CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARRIAGES OR OTHER MACHINES TO BE MOVED OR PROPELLED BY MECHANICAL MEANS
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
GORDON, of Basinghall Street, in the City of London, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Eighteenth day of December, in the fifth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said David
Gordon, His especial licence, that I, the said David Gordon, my exors, admors,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said David Gordon, my exors, adiñors,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CARRIAGES
OR OTHER MACHINES TO BE MOVED OR PROPELLED BY MECHANICAL MEANS;" in which
said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said David
Gordon, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
David Gordon, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention by the
following description thereof, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed and carried into effect, by the Drawing which is hereunto annexed,
reference being thereunto had, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, as
follows (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists in a particular arrangement of mechanism herein-after
to be described for the purpose of propelling or driving a locomotive carriage
over a railway or common road, or for propelling ploughs, harrows, or other
agricultural machines or implements. This action is performed by the
operation of a number of rods or propellers, which rods or propellers are
attached at one of their extremities to a like number of cranks situated upon
one common axis across the carriage near to the hind part thereof, whilst their
outermost extremities are formed, as will be herein-after described, so as to be
capable of seizing the ground in a sufficient degree to propel or drive the carriago
or other machine aforesaid forwards, being at the same time connected by rods
or cords with the extremities of certain levers, which are operated upon by an
equal number of excentric shapes or wheels, the said excentric wheels being all
fixed upon one common axis, receiving its rotary motion by a pair of equal cog
wheels from the main crank axis. By the said arrangement, as the crank
axis and excentric wheel axis are caused to revolve with equal velocity by any
adequate power applied to them, the rods or propellers aforesaid will be forced or
thrown out backwards (or in the contrary direction to that in which the carriago
is desired to be moved), and by the form or shape of the excentric wheels
the outermost extremities of the propellers will only remain in contact with
the ground at the time when they are moving with the greatest velocity,
or nearly so; at other times the extremities will, by the action of the excentric
wheels, be taken up entirely off the ground. Thus a continuous action will be
kept up to propel the carriage or other machine or implement forwards.
Fig. 1 upon the Drawing which is hereunto annexed will serve to explain the
form of a carriage which I propose to employ for the said purpose. It is con-
structed according to a plan for which I obtained a Patent, dated Fourteenth
day of August one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one. This carriage has
only three wheels, and is therefore guided with much facility; besides which, it
presents a large uninterrupted space near the ground to receive and contain the
necessary machinery, steam engine, or other prime moving power,
The space
marked A, A, A, A, is devoted to the engine and machinery.
The space
B, B, B, B, is devoted to the conveyance of luggage. The front part, C, C, C, C,
is alapted to receive four inside passengers or four passengers of the first

page_text: class, and the part D, D, D, D, is adapted to receive twelve outside pas-
sengers. E represents the conductor's seat, which is situated in front, so that
he may be capable of looking out clear over the road which the carriage is
to travel; the conductor is also supposed to possess a control over the entire
machine, by having rods or cords coming to him from all such parts as may
require attention; and by the whole carriage, machinery, and all, being mounted
or suspended upon springs upon the bed or part to which the wheels are
affixed the motion would be very easy. Fig. 2 and 3 upon the annexed
Drawing will serve to explain the mechanism for propelling the said locomo-
tive carriage forwards upon a railway or common road. F represents the main
crank axis, which in the Drawing is supposed to have eight cranks formed out
of it, each of which said cranks has a rod or propeller jointed to it, similar to
what is represented at G. These propellers I construct of metal, and make
them hollow in the form of tubes, so as to contain a wooden rod within the
tubular part thereof. The outermost extremities of the propellers are secured
to arched pieces of metal or feet 9, the curve of which arcs is performed by a
radius about equal to the radius of the cranks F, and the under surfaces of the
curves or feet are shod, according to my improvements, with pieces of cork,
short hair, whalebone, or other suitable material, set on end like a stiff hard
brush; the said substances to project a short distance beyond the points or
extremities of iron teeth. Thus, if the flexible material should yield in any con-
siderable degree, the points of the iron teeth aforesaid would come into contact
with the ground, and would act as propellers to advance the carriage forwards.
During the winter, when the surface of the ground is covered with ice or hard
snow, I intend to furnish the under surfaces of the said curves or feet
with steel points, which may project sufficiently to seize the ground, and
propel the carriage forwards. The uppermost parts of the curves or feet g
are loaded with lead or other ponderous material, in order to render them
sufficiently heavy to operate in a proper manner upon the ground. The
extreme ends of the propellers are formed on the upper surface to a
joint or knuckle h, and have slight metal rods H jointed to them, which
said rods proceed upwards, and are attached to the extremities of a
number of arms or levers I moving upon a fixed center at K. The levers
I are guided in their motions sideways by sliding through openings or slits in
a kind of curved grating l, m, and they have a small pulley or roller n
working into a groove or mortice in a projecting piece from the under side of
each lover. The small rollers n are adapted to bear upon the upper surfaces
of the shapes or excentric wheels L, which said wheels are mounted upon an
axis or shaft M turning in bearings supposed to be screwed to the carriage

page_text: frame.
The main crank axis F is furnished with a cog wheel fat each end
thereof, as seen at f, f, in Fig. 3, one of which wheels is represented at f
in Fig. 2 by a dotted circle only. This wheel communicates motion to another
cog wheel of equal diameter and number of teeth fixed upon the end of the
excentric wheel shaft M. Thus both the said shafts are caused to revolve with
equal velocities, and the shape or situation of the curves or excentric wheels is
such that the levers I, by the aid of the rods H, are adapted to allow the
under sides of each of the propelling feet 9 to remain upon the ground during
the motion of the cranks from No. 1 to No. 8, and then to raise the feet 9 up
from the ground by the excentric part of the wheels L from No. 8, by No. 7,
to No. 6, cach of the feet remaining clear of the ground from No. 6 to No. 2,
and then descending at the part from 2 to 2. By this means, as there are
eight cranks, represented in the Drawing by the Figures 2 and 3, so there
would be eight propellers G and eight rods H, with their levers I, and excen-
tric wheels L, which, by operating in a regular succession, would tend to
produce a continuous and uniform action upon the carriage to propel it
forwards, the cranks being so arranged relatively to the propellers that the
said propellers may come upon the ground first on one side of the centre line
of the carriage, then upon the opposite side of the centre line, thereby avoiding
any degree of sile motion or rigling of the carriage along the ground;
and in order that the cranks may be sufficiently stiff I proposo to insert a
support or collar between every pair of cranks, as will appear evident from
inspection of the parts q, q, Fig. 3. Each of the propellers G will be guided
in its motion sideways by working through a groove or slit formed in the
lower part or bottom piece of the hinder part of the carriage, as represented
by o, p, in Fig. 2. They will each of them have a line attached to it, being
conveyed over pullies along the uppermost part of the carriage to the con-
ductor, in order that he may arrange the working of the same according to the
nature of the road over which he has to travel, or in turning round a corner.
This latter movement of raising up some of the propellers from the ground will
act very conveniently along with the simple turning of the front wheel of the
carriage. I should at the same time recommend that the wheels were each
provided with a gripe or break, the handle of which were within the power
of the conductor, so that he might descend a hill without difficulty or risque;
and in travelling up hilly ground it will be found very advantageous to have
transverse pieces of wood or other sufficiently hard material disposed across the
breadth of the road betweens the lines of railway, the said pieces being placed
at about five or six inches asunder, as may be found most convenient for the
feet of the propellers to act against in propelling the carriage. The aforesaid

page_text: mechanism will be found equally applicable to the propelling of ploughs,
harrows, or other agricultural machines or implements, but the feet of the
propellers will require to be made larger in proportion as the machine is
intended to travel over uneven or soft ground.
I have now described with reference to the annexed Drawing my Inven-
tion of certain improvements in the construction of carriages or other machines
to be moved or propelled by mechanical means; and I do hereby declare that
I confine my claim of Invention to the following particulars, viz' :-
First, the general arrangement of the machinery or apparatus for propelling
by mechanical means carriages, ploughs, barrows, or other agricultural
machines or implements, as herein-before described, with reference to the
annexd Drawing.
Secondly, I claim the exclusive right of having the rods or propellers in
such carriages or machines jointed to cranks situated at different handles upon
the same axis, so that the extremities or fect of the propellers will act upon
the ground in succession at a time when they are moving with the greatest
velocity, or nearly so.
Thirdly, I make claim to the curved form of the under surfaces of the feet
of the propellers being described by a circle of about the same radius as
the radius of the cranks which move them, in order that the said feet may
accommodate themselves more easily to the ground, and especially in the act
of turning.
And, fourthly, I claim the right of employing bristles, whalebone, or other
pliable material, affixed to the under surface of the curved feet of the propellers,
as a substance to come into contact with the ground, and hold sufficiently
thereupon.
The form and proportion of the various parts of the apparatus constituting
the mechanism aforesaid must be varied according to the circumstances of the
case, without departing from the object of the Invention, as herein-beforo
described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Gordon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1825, the aforesaid David Gordon came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforasaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.