Improvements in Car Wheels.
Year: 1895

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Car Wheels.
1, ROBERT SPENCE, the younger, of Trafalgar House, Richmond, in the
County of York, Iron Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
The object of my invention is to produce a car wheel that will run with less
noise than arises from those of ordinary constructions.
n
For this purpose in my wheel, packing of a kind adapted to deaden sound is
enclosed between the wheel hub or centre, the rim, and plates that may advan-
tageously be in the form of discs or dished plates arranged at opposite sides of the
wheel, these being suitably secured together and to the hub and rim with interposed
sound deadening material.
The wheel hub is connected to the rim by suitable means such as arms or spokes.
The hub, the rim, and the connection or connections between them, may be cast
in one piece of suitable material such as steel, with a flange to the rim ; or the
structure may be built up by welding, or by otherwise suitably fastening together
the hub, the rim, and connecting parts. Instead of forming the rim with a flange,
it may have fitted and secured to it a flanged tyre as well understood.
According to one construction, an annular recess is formed at each side of the
wheel at the inner edge of the rim, and an annular face or ledge is formed around
the hub at each side. In each recess of the rim is placed a ring or annularly
arranged piece of suitable material such as vulcanised india rubber or asbestos that
will deaden sound, and upon each annular face or ledge is placed a ring or packing
piece of similar material, and which, like the first mentioned ring, may advan-
tageously be of ☐ section, the object being to prevent metallic contact of the
dished plates with the rim and hub. The dished plates are by preference flanged
at their outer and inner peripheries, and are secured in place by bolts which are
passed through both of them and through the wheel spokes. By this means the
said plates and the packing rings, as well as the enclosed packing material, are
securely fixed in place.
Suitable sound deadening material for the packing is silicate cotton or slag wool.
Threads of this material are wrapped round the arms or spokes, and then a suitable
cementing or binding agent such as a solution of Prout's elastic glue, or other
glutinous substance, is applied freely over the said threads so as to bind them
together and prevent them moving endways on the arms or spokes and becoming
compressed at the outer ends thereof, under the action of centrifugal force, when
the wheel is in use. One of the dished plates is now secured in place on one side
of the wheel and the spaces remaining between the covered spokes and the inner
circumference of the rim and the outer circumference of the hub are closely packed
with silicate cotton which is pressed under and over the covered spokes, after
which the remaining plate is secured in place so as to press the silicate cotton to
shape. Each plate is then removed in turn and the mass of silicate cotton covered
on each side with a layer of a cementing or binding agent such as herein before
referred to in order to bind the silicate cotton fibres together, after which the said
discs or plates are firmly secured together by the bolts as before mentioned, thuz
forming the complete wheel.

page_text: By the construction described with dished plates, the effect of tightening the
plates is to tend to increase the diameter of the plates and to tighten their peripheries
against the packing rings.
Dated this 14th day of March 1895.
ROBERT SPENCE, JUNIOR.
W. Lloyd Wise,
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant.
Improvements in Car Wheels.
I, ROBERT SPENCE, the younger, of Trafalgar House, Richmond, in the
County of York, Iron Merchant, 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 :-
The object of my invention is to produce a car wheel that will run with less
noise than arises from those of ordinary constructions.
For this purpose in my improved car wheel, packing of a kind adapted to deaden
sound is enclosed between the wheel hub or centre, the rim, and plates that may
advantageously be in the form of discs or dished plates arranged at opposite sides
of the wheel, these being suitably secured together and to the hub and rim with
interposed sound deadening material.
The wheel hub is connected to the rim by suitable means such as arms or spokes.
The hub, the rim, and the connection or connections between them, may be cast
in one piece of suitable material such as steel, with a flange to the rim; or the
structure may be built up by welding, or by otherwise suitably fastening together
the hub, the rim, and connecting parts. Instead of forming the rim with a flange,
it may have fitted and secured to it a flanged tyre as well understood.
In the accompanying illustrative drawings,
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a car wheel constructed according to this invention,
part of one of the side plates and of the packing material being removed to more
clearly illustrate the mode of construction.
Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line A B of Fig. 1.
1 is the wheel hub conuected to the rim 2 by the spokes 3, these parts being
cast together in one piece of suitable metal such as steel. 4, 4 are circular dished
metal plates arranged one at each side of the wheel, and is fibrous packing
material held in place between the said hub, rim, spokes and dished plates.
In the construction shown, an annular recess 6 is formed at each side of the
wheel at the inner edge of the rim 2, and an annular face or ledge 7 is formed
around the hub 1 at each side. In each recess 6 of the rim is placed a ring or
annularly arranged piece 8 of suitable material such as vulcanized india rubber or
asbestos that will deaden sound, and upon each annular face or ledge 7 is placed a
ring or packing piece 9 of similar material, and which, like the first mentioned
ring, may advantageously be of L section, the object being to prevent metallic
contact of the dished plates 4 with the rim 2 and hub 1. The dished plates 4 are
by preference flanged at their outer and inner peripheries as shown at 4* and 4
respectively, and are secured in place by bolts 10 which are passed through both
of them and through the spokes 3 as shown. By this means the said plates and
the packing rings 8 and 9, as well as the enclosed packing material 5, are securely
fixed in place.
Suitable sound deadening material for the packing 5 is silicate cotton or slag
wool, and asbestos. Threads of either of these materials are wrapped round the
arms or spokes 3, as shown at 5ª, and then a suitable cementing or binding agent,
such as a solution of Prout's elastic glue, or other glutinous substance, is applied

page_text: freely over the said threads so as to bind them together and prevent them moving
endways on the arms or spokes and becoming compressed at the outer ends thereof,
under the action of centrifugal force, when the wheel is in use. One of the dished
plates 4 is now secured in place on one side of the wheel, it may be by means of
the bolts 10, in which case tubular distance pieces are placed on the bolts between
the nuts thereon and the wheel spokes 3, and the space remaining between the
covered spokes, the inner circumference of the rim 2 and the outer circumference
of the hub 1, and the said plate 4, is closely packed with silicate cotton or other
suitable material which is pressed under and over the covered spokes, after which
the remaining plate is secured in place so as to press the silicate cotton to shape.
Each plate is then removed in turn and the mass of silicate cotton or other material
covered on each side with a layer 11 of a cementing or binding agent, such as
herein before referred to, in order to bind the silicate cotton or fibres together,.
after which the said discs or plates are firmly secured together by the bolts 10 as
hereinbefore mentioned, thus forming the complete wheel.
Each of the plates 4 may be provided with holes 4° located near the hub 1 and
through which additional filling material may be passed, after the wheel has been
in use for a time, to compensate for any that may be thrown outward towards the
wheel rim by centrifugal action. The holes 4° may be closed by any suitable
means, such as pivoted plates 4d that are normally secured over the holes by
fastening devices such as set screws 4e. As will be obvious, each of the plates 4
instead of being made in one circular piece of metal, may be composed of two or
more plates suitably secured together; for example it may be composed of sector
shaped plates, one of which is shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1.
By the construction described with dished plates 4, the effect of tightening the
plates, is to tend to increase their diameters and to tighten their inner and outer
peripheries against the packing rings 8 and 9.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that
what I claim is :—
1. The combination with a car wheel, of packing material (such as silicate
cotton) adapted to deaden sound, arranged to fill the space between the wheel hub
and rim, removable side plates or discs arranged to compress and hold the said
packing material in place, packing rings of sound deadening material arranged
between the said discs and wheel hub and rim, and means for securing said side
plates or discs in places, substantially as herein described for the purpose.
specified.
2. My improved car wheel substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated this h J
2007
W. Lloyd Wise,
ROBERT SPENCE.
46, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agent for the Applicant..