CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELS FOR CARRIAGES TO BE USED ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN COOPE
HADDAN, of Bazing Place, Waterloo Road, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England, bearing date at London,
the Seventeenth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight,
and in the third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said John Coope Haddan and GEORGE HAWKS, of
the Gateshead Iron Works, in the County of Durham, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, Her especial licence, that we, the said John Coope
Haddan and George Hawks, our executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as we or they shall agree with (and no others), from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and might lawfully make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her
Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELS FOR CARRIAGES TO
BE USED ON RAILWAYS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso, that we, the said John Coope Haddan and George Hawks, should
within six calendar months from the date of the said Letters Patent, cause a full
description of the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High

page_text: brought together so as to form a spoke of a wheel; Fig. 2, and Fig. 3, are a
side view and section of a three feet wheel, with eight of the said spokes. The
thickness of the inner and outer tires having been decided upon, describe upon
a board or sheet of paper the dotted circle A, of the same size as the inner
diameter of the inner tire, and divide the same into as many parts a, a, as
there are spokes (we prefer eight), and draw the dotted lines a, B, a, B;
describe from the centre B another dotted circle of the same diameter as the
nave, and again, a third dotted circle D, so as to divide the space between
the dotted circles A and C into equal parts; divide one of the segments a, a,
into four parts a, b, c, d, a; bisect the segment of the dotted circle C, and draw
the dotted line g, B, and parallel thereto draw the two short lines f, i, and f, i;
at the distance of half an inch on either side thereof draw the line f, e, b, c,
d, e, f, and also another line parallel to, and half an inch within the same. This
inner line will represent the shape of a cast-iron former or block (having
four obtuse angles and one aute one) about three inches deep, forming one
piece, with a cast-iron table, (Fig. 4), around which a bar of wrought iron
,, is bent (when heated.) Eight of these bended pieces of wrought iron
being placed with the bends e, e, in contact, are held steadily together in a
strong iron hoop or ring (suitably constructed), and when properly warmed
the nave p is cast around the inner ends f, i, of the bended bars, in the manner
usually practised by ironfounders. The eight curved extremities. b, d, b, d, of
the spokes (having eight spaces O, O, between them), are. then ready for the
reception of the inner rim or hoop of wrought iron E, which (when heated) is
placed upon them and allowed to cool, and is then fastened to each. alternate
spoke by the four rivets x, x; G is the outer or flanged wrought-iron tire,
which is also heated and shrunk upon the tire E, and when cold rivetted
through the said inner tire to the four remaining spokes by the rivets y, Y.

page_text: The wheel is finally completed by boring the nave and turning the tire G.
The dotted lines s, s, shew the position of the spokes when fixed in the nave P.
Should elasticity in the spoke be deemed desirable, either the inner portions v
or outer portions h of the straight parts of the spokes may be slightly curved.
For five feet wheels we prefer twelve spokes, having six obtuse bends (Fig. 5).
Proceed as directed in regard to Fig. 1, (omitting the dotted circle D);
describe the dotted circles M and N so as to divide the distance between the
dotted circles A and C into three equal parts; bisect one of the segments t, t,
of the dotted circle N, and set out spaces n, n, half an inch on either side of
the point m; set out two similar spaces p, p, on the segment r, r, of the dotted
circle C, and draw the outer line r, n, w, b, c, d, w, n, r, and within the same
another line, as directed in regard to Fig. 1.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING No. II.
:
Fig. 1 is a perspective view (enlarged) of a wrought-iron spoke; Fig. 2 is
a side view, and Fig. 3 an edge view (with the outer tire in section) of a
wheel with the spokes attached (by means of heads or bends) to an inner hoop
or tire, having a groove or recess formed on the outside of the same; Fig. 4
is a transverse (half the natural size) of the tires; A is a bar of wrought iron,
which when heated is bent about two inches from one end, so as to form a
one-sided head b, which is curved in a former or mould so as to fit into a
groove or recess (hereafter described). A similar length c of the other end of
the bar A is also bent (but slightly) in an opposite direction to the head b;
C is an inner rim or felloc of wrought iron, having a groove or recess D,
around it equal in depth to the thickness, and of the same breadth as the
bar A, through which eight equidistant holes are made, each holek being
as long as the groove is wide, and in breadth equal to the thickness of
two of the said bars of iron laid together. Into cach hole two of the
bars A are to be driven (so as to form a compound spoke) until
the heads b, b, (which are in opposite directions) fit into the groove
D, the other ends c, c, are then held in contact as at f, and the nave E cast
around them (the bars being first properly heated). In order that the inner
ends of the spokes may not enter the nave too far (in consequence of their
expansion when heated, preparatory to the casting of the nave), the heads b, b,
must not be confined within the groove D while the nave is being cast.
Mis
a flanged wrought-iron tire, which is heated and shrunk around the inner tire
C and upon the ends b, b, of the spokes, and afterwards fastened by the rivets
h, h. G (Fig. 5) is a bar of wrought iron, with a cut down one end, and G*
is the same bar of iron, with the two parts a, a, bent into opposite directions,

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING No. III.
Fig. 1 is a side view, and Fig. 2 is a section of a three-feet wheel, in which
bars of wrought iron are passed half way through holes in the tire and after-
wards bent, so as to form compound spokes; Fig. 3 is a section of the tire
with a spoke passed through the same. A is the flanged tire of wrought or
cast iron, having a rib C on the inner side, through which eight equidistant
holes g are made. The middle of a straight bar of wrought iron a, a, is made
nearly at a welding heat, and quickly pushed half way through one of the
holes in the rib C, and instantly bent into the position x, a, and then struck
on both ends, so as to upset or swell the heated part which is within the hole
in the rib C and in contact with the inside of the tire A; each hole is in like
manner to have a similar bar inserted and bent. The two ends and d² of
each bar (when cold) are then drawn sufficiently close together (by curving),
to allow the nave B to be cast around them. The degree of curvature given
to the bars will depend upon the distance left between the two ends of each bar
after being bent and allowed to cool, as before described. When the two ends
of each bar are in the position a, a, they are (while hot and before being brought
nearer together preparatory to the casting of the nave) sufficiently inclined
edgewise in opposite directions to be from half an inch to an inch out of per-
pendicular to the nave. This wheel may also be made with an inner and outer
tire, as in Fig. 5. d (Fig. 4) is a single spoke with a head or bend f suffi-
ciently long after passing through the hole in the rib C to be fastened to the
tire A by a rivet k. In Fig. 5, the head or bend of each spoke is heated and
rivetted in the hole in the rib C. In Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, the spokes are alter-
nately fastened on opposite sides of the rib C.
I wish it to be understood that we claim as our Invention, firstly, the
forming the spokes of wheels of bars of wrought iron having four obtuse bends
and the ends brought together so as to form an acute angle, which spokes are
in contact with and support each other at the bends which are between the
nave and tire, and also the forming the spokes of wheels of bars of wrought
iron having six obtuse bends.
Secondly, the forming the inner tire of a wheel with a groove or recess
around the outside thereof for the reception of the heads or bends of single or

page_text: compound spokes, and the fixing of wrought-iron bars or spokes at an angle of
forty-five degrees with the plane of the wheel.
Thirdly, the passing bars of wrought iron half way through holes in a rib
on the inside of a wrought or cast-iron tire, and afterwards bending the same
so as to form compound spokes, or passing the heads or bends of wrought-iron
bars or spokes through the said holes and fastening the same to the tire by
rivets or rivetting the heads or bends in the said holes. And also in inclining
wrought-iron spokes (when attached to both ends of the nave), so as to be out
of perpendicular, the spokes on one side of the wheel being inclined in an
opposite direction to those on the other.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixteenth
day of April, One thousand eight hundred and forty.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of April, in the
third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John Coope
Haddan came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year
of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Sixteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and
forty.