IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Harrison, of Kingsland, in the County
of Middlesex, Engineer, and Edward Conder, of Kingsland, afore-.
said, Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Harrison
and Edward Conder at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 2nd January 1873.
We, BENJAMIN HARRISON, of Kingsland, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, and EDWARD CONDER, of Kingsland, aforesaid, Builder, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction and
combination of apparatus for obtaining motivo power for driving
machinery and carriages, and consists according to one arrangement in
the application and use of two or more spiral or barrel springs, each
connected at one end to a shaft or spindle working in bearings in a
barrel or case, to which case the opposite end of the spring is attached.

page_text: A ratchet wheel is keyed on to one end of the shaft, into the teeth of
which wheel a detent engages to prevent the spindle from being turned
in the wrong direction. The barrel or case is provided with a toothed
wheel, which engages with and drives a pinion carried on the first
motion shaft of the machine or carriage it is intended to drive; this
pinion is thrown into and out of gear by means of a clutch, and has
connected therewith by means of a bell-crank or other lever a slide or
bolt, which engages with the teeth of the toothed wheel before referred
to each time the pinion is disengaged therefrom, but which is withdrawn
therefrom when the pinion is thrown into gear. The spring and barrel
are enclosed in an outer frame which is capable of being attached to and
removed from the machine or carriage it is intended to drive, carrying
with it the barrel and locking bolt or slide without interfering with the
working parts of the machine or carriage.
According to another arrangement in lieu of a spiral or barrel spring
we employ a helical spring arranged around a shaft or spindle, which
spindle is made in two parts which revolve in a frame, the opposite end
of one part of the said spindle rotating in a socket formed in one end of
the other part; the spring is attached at one end thereof to one part of
the spindle, whilst the opposite end is connected to the other rotating
portion. One part of the shaft or spindle carries a ratchet wheel, in the
teeth of which a detent engages as in the first described arrangement,
whilst the other part is provided with a toothed wheel for imparting
motion to the machinery or carriage it is intended to drive, a locking
arrangement being also employed similar to that described in the first
arrangement.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 30
filed by the said Benjamin Harrison and Edward Conder in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd July 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, BENJAMIN
HARRISON, of Kingsland, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, and
EDWARD CONDER, of Kingsland, aforesaid, Builder, send greeting.
36

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the 36th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Benjamin Harrison and Edward Conder, Her
special license that we, the said Benjamin Harrison and Edward Conder,
our executors, ádministrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Benjamin Harrison and Edward Conder, our executors, administrators,
or assigns, should at any time agree with and no others, from time to
time and at all times thercafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ircland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN OBTAINING MOTIVE POWER,
AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Benjamin Harrison and Edward Conder, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 we, the said Benjamin Harrison and Edward
Conder, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to
the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates to a peculiar combination and arrangement
of apparatus for obtaining and applying motive power for driving
machinery and propelling carriages, and consists in the use of a helical
spring, or combinations of two or more helical springs, each spring being
arranged around a shaft or spindle made in two lengths or sections,
which revolve in bearings in a removeable frame. The end of one length
or section of the said shaft rotates in a socket formed in the adjoining
or contiguous end of the other length or section of the shaft. We
prefer however to substitute for the said divided shaft or spindle a drum
or barrel of wood or other suitable material of a diameter less than the
internal diameter of the helical spring which surrounds it, so that a

page_text: -
check may be afforded against the overwinding of the spring. The
spring is attached at one end to one length or section of the divided
shaft, or to a socket formed on a ratchet wheel, which is keyed on a
central shaft, into which socket is secured one end of the before-
mentioned barrel; the opposite end of the spring is secured either to
the other half of the before-mentioned divided shaft, or, which we prefer,
to the bars of a spur wheel running loose on the before-mentioned
central shaft, such spur wheel transmitting the power through a train of
gearing to the driving shaft of the machine to be actuated, or to the
axle of the carriage to be propelled; a detent engages into the teeth of
the before-mentioned ratchet wheel, which wheel is mounted either on
one of the lengths or sections of the divided shaft or on the central shaft
before referred to, as the case may be, and when a divided shaft is used
the spur wheel herein-before referred to is fast on the second half of the
said divided shaft; the said spur wheel in either case however gears into
a sliding pinion carried on a first motion shaft, which pinion is thrown
into and out of gear by means of an ordinary sliding clutch and lever;
a sliding locking bolt or catch is also connected to the clutch lever by a
removeable pin, the object of such locking bolt or catch being to lock or
engage with the teeth of the first-mentioned spur wheel simultaneously
with the disengagement therefrom of the sliding pinion, and vice versa.
The before-mentioned springs and parts in immediate connection there-
with are provided in duplicate, or in any greater number, and are
contained in separate removeable frames which are capable of being
readily attached to and removed from the machine or carriage it is
intended to drive or propel, such removal and replacement being effected
without interfering with the rest of the moving parts. By using combi-
nations of two or more springs with their locking bolts and ratchets for
winding facility is afforded for substituting a ready wound spring for
another which may have run down or become exhausted.
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in both
the Figures.
Figure 1 of our Drawings is a side clevation of our improved arrange-

page_text: of a tramway car, for example, the under frame alone of the car being
shewn in our Drawings; Figure 2 is a corresponding plan of the same.
A is the under framing of a tramway car, and B, B', are the running
wheels, mounted on axles C, C¹, which work in axle boxes in the usual
manner; of these two axles C¹ represents the driving axle, which is
rotated by the mechanism hercin-after described with reference to the
Drawings; this mechanism comprises two or more helical springs D, D¹,
the spring D being supposed to be in action, whilst the sister spring D'
may be supposed to be in reserve fully wound so as to be ready for
action when required; E, E¹, are drums or barrels of wood or other
suitable material which are of smaller diameter than the interior of the
springs; these barrels are secured at one end in a socket a, a¹, formed
on cach of the ratchet wheels F, F¹, the said ratchet wheels with their
drums being fast on the central shafts G, G¹, which turn in bearings
in the removeable frames H, H'; b, b', are detents for preventing the
running down of the springs when wound up; the springs are attached
at one end, as shown at c, c¹, to the sockets a, a', of the ratchet
to
wheels F, F', whilst their opposite ends are secured, as shown at d, d¹,
the bosses of the spur wheels I, I', which run loose on their respective
central shafts G, G₁; the first motion shaft is shown at K, it extends
longitudinally inside the framing A, and works in suitable bearings
therein; this shaft carries two sliding spur pinions L, L', working along
a feather or keyway in the shaft K, and cach pinion is thrown into or out
of gear with its corresponding spur wheel I or I' by means of the clutch
levers M, M', which work on fixed centres e, e¹, in the main framing A;
these clutch levers have each hinged thereto by a pin f, f', a sliding
locking bolt or catch g, g¹, which work in guiding slots in the top
bars h, h', of the removcable frames H, H¹, and may be formed on their
under face with two or more teeth, as shown by the dotted lines in
Figure 2, so as to engage with two or more of the teeth of the spur
wheels I, I', and thereby lock or prevent the same from running.down
when out of gear with the pinion L or L', on the first motion shaft.
Before removing either of the frames H, H', with a view to replacing
it by another containing a fully wound spring the connecting pin for f¹
should be removed to allow of the locking bolt or slide being taken away
along with the frame, each frame carrying its own locking bolt; when
the frame has been inserted in its place and secured by a pin or bolt i
(see Figure 1), or otherwise maintained in position, its locking bolt is
.

page_text: connected to the clutch lever M or M¹ and the apparatus is ready for
action. The clutch levers may be actuated by the guard, conductor, or
other attendant by the aid of lever handles (not shown in our Drawings),
connected respectively to the sliding rods N, N', which are jointed to
their respective clutch levers, as shown clearly in Figure 2. On referring
to this Figure it will be seen that the act of throwing the pinion L' into
gear with its spur wheel I' disengages the corresponding locking bolt or
slide g¹ from the teeth of the said wheel, and vice versa.
The springs
are wound up by a crank lever, or by gearing attached for that purpose,
when required to the squared ends of the central shafts G, G', such lever
or gearing being worked by hand or by power, as may be found most
convenient.
The spring is retained fully wound by the detent engaging into the
ratchet wheel F¹. The spur wheel I' on the opposite end of the shaft G¹
is of course locked before commencing to wind up the spring by
engaging the locking bolt g¹ with the teeth thercof.. The frames with
their fully wound springs are now inserted into their places in the main
framing, say one on each side of the first motion shaft K, as shewn in
Figure 2; one of these springs may be kept in reserve, as shewn by the
spring D¹, for future use so soon as the other one D has run down. On
suitably moving the clutch actuating lever M' the pinion L' will be
brought into gear with the corresponding spur wheel I' and the locking
bolt or slide g¹ simultaneously disengaged therefrom, whereupon the
torsional action of the helical spring D¹ will at once commence to drive
the train of gearing, which I shall now refer to, and thus propel the
carriage. This gearing may obviously be varied to suit different
circumstances, but for a tramway car the arrangement shown in our
Drawings will be found to answer well in practice. It consists of a
water wheel k keyed on one end of the first motion shaft K and gearing
into a corresponding wheel on a short vertical shaft (Figure 1),
working in bearings at the top and bottom, as shewn; this shaft / carrics
a large horizontal spur wheel m which gears into and drives a small
pinion n fast on a second vertical shaft o, which shaft also carries a largo
spur wheel p which gears into another small pinion q mounted on a vertical
shaft r situate immediately over the driving axle C¹; this shaft carries
a bevel wheel 8 at its lower end which gears into one or the other of two
bevel wheels t, t, sliding by a clutch arrangement and feather or key-
way upon the axle C¹. According to the desired direction of rotation
""

page_text: one or other of the wheels tor is thrown into gear with the wheel 8
by a handle for that purpose, not shewn in our Drawings.
By simply throwing the pinion L or L' out of gear the driving
mechanism will be instantly arrested; and, if desired, the act of throwing
the pinion out of gear may be also made to apply a break to the running
wheels.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The combination in a removable frame or frames of a helical
spring or springs, spur wheel or wheels, and locking bolt or bolts,
arranged and operating substantially in the manner and for the purpose
herein-before described.
Second. The combination of a clutch lever with a sliding pinion and
locking bolt when arranged so as to operate substantially in the manner
and for the purpose herein-before described.
Third. The general combination and arrangement of mechanism for
driving machinery or propelling carriages by the aid of one or more
helical springs, substantially as herein-before described, and illustrated
by the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, we, the said Benjamin Harrison and Edward
Conder, have to this' our Specification set our hands and seals,
this First day of July, Qne thousand eight hundred and seventy-
1
BENJ³. HARRISON. (L.S.)
EDWARD CONDER. (L.S.)