IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND TENDERS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Elsdon, of Brockham, in the County of
Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINES AND TENDERS."
Sealed the 28th March 1871, and dated the 29th September 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Elsdon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th September 1870.
I, ROBERT ELSDON, of Brockham, in the County of Surrey, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES AND TENDERS," to be as follows:→
In carrying out my improvements when the boiler and tender are
combined such are supported on three sets of wheels the two opposite
end sets being bogies and by preference the centre sets are in two or
more pairs as may be also those of the bogies. The cylinders and parts
are supported over or by the side of the centre wheels but in place of
their giving motion to these centre wheels from their pistons by means

page_text: of vibrating connecting rods acting on the crank pins they give motion.
thereto by sliding blocks or cross heads which are controlled to move in
suitable horizontal or other suitable guides, and these blocks or cross
heads are formed with transverse grooves or projecting guide pieces to
receive and thereby in their to-and-fro motion give a rotary motion to
the crank pins of the middle wheels. The crank pins of the two wheels
on each side of each of the bogies are connected together by connecting
rods, and each of these connecting rods has a pin projecting therefrom.
These pins are received between guides from other sliding blocks or cross
heads with transverse grooves or projecting guide pieces and which are
supported to move in guides carried by the bogie frames, and are operated
on by connecting rods from the centre blocks or cross heads before
referred to as being acted upon directly by the engines. These connecting
rods between the centre and end blocks or cross heads are jointed with
compensating arrangement so as to be controlled in their motion to
provide for the turning of curves. By these means great holding power
will be obtained so that engines thus constructed will be found par-
ticularly adapted to mountain railways or other steep inclines and other
heavy works, whilst increased facility will be afforded for turning sharp
curves. In the case of the tender being separate from the boiler but
connected by suitable jointed means it may be supported on one of the
end bogies.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Elsdon in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 29th March 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
ELSDON, of Brockham, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in
the thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Robert Elsdon, Her special
Licence that I, the said Robert Elsdon, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Elsdon, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINES AND TENDERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Robert Elsdon, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, 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 Robert Elsdon, 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:-
The improvements relate to means for connecting the cranks of the
series of wheels of locomotive engines and tenders so that in the use
of bogie arrangements thereto compensation may be obtained in the
connecting rods used in the coupling of such wheels to compensate for
variations in the lengths of such rods consequent upon the assumption
of different relative radial lines by the axles of such bogies in the
turning of curves. In carrying out my improvements when the boiler
and tender are combined such are supported on three sets of wheels the
two opposite end sets being bogies, and by preference the centre sets are
in two or more pairs as may be also those of the bogies. The cylinders
and parts are supported over or by the side of the centre wheels, but in
place of their giving motion to these centre wheels from their pistons by
means of vibrating connecting rods acting on the crank pins they give
motion thereto by sliding blocks or cross heads which are controlled to
move in suitable horizontal or other suitable guides, and these blocks
or cross heads are formed with transverse grooves or projecting guide
pieces to receive and thereby in their to-and-fro motion give a rotary
motion to the crank pins of the middle wheels. The crank pins of the
two wheels on each side of each of the bogies are received between
guides from other sliding blocks or cross heads with transverse grooves
or projecting guide pieces. These sliding blocks or cross heads are
connected together by suitable connecting rods, they are supported to
move in guides carried by the bogie frames, and are operated on by

page_text: connecting rods from the centre blocks or cross heads before referred to
as being acted upon directly by the engines. These connecting rods
between the centre and end blocks or cross heads are jointed with
compensating arrangement so as to be controlled in their motion to
provide for the turning of curves. By these means great holding
power will be obtained, so that engines thus constructed will be found
particularly adapted to mountain railways or other steep inclines and
other heavy works, whilst increased facility will be afforded for turning
AUSWAN

page_text: means.
at h¹, h, and to the framing of the boiler at h², or by other suitable
The cross beads ƒ and g are each formed with a vertical groove
or channel f¹, g¹, to receive and guide the bearings i of the crank pins
from the axles j, j, so that in the working of the pistons in the cylinders e
whilst the cross heads ƒ and g simply move to and fro between their
guides h, h, the bearings i will slide up and down in their respective
grooves or channels f¹, g¹, and impart a rotary motion to their cranks
with the axles j by the pins . The crank pins / to the axles % of the
respective bogie wheels c¹ are received into similar bearings and these
bearings are capable of sliding in similar grooves or channels m¹
formed for them in the cross heads m, and the cross heads m at each
side of each pair of bogies are connected together by connecting rods m²
so as to control their movement uniformly, and one of these cross
heads m on each side is connected to a cross head f and the other to a
cross head g by a connecting rod n, and these rods n in place of being
simply formed rigid and unyielding as ordinary connecting rods are
formed each in parts jointed together at n', n¹, and with a compensating
arrangement n between the parts. This compensating arrangement as
more clearly shown by Fig. 4 is formed by means of a box or outer
case n² enclosing the double conical spring n³, n*, and it will be seen
that one part of the connecting rod n is connected by a joint n² to one
end or part of the box or case n², whilst another part thereof is by a
corresponding joint n¹ connected to a portion of the rod which passes
into the box or case 122 and is there connected to the plate n³ between
the two springs n³, n. By these means when an engine with tender
and parts thus constructed is travelling on a curve of small radius
such as to cause the axles of the one bogie to assume for a time
radial in place of parallel lines to those of the other and of the centre
wheels d, d, the connecting rods n will turn somewhat on their joints n¹,
and whilst those on the inside of the curve will be shortened by the
compression of the spring n³ and the extension of the spring n those on
the outside of the curve will be lengthened by the extension of the
spring and the compression of the spring n. Between each bogie
frame and the fixed centre frame there may be applied springs to reduce
any shock which may be occasioned by backing, shunting, or otherwise.
In the case of the tender being separate from the boiler but connected
by suitable jointed means it may be supported on one of the end
bogics.

page_text: Having thus described my Invention, and means which I adopt in
carrying the same into effect, I would have it understood that I do not
confine myself to the precise arrangements of parts as shewn and
described, as these may be varied without departing from the peculiar
character of the Invention; but what I do claim is, the arranging or
combining parts whereby the connecting rods between series of wheels
to locomotive engines and tenders may be formed jointed and with
compensating means to them to admit of variation in the length of such
rods, substantially as described.
In witness whercof, I, the said Robert Elsdon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
חתתA
זומדם זגו
ROBERT ELSDON. (L.S.)