A NEW LOCOMOTIVE APPARATUS HAVING A MOVEMENT RESEMBLING WALKING
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th June
1861. A communication from abroad by Messrs. Thomas Hanlon,
George Hanlon, William Hanlon, Alfred Hanlon, Edward Hanlon, and
Frederick Hanlon, all of New York, United States of America..
I, WILLIAM CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,.
Engineer & Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention.
for "A NEW LOCOMOTIVE APPARATUS HAVING A MOVEMENT RESEMBLING WALKING,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention is more especially intended to be applied to dolls and other-
toys, but may be applied to other uses. It consists in a frame or box supported.
upon legs and feet, which, by the action of a spring or other motive agent
within the said frame or box, are caused to have an alternating step-by-step
movement resembling that of walking.
It also consists in certain means by which the motor within the box is made.
to actuate the legs.
Also in a certain construction of such legs and feet, each leg of parallel.
bars, with the foot so applied that the foot may be placed flat on the floor or
other surface on which the walking is performed at every step, and so ensure.
steadiness of movement.
Also in a certain arrangement of the feet whereby the apparatus is balanced.
and firmly supported on each leg and foot while the step is being taken by the.
opposite leg and foot.

page_text: And, further, in a certain construction of the legs and means of operating
the same, whereby the movement of the knee joint is imitated.
In the accompanying Drawing, which forms part of this Specification,
Figs. 1 and 2 are side views of the apparatus, representing it in two different
positions, & Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section of the same.
letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures.
Similar
A is a frame of wood or metal containing the main spring B, and the
bearings for the several spindles a, b, c, d, of the movement; C, D D, E F, G,
are the principal portions of one leg, and C¹; D¹ D'; E F, G, the corre-
sponding portions of the other leg; H, H', are the principal portions of the
feet; C, C¹, are slotted slides attached to opposite sides of the frame A, by
means of screws, bolts, or pins e, e, upon which the said slides are free to
work up & down in parallel planes D; D, and D'; D¹, are straight bars of
equal length, pivoted at their upper ends to their respective slides C, C¹, by
pins f,f; E, F, and E', F', are straight bars of equal length, connected at
their upper ends by pin joints g, g, with the lower ends of the bars D, D, and
D', D', and having the feet H, I, connected with their lower ends by
pins h, h; G, G, are links by which the pins of the two joints g, g; in each
leg are kept at a distance apart corresponding with its pins f. f. The pins h, h,
connecting each foot with its leg; are at a distance apart equal to the distance
between the pins f, f, or g, g, and hence the bars E, F, or E, F, of each leg
are always kept parallel with each other, and so are the bars D, D, or D', 'D'.
The joints between the bars D, D, and D', D', and their respective bars E, F,
and E, F, are so constructed with stops i, i, in front of their pins g, g, that
they will not bend in a backward direction, but that they will bend to some
extent in a forward direction, as shown in Fig. 2, and each leg has a spring
jor attached to its upper posterior bar D or D', and pressing against its
lower posterior bar E or E¹, for the purpose of straightening the joint. The
principal portions H, H', of the feet consist of straight bars, and these have
attached to their bottoms or soles, at or near their ends, plates k, k, which
may be termed toes, those of each foot being extended laterally toward the
other foot beyond the centre of gravity of the whole apparatus. The distance
between the pins f, f, that between the pins 9, 9, and between the pins h, h,
are all equal in both legs, and the pins f, f, of one leg are arranged with their
axes in a plane parallel with a plane in which the axes of the two pins of the
other leg are situated; the soles of the two feet, if made parallel with each
other in one position, will be so in all positions, and hence when one foot is
bearing upon a floor or any other flat surface, the movement of the other foot
must always be parallel with that surface.

page_text: The main spindle a, to which the main spring B is attached, and by which
the spring is wound up with the key applied to the said spindle, has fitted to
it a ratchet wheel and a spur toothed wheel m, the said wheel m fitted
loosely to the spindle, like the first wheel of a clock movement, to allow the
spring to be wound up, and having attached to it a pawl to engage with the
teeth of the ratchet wheel which is fast upon the said spindle, for the purpose
of causing the spindle to drive the wheel m as the spring uncoils itself. The
wheel m gears with a pinion n on the spindle b, and so drives the latter spindle,
on which there are secured, outside of & on opposite sides of the frame A, two
eccentrics I & I', each of which carries on its outer side a wiper p, the said
eccentrics and wipers serving to produce the walking movements of the legs.
The eccentrics fit between the bars D, 'D, and D', D', of their respective legs,
and each also fits between two yoke pins 9, 2*, secured in one of the bars
D, D, or D', D', of its respective leg, and the said eccentrics in their revolution
operate between the said pins to raise the legs & bring them down again, and
operate between the bars D, D, and D¹, D¹, to produce the forward move-
ments of the legs and frame. The wipers p, p, are to act upon rods r, r,
which are rigidly secured to the lower front bars F and F of the legs for the
purpose of producing the flexure of the joints g, g, resembling the flexure of
the knees in walking. The two eccentrics are arranged in opposite positions
relatively to the axis of the spindle, and the wipers are similarly arranged
that they may operate the two legs alternately. The spindle 6 is geared by a
spur wheels and pinion t with the spindle c, which is geared by a spur wheel u
and pinion with the spindle d, which carries a flyer which is driven at a
high velocity, and caused to meet with a sufficient amount of resistance
from the atmosphere to make the spring uncoil itself at a uniform or nearly
uniform rate, and prevent it running down too fast.
The construction and arrangement and movements of the several parts of
the apparatus having now been fully described, the operation of walking will
now be explained with reference to Figs. 1 & 2. The step with either leg.
always commences after its respective eccentric passes the position in which
its most prominent part is directly in rear of the axis of the spindle b, in
which position of the eccentric both feet are on the floor or surface on which
the walking is performed. Fig. 1 represents the eccentric I as having just
passed this position, and the nearest leg to be commencing the step in the
direction of the arrow shown on the foot H. The said eccentric rotating
in the direction of the arrows marked upon it, is acting upon its upper yoke
piu g, to raise the leg and foot, and at the same time upon the front bar D, to
throw them forward, while the opposite eccentric, by its action against the

page_text: rear bar D¹ of the other leg, is causing the frame A to move bodily forward in
the same direction in which the foot H is moving. The leg continues to rise
until the eccentric has arrived in its highest position, and to move forward
until the eccentric has arrived directly in its most forward position, and after
the eccentric has passed the highest position it commences to act upon the
pin q to depress the leg, so that the foot may arrive on the floor as its forward
movement terminates. Fig. 2 shows the foot H to have nearly terminated its
step, while one eccentric continues to act upon the forward bar D or D¹ of its
respective leg to produce the forward movement or step, the other one is always
acting upon the rear bar D' or D of the opposite leg to carry the frame A
bodily forward, as is illustrated by the representation of the excentric I', and
its respective leg and their appendages in dotted outline in Figs. 1 & 2, and
each eccentric comes in action to produce the step of its respective leg as
the other one has completed the step of its leg. Each eccentric in the lower
half of its revolution, during which its foot is resting upon the floor, operates
first upon the pin q* to raise the frame A, and afterward upon the pin q to
depress the body, so that the body has a constant rising & falling motion,
rising during the first half, and falling with the last half of each step. The
flexure of the knee joint is not absolutely necessary to the success of the
operation of the apparatus, which will walk very well without any joint in the
legs except at f, f, and h, h, but the flexure of the knee joint seems to give an
easier locomotion. The pins p, p, commence their action upon their respective
rods r, r, to produce the flexure of the joint, as shown in Fig. 2, almost as
soon as the foot commences rising, and escape from the ends of the said rods
to allow the lower part of the leg to be thrown forward by a spring j or j¹,
just before the foot comes to the floor.
By making a frame of suitable form with two pairs of legs operating like
the single pair herein described, with or without knee joints, the walking of a
quadruped may be imitated.