IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING GOODS OR PASSENGERS FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Octavius Palmer, of the Webbs, near
Hurstpierpoint, in the County of Sussex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING GOODS OR PASSENGERS FROM
ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER."
Scaled the 27th July 1869, and dated the 10th March 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Octavius
Palmer at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th March 1869.
I, FREDERICK OCTAVIUS PALMER, of the Webbs, near Hurstpierpoint,
in the County of Sussex, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING GOODS OR PASSENGERS
FROM ONE PLACE TO ANOTHER," to be as follows:-
...
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
conveying goods or passengers from one place to another, and is more
especially applicable for conveying goods or passengers across rivers.
For this purpose I use a car hung to the axis of a pulley or pulleys
17

page_text: running on a line or lines which may be of wire, chain, rope, or other
material, and the car is caused to travel to and fro from end to end
of such line by bringing the line into an inclined position so that the
car may be drawn along it by gravity.
For the purpose of raising and lowering the ends of the line each end
of the line may be attached to a pillar, which can be raised or lowered at
pleasure either by a rack and pinion or by hydraulic pressure, or by
other suitable means; or the end of the line might be attached to a slide
capable of being raised or lowered by any suitable means upon a pillar;
or the end of the line might be unhooked from one point of the post
and hooked on to another point on such post so as to alter the angle of
the line; or the end of the line might be attached to the end of a lever,
and be raised or lowered by turning such lever on its axis. By these or
by other suitable arrangements one end of the line may be raised whilst
the other end is lowered, and the line thus brought to an incline by
which the car may be caused to run down from the high to the low end,
and when desired can be again caused to travel back again by inclining
the line in the opposite direction. In order to stop the car when it has
descended along the inclined line or lines the car might be caused to
run upwards for a short distance on another line or lines rising up from
the line or lines along which the car has descended; or in order to stop
the car the line, as the car approaches its ond, might be allowed to
slacken and so drop downwards in a curve and arrest the motion of the
car, or the motion of the car might be otherwise arrested. Or in place
of this arrangement two lines inclined in opposite directions might be
employed, and the car after having run down one inclined line might
be raised on to the other inclined line and run back again down such
line; or an endless line might be employed passing over two pulleys,
say one on one side of a river, and the other on the other side. The
pulleys are mounted on horizontal axes and one of them is coupled up
with an engine so that it may be driven in either direction and thus
give motion to the line; the line has two cars suspended from it, one on
the upper portion of the line and the other on the lower portion, so that
as one car is moved in one direction the other will be moved in the
opposite direction.
In the case of long lines which may require support at intermediate
points of their length I employ supports which are capable of swinging
on horizontal axes, and are weighted so as to keep them in a vertical

page_text: position, their upper end then bearing against the line and thus
supporting it. Such supports may readily be caused to. move out of
the way of the pulleys which carry the trucks as they move past
them.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Octavius Palmer in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 10th September 1869..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. I, FREDERICK
OCTAVIUS PALMER, of the Webbs, near Hurstpierpoint, in the County of
Sussex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Frederick Octavius Palmer, Her special licence
that I, the said Frederick Octavius Palmer, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Octavius Palmer, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CONVEYING GOODS OR PASSENGERS FROM ONE
PLACE TO ANOTHER;" upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Frederick Octavius Palmer, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that .I, the said Frederick Octavius Palmer, do hereby
the
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner t

page_text: same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
carrying goods or passengers from one place to another, and is more
especially applicable for conveying goods or passengers across rivers and
glens, and as a tramway generally, and for loading and unloading ships
and railway trucks. For conveying goods or passengers across rivers or
glens and for such like purposes I use a car hung to the axis of a pulley
or pulleys running on a line or lines, which may be of wire chain, rope,
or other material, and the car is caused to travel to and fro from end to
end of such line by bringing the line into an inclined position so that
the car may descend along it by gravitation.
For the purpose of raising and lowering the ends of the line each end
of the line may be attached to a pillar, which can be raised or lowered
at pleasure either by a rack and pinion or by hydraulic pressure, or by
other suitable means; or the end of the line might be attached to a slide
capable of being raised or lowered by any suitable means upon a pillar;
or the end of the line might be unhooked from one point of the post and
hooked on to another point on such post so as to alter the angle of the
line; or the end of the line might be attached to the end of a lever, and
be raised or lowered by turning such lever on its axis. By these or by
other suitable arrangements one end of the line may be raised whilst the
other end is lowered, and the line thus brought to an incline, by which
the car may be caused to run down from the high to the low end, and
when desired can be again caused to travel back again by inclining the
line in the opposite direction. In order to stop the car when it has
descended along the inclined line or lines the car might be caused to run
upwards for a short distance on another line or lines rising up from the
line or lines along which the car has descended; or in order to stop the
car the linc, as the car approached its end, might be allowed to slacken
and so droop downwards in a curve and arrest the motion of the car, or
the motion of the car might be otherwise arrested.
Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed shews one arrangement
by which a line a of wire rope may alternately be caused to incline first
in one direction and then in the opposite direction. One end of the wire
rope is fixed to a post b, and the other is fixed to an endless chain c,
held vertically by two pulleys carried by another post d, as shewn. The

page_text: endless chain can, by means of a chain from a crab or winche attached
to it, be caused to revolve so as either to raise or lower the end of the.
wire rope a.
The arrangement for arresting the motion of the car when
it has arrived at the lower end of the inclined line, by causing the pulleys
which support the car then to run on to a line inclining upwards, is also
shewn at Figure 1, and is also shewn separately on a somewhat larger
scale at Figure 2., The line for arresting the motion of the car is.
marked a'; one end of it is fixed to a line a, and it is led upwards and
passed over pulleys b', b', on the post b, and a weight a² is attached to
its opposite end, so that when the pulley of the car runs on to it the
weight a will be raised and the motion of the car gradually arrested. I
prefer also that cach car should be provided with a hand lever break
which might be pressed against the wire rope, so that the speed of the.
car during its descent may be controlled. In place of a single sup-
porting line of wire rope several ropes placed side by side close together,
or two wire ropes placed side by side at a slight distance apart and
parallel with one another, might be employed. In this latter case the
carriage would be suspended between the ropes. The mode I prefer to
adopt for supporting the car from the axis of the pulleys is shewn in
detail at Figures 2 and 3. When the car is at the top of the line I retain
it by means of a hook until such time as it is desired to allow the car to'
descend; the hook can then be released by any one in the car pulling
on a cord. In place of one end only of the wire rope being raised or
lowered to alter the inclination of the rope both of its ends might be
made capable of being raised and lowered. As before stated a great
variety of means might be adopted for raising and lowering the ends
of the line of wire rope, but I have not thought it necessary to shew
these in the Drawings.
In place of the arrangement above described two lines inclined in
opposite directions might be employed, as shewn at Figure 4; and the
car after having run down one inclined line might be raised on to the
other inclined line, and run back again down such line, or it might be
drawn back along the line on which it ran down.
Figure 5 shews two parallel lines inclining downwards in the same
direction, each line having a car running upon it, and the two cars being
coupled together by a rope f, passing around horizontal pulleys g at the
upper end of the incline. The lower end of each line is provided, in
accordance with my Invention, with a line a¹ to arrest the motion of the

page_text: car when it arrives at the bottom of the incline. By this arrangement a
bridge is produced that will not require a man to be in constant attend-.
ance, as there will always be an empty carriage at the upper end of the
line to pass over. Or an endless line might be employed passing over
two pulleys, say one on one side of a river and the other on the other-
side. The pulleys are mounted on horizontal axes, and one of them is
coupled up with an engine or winch, so that it may be driven in either.
direction and thus give motion to the line. The line has two cars or sets
of cars suspended from it, one on the upper portion of the line and the
other on the lower portion, so that as one car is moved in one direction
the other will be moved in the opposite direction. Such an arrangement.
is shown at Figure 6. When the distance is run the motion is reversed
to draw back the cars in the opposite direction. In place of giving
motion to the endless line by driving one of the drums, one of the drums
might be placed on a lower level than the other, so that when a car at
the upper end of the incline is loaded it will descend by gravitation, and
will draw up the empty truck which was at the bottom of the incline.
For crossing rivers and such like purposes two such endless lines.
inclined in opposite directions may be employed, so that persons
crossing in one direction will descend one incline, and persons crossing
in the opposite direction will descend the opposite incline. In place of
the endless line being supported by two pulleys it might be supported
by four pulleys, as shown at Figure 6*.
In the case of long lines which may require support at intermediate
points of their length I employ supports which are capable of swinging.
on horizontal axes, and are weighted so as to keep them in a vertical
position, their upper end then bearing against the line and thus sup-
porting it. Such supports may readily be caused to move out of the
way of the pulleys which carry the trucks as they move past them.
Such moveable supports may in many cases be employed for supporting
at intervals lines of wire rope fixed at an incline to prevent their sagging
downwards too much in the centre of their length. A long, length of
wire rope carried along horizontally may thus be supported at intervals.
I prefer that the upper end of the supports where the line rests upon
them should be furnished with a roller to prevent them wearing the line
by friction. The arms which carry these rollers are made capable of
turning on a horizontal axis, and the lower ends of the arms are either
weighted or acted upon by two springs so as to keep the arms in a

page_text: vertical position. A long line of wire rope might also be supported at
intervals on fixed supports, as shewn at Figure 7, and a car may be
caused to travel from one end of the line to the other by bringing
lengths of the line to a sufficient incline to cause the car to travel down
it. For this purpose each end of the line is held in such manner that
it can be raised and lowered. In the Drawing this is effected by the ram
of an hydraulic press. When the car has thus been caused to run
down to the first support a a moveable support is caused to rise up by
hydraulic power just in rear of the car, and raise the line until the length
between the support a and the next support b is at a sufficient incline
for the car to travel down it, and so the car can be moved from end to
end of the line. In place of employing hydraulic power to raise and
lower the line other arrangements of apparatus might be adopted.
Another arrangement that may be adopted with advantage in the case
of long lines is shown at Figure 8. In this arrangement after a car has
descended by gravitation an incline of any convenient length it may be
hauled up a short incline by a chain from a crab or winch, or may be
otherwise hauled up a short incline, and then be allowed to descend by
gravitation along another incline, and so on continuously for any desired
length of line.
In each of the arrangements of apparatus above described in place of
a single wire or a number of lines placed close together side by side, two
parallel lines set at a slight distance apart and with the car supported
between the two might be employed.
By means also of a succession of inclines with lifts or with ladders,
and by the other apparatus herein described, long distances over land or
over water may be readily and cheaply bridged.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Octavius Palmer, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine
FRED. O. PALMER. (L.S.)