of the fact that all undue
torsional strain upon the axle is avoided, as is also the wearing away of the wheel due
to the sliding of the wheels upon the rails, as when the wheels so slide they become
worn and rough and run very unevenly, thus producing a continual jolting of the cars
and hammering the rails, so that they soon become worn and irregular.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention and the manner of performing the same, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The combination with a car axle formed in sections, each section being provided
with a flange a, of boxes D, D¹, the box D being provided with an oil receptacle c,
while the box D¹ is formed with ducts e, and tubes F leading to the box D¹, substantially
as described.
2. The combination with a centrally divided car axle, of boxes D, D¹, formed
respectively with an oil receptacle c, and ducts e, and tubes F, leading to the box D
and supported by the car truck, the open ends of the tubes being closed by caps f
substantially as described.
3. The combination with a car truck, of a centrally divided axle supported in boxes
carried by a central longitudinal timber E and bracing irons H formed with arms h, h¹,
substantially as described.
A. MELVILLE CLARK.
By A. M. & Wm. Clark,
53, Chancery Lane, London,
Patent Agents.