IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION TRAMWAYS OR ROADS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Albert Moll at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st January 1870.
I, RICHARD ALBERT. MOLL, of 27, Lombard Street, in the City of
London, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SUSPENSION TRAMWAYS OR ROADS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction of
tramways or roads suspended to fixed points of support from cables or
ropes, and consists in a system of high level way or above ground road
carrying rails for the conveyance of trains or other vehicles.
'
According to this improvement two or more cables or ropes are
employed between any two points of support suspended one under the
other (in a vertical line) at certain distances from each other, having .
grooved metal rings interposed between them, and attached or fixed to
them by metal straps with bolts or keys, the outer or grooved sides or
surfaces only of the rings being in contact with the ropes, or by bars
crossed in the shape of the letter X attached to each other at their
crossing, and provided with grooved bearings at their extremities or ends.
'

page_text: In some instances these crossed bars are interposed between and fixed to
the ropes by their opposite grooved ends in a similar manner to that
employed with regard to the grooved rings. Between two lines of this
combined system of ropes and rings placed side by side at a certain
distance from each other are suspended from the lower line of grooved
rings cross beams or girders of wood or iron, as occasion may require, by
rods, ropes, or other suitable means, and the rails may be placed and
fixed either directly across these cross beams or girders, as on ordinary
sleepers on railways, for the conveyance of trains or other vehicles; or
they may be placed on and bolted to longitudinal sleepers, or to flat bars
of iron which are also fixed and secured to the cross beams, which flat
bars of iron or longitudinal sleepers will also serve as ties. According to
the strength of the materials employed in the construction a double line
of rails may be carried on the cross beams both for up and down traffic,
and motion may be given to the trains or vehicles by power travelling
with them, or they may be propelled by suitable means by power from
´an independent source. To avoid any inconvenience as to gradients that
may be necessary in this system of suspended road a lower rope is placed
on each side parallel to the rails, and severally attached to the cross
beams or girders, and the ends firmly secured to the towers or pillars.
or other supports which carry the suspended ropes. In adopting this
system of communication over any great distance, say, for several miles,
when necessarily there will be many towers or supports at irregular and
uncertain distances, it is proposed to keep each rope or cable suspended
from one point of support to the next distinct and unconnected from the
rope or cable next to it on either side in the same line in the direction of
its length; and each of these ropes is separately moored at either end in
the usual manner as cables or chains of suspension bridges are moored,
thereby avoiding a continuous line of rope carried from tower to tower
over a great distance when a break or accident at any point of the rope
is not only attended with imminent risk to life but likely greatly to
interrupt communication. By this arrangement every tower or support
except those at either end of the line will have ropes moored on its two
opposite sides, which will tend greatly to balance it in its position; and
cross beams or girders may be employed to connect the supports on
opposite sides, which will still further add to their security, in which
case under certain circumstances the combined ropes and grooved rings
may be suspended from the girders or arches. The employing of two
or more ropes combined with grooved metal rings is to give rigidity

page_text: to the construction adopted by this system in a manner somewhat on the
principle of trelliswork used in the construction of bridges, thereby
adding greatly to its strength and security; and if from any flaw in one
of the ropes it should happen to break the weight of the suspended road
would be transferred to the remaining rope or ropes, and the accident
could more easily be repaired without interrupting the traffic or com-
munication. This system of suspension tramway is especially adapted
for localities where owing to the distance between the points of support
it would be either impracticable or too expensive to span it by the
construction of an ordinary bridge. This system may be used as a bridge
for foot passengers or otherwise, or it may be used as a combination of
railway and ordinary bridge.
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