IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF RAILWAYS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Symons, of 17, St. Mark's Crescent,
Regent's Park, Philosophical Instrument Maker, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF RAILWAYS."
Sealed the 10th May 1864, and dated the 19th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Symons at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
November 1863.
I, WILLIAM SYMONS, of 17, St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park, Philoso-
phical Instrument Maker, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF RAILWAYS," to be
as follows
This Invention relates to an improved construction of railway and novel
mode of propelling the carriages or trains thereon, which mode of propelling is
also applicable to existing railways.
According to this Invention it is proposed to carry railways through streets
and other places where an embankment will be objectionable upon and in open
tubular or latticed viaducts supported on suitable pillars, one line of rail being
in the tube or viaduct, and the other on the top of the same; or if, as pro-
posed herein-after, wheels be substituted for rails on one or both sides, wheels
will be suitably placed in and on the tube, worked as herein-after described by
hydraulic power or other suitable mechanical means. In order to cause as
Hittle obstruction to the light as possible these viaducts should be made of open
latticework or similarly constructed, and as no locomotives are required in
working these railways they may be much lighter in every respect and
narrower than any existing railway viaducts. They may be elevated at any

page_text: suitable height, so as not to obstruct the usual street traffic, and be supported
on arches or pillars of iron or other suitable material. These supports may be
so placed as to offer no obstruction to the usual traffic by being erected one
side against the houses or regular road boundary, and the other in a line with
the usual lamp posts, the tubular viaduct projecting slightly beyond this line
towards the street, thus leaving a considerable space between the railway and
the opposite line of houses. The trains or carriages are propelled along these
railways by fixing wheels at proper intervals between the rails at a sufficient
height to come into contact with a bar attached to the under side of the
carriages. Motion is to be given to these wheels by having an hydraulic
engine connected with each or some of these sets of wheels. The water
power will be conveyed by one or more main pipes placed along the side of
the rails and connected with each hydraulic engine by smaller branch pipes,
suitable valves worked by levers being so arranged that the carriages in
their progress will turn on and off the water of the engines as required, and
these valves may be worked by electricity, hydraulic power, or otherwise.
Where two or more lines of rail are used side by side, the hydraulic engines
may, if preferred, be situate between the two lines so as to impart the necessary
motive power to either line, suitable arrangements being made to run
the fixed wheels in the two lines of rail in reverse directions. Instead of
having a bar or rail attached to the under side of the carriages with the
ordinary running wheels on each side, the carriages may be constructed with
wheels to run on a fixed rail on the one side, and a bar as a substitute
for wheels on the other side, to run on the fixed wheels rotated by the
hydraulic engines; or the carriages may be made without wheels and rest on
two such bars with suitable flanges moving on sets of two wheels, in
which case fixed rails will be dispensed with. It is obvious that by adapting
the fixed wheels and hydraulic engines herein-before referred to to ordinary
railways, and modifying the carriages accordingly, the same system of pro-
pulsion may be carried out on such railways.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Symons, Her special license that I, the said William Symons,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Symons, my executors, administrators, or 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Symons, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, or under the hand and
seal of one of them, should particularly 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 William Symons, do hereby declare
the nature 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to an improved construction of railway and novel
mode of propelling the carriages or trains thereon, which mode of propelling
is also applicable to existing railways.
According to one part of my Invention I propose to carry railways through
streets and other places where an embankment will be objectionable upon
and in open tubular or latticed viaducts supported on suitable pillars, one line
of rail being in the tube or viaduct and the other on the top of the same; or
if, as proposed herein-after, wheels be substituted for rails on one or both sides,
wheels will be suitably placed in and on the tube, worked as herein-after
described by hydraulic power or other suitable mechanical means. In order
to cause as little obstruction to the light as possible these viaducts should be
made of open latticework or similarly constructed, and as no locomotives are
required in working these railways they may be much lighter in every respect
and narrower than and existing railway viaducts. As the up and the down
lines are situate above and below each other, in lieu of side by side, they

page_text: may be elevated at any suitable height, so as not to obstruct the usual street
traffic, and be supported on arches or pillars of iron or other suitable
material. These supports may be so placed as to offer no obstruction to the
usual traffic by being erected with one side against the houses or regular
road boundary, and the other in a line with the usual lamp posts, the tubular
viaduct projecting slightly beyond the line towards the street, thus leaving a
considerable space between the railway and the opposite line of houses.
According to another part of my Invention I propose to propel trains
or carriages along railways by fixing wheels at proper intervals between the
rails at a sufficient height to come into contact with a bar attached to the
under side of the carriages. Motion is to be given to these wheels by having
an hydraulic engine connected with each or some of these sets of wheels.
The water power will be conveyed by one or more main pipes placed along
the side of the rails and connected with each hydraulic engine by smaller
branch pipes, suitable valves worked by levers being so arranged that the
carriages in their progress will turn on and off the water of the engines as
required, or these valves may be worked by the trains through the agency of
electricity or hydraulic power. When two lines of rails are used side by side,
the hydraulic engines may, if preferred, be situate between the two lines so as
to impart the necessary motive power to either line, suitable arrangements
being made for running the fixed wheels in the two lines of rails in reverse
directions. Instead of having a bar or rail attached to the under side of the
carriages with the ordinary running wheels on each side, the carriages may be
constructed with wheels to run in a fixed rail on the one side, and a bar as a
substitute for wheels on the other side to run on the fixed wheels rotated by
the hydraulic engines; or the carriages may be made without wheels and rest
on two such bars with suitable flanges moving on sets of two fixed wheels, in
which case fixed rails will be dispensed with. It is obvious that by adapting
the fixed wheels and hydraulic engines herein-before referred to to ordinary
railways, and modifying the carriages accordingly, the same system of pro-
pulsion may be carried out on such railways.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
corresponding Figures.
Figure 1 of the annexed Sheet of Drawings represents a plan of a double
line of railway of the ordinary construction to which my improved system or
mode of propelling the trains or carriages is applied; Figure 2 is a transverse

page_text: vertical section of the same; Figure 3 represents a plan of a single line of
railway with a slightly modified arrangement of the apparatus for propelling
the trains or carriages in two opposite directions; Figure 4 is a longitudinal
vertical section of a portion of the railway shewn in Figure 3; Figures 5 and
6 represent respectively a side and edge view of the peculiar form of turbine
or hydraulic engine which I prefer to employ for giving motion to the pro-
pelling wheels; and Figure 7 is a detail plan of the valve for stopping and
starting the turbines.
A, A, are the lines of rails, and when double lines are used, as in Figure 1,
I place in the "six foot" or space between the two lines at regular intervals
turbines or other hydraulic motive-power engines B, B. In Figures 1 the
turbines are horizontal, and in Figure 3 they are placed vertically. I may
here observe that I lay no claim to, neither do I confine myself to any par-
ticular form or construction of turbine or hydraulic engine, as various different
arrangements may be employed for giving motion to the fixed propelling wheels
which are shewn at C, C¹.
The turbine which I prefer however is that shewn at Figures 5 and 6; it
consists of a drum a having a number of cells formed on the periphery thereof
by the curved vanes b, which meet in the centre line of the surface of the
drum. These cells are open at the sides to allow the water to escape freely,
and are partially covered on their outer edges by the two rings or casings c, c,
between the contiguous edges of which an annular opening is left all round
for the admission of the water to the cells; d, d, are two stationary discs
secured to the outer fixed casing e, and nearly in contact with
the sides of the drum, such discs extending to the bottoms of the cells only,
so as to leave a passage for the escape of the water. The object of these discs
is to throw off the water effectually after it leaves the cells. The water is
admitted at high pressure by two or more pairs of nozzles f. f, connected with
the curved branch pipe g, the nozzles being nearly tangential to the periphery
of the drum. The pipe g communicates with an air vessel h, into which the
water is first admitted from the main i before it passes to the turbine; kis a
grated sluice valve (shown also in Figure 7) fitting over a grated mouth or
aperture leading to the branch pipe g. This valve serves to shut off or turn
on the water from or to the turbine, and is provided with a rod or spindle
for actuating the same. The object of making the valve and aperture of a
grated form is to avoid the necessity for a long stroke of the valve when
opening and closing the same. The waste water on leaving the turbine
descends into the outer casing e and escapes therefrom by the waste pipe 1.
The interval or space between each two turbines is about equal to the length

page_text: of a railway carriage, so that the several carriages of a train will be acted
upon simultaneously (as herein-after described) by the propelling power of
the turbines. This propulsion is imparted to the carriages by the wheels C, C¹,
which are situate between the rails of each line of the railway, being keyed
on shafts D, D¹, passing under the rails, as shown in Figure 2, and projecting
sufficiently above the surface of the line to come in contact with a central
bar E, which is fixed longitudinally to the under framing of each carriage, and
may be attached to springs to enable it to yield slightly in a vertical direction.
Rotatory motion is imparted to the shafts D, D¹, from the vertical shaft F of
the turbine by bevel gearing G, which is so arranged as to cause one shaft
and propelling wheel D', C¹, to revolve in one direction, say, for the "down
trains, and the other shaft and wheel D, C, to revolve in the opposite direction
for the "up "trains. When vertical turbines are employed each propelling
wheel C is fitted direct on to the shaft of its own turbine, as shown in
Figure 3, and in order to obtain the reverse motion for propelling trains in
opposite directions I make each successive turbine of the series revolve in
opposite directions, and use only the alternate ones for each train, if a single
line of rails only be employed, as in Figure 3. If a double line of rails
be employed each line may have a separate set of turbines of its own, or, if
preferred, a pair of turbines may be placed side by side in the "six foot"
fitted to one common shaft which carries the propelling wheels for each Jine.
In this case, however, the two turbines are arranged to revolve in opposite
directions, and one remains out of action whilst the other is in action, the
one which is out of action being carried round simply by the action of the
other. It will thus be seen that according as one or the other of the pair of
turbines is in action, so will be the direction of motion of the propelling
wheels. I prefer, however, to have a separate shaft and propelling wheel to
each turbine. The turbines or other hydraulic engines are in all cases started
and stopped by the train itself, to accomplish which I employ the following
arrangement:--The spindle of each valve k of the several turbines is con-
nected to a horizontal lever H working on a fixed centre I. The two
extremities of this lever are slotted and the slots fit on to corresponding ver-
tical pins carried on the ends of two short lever arms K, which are carried
by the vertical spindles L. To the upper end of each of these spindles there
is keyed a disc M, which carries an antifriction roller N on its upper surface
on the side nearest to the rail. To each of these discs M is connected one end
of a long connecting rod O supported by antifriction rollers P, and having its
opposite end similarly connected to a disc M¹, which may be carried on a
fixed stud or centre pin. This disc M¹ is also provided at the end nearest the

page_text: rail with an antifriction roller N¹, but such roller is situate on the under side
of the disc, so as to lie in a different horizontal plane to that of the roller N
on the disc M, herein-before referred to. This combination of mechanism is
repeated at each turbine throughout the entire length of the line, and is
brought into and thrown out of action in the following manner: On one or
both sides of the first and last carriage or break van of the train, and, if
desired, on any or all of the intermediate carriages, there are fitted two hori-
zontal wedge-shaped bars 1 and 2, situate at different elevations corresponding
to the two sets of antifriction rollers N and N₁, the bar 1 being made to act
against the rollers N¹ for opening the valves, whilst the bar .2 acts against the
rollers N to close the valves. In the arrangement shown at Figure 1 these
bars 1 and 2 will be so placed as to operate from the outside of the rails,
whilst in Figure 3 they will operate from the inner sides of the rails. As a
train approaches the bar 1 on the first carriage will in passing press against
the roller N, and partially turn the disc M¹; this motion is transmitted by
the rod O to the disc M and vertical shaft or spindle L, whence motion is
imparted to the horizontal valve lever H, which effects the opening of the
valve K, and starts the turbine which is next in front of the train. As the
carriages pass over the propelling wheel C of this turbine they are propelled
forward by the frictional contact of the revolving wheels C with the bars E
on each or some of the carriages. It will thus be seen that as the train
proceeds it starts the turbines ahead of it, and these turbines continue in work
until the last carriage of the train passes, which carriage closes the valves in
succession by the action of the inclined bar 2 against the roller N on the
disc M, which has the effect of turning the discs M, M¹, in the opposite direc-
tion to that in which they were turned by the action of the bar 1 on the first
carriage, thus leaving the apparatus in its original position with the valve
closed. The bars 1 and 2 are so connected to the carriages as to be capable
of being lifted entirely out of action by the guard when requisite, as, for
example, during the passing of two trains, otherwise both the trains would
operate upon the valve mechanism simultaneously, the one tending to open
the valve, and the other to close it, which would occasion a derangement of
the mechanism. On referring to Figure 3 it will be seen that the trains will
only operate upon each alternate valve of the series of turbines, the "up"
trains acting upon one set of valves, and the "down" trains upon the inter-
mediate valves.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and

page_text: original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
1st, the peculiar construction of street railways wherein one line of rails
is laid upon the top of and the other in the interior of a tubular viaduct of
open latticework carried on suitable supports, as herein-before described.
2nd, the system or mode of propelling carriages on railways by the aid of
propelling wheels, fitted at suitable intervals along the line, acting upon bars
secured to the under side of the carriages, and driven by turbines or other
hydraulic engines which are started and stopped by the passing trains, sub-
stantially as herein-before described.
3rd, the peculiar arrangement of mechanism for opening and closing the
valves of the turbines or other hydraulic engines employed in propelling car-
riages or trains according to my improved system, substantially as herein-
before described.
4th, the application and use of railway carriages provided with wheels to
run on a fixed rail on one side, and with a longitudinal bar as a substitute for
wheels on the opposite side, such bar being acted upon by fixed wheels placed
at intervals on the line of railway, to which a rotatory motion in the required
direction is imparted by turbines or other hydraulic engines, as herein-before
described.
5th, the application and use of railway carriages provided with a longi-
tudinal flanged bar on each side in lieu of wheels, such bars being propelled
by fixed wheels placed at intervals along the line of railway actuated by
turbines or other hydraulic engines, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Symons, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of May, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
WILLIAM SYMONS. (L.s.)