CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIA-RUBBER SPRINGS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Marie Préaud, of Lyons, in the Empire of
France, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIA-RUBBER
SPRINGS."
Sealed the 10th June 1856, and dated the 11th December 1855...
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Marie Préaud
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
11th December 1855.
I, JEAN MARIE PREAUD, of Lyons, in the Empire of France, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIA
RUBBER SPRINGS, to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the use of india-rubber in blocks that are round
or rounded off of equal or different shapes, but in every case without holes ór
angles, solid or hollow, used singly or any indefinite number, compressed with
or without a covering; the said blocks of india-rubber being pure or mixed
with any matter or substance whatever, or having undergone any preparation
whatever; the said blocks, in short, being applicable to every vehicle, railway
waggons, engine, or apparatus whatsoever, as buffer springs, resisting springs;
traction springs, suspension springs; or extension springs.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Marie Préaud in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN
MARIE PRÉAUD, of Lyons, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth-year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Jean Marie Préaud, Her special licence that I, the said Jean
Marie Préaud, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Jean Marie Préaud, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN INDIA-RUBBER SPRINGS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Jean Marie Préaud, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 Jean Marie Préaud, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be. performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The application of india-rubber as spring is but rational, resistance and
elasticity. being the most conspicuous properties of this substance, but in order
to be under fit conditions and appropriated to the best use; india-rubber is to
invest certain forms, out of which it is soon disagregated, defaced, and no
longer yields its possible elastic power.
..
This Invention consists in the use of round or roundish india-rubber blocks,
of like or various forms, but still without either, holes or angles, solid or hollow,
applied in single or undeterminate.number; the said india-rubber blocks, either
genuine or blended with any substance, and having undergone or not any
preparation, are applicable to any railway or other carriage, to any machine or
apparatus, in the character of shock, resistance, traction, suspension, or exten-

page_text: sion springs. These springs or india-rubber blocks may invest various forms;
I say either round or roundish, resembling in a great measure a sphere or ball,
so that the pressure exerted upon them in dividing uniformly all their cousti-
tuent parts may allow the same to expand or contract in a like degree, thereby
india-rubber being made to yield its whole possible elastic power. The suppres-
sion of all boring or perforating of, the blocks will prevent besides angular forms,
all rubbing by the piston rods which go through them; which rubbing is most
destructive of the blocks, at the same time it partly deprives them of their
expansive force. Besides the suppression of the angles or angular forms has
for chief intent to afford a regular uniform flexion, by dividing equally on each
point of the block the tension of its particles, whilst angular forms are not
cohesive enough to stand a strong pressure, and are too frequently liable to
be torn, which accident is rendered impossible by using the round 'or roundish
forms. The bulk and form of the blocks or springs may vary according to the
pressure they are submitted to, and to the time they are to stand, the said
pressure. They may be solid or hollow; and in the latter case, or for a spring
that is to stand but a little pressure, though for a long run, the block may
consist of a thin india-rubber sheath, with its hollow inside filled with air, gas,
or any fluid. The greater the pressure exerted on the spring is, the thicker the
sheath, and the less the hollow space must be. When a spring is to be sub-
mitted to a strong pressure, the blocks are to be quite solid, in order to yield
both a great resistive and elastic force. Those blocks may be used singly or
in undeterminate number according to their various applications; and whatever
may be their mode of connection, they may be left free or their action may be
subordinate to any sheathing apparatus. The substance these springs are
made of may be genuine india-rubber, or the same blended with other modi-
fying substances; it may undergo a preparation known in trade by the name of
vulcanization, or any other, for the purpose of increasing or diminishing its
density, and preserving it from any injurious action, either of the weather or of
any contact with other bodies that are in any way liable to alter it.
In the annexed Drawings various forms of blocks are represented, which
are all grounded on the same principle, and answer the different conditions
alluded to in this Specification. Fig. 1 shows a solid spherical, and Fig. 2
a hollow spherical block; Fig. 3 a solid ovoid, and Fig. 4 a hollow ovoid
block; Fig. 5 a solid truncated spherical, and Fig. 6 a hollow truncated
spherical block; Fig. 7 a solid ovoid truncated, and Fig. 8 a hollow ovoid
truncated block; Fig. 9 a solid depressed spherical, and Fig. 10 a hollow
depressed spherical block; Fig. 11 a solid depressed ovoid, and Fig. 12 a
hollow depressed ovoid block; Fig. 13 a solid flatted ovoid, and Fig. 14 a

page_text: hollow flatted ovoid block; Fig. 15 shows an annular block and irregular oval
sections; Fig. 16 an annular block and circular sections; Fig. 17 an annular
block and regular oval sections.
Having thus described the nature and particulars of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be
distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the precise details, nor to
the strict figures or forms herein described, as such may be varied or modified
without departing from the principle of action thereof; but what I claim as
new, and therefore being secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is, the springs or blocks herein specified of either genuine
india-rubber, or the same blended with other substances, vulcanized or not,
solid or hollow, with no angles, or no other but round or roundish forms, appli-
cable to railway and other vehicles, and also to any apparatus requiring the
application of a spring
- Mack
In witness whereof, I, the said. Jean Marie Préaud, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this 10th day of June, in the year of our Lord
F4
19%
One thousand-eight hundred and fifty-six.
J. M. PREAUD. (L.S.)