CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELED CARRIAGES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BEWLEY, of Mount Rath, in Queen's County, Cotton Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the fourth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Bewley, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Thomas Bewley, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, during the term
of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELED CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that if I, the said Thomas Bewley, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, and 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 Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and all liberties and advantages whatsoever.
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Bewley, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to
consist,―
First, in a peculiar arrangement of a body for a mail coach for the purpose
of more effectually preserving the guards and mails from attack and plunder,
and rendering the defensive operations of the guards more effectual.
Secondly, in a new arrangement of springs whereby the weight of the body
of a vehicle placed on a carriage fitted with two wheels behind and one or
more in front is principally thrown on the two hind wheels, and in such a
way as that the pressure is as much on the outside of the wheels as the
inside.
Thirdly, in what I call an elbow to prevent the vehicle from upsetting in
case of a wheel or axle breaking, or a wheel slipping off the edge of the
road. And,
Lastly, in peculiar stone bearings for the axles to. run under, and oil boxes
adapted thereto.
.And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Thomas Bewley,
do hereby describe the manner in which I perform my said improvements, by
the following description thereof, reference being had to the Drawings annexed
and the Figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Fig. 1 is a side. elevation of the first of my said improvements, being a new.
arrangement of a mail coach for the purposes aforesaid. A is that part of the
body of the coach where four passengers are to ride inside and four outside,
the door for the inside passengers to enter is at the back as is usual in many
coaches now in use. B is that part of the body of the coach where the
guards are to ride, this arrangement providing for two guards. It will be
observed that this part of the body is considerably higher than that where the
passengers are to ride, for the purpose of allowing the guards to stand up when
occasion may require. C is an aperture or window to fire out of with pistols
in case of attack, and is occasionally closed by a door or slide inside. D is a
door for opening in the roof of the guard's place, in order through which they
may raise themselves by standing on the seats, and in that position may fire
from the shoulder with blunderbusses and heavier arms. There are two doors
in front of the guard's place, one at each side of the fore boot for them to
enter and descend by, as also another aperture in each of those doors to fire
through, as well as for them to communicate with the coachman; for it should
be stated that the guard's place is divided off by a partition from the place A

page_text: allotted to the inside passengers.
E is a ventilator to the passengers' place,
and is occasionally covered by a door or slide inside. F is the boot for the mails
or parcels. The front boot also opens into the guard's place for the holding
the arms and mails. G is the driver's seat, in which there is not any thing
particular; and H is the place for the outside passengers, something similar
to the seats of an Irish outside jaunting car.
Fig. 2 is a plan of the carriage of the said coach, shewing my said second.
improvement or new arrangement of springs. I and J are two shafts, between
which the wheels run.. K and L are two springs fixed at the centres R, R,
and playing at each end, one being inside and the other, outside of the wheel.
It will be observed that these springs are attached to the body of the coach by
the scroll irons S, S, and which are jointed to the cross bars connecting each
end of the springs; and it is the arrangement of double springs, or placing.
one outside as well as one inside, and causing them to act equally by placing
the scroll iron in the manner shewn in the plan, which causes weight to be.
thrown with perfect equality on each bearing of the axes of the wheels.
Fig. 3 is a back elevation of the said coach, shewing my said third improve-
ment or elbow. M being the said elbow or piece of wood or iron bar project-
ing from each side of the under part of the luggage box or well so far that
if a wheel or axle should break, or a wheel slip off the edge of the road, tho
elbow would touch the ground before the carriage could fall sufficiently to one
side to cause the overturn of the coach; the same object may be accomplished
by extending the breadth of the under boot or luggage box to which the
elbow is; Figs. 4 and 5 relate entirely to the last of my said improvements,
namely, my said stone bearings for axletrees and the oil box thereto; that is
to say, Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the axle roller, &c.; Fig. 5 is a lon-.
gitudinal section. The same letters refer to the same parts in each. a is an iron
frame or box, in the top of which the shafts or framing of the carriage rest,
and to which it is fastened by bolts in the usual way. 6 is a piece of agate,
flint or other hard stone or earthen composition, and which is well bedded in
tin or other similar substance. c is the axle on which it bears, and which is
fastened in the wheel and turns with it; one end of the axle as it proceeds.
from the wheel is here only represented (Fig. 5), the other being similar to.
it. This axle is made of good iron, and staled (or casehardened) and accu-:
rately turned and polished at the bearings or parts outside the wheel. d is a
roller of brass or other substance, bearing on a lever e, which is acted on by a,
spring f, which keeps the roller & pressed upwards against the axle ; this roller,
turns in a box g, made of brass or other material to contain oil. h, h, are two,
screws which hold the box g in its place, and allow it to be removed for the.

page_text: purpose of supplying it with oil. It is obvious that as the axle c turns by the
motion of the carriage the roller d must also turn, it being sufficiently
pressed against the axle to cause the friction at the circumference of the roller
to be greater than at the centre, on which it turns; this roller, by always
turning in oil, carries it up and keeps it constantly supplied to the axle; if the
roller be the full breadth the box would admit of, it would carry up too much
oil, it should therefore be contracted in breadth, or which is better, divided
into two parts, as represented by d, d, Fig. 5; it may still take up more oil
than is necessary, in which case, if the axle turns in the direction of the dart
(Fig. 4), the oil will be kept back at that part of the axle where it comes in
contract with the bearing, as at k, and accumulate till it inclines to run hori-
zontally along the axle and escape outside the box at the nave of the wheel;
to prevent this a piece of sheet iron or brass (and which cannot be represented
in the Figure) is fitted to the axle and so pressed against it as to convey the
superfluous oil back into the box. At m, Fig. 5, a provision is also made to
conduct back any oil that may escape at the extremity of the axle. i, Fig. 5,
represents the axle c turned convex at its extremity, this tends very much to
lessen friction, as that lateral pressure which is occasioned by one wheel being
lower than its opposite is here received at the point of the axle instead of
acting against broad washers or collars, as in the common way; that part of
the iron work against which the point of the axle bears is made hard and
smooth; the back plate n, Fig. 5, acts under the axle and saves the roller from
injury in the event of a sudden jolt inclining the carriage to leap off the
wheel.
.
Now whereas I do not claim exclusive privilege to that part of the general
sarrangement of my aforesaid coach as relates to the inside and outside
passengers, but only to such parts of the said general arrangement as regards
the situation of the guards; but such an arrangement of a mail coach body
in this particular as aforesaid, whereby the guards and mails are more effec-
tually preserved from attack and plunder, and whereby the defensive operations
of the guards are rendered more effectual; and also such an arrangement of
springs, one outside and one inside of each wheel, as aforesaid; and also such
an arrangement of a beam or bar of iron which I call an elbow, as aforesaid;
and also such stone bearings, as aforesaid, and such oil-boxes adapted thereto,
being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before
used in these Kingdoms, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of my
said improvements, and that I do very believe that my said Specification doth
comply in all respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso
my said herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; whereföre
in

page_text: I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Bewley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.

page_text: This Parchment Writing was produced and shewn to Martin Corcoran,
being the same referred to by his Affidavit, sworn this 23d day of July, 1824.
Before me,
J. E. DOWDESWELL.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the oaths of Thomas King and
Martin Corcoran, the Specification aforesaid was inrolled word for word as
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.