AN IMPROVEMENT IN CONSTRUCTING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND OTHER ROAD VEHICLES TO INSURE FURTHER EASE AND SAFETY IN TRAVELLING
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Chrimes at the Office,
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
November 1870.
I, JOSEPH CHRIMES, of Clare Villas, Merton, in the County of Surrey,..
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
CONSTRUCTING RAILWAY CARRIAGES AND OTHER ROAD VEHICLES TO INSURE FURTHER
EASE AND SAFETY IN TRAVELLING," to be as follows:-
The springs usually applied to railway carriages and other wheel
vehicles for travelling purposes are intended to prevent any unpleasant,
motion or jarring in a vertical direction, but do not obviate or prevent.
the short transverse oscillating motion usually imparted to railway.
carriages by the motion of a train, and which cannot be prevented
while the wheel frame or truck and carriage body are permanently
attached together by any fixed and unflexible transverse or lateral
fastening.
The principal object of my improvement is to prevent the lateral
oscillating motion of the carriage bodies, or if it does take place it will.
be so slight as not to be uncomfortable to passengers travelling in the
:

page_text: carriages. This I do by separately constructing the wheel frame or
truck from the carriage body, and joining the carriage body to the wheel
frame by some flexible material or yielding joint or joints, so that any
lateral oscillating motion that may be imparted to the wheel frame or
truck by the motion of a train will not be extended to the bodies of the
carriages, owing to the flexible and yielding nature of the connecting
medium joining the wheel frame and carriage bodies together.
The mode and manner of uniting the wheel frame and carriage body
for effecting this object will depend on the structure and dimensions of
the carriages, and it may be done in various ways which will more or
less effect this object; for instance, the body of the carriage may be
constructed to rest on friction rolls or wheels connected to the wheel
frame, to allow the body to move in a lateral direction on the frame
within a given compass, but not allowing any longitudinal motion of the
body, while in the meantime steel or rubber springs are attached to
sides of the body or wheel frame to receive or break the concussion of
any lateral oscillating motion that may be imparted to the wheel frame
to prevent such motion or oscillation extending to the carriage body; at
the same time any elastic material may be employed for vertically
uniting the wheel frame and carriage body together, thereby dispensing
with any rigid fastening for permanently connecting the wheel framo.
and body together, which will allow the wheel frame a lateral oscillating
motion without imparting the same to the carriage body; or the wheel
frame and carriage body may be united together by blocks of india-
rubber or other elastic material placed in suitable recesses made in the
wheel frame and carriage body, where they are united together with
sufficient lateral play or freedom of such clastic material to prevent any
lateral oscillating motion that may be imparted to the wheel frame from
extending to the carriage body; or lateral cross 'pieces may be attached
to or made part of the wheel frame at or near each end of the frame, and
the surfaces of these cross pieces may be provided with friction rolls or
pulleys at their sides, bottom, and top, and furnished with tubes or
skeleton frames for working laterally on or over the friction rolls
attached to the said cross pieces, and a network of cords, rope, chains, or
other flexible material is stretched from one end of the wheel frame to
the other, and attached around the aforesaid tubes or skeleton frames,
and over a cross beam affixed to the centre of the wheel frame. The
object of this net of cords, rope, or chains is to serve as a bed for the

page_text: body of the carriage to rest on, and as a medium to prevent any direct
fixed connection between the wheel frame and carriage body, excepting
the connection at the cross pieces through the medium of the friction
rolls and some flexible or yielding material for holding the carriage body
to the network of cords, ropes, or chains.
In order to prevent the bottom of the carriage body from bearing on
any part of the wheel frame projecting or leading pieces are attached to
the under part or bottom of the carriage bodies at suitable distances from
the ends and centre of the carriage body which are made to rest on the
net of cords, ropes, or chains, and firmly held there by other cords or
flexible material which are attached to the carriage body in any suitable
manner and fastened to the tubes around the lateral cross pieces for
securing the carriage body to the bed of cords. By thus uniting the
wheel frame to the carriage body through the medium of the tubes
working on the lateral cross pieces and resting on the net of cords the
wheel frame may be subjected to lateral oscillating motion without
imparting it to the carriage body. In the meantime and to a certain
extent the net of cords will serve as springs. However, it is not intended
by the use of cords to dispense with the springs ordinarily used in
constructing railway carriages. If desired, a false bottom may be used
as a medium for connecting the body to the wheel frame, that is, the
false bottom could be united to the wheel frame the same as a carriage
body before described, and the carriage body could then be connected
to the false bottom by screw bolts or otherwise. This method of uniting
the wheel frame and carriage bodies will much lessen or mitigate the
severity of collisions and injuries to passengers owing to there being no
ridged or inflexible connection between the wheel frame and carriage
body, consequently the most of a shock in ordinary collisions would only
extend to and be spent on the wheel frames or truck of the carriage
without seriously jarring the carriage body, and thereby prevent any
injury to passengers.