CERTAIN IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS AND TRAN ROADS, AND IN CARRIAGES TO BE USED THEREON AND ON OTHER ROADS
Year: 1825

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HILL the younger, of Ashton-under-Lyne, in the County of Lancaster, Land
Surveyor and Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Tenth day of May, in the sixth year of His reign, did,
for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Hill, His especial licence, that I, the said Thomas Hill, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Hill, my exors,
adiiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAYS AND TRAN ROADS, AND IN CARRIAGES
TO BE USED THEREON AND ON OTHER ROADS;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Hill, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Thomas Hill, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention and

page_text: improvements, and the manner in which the same are to be performed or made,
are particularly ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and
the following description thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention and improvements consist in the form or pattern and use of a
carriage or carriages adapted to travel and run upon railways, streets, and
common roads, for the conveyance of passengers, and every description of goods,
merchandize, and minerals, with the application of moveable or loose wheels,
and moveable or loose flanches to be fixed to the wheels; also in the use of
large stays or staples to be fixed and applied to the ends of the blocks over tho
fore axletree, and for an eyebolt to be attached to the shafts and frames of the
carriages, by which the carriage or carriages are to be drawn; and likewise
the Invention of substituting cast-iron pipes insted of rails or bars for railways,
and for a cheap and improved method of laying railways with malleable iron
bars; also for diverting the main line of railways and tramroads at the passing
places or turn-outs.
Figure 1st. This is an improved carriage adapted to convey twelve inside
and twenty outside passengers, also half a ton of luggage in the fore part,
standing with a side elevation upon a railway, and may be drawn or propelled
by horse or any other power, upon streets, common roads, and railways. Its
difference or variations from any other railway carriage is in its peculiar shape,
the doors for luggage being in the sides of the fore end, and the door for
passengers at the back end; the loose wheels, and loose or moveable flanches,
which may be bolted, screwed, or otherwise fastened to the inside or outside
of the wheels, as shewn in Fig. 2, a, a, but more distinctly in Fig. 4, a, a,
also as detached in Fig. 5, the upper part being the front, the lower part the
back of the flanches, which flanches may be made of wood, cast or malleable
iron, or any other metals or substances, and fastened to the fellies or spokes
of the wheels with bolts, screws, loops, staples, or otherwise, the flanches to
be half an inch thick in the rim, and two to three inches broad at the stays
a, a, a, a, one inch deeper or higher than the periphery of the wheel, and to
extend three quarters of an inch upon the face of wheel, as in Fig. 4; also
two strong stays or staples fixed to the ends of the blocks over the fore axle-
tree, between which the centre of the carriage turns upon the main bolt, as
shewn in this Figure, a, a, and in Fig. 6.
A, Fig. 2, shews the back end elevation of the carriage Fig. 1, the bottom
of which rests upon the hind axle-tree, the seats extending over the wheels,
the fore and hind end of the lower part for the inside passengers' feet, to be
supported by two flat iron bars perforated with holes to fasten the woodwork
too, and may be placed upon springs or otherwise.

page_text: Fig. 3 represents the timbers or skeleton of the carriage above described,
standing upon a common road, without the flanches and stays or staples, upon
which may be erected carriage bodies of all descriptions, forms, or construc-
tions, applicable to the conveyance of passengers, goods, merchandize, and
minerals, and when drawn or propelled upon a railway it is essential to its
working that the loose flanches are fixed upon the wheels, also the stays or
staples upon the blocks; and when drawn by a horse or horses the shafts must
be fixed only by the eye bolt a to the frame of the carriage, which eye bolt
slides along the iron rod for six to twelve inches or more, according to the
swerveing of the horse from the middle of the road, which shafts and eye bolts
are usefull in staying the carriages down inclined planes. When these
carriages aro worked upon common roads or streets, the two iron or other
loops b, b, attached to the frame of the carriage (one being turned back, the
other hooked to the frame of the shaft), must be hooked to the shafts.
Fig. 6 are the ends of the blocks over the fore axletree, between which the
centre of the carriage turns upon the main bolt, they being fastened by the
two strong stays or staples, which may be made of iron or other metals, and
each put through four small staples fixed fast in the ends of the blocks, or by
any other means or contrivance producing the same result of keeping the
wheels in a straightforward position upon the railways.
Fig. 7 is a wheel upon a large scale, shewing the flanches. The upper half
a, a, represents cast iron, the other half bb, a wood wheel, to run round upon
a fixed axle on railways, and not as the old and usual method, of the axle,
runing round with the wheels fixed fast to it.
Fig. 8 represents a railway laid with cast-iron pipes (this being the strongest
position cast iron can be placed in to bear weight). The pipes may be of
various lengths, from three to twelve feet, and from two to four feet dia-
meter, and laid in iron, stone, brick, or wood sleepers, hollowed out to form
a socket one half the depth of the diameter of the pipe, and may be pinned
down or not; as they will fasten by use. A is the end view of the pipe and
sleeper.
Fig. 9 is a railway of malleable bars of iron, and may be of various
dimentions, according to the work required, and is laid in an easy and simple
manner, and at a cheap rate, upon pedestals or sleepers of iron of iron, stone,
brick, or wood alternately, twelve and nine inches square, at the distance of
three feet and six to twelve inches or more deep, to be grooved for the recep
tion of the bar one inch deep on the back or outside, and half an inch on
the inside of the bars to be pinned down, as at a, a, a, a.
Fig. 10 shows a line of railway or tramroad, with a turn-off or turn-out

page_text: where the main line deviates three feet.
This method lessens the friction of
the wheels, and makes the turn-outs easier; but this deviation may be varied
from one to four feet.
I do not as my Invention mean to claim any benefit or or advantage for
the making of carriages for railways, or any other carriages now in use. But
I do hereby claim the making or benefit of applying and using loose wheels,
loose or moveable flanches, stays or staples, eye bolts or loops, and the forms
of carriages, railways, and tramroads, as herein-before described, and all
benefits hereafter to be derived from making or using them er any of them
the said carriages, wheels, flanches, stays or staples, eye bolts, loops, iron pipes,
bars, sleepers, or railways, to the full extent, for the use of myself, my heirs
and assigns.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Hill, have hercunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.