IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES FOR RAILWAY WAGGONS, TO BE CALLED THE VIGLINO AXLES.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan-Brown, of the Firm of Brandon
and Morgan-Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, South-
ampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES FOR RAILWAY WAGGONS, TO BE
CALLED THE VIGLINO AXLES. -A communication from abroad by
Jacques Viglino, Engineer, and Jacques Donna, Solicitor, both of
Turin, Italy.
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Sealed the 13th August 1875, and dated the 27th February 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan-
Brown at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th February 1875.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES FOR RAILWAY WAGGONS, TO BE
CALLED THE VIGLINO AXLES," to be as follows:-
These improvements have reference to the axles of railway rolling
stock, such as passenger, freight, or other railway waggons or vehicles,

page_text: and they consist in providing their extremities or bearings which run in
the grease boxes with an external loose tube or covering of steel or other
suitable metal, and which is secured to the same by any appropriate
mechanical means, such as a key or a pin driven through the loose tube
and the axle. In this manner all the wear and tear on such axles is
limited to the said outer tubes or coverings which can at any time be
replaced with great facility and at a trifling cost.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morgan-Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 26th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN-BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan-Brown, Engineers
and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue
Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Morgan-Brown, Her special
license that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Morgan-
Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES FOR RAILWAY WAGGONS, TO BE CALLED THE VIGLINO
AXLES," a communication to me from abroad by Jacques Viglino,
Engineer, and Jacques Donna, Solicitor, both of Turin, Italy, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Morgan-Brown,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the

page_text: Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immedi̟-
ately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Morgan-Brown, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :—
The maintenance of the axles and their bearings necessary to locomo-
tion of wagons on railways has constantly preoccupied and preoccupies
more every day those who are at the head of these administrations on
account of the enormous expense to which they are liable for this very
costly branch of the service.
Although the axles be made of iron of the best quality, and this iron
forged after the best rules of the art, and although the brass bearings
upon which the axles turn are prepared according to the newest improve-
ments they always wear, generally in the journals, in a relatively very
short time, and in such a manner as to require them to be put aside and
declared unusable. This wear developes the more easily and the more
quickly as the cases of heating in the journals are the more frequent,
and it is notorious that often the axles are become unusable after only
one journey caused by the heating which had not been remedied in
time.
With the object of diminishing the very grave consequences of these
facts studies have always been made of divers systems of boxes for
grease and other liquids in the hope of finding that which would render
impossible, or at least very difficult, an ultimate heating. But this
never being achieved recourse was had to the expedient of augmenting
the diameters of the journals, making them at first 0.07 to 0.08
centimetres, and then to 0.09, with the object of thus diminishing the
pressure on each centimetre square of the surface of the journals so as to
arrive in that manner to obtain less friction. But this method even has
a limit which it is not convenient to pass, for the moro the diameter of
the journal is augmented the more their tangential velocity is augmented,
and in consequence also the resistance of the traction, this being in
direct ratio with the diameter of the wheels. And meanwhile the
proceeds of the railways continue to be annually in great part absorbed
by the very great expenses required by the renewing of the axles and
bearings at a time that there is nevertheless a system very simple and

page_text: relatively inexpensive by means of the application of which the axies
for the future have no need to be re-made and renewed on account of
the wear of the journals, their wearing requiring much longer time than
at present, and when at last that wearing has to be repaired (and herein
is one of the principal advantages of the system) it does not require an
exchange of the axles, because a simple reparation, always possible to be
effected in the repairing workshops even of every railway company,
suffices always to render them serviceable with the minimum relative
cost.
The Drawing annexed to the present description indicates clearly the
system to which it relates.
This system consists essentially in covering the journals A and B,
Figure 1, of the axles with a ring O of sufficient thickness in tempered
steel of the best quality or other suitable material, and to fix the said
ring upon the journal or axle prepared to receive it by means of the
special key P let in near the ends of the journals, the whole as is shown
at Figure 1, which is shewn superposed at Figure 2 which represents in
section the actual system to change. When this ring of steel or other
suitable material becomes deteriorated by long wear or even from heating
(always more difficult by the new system in comparison with the old
one) it is only necessary to replace it with a new ring and the axle will
continue to work as if it had been re-made and forged new.
Every one knows that steel above all if it is tempered is amongst
metals that which presents the most density of its molecules and lends
itself more than any other, and especially better than iron, to a most
perfect polishing from which the system proposed cannot but succeed
very well in practice so much the more that the system may be even
applied with no matter what material that is believed more suitable.
Besides, the application of the system cannot bring any prejudice as to
the solidity of the axles, no case ever arising of the rupture of the axles
in the journals even when these only have a diameter of 0.07 centimetres,
as also when from heating during the journey these are found reduced
to 0.03 centimetres, or even only to 0.02 in diameter, because the load
on the journals is always light in comparison to the section of the axle.
Consequently this system without requiring other demonstrations gives
the very remarkable advantages following:
First. Return to serviceable condition of a great number of axles at
present thrown aside and declared unusable.

page_text: by reason of wear in the journals.
Third. A greater durability in the journals.
Fourth. A longer wear of the bearings or axle boxes due to the lesser
friction they are subject to; and thus also,
Fifth. Less consumption of grease in the boxes; and lastly,
Sixth. Less tractive power used in the locomotion.
For this system consequently as simple and relatively of little cost as
it is useful in all respects, and described as communicated to me by
Jacques Viglino, Engineer, and Jacques Donna, Advocate, I claim en
resumé that the Invention consists in the re-covering the axles with a
ring of sufficient thickness of tempered steel of the best quality, or
other suitable material, and fixing this ring on the journal prepared to
receive by means of a special key firmly fixed in the axles themselves
towards the extremity of the journal.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan-Brown, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.
WILLIAM MORGAN-BROWN. (L.S.)