An Improved Cover for Omnibuses, Tramcars, Wagonettes, and the like, and Apparatus for Opening and Closing the same.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Mar., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 10th Aug., 1889-Accepted, 14th Sept., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Cover for Omnibuses, Tramcars, Wagonettes, and the
like, and Apparatus for Opening and Closing the same.
I, JAMES THEWLIS of the Holbeck Mills, Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Omnibuses, Tramcars, Wagonettes and vehicles of a like nature are often made without
provision for the protection of passengers from inclement weather especially on a
sudden occurence thereof.
My invention relates to and has for object the construction and use of a cover for
such vehicles, and which can be used either permanently or occasionally as may be
desired. On the top of such vehicles and at each corner thereof I erect suitable
stanchions or pillars each of which may be in one or more parts, of convenient height
to which in a lengthwise direction of such vehicle I attach horizontal rods; the rod
or rods at one side being parallel to that or those at the other side. At each end of
the said rods or to the stanchions or pillars I fix a suitable rib or transome and inter-
mediate therewith I place upon the said rods similar ribs which have a sliding
movement thereon by means of a screw mounted in bearings in the aforesaid fixed ribs,
and is in connection with one of the sliding ribs by means of a nut attached to such
rib and taking into the threads of the screw, (other equivalent mechanism may be
employed for effecting this sliding movement).
To this and the other sliding ribs I attach a suitable pliant or flexible and water-
proof cover, of oil cloth, leather cloth or other suitable material that is capable of
being folded in bellows fashion at one end of the said rods when not in use, by means
of the mechanism above referred to, and of being drawn or stretched over the vehicle
at pleasure.
The stanchions or pillars as above referred to being in parts may together with the
cover be readily removed if desired:
In cases of long vehicles I provide in addition to the fixed end ribs a central fixed
rib, (also other stanchions or pillars if necessary,) and provide a right and left handed
screw each part of which is furnished with a nut connected to one of a set of sliding
ribs at each side of the said central one, and the flexible cover now in two parts
together with their respective set of sliding ribs are drawn from each end of the
vehicle to the centre of it, provision being made for securing a water tight junction of
the cover or sliding rib at each side of the central fixed rib. Or the respective parts
of the cover may be stored when not in use, near the central fixed rib and moved.
therefrom towards the ends of the vehicle when required.
Dated thi 7th of March 1880
JAMES THEWLIS..
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Cover for Omnibuses, Tramcars, Wagonettes, and the
like, and Apparatus for Opening and Closing the same.
1, JAMES THEWLIS, of the Holbeck Mills, Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
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 :-
Omnibuses, Tramcars, Wagonettes and vehicles of a like nature are often made
without provision for the protection of passengers from inclement weather, especially
on a sudden occasion thereof.

page_text: My invention relates to and has for object the construction and use of a cover for
such vehicles, and which can be used either permanently or occasionally as may be
desired. On the top of such vehicles and at each corner thereof, I erect, suitable
stanchions or pillars each of which may be in one or more parts, of convenient height,
to which in a lengthwise direction of such vehicle I attach horizontal rods; the rod or
rods at one side being parallel to that or those at the other side. At each end of the
said rods or to the stanchions or pillars I fix a suitable rib or transome and inter-
mediate therewith 1 place upon the said rods ribs which have a sliding movement
thereon by means of a screw mounted in bearings in the aforesaid fixed ribs, and is in
connection with one of the sliding ribs by means of a nut attached to such rib and
taking into the threads of the screw. Other equivalent mechanism may be employed
for effecting this sliding movement.
To this and the other sliding ribs I attach a suitable pliant or flexible and water-
proof cover of oilcloth, leather cloth, or other suitable material that is capable of being
folded in bellows fashion at one end of the said rods when not in use, by means of the
mechanism above referred to, and of being drawn or stretched over the vehicle at
pleasure.
The stanchions or pillars as above referred to being in parts may together with the
covor be readily removed if desired.
In cases of long vehicles 1 provide in addition to the fixed end ribs a central fixed
rib, also other stanchions or pillars if necessary, and provide a right and left handed
screw, each part of which is furnished with a nut connected to one of a set of sliding
ribs at each side of the said central one, and the flexible cover now in two parts
together with their respective set of sliding ribs are drawn from each end of the
vehicle to the centre of it, provision being made for securing a watertight junction of
the cover or sliding rib at each side of the central fixed rib. Or the respective parts
of the cover may be stored when not in use either near the said central fixed rib or
near the end transomes and moved from one or the other position as required.
In the annexed drawings, Fig. 1, is an end view in part, and partly in section, of
an omnibus or other vehicle with the improved cover theroon, the flexible part being
shewn in dotted lines d, in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2. is a side elevation
of such vehicle in part with the improved cover in longitudinal section on the line 1. 1.
of Fig. 1. Fig. 3. is the whole cover in elevation, (detached from the vehicle), and
drawn over the whole length of it. Fig. 4, is the cover in elevation when not in use
and drawn towards one end, bellows like, Fig. 5, is a detached view in part, of the
roof rib to which a nut or its equivalent is attached and into which a screw takes for
opening and closing the flexible cover.
The same letters are used to denote like parts wherever they occur.
a, is an omnibus or other vehicle in part, b. the stanchions or pillars, in one or more
lengths, for carrying the said cover, one at each corner, (long vehicles may have inter-
mediate ones if required), are longitudinal rods for connecting the stanchions or
pillars together, d, d, are transomes, preferably of wood, e, e, e, are ribs carried by and
capable of sliding upon the rods c,-, is a central longitudinal screw with hand wheel
or handle, the nut or its equivalent taking on to screw f.
The ribs e, e, e, of the roof or cover are connected together by hinges e¹, e¹, e¹, by
means of which the flexible cover is caused to buckle outwardly when being moved
towards one part of a vehicle and when not required and also by the same means
(when the cover is required, as in the case of wet or otherwise stormy weather, the
nut ribe, being moved first) the others e, e, e, e, are drawn into position one after
another until the whole vehicle is covered.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
,claim.is
The use of a flexible waterproof cover for Omnibuses. Tranicars, Wagonettes and the

page_text: like, in combination with mechanisın for carrying and moving the same so that such
vehicles can be covered or uncovered at pleasure, the whole constructed, arranged and
operating substantially as described and shewn in the drawings annexed.
Dotad this 0th day of Annual 1980
Witness,
THOS. E. CRAVEN, Fel. Inst. P.A.,
24, Victoria Chambers, Leeds.
JAMES THEWLIS.