CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE SPRINGS AND BRACES OF WHEEL CARRIAGES, AND UPON THE MODE OF HANGING SUCH CARRIAGES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL AND SUNDRY TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL
COME, I, ARCHIBALD MCLELLAN, of the City of Glasgow, Coach Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most. Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Thirteenth day of September, Eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, in the
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Archibald McLellan, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full power and privilege and authority,
that I, the said Archibald McLellan, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, by ourselves, or such other person as I or they shall appoint or agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the termi
of years therein expressed, shall lawfully make, use, exercise, and vend, within
that part of Her said Majesty's Dominions called England, the Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention described in the
said Letters Patent as follows, vizt:-" CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS UPON THE
SPRINGS AND BRACES OF WHEEL CARRIAGES, AND UPON THE MODE OF HANGING
SUCH CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent it is provided that I; the said
Archibald McLellan, within the space of six months from the date of the said
Letters Patent, cause a particular description of the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by a writing under

page_text: my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery,
as in änd by the said Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Archibald McLellan, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to
consist in the use of single plate springs with metal braces, so applied that
the weight of the body is partly supported by tension from the said springs;
and in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Archibald
McLellan, do hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention is to
be performed, by the following explanation, reference being had to the
Drawing thereof annexed, that is to say:―
The Drawing marked (Figure I.) Fig. I. represents my improved spring
marked a, a, as applied to a gig or two-wheeled carriage. The spring, it will
be seen, is a single plate of steel thirty-four inches long, two inches broad, and
three eighths of an inch thick, for six inches in its centre, but thereafter
decreasing uniformly in thickness to one eighth and one sixteenth of an inch
at the neck of the eyes or ends of the spring, the eye itself being one quarter
of an inch in thickness. The ends of the spring when only supporting the
weight of the body, as in this Figure, rise gradually, curving upwards to the
extent of an inch or thereabouts, higher than at the centre, while not more
than four inches in the centre of the spring ought to be embraced by its
fastenings to the axle. The material of which my said springs are composed
is coach spring steel, manufactured from the best foreign iron, uniformly drawn
and carefully tempered. To the ends or eyes of my said springs are attached
by bolts, as exhibited at b, b, iron links or shackles one and a half inches long,
betwixt the centres of the bolt holes, and a full quarter of an inch thick. These
bolts and shackles, as well as all the other ironwork, should be made of the
best foreign iron. To these links are attached metal braces marked c, c, six
inches long from the centres of the holes of the rollers they enclose. The
braces are made of the best hoop iron, one and a half inches broad and one
eighth of an inch thick. The hoop iron is turned round the brass or bell
metal rollers, and is secured by three rivets, one in the centre, where the
hoop iron is scraped or joined, and one in each end. The brace is exhibited
full size at Fig. 4. These braces I cover with Patent leather. The brass or
bell metal rollers enclosed in the ends of the braces are in length the same as
the breadth of the spring, and have three eighths or half inch bolts passing
through them. The braces being attached to the short links or shackles con-
nected with the eyes of the springs, the whole are suspended between two

page_text: open ended scroll irons E, E, as shewn at d, d, in Fig. I. The tension
of the springs with their links and braces must be such as to permit
the braces, when the weight of the body and framework of the carriage as
placed upon them, to decline slightly from the horizontal, as at Fig. I. This
declination will encrease when the carriage is loaded, because the springs, the
ends of which rise higher than the centre, becoming straight through the
pressure, are thereby lengthened, which permits additional play or declination
to the braces (see Fig. 2); but as the pressure increases by extra loading, and
tends to overpower the elasticity of the spring in bending beneath the pres-
sure, the spring is contracted in length, and the braces are compelled in their
turn to approach the horizontal (see Fig. 3). A reciprocal and corresponding
action is thus always going on between the spring and its braces when the
carriage is in motion, and the more severe the vertical pressure becomes the
more powerfully does the horizontal tension thereby increased endow the
spring with the adequate resisting power. Now, although the Drawings, to
avoid complexity, exhibit the spring as applied to a two-wheeled carriage, it
is equally applicable to those with four wheels, and in comparing the weight
of these springs with those of a Stanhope or Tilbury, the favorite modes
hitherto of hanging two-wheeled carriages, they will be found to bear a pro-
portion favorable in lightness to the former of one to five or six, and about
the same ratio in four-wheeled carriages. From what has been said it will
be seen that the principle of this Invention lies not so much in the spring
itself as in the new and favorable position in which it is placed by the braces.
Still the spring must bear some proportion to the weight it has to carry, and
therefore, whether the proportions of the single plate be encreased, or an
additional plate or plates underneath it resorted to, is a matter of option which
does not affect the principle of my said Invention.
Now whereas I claim as my Invention a single plate or spring consisting of
one or more plates fastened by metal links or braces as aforesaid, and in
manner aforesaid, to the bodies or frames of carriages, whereby I am enabled
to give tension to the spring as the load it has to support increases, and to use
in consequence much lighter springs than heretofore. And such my Invention
being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before
used in that part of Her Majesty's Dominions called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be
my Specification of the said Invention, and that I do verily believe this my
said Specification does comply completely, fully, and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said in part recited Letters Patent contained;

page_text: wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my
said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Archibald McLellan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Second day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-nine years
ARCH (L.s.) .MCLELLAN.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by the
within-named Archibald McLellan,
in the presence of
HUGH MONCRIEFF,
Of the City of Glasgow,
Attorney-at-Law.
I, Hugh Moncrieff, of the City of Glasgow, Attorney-at-Law, do hereby
declare that I was present, together with a John Harvie, of the said City, of
Glasgow, Clerk-at-Law, and did see Archibald MacLellan, of the City of
Glasgow, Coach Maker, sign, seal, and as his act and deed acknowledge and
deliver, a certain Deed or Instrument in writing hereunto annexed, bearing date
the Second day of March, Eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, purporting to be
a Specification describing and ascertaining the nature of the said Archibald
MacLellan's Invention of "Certain Improvements upon the Springs and
Braces of Wheel Carriages, and upon the Mode of Hanging such Carriages;"
and I do further declare that the name "Arch McLellan," set and subscribed

page_text: to the said Deed as the party executing the same, is of the proper handwriting
of the said Archibald MacLellan, and that the names "Ilugh Moncrieff" and
"Jn° Harvie," set and subscribed to the attestation of the said Deed as
witnesses to the signing and sealing thereof, are of the proper handwriting of
the said John Harvie, and of me, this Declarent, respectively. And I do
solemnly and sincerely declare that this Declaration is made by me under the
conscientious knowledge and belief that the same is true, the said Declaration
being emitted in virtue of an Act passed in the fifth and sixth years of the
reign of His Majesty William the Fourth, intituled An Act to repeal an Act
of the present Session of Parliament, entitled "An Act for the more effectual
Abolition of Oaths and Affirmations taken and made in various Departments
of the State, and to substitute Declarations in lieu thereof, and for the more
entire Suppression of Voluntary and Extra-Judicial Oaths and Affidavits, and
to make other Provisions for the Abolition of unnecessary Oaths."