IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MOVING RAILWAY CARRIAGES ON TO RAIL- WAYS, AND IN MACHINERY FOR LIPTING AND MOVING HEAVY BODIES
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
POPE, of Ridbrook, in the County of Kent, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by.
Her Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bear-
ing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of March, in the ninth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Pope, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole. privilege and authority, that I, the said
Thomas Pope, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Pope, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MOVING RAILWAY CARRIAGES ON TO RAIL-
WAYS, AND IN MACHINERY FOR LIPTING AND MOVING HEAVY BODIES," communicated
to me from abroad; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said Thomas Pope, shall cause a particular description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully.
and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Pope, do hereby declare, that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be carried into effect, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the figures and letters marked
therein (that is to say:-
The Invention relates to apparatus to be used for the purpose of moving
railway carriages on to or from a line of railway in case of accident or otherwise,
and also for the purpose of removing carriages from one line of railway to
another. And the Invention also relates to apparatus to be used for the
purpose of lifting and moving other heavy bodies.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
It is well known that accidents often occur on railways by the running off
of one or more of a train of carriages, and that considerable delay and incon-
venience is often in consequence thereof experienced, there seldom being at
hand any ready means of replacing such carriage or carriages on to the line
again; & I am aware that lifting jacks have been used for that purpose, but
such have not been efficiently employed from the want of some ready means
of moving the carriages laterally when they have been raised. Now, the
peculiarity of this part of the Invention consists in arranging apparatus
which may be carried conveniently with every train of carriages, so that should
any one of the carriages run off, or by the friction of some of the parts take
fire or otherwise become inefficient, such carriage or carriages may be readily
moved on to or off the line, as required.
Figure 1 shows a side view, Figure 2 a plan, and Figure 3 à section
of apparatus which I employ to move the carriage on to or off a line
of rails. 'a, a is a frame which carries a screw shaft b, which is capa-
ble of turning in its bearings a', a¹, the shaft 6 having at one end affixed
to it a small pinion c, which is taken into and driven by a pinion d on the
shaft e, which is made capable of receiving a winch handle, as is shown by
dotted lines at f, or instead of the pinions shewn, the shaft 6 may be caused to
revolve by means of a screw wheel on the shaft e, taking into a screw wheel on
the shaft b, as is well understood; g, g are portions of railway, supported on
the plates h, h, which are connected together by the rod i, and this rod i is
made moveable, as is shewn at i, i, so as to adapt it to different guages of
railway the plates h, h are supported on friction rollers h', h¹, which run on
the frame a, a, and the plates h are caused to travel along the frame a, by
there being a travelling nut j, with a female screw, corresponding with the

page_text: thread on the shaft 6; the travelling nut j has a pin, which passes through a
hole in one of the plates h, and this plate h is secured to the pin j¹ by a cotter,
as shewn. The way in which I propose to use this apparatus is as follows:-
Supposing a carriage to be off the rails, I, by means of a screw jack or other
suitable means, raise one end of the carriage so as to bring the rails g, g, of
the apparatus under the wheels at that end of the carriage; and supposing the
carriage off the rails not to be far from the line and otherwise so situated that
I can do so, I place the end a² of the frame a on the line, and then by
turning the winch handle I gradually bring that end of the carriage over the
line; or having brought that end of the carriage part of the way to its proper
position on the line I rest that end and apply the apparatus, as above described,
to the other end, and so on, shifting the apparatus from end to end, until the
carriage is correctly over the line; or in place of making use of only one appa-
ratus a, two of such may be employed, so as to shift both ends at the same
time. And I would here remark, that although I prefer to move the plates
h, h, by means of the screw shaft, as herein described, I do not confine myself
to that arrangement, and I, in some cases, simply place a ratchet wheel on one
of the rollers, as shewn in Figure 4, which in that case I make considerably
larger than those above described, and the frame a may be dispensed with, and
any planks of wood used to form a bed for the plates to run upon, or the roller
having the ratchet wheel or other means applied to turn it, may have teeth
upon part of its periphery, which may take into a rack or racks in a frame a..
It will be evident that the above apparatus may be used to move other heavy
bodies than railway carriages. In lifting the railway carriage or other heavy
body on to apparatus, such as above described, although jacks or other apparatus,
such as are at present in use for lifting, may be used; for that purpose I prefer
to use one constructed according to my present improvements for lifting pur-
poses, and which is shewn at Figures 5, 6, and 7, which I will now proceed to
describe. A is a bracket which is formed with a female screw through it to
receive the screw B, which by being turned causes the bracket A to rise or
fall in the case C, as may be required, and the bracket A projects sufficiently
beyond the case C, to come under some part of the carriage or other weight
to be lifted; the screw shaft B turns in bearings, as shown, and at its upper
end it has affixed to it a toothed wheel D, which is taken into and is capable
of being driven by the worm wheel E, the shaft of which is made to receive, a
winch, as is well understood.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention communicated to
ma. I would have it understood, that I do not confine myself to the precise

page_text: details shewn, so long as the peculiar character of either part of the Invention
be retained; but what I claim is,―
First, the means of combining apparatus for moving railway carriages on to
railways, and for moving other heavy bodies, as herein described.
And, secondly, I claim the mode of constructing jacks, as herein described,
whereby the lifting bracket may descend to a low position, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said 'Thomas Pope, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September; in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.