AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LOCOMOTIVE PURPOSES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Josiah Parkes, of Number Eloven, Great College
Street, Westminster, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR LOCOMOTIVE PURPOSES."
Scaled the 1st May 1857, and dated the 7th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah Parkes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
March 1857.
I, JOSIAH PARKES, of Number Eleven, Great College Street, in the City of
Westminster, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LOCOMOTIVE PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in an apparatus which acts as a substitute for a
wheel, where a great burden has to be supported upon soft ground, or where
great frictional contact is required for tractile or locomotive purposes on either
yielding or comparatively unyielding surfaces.
The apparatus consists in a number of feet or clogs, each having two axes,
one on each side. These axes are supported in bearings, which are all at a
corresponding distance from a common centre, round which they work, and at
the same distance from each other. When the vehicle is set in motion each

page_text: foot comes to the ground, and rises therefrom in a horizontal position, which it
retains throughout its passage round the main axle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filel
by the said Josiah Parkes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th
September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSIAN
PARKES, of Number Eleven, Great College Street, in the City of Westminster,
Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Josiah Parkes, Her special licence that I, the said Josiah Parkes,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Josiah
Parkes, 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 "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
LOCOMOTIVE PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Josiah Parkes, 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 Invention, and in what manner tho samo
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 Josiah Parkes, do hereby declare the
naturo of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
:
This Invention consists in an apparatus which acts as a substitute for an
ordinary wheel, where a great burden has to be supported upon soft ground,
or where great frictional contact is required for tractile or locomotive purposes
on either yielding or comparatively unyielding surfaces.

page_text: The apparatus consists in a number of feet; clogs, or pattens, each having
two axes, one on each side. These axes are supported in bearings, which are
all at a corresponding distance from a common centre, round which they work,
and at the same distance from each other. When the vehicle is set. in motion.
each foot comes to the ground, and rises therefrom in a position parallel to the
surface of the ground, which it retains throughout its passage round the main:
axle.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, and the
more readily be carried into effect, Drawings are annexed, which I will proceed
to describe..
Figure 1 is a front view, Figure 2 a back view, Figure 3 a transverse.
section of the apparatus as fitted for use; Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, are detailed:
views of the parts which I denominate feet, clogs, or pattens, and their
axes.
:
A species of double wheel or drum is represented in Figures 1, 2, 3, com-
posed chiefly, by preference, of wood, though other suitable materials may bo
employed. a is a wooden nave carrying a double set of spokes and felloes' b;;
having iron tires c of the ordinary kind, with a clear space d between the two
sets of spokes to admit of the pattens working between them, as is best seen;
in the section, Figure 8. Upon the inner curvature of the felloes b are placed:
and firmly bolted thereto nine pairs of cast-iron bearings or plummer blocks e
furnished with wrought-iron caps f, upon and within which bearings turn tho.
nine wrought-iron patten axles 9 carrying the pattens h; these revolve as.
the apparatus progresses within the open space d, and are carried round tho
main axle of the nave a, or other suitable apparatus may be employed, and
the patten axles may be made to work in or under the rim or felloe, or they?
may be placed in other suitable positions. On one end of each patten axle is'
fixed a crank or arm i, having at its extremity a pin k. All the crank pins,
severally work in bushes fixed in a circular disc or ring of iron l, which ring,
denominated herein-after the excentric, is divided into the same number of:
bushed holes as there are pattens. The circle of the excentric bushes must
be struck from the same radius, and must, therefore, correspond exactly in
diameter with that of the centres of the patten axles, all of which must be.
placed equidistant from the centre of the nave, and, by preference, at an exact
common distance from each other. The crank pins, which turn freely in their
bushes, will be similarly equidistant from the centre of the excentric, and be
placed at distances from each other corresponding with those which separato
the patten axles. The cranks are set at right anglès to the plane or sole of

page_text: the pattens, and when they are connected with the excentric by their pins
this ring will retain each of and all the cranks in a position exactly similar
to that of the crank of the patten (or pattens) resting at any time on the
ground. The excentric ring may also, if required, be. supported by friction
rollers attached to some suitable portion of the apparatus or framework of the
vehicle.
.
"
Thus, supposing the apparatus to be moving along a truly horizontal plane,
each crank will be vertical, and each patter will assume the horizontal
position represented in the Drawing, and as the vehicle progresses along such
plane the same relative positions will be invariably maintained, for the pattens.
successively descend upon the ground, and are raised therefrom in perfect
parallelism with each other. And. it is a further necessary consequence of
this arrangement that the same perfect parallelism of the pattens with. respect
to the ground and to each other will result, whether the vehicle sustained be.
required to travel over inclined or horizontal surfaces, for the action and
relative position of all the parts of the apparatus will be as synchronous and
uniform on all gradients as on a level.
The position of the apparatus when poised, and turning upon a single
patten h¹, is.designated in Figure 1, and Figure 2 shows its position when
the next patten h³ comes to the ground. In this manner the stepping move-
ment will continue, the weight resting upon one patten and upon two pattens.
alternately during. every revolution. It will be observed, by reference to:
Figure 2, that during the step or passage made from one to two pattens a:
portion of the arcs of the felloes, shown by dotted lines, between any two:
pattens will descend gradually into the ground, if soft, until the pattens bear
the whole weight, but: no sooner does the apparatus commence to rise and to:
turn upon, the axle of patten h², than patten h¹, together with the depressed>
portion of the rims, is lifted from the ground, and this action is repeated
between pattens h and h³, and so on consecutively. Thus, it is manifest that
this apparatus is adapted to travel on the tires of the drum as an ordinary
carriage wheel upon all sufficiently unyielding surfaces; also that it is specially
provided with the means of sustaining a great burden, and of travelling upon
yielding and soft ground.
I
-
In constructing this apparatus,, regard must be had to giving abundant
strength to its several parts, and any suitable means may be employed for that
object.
.
The nave is represented to be bushed for the reception of an ordinary axle,
or such as may be suitable to wheels of locomotive engines.

page_text: In Figure 2 the excentric 1, parts of which and of the patten cranks would'
be seen through the spokes, is omitted for the sake of perspicuity. It is to
this side of the apparatus that the driving gear of a locomotive would be
applied, in cases where that mode of propulsion may be adopted.
Figures 4 and 5 represent, on an enlarged scale, a side and end clevation of
the patten, its axle, and crank, and their general construction. The straps
m, m, are forged in one piece with the body of the axle, and filled with a solid
piece of hard wood, to which they are made fast by bolts or screws;. the space
between them is made up by a separate flat piece of iron n, also bolted
or screwed to the wood, in order to complete an iron solo; or other suitablë
materials and construction may be employed.
Figures 6, 7, 8, represent a patten, so constructed that the upper part may
revolve whilst the lower part is stationary on the ground, in order, if needs be,
to facilitate the steerage and turning of the apparatus. For this purpose the
sole plate and body of the patten are made circular. Tho sole plate n is shown
in Figure 8 as of wrought iron, to be bolted to a conical piece of hard wood,
within which is sunk and secured a chilled cast-iron socket o, (Figure 7,) which
receives a solid wrought-iron pin p staked upon the patten axle, and which
revolves within the socket, resting upon its upper surface and turning thereon.
In order that the axle may raise the patten from the ground, a washer ris
sunk into a recess in the wood, and secured to it by screws; and another
washers being bolted to the centro of the pin p, and so connected with the
axle, the patten is thereby raised. Figure 6 shews a view of this patten, seen
from the crank end of the axle.
It is evident that the construction of the framework and details of this
apparatus is susceptible of many modifications. Both the plain rectangular,
and the revolving circular pattens, may be altogether composed of metal, as well
as of combined metal and wood. The preferable mode of constructing either
kind will materially depend upon the dimensions assigned to them, governed
as such dimensions will necessarily be by the number of pattens adopted, and
by the space assigned between the felloes. And as the adopted space will
determine the diameter of the circular patten, it will generally happen that an
apparatus fitted with these will require a greater number of pattens than
it will of those of the rectangular form, in order that the parts be so arranged
that the circular pattens may touch each other or nearly so when on tho
ground.
Having now explained the nature of my Invention, and the manner of

page_text: carrying the same into effect, I claim the combination of parts forming the
apparatus, and its application, as described and delineated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Josiah Parkes; have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
NATHANIEL THOMAS.
JOSIAH PARKES. (L.S.)