IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE OR TRACTION ENGINES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Wheatley Giles, of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOCOMOTIVE OR TRACTION ENGINES."
Sealed the 11th January 1859, and dated the 21st July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Wheatley Giles at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st July 1858.
I, JOHN WHEATLEY GILES, of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOCOMOTIVE OR TRACTION ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in locomotive or traction
engines, and the improvements are applicable to engines propelled by jointed
levers attached at one end to the engine, and furnished at the other end with
feet, which from time to time descend on to the land or surface over which the
engine is travelling, and when the foot so descends, the jointed lever which
carries it is bent at its joint, and the propelling action is obtained by
straightening out the lever by the application of the power of the engine.
When engines propelled in this manner have heretofore been employed, the
jointed levers have been connected to one end of the engine, and consequently
if the load to be drawn by the engine be heavy, its end will be lifted up by the

page_text: propellers before it will be caused to move forward. Now, my Invention
consists in attaching the jointed levers to the engine at a point near its centre
of gravity, so that the whole, or nearly the whole weight of the engine is
applied to resist the upward pressure of the propellers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Wheatley Giles in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WHEATLEY GILES, of St. Martin's-le-Grand, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Wheatley Giles Her special licence that I, the said John Wheatley
Giles, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Wheatley Giles, my 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 lawfully 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE OR TRACTION ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Wheatley Giles, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same was to be performed, 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 I, the said John Wheatley Giles, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in locomotive or traction
engines, and the improvements are applicable to engines propelled by jointed
levers attached at one end to the engine, and furnished at the other end with
feet, which from time to time descend on to the land or surface over which

page_text: Figures 1, 2, and 3 represent the outside appearance as well as the
arrangement of the locomotive machinery. Fig. 1 is a side view of the
engine, A and B being the wheels on which it is supported; C, the boiler;
D; coal box; and E, the water-tank, one of each of these latter is carried on
each side of the engine; F is a framework, which carries the bearings of the
main shaft, and which is fitted for the attachment of a fly-wheel, when necessary,
so as to carry the power of the engine to any other machine with the aid of
a belt; H represents the framework to which the propelling apparatus is
attached, and consists of a plate of iron running the whole or nearly the
whole length of the boiler; J, J, are the propellers by which the power of
the engine is applied to the purpose of traction. The hind wheels are cach
furnished with a break (for the purpose of regulating speed down hill or
facilitating a short turn), the handle of which is marked K. It consists of a
broad iron band' secured to the spokes of the wheel, around which a tightening
strap is passed, one end of which is secured to the engine and the other to
the lever, and which can be brought in operation by pressure on the handle
of the lever K. The engine is steered by the two wheels B, which are sup-,
ported by an annular plate which revolves by the application of power and by
the working of a screw in the cogs, which are seen at the point M. On the
opposite side of the engine to that shewn in Figure 1, a pump is provided for
forcing water into the tanks, and which with a hose can absorb the water
from a pond or ditch at the field side. N is the connecting rod of the steam
cylinder, which is placed between the coal and the water-tanks; O is the support
to the front of the boiler, and a stay for the support' of the plate on which the.

page_text: forward wheels revolve. Figure 2 is front elevation of the same engine.
Here the position of the cylinders is apparent, also the mode by which the
power is conveyed to the propelling legs. Q is the main shaft, on which
revolves a cogged wheel R, which is rendered operative by the clutch S.
When the clutch is withdrawn, the shaft revolves without carrying the wheel
with it; by this means the fly wheel at the one end of the main shaft and
the supply pump at the other can be put in operation while the propelling
apparatus is stationary. The cogged wheel R works in another wheel of
larger dimensions, which is fixed to a secondary shaft, which shaft is furnished
with two bevelled wheels, cogged on portions only of their circumference, the
cogged portion of these wheels operating alternately on a bevelled wheel set
between and at right angles to their circumference. The latter bevelled wheel
is closely connected with a broad driving wheel furnished with strong cogs,
and which work in the driving beam to which the propellors are attached.
T, T, are the half-cogged wheels; V, that on which they work alternately,
and on which they produce an oscillating motion; and X is the driving wheel,
which operates on the driving beams, of which Y are the ends. At the end
of the secondary shaft is a cogged wheel which transmits power to the steering
apparatus, part of which is seen at Z. A front view of the steering wheels is
here seen; the axle on which they are placed is a fixture, and attached to the
supports J¹, J¹, by this means these wheels on turning very sharp or when
put in motion while the engine is stationary, turn on a circumference instead
of a centre, which facilitates the operation.
Figure 3 shows the arrangement of the cylinders, water tanks, and all the
other apparatus from above, and which will be rendered plain by the letters.
The feed pumps and the cut-off for the steam cylinders are provided for by
excentrics on the main shaft. The steering is effected by steam, the operation
only requiring the directing agency of the steersman. In Figure 1, at the
point M, there are a number of cogs that extend over the after part of the
circumference of the revolving annular plate to which the front wheels are
attached; in these cogs a revolving screw works, which is put in operation at
the will of the steersman; it is furnished with two wheels, which revolve
loosely on its back in a different direction. These wheels-are-each-bevilled-at
the circumference, and one is made the means of communicating its revolving
power to the other in a different direction, by the interposition of another
bevilled wheel placed between and working in the circumference of each; a
clutch moves on the shaft fixed to it, and which on being connected with
either of these wheels, which revolves on it as a centre, gives it motion in
either direction required. This clutch is under the command of either the

page_text: driver or other person on the after platform of the engine, and is governed by
the rod in Figure 1.
Figure 4 represents the form of the propelling leg as well as the mode of
reversing its operation. Y is the driving beam, which is sustained in its after
part between two friction rollers T, T, and at its other extremity by one of
larger dimensions T', it is furnished with a projection underneath Y', on the
end of which is a socket represented by the dotted lines; in this socket a
corresponding ball and pinion works, connected with the propelling leg; firmly
attached to this ball is a cogged wheel, the half circumference only of which
is cogged, the opposite side being used as a fulcrum for a small lever B, by
which the leg J is lifted from the ground during the back stroke. This lever
is connected with the leg J by the connecting rod K. The lower part of the
driving frame is furnished with a moveable rod (see Figure 8) with two
projections C, C; this is furnished with cogs at one end, by which its motion
is effected. The projections on this rod, when motion is required, press on the
end of the small lever B, and lift it even with the inner circumference of the
fixed semicircular frame D. This is effected (see Figure 6) by the operation
of a small projection at the point E of the lever E, F, which by shutting of
a small gate is forced up an inclined plane. This operation acts by the aid
of the cogs at the circumference on the moveable rod C. When this opera-
tion is performed, and the foot suspended, a cogged plate is forced against the
semi-circumference A, and the motion of the driving beam effects a swinging
of the leg into a reversing position.
Figure 5 is a representation of a leg which is furnished with an apparatus
for lengthening and shortening it at pleasure, which is necessary to develope
under all conditions of surface of the soil the maximum of tractive force. A
shoe also is here furnished, which is intended to clear itself from any adhesion
of the soil. The foot is composed of two portions, one fixed and the other
moveable, and the pressure on the surface of the ground effects an expansion,
while the withdrawal of the pressure produces a contraction; by this means
any adhering matter is thrown off, tlie contraction and expansion is effected
by the operation of the spring at the back of the foot attached to the move-
able portion of the foot, and operating against the back of the leg to which
the fixed portion of the foot is attached. The beam and also the lifting
apparatus is here different from the last, and is found at one side of the
driving beam.
Figure 6 represents the apparatus for lifting the leg previous to reversing
or driving the back stroke. The small projection E at the end of the move-
able lever E, F, Figure 6, works in the recessed portion of Figure 10, when

page_text: the gates at A are lifted it oscillates continually from the points C to C, and
back; when the leg is required to be lifted, the gates are dropped by one
motion, and the projection before mentioned ascends the incline to D, D; it
can be retained in that position by drawing the bolt B, and the engine can
be worked with either or both legs in suspension. When the bolt B is with-
drawn, the leg falls by the end of the lever falling again to C; after the leg,
however, has been reversed, the pressure of the leg when suspended effects
an upward pressure on the lever, and its tendency would be to remain up
pressed against the upper side of D, D; to bring it down, the gates A, A,
are lifted, and it descends the inclined plane to C, when a reversion of the
leg to its original position relieves the lever from further pressure. Figure 11
is the reverse of the same apparatus. The gates at A are furnished with
short levers A, A, securely fastened, and which are operated on by the driving
bolts C, C. These bolts are furnished with strong springs (Figure 4) T, T,
which push against the levers A, A, and lift the gate to a suspended position.
These springs yield so that the passage of the end of the lever downwards
may force itself through the gates, which assumes their suspended position
after its passage.
The Figures 7, 9, 12, and 13 show other views of parts already described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Wheatley Giles, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
JOHN W. GILES. (L.S.)