IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JONATHAN
WRAGG, of Wednesbury, in tbc County of Stafford, Coach Axletree Smith,
send greeting.
- WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
April, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fourteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Jonathan Wragg, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Jonathan
Wragg, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jonathan
Wragg, my exors, adññors, or 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, in the
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Man, and in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso, that I, the said Jonathan Wragg, shall cause a particular description
of 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, to bo
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: 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
Jonathan Wragg, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My Invention consists, first, of so constructing railway carriages, railway
trucks, and other carriages used on railways where buffing apparatus is
employed, that breaks may be brought into action in order to retard such
carriages when the buffing apparatus thereof are pressed back.
And, secondly, my Invention consists of improvements in axles used in
railway and other carriages. And in order that my Invention may be most.
fully understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the
means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
b
Figure 1 shows so much of the side view of a railway carriage, railway
truck, or other railway carriage where buffers and breaks are used, as will s
enable me to describe my Invention. Figure 2 shows an end view of the
same parts as are shewn by Figure 1. a is a buffer, and 6 the buffer rod,
having on it a piston which slides in the cylinder within which the spring c is
contained. The buffer rod 6 passes through the spring, and through a bearing
at the end of the cylinder. d is a lever moving on an axis or fulcrum e, and at a
its lower end is applied a break f to act on the surface of the rail when pressed
thereon by the forcing back of the buffer. Or, in place of having a break
suitable for acting on the rail, a break may be fixed to the lever d, as is
indicated by red lines, so as to act on the wheel. The break, when not in
action to retard the carriage, is retained sufficiently off the rail, or from the
wheel, as the case may be, by the spring h, and so as not to offer any impedi-
ment to the progress of the carriage. It will readily be understood that by
having such breaks to each carriage of a train, that in the event of the
locomotive engine being checked or stopped, the effect will be that the buffers
will be driven back, and the projections g from the buffer rods will act on the s
break levers and bring the breaks into action, and each carriage will be
retarded by its own break, and the momentum of several carriages behind will
be prevented pressing injuriously on the more forward carriage or carriages,

page_text: from the circumstance that each carriage will have to overcome the retarding
effect offered by its own break before it can press on the carriage in front of
it, by which means the breaks will be more advantageously employed, and the
engineer will have greater control over a train than heretofore, for he will only
have to retard the locomotive engine, and the momentum in each carriage will
cause it to press forwards, which will cause the buffing apparatus to be pressed
back, which will tend to put the breaks more or less into action, according to
the degree of pressure on the several buffers.
I will now describe the second part of my Invention, which consists of
improvements in axles used in railway and other carriages. Heretofore it has
been usual for the most part to employ wrought iron or steel, or the two metals
combined, forged into the desired shape, according as the same have been for
railway carriages, or for those which run on common roads. But according to
this part of my Invention they are to be cast in metal capable of being rendered
maleable by annealing. And the metal I prefer for this purpose is such as is
made under a Patent granted to William Onions, of Southwark, for improve-
ments in the manufacture of steel. And I cause patterns of the form of axle
desired to be cast to be made in order to make suitable moulds, and in casting
such axles, I use cores in the moulds in order to cast the axles hollow. These
castings are then to be annealed in like manner to what articles made of
maleable cast iron have heretofore been annealed, and the process of
annealing will take a longer or shorter time, according to the substance of the
axletrees, as is well understood in annealing other articles, and as is well
understood.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the details as herein shown and described, and the same may be
varied without departing from my Invention, so long as the peculiar character
of my improvements be retained.
But what I claim is, first, the mode herein described of causing breaks
to be brought into action when the buffers of railway carriages, railway
trucks, and other railway carriages are pressed back.
And, secondly, I claim the making the axles of railway and other
carriages, by casting them in metal and annealing the same as herein
explained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Wragg, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, One thousand
JONATHAN (L.S.) WRAGG.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1851, the aforesaid Jonathan Wragg came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Telled the Twents fifth day of October in the year of our Lord One