Improvements in Axles for Tram-cars and other Vehicles Running on Rails.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Mar., 1891-Accepted, 18th Apr., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Axles for Tram-cars and other Vehicles Running
on Rails.
A communication from HUGO LAU, of 34, Struve Strasse, Dresden, Saxony, in
the Empire of Germany, Engineer.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT, of 323, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
M.1.M.E., do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
At present vehicles running on rails or tracks, more especially street tram-cars,
-are apt to slip off the rails chiefly at curves and turnings, owing to the fact that
the rails at these parts gradually alter their position and gauge so that the wheels
of the car, in passing are forced out of the track.
It is proposed to remedy this drawback by the employment of divided axles in
the construction of tram-car wheels such axles being loosely supported by their
bearings and having the wheels mounted fast upon them, while they are at the same
time jointly with the wheels, capable of longitudinal adjustment. The wheels are
thus enabled to fit exactly the gauge, whatever it may be at any given point or
moment which they will do the more readily as the variations of gauge scarcely
ever exceed a few centimetres.
In employing such divided axles adjustable lengthwise an additional division may
be made in order to provide for the varying angles at which the wheels are inclined
when running over curves and the like.
Where the permanent way is of a light structure, the employment of automatically
adjustable axles also offers certain other advantages than those stated above; for
instance the avoidance of the lateral shaking of the car, which is rendered, by
inertia, independent of any deviation of the wheels from the perpendicular.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a section of a set of wheels and axle adapted to carry out this invention
and showing the wheels near together and Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the
wheels wide apart.
The object of the invention is attained by connecting one wheel a with an axle b
of small section integral with the journal d while the other wheel al is fast upon a
hollow axle b¹ of larger diameter than b. The axle b is provided with a number of
projections or collars c which when the other axle 61 is passed over 6 make a
sufficiently tight fit between the two. The hollow axle 6' carries the journal ď.
Between the solid portion of the hollow axle 61 and the solid axle b a spring f may
be interposed within the hollow axle, which spring will have the tendency to keep
the wheels apart. Both journals d d are loosely carried in the bearings ee of
the car.
The wheels thus arranged will readily accommodate themselves to any variation
of gauge owing to the movableness of one axle within the other whereby the journals
are moved further into or out of their bearings as illustrated by Figures 1 and 2 of
the accompanying drawings.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
A wheel axle for tram cars and other vehicles running on rails so arranged that
the wheels a a thereon are automatically adjustable to variations of gauge by the

page_text: formation of the axle in two telescoping parts such as 6 b' adapted to slide the one
upon the other and movable longitudinally in the bearings e e¹ substantially as
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 13th day of March 1891.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.