IMPROVEMENTS IN. PROPELLING MACHINERY ACTUATED BY THE. APPLICATION OF ANIMAL POWER
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Horace Leeman Emery, of Albany, in the State of.
New York, in the United States of America, now of No. 72, Sloane
Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer and Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN. PROPELLING MACHINERY ACTUATED BY THE.
APPLICATION OF ANIMAL POWER."
Sealed the 17th April 1863, and dated the 20th October 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Horace Leeman Emery
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th October 1862.
I, HORACE LEEMAN EMERY, of Albany, in the State of New York, in the
United States of America, now of No. 72, Sloane Street, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer and Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING MACHINERY ACTUATED BY THE
APPLICATION OF ANIMAL POWER," to be as follows:-
The nature of my Invention consists in the application of animal power to
the propelling of machines of different kinds by the animals travelling on au
endless bridge, and chiefly by their weight upon the bridge when it is placed
at a suitable angle of elevation, so that while the animals are constantly
travelling and carrying their own weight upon an inclined plane, this plane.is
constantly moving in an opposite direction at the same velocity, the animals, in
fact, remaining in the same position. This moving of the endless bridge

page_text: communicates both force and motion to the gearing of the horse-power, which
in turn is applied at pleasure to the purposes required.
The machine has a substantial framework, about ten feet in length and from
three to five feet in width, more or less, as the said machine requires one or
two animals to operate it. This framework is about twenty inches high at
one end, and fifteen inches high at the other end, and when used it has side
posts and side boards, which extend the whole length, and about four feet high
above the main frame. Upon the insides of this framework are fixed two
substantial iron railways completely traversing the length, and with circular
returns at the smaller ends in such a manner as to form two continuous
railways on the insides of each side of the framework before mentioned, and
forming the upper and lower railways upon which the small wheels travel
which support the endless bridge. Near the largest end of the framework a
strong iron shaft is placed, which extends across the machine and sufficiently
beyond its sides to receive the necessary couplings and fastenings upon its
ends for any desired gearing or pulleys. Upon this shaft, and just inside of
the framework, are fitted two forked iron wheels or reels, which aro
constructed about sixteen inches in diameter, and with corrugated discs
instead of arms. The endless bridge is made with two morticed linked
malleable iron chains, connected at the joints by means of small metal shafts,
which extend across the framework at each joint of the chain, and through
the ends of the links which are flat and lap upon each other sufficiently
for the purpose. These shafts also extend through the links of the chains
sufficiently to form axles to receive the small travelling wheels of the endless
bridge. These small shafts are turned at their ends to a size and with
a shoulder to fit the links, and at the ends still smaller size and shoulder to fit
the small wheels. The object of the two sizes and shoulders is to keep the
small shafts, links, and wheels in their own proper positions, and also to prevent
any crowding and side friction between the small wheels and the links of the
chain. The links are made of malleable iron, and about seven inches long,
and with holes at each end for the small shafts, also with long openings or
mortices to receive the ends of the timber planks of the bridge upon which the
animals travel. With the chain thus completed, the small shafts fit into tho
forks of and are supported by the two wheels which are upon the said main
shaft.
Another and cheaper method for making the chains is to dispense with all
the small shafts which pass across the machine by making each link of the
chain with a male and female connection, which is done by casting a stud upon
one end of the link in place of the hole, and of sufficient length to pass through

page_text: the hole in the end of the next link, and also to receive on its end the small
wheels of the endless bridge. In this construction of the link the lower side
of the mortices are so widened that the plank flooring rests upon it in the
straight line of the tread of the wheels to prevent any inclination to tip or
incline the links from their perpendicular position, and thus ensure the upright
position of the travelling wheels at all times. The tenous and shoulders on
the ends of the floor plank in this case rest against the links sufficiently to
keep them in line and place, and they in turn keep the small wheels upon the
railway, the same as in case of the small iron shafts before mentioned. By
moving this endless chain bridge the motion is communicated to the forked
wheels and main shaft, and the gears and pullies which are attached to its
ends, as may be required. This main shaft is hung by its bearings, in short
moveable plates fitted in the framework midway between the upper and lower
circuit of the railways, and near the forward end. These plates are adjustablo
endways by means of tightening screw bolts at the forward or large ends of
the framework, and the slots through the said plates through which the sido
bolts. pass. By means of this arrangement of moveable plates and tightening
bolts the position of the main shaft may be adjusted to any degree of nicety
as to tightness of the endless bridge or the run of the same, and always be
kept in perfect running order without regard to any amount of wear and rough
usage, which would render it worthless without these means of adjustment or
their equivalent. By this arrangement the main shaft receives about fifty
revolutions per minute, the animal travelling two miles per hour upon the
bridge, which motion is suitable for the pulley for many kinds of work when
great force is needed without very great velocity. For higher velocities, as
threshing machines or circular saws, a second shaft is placed alongside the
main shaft, and parallel with it, with its bearings in the same moveable plates,
and with its ends made to extend each way, and fitted precisely at the ends of
the main shafts; when the same velocity is required as that of the main shaft,
but with a different direction of the pulley there are placed two spur geared
wheels of equal diameter upon the ends of the two shafts, so that their teeth
will engage each other, and thus reverse the direction of the pulley, which
must be fixed to the opposite end of the second shaft. This is often desirable
to avoid crossing of the bands, which is very destructive in many positions, and
especially where the band runs on pullies of great difference of diameters.
When a higher speed is desired, then larger gear wheels are used upon the
main shaft, and work into smaller ones in the second shaft. The different
directions are given to the second shaft, as desired, by the use of spur.
gears, or converge gears of the desired relative sizes. For threshing grain, it

page_text: being necessary to increase the velocity, a gear wheel of twenty-four inches
diameter is fixed to the main shaft, and a six-inch gear wheel to the second
shaft, which gives about two hundred revolutions per minute. The driving
pulley is fixed to the second shaft on its end opposite the gear wheels. All
these couplings on the ends of the shafts, also of the gears and pullies, being
made perfectly uniform in all their fittings, and always on the same planes on
the same side of the machine, and with the outer faces of all the pullies and
gears made concave at their centres, so as to receive their fastenings within
the planes of the inner sides of the arms or faces of the pullies and gears,
which overreach the ends of the other shaft, so as to move perfectly free in all
the transpositions of pullies and gears, which may be made from shaft to shaft
and side to side of the machine, as may be desired for different forces and
velocities of the working pullies. These changeable gears and pullies enable
the power to work them at any motion desired while the travel and labor of
the animal is not in any way changed thereby. The tautness of the endless
bridge is equalized at both ends of the power as it turns round, as follows:-
At the lower end the railway is made like the flattened side of an elliptic, and
at the forward or large end the endless bridge has sufficient slackness and
vibration as it rises from the lower railway into the forked wheels upon the
main shaft, upon and around which it revolves, thereby making its movements
perfectly smooth under the animal, and at the same time the endless chains
and bridge can be very closely adjusted by means of the tightening screws and
bolts, and the moveable sills and bearings of the shaft. The small wheels
which support the endless bridge are bored to fit the ends of the small shafts,
but the holes in them are not drilled quite through to the full size of the shafts,
the hole which extends through being but little over one-eighth of an inch in
diameter, through which the lubricating oil is applied to the small journals,
which extend within one-sixteenth of an inch of the thickness of the wheels;
this serves to keep the small shafts as well as wheels in their proper position
by preventing their working endways.
The wood flooring is framed at its ends with a tenon to fit loosely into the
mortices of the links of the endless chains. A brake and handle are fitted to
the side of the machine to check or stop the force and motion at pleasure, and
a governor is attached to this brake, so as to prevent the speed being increased
beyond any desired and fixed number of revolutions per minute, which avoids
all accidents from irregular work or other causes, which may leave the force of
the animals unconsumed or unapplied. The construction of the power enables
the weight of the animal to be applied to the work, and in a tangential
direction to the radius of the forked wheel, thereby economising all the force

page_text: of the animal, and at the same time avoiding the possibility of injury to the
animal from overtasking or otherwise, and unlike all lever powers where the
force of the animal is applied at an acute angle to the end of the levers, whilo
the animal is constantly working in a circle, which alone is a much more
objectionable method of application of its power for a given amount of work.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Horace Leeman Emery, in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th April 1863.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HORACE
LEEMAN EMERY, of Albany, in the State of New York, in the United States of
America, now of No. 72, Sloane Street, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer
and Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Horace Leeman Emery, Her special licence that I, the said Horace Leeman
Emery, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, 'the
said Horace Leeman Emery, 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 PROPELLING MACHINERY ACTUATED BY THE APPLICATION OF
ANIMAL POWER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Horaco
Leeman Emery, 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 Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
..
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Horace Leeman Emery, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement:-.
These improvements relate to that class of power machines in which force

page_text: is generated by animals travelling on an endless platform causing the latter to
move in an opposite direction.
My Invention consists chiefly in a peculiar construction and arrangement of
the shafts, gears, pulleys, and their fastenings, for the purpose of obtaining
different degrees of force and motion without change in the speed or labor of
the animals; in the manner of adjusting the tension of the endless platform to
accomodate the run and wear of the latter; and in an improved form and
combination of different parts to secure cheapness of construction, economy,
and efficiency in working the machine.
I will now proceed to describe my said Invention in connection with the
accompanying Drawings forming a part of this Specification, in which Figure 1
is a side view of the machine; Figure 2, a reversed side view with parts
removed; Figure 3, a plan view with parts removed, showing the shafts and
forked wheels; Figure 4, a front end view; Figure 5, an interior side view
of a section of the railway and travelling wheels of the platform. Like letters
refer to corresponding parts in all the Figures.
A is the frame of the machine, which is constructed of any suitable material
and convenient form. The size varies according to the number of horses or
other animals a machine is designed to accomodate. B is the main shaft;
which extends across the frame and sufficiently beyond its sides to receive the
desired gearing. This shaft is mounted on bearings in the moveable plates a,
shown in the Drawing. These plates are moveable endwise by means of the
headed bolts b, b. C, C, are parallel countershafts with bearings on the same
plates a:
D, Figure 3, is a portion of the endless platform. E, E, Figures 2,
3, and 4, are forked wheels or reels fixed on the shaft B inside of the frame-
work, which support the platform in turning at the forward end of the
machine. F is the master gear wheel shown attached to the shaft B, and is
made to fit on both ends of this shaft as well as both ends of the countershafts
C, C. It is constructed with converge and spur teeth, for the purpose of
driving the pinions H, H, on the shafts C, C', in either direction. In the disc
of this wheel is a radial slit f, designed for receiving a wrist pin when a crank
or reciprocating motion is desired. The length of the strokes produced by
this means is regulated by the distance the wrist pin is set from the axis of the
wheel. G, Figure 1, becomes the master wheel when fixed to shaft B. It is
constructed with spur wheels, which engage the pinion H on the counter
shaft C. The wheel G is used interchangeably with the wheel F, and may be
used on the counter shafts C, C. H, H', shown in Figure 1 and 3, are
pinion spur wheels which are used on the shafts C, C, and may be used on
shaft B, in place of the master wheels F and G. J, Figure 2, 3, and 4, is the

page_text: band pulley shown attached to the countershaft C. This pulley also fits all
the shafts and couplings. K, K, Figure 5, are iron railways which support
and guide the travelling wheels 9 of the endless platform. These railways
extend the length of the machine, forming two continuous railways, upon either
side and within the framework. They are constructed at the end shown in
Figure 5 in an eliptical form, for the purpose of avoiding any inequality in the
tension of the endless platform consequent upon its passing around a circle, and
to compensate for the extra tension produced as each section of this platform
passes to its extreme opposite limit on the forked wheels E, E. L, Figure 6,
shows a vertical section of one of the travelling wheels of the endless platform.
Beneath and near the moving platform is located the safety floor d. The end-
less bridge D is formed of two metal chains with mortized links, the latter,
being connected together by means of small shafts, each of which extends.
across the frame and connects two links of the opposite chain. These shafts
extend through holes in the ends of the links on either side a sufficient
distance to receive the travelling wheels of the platform. These small shafts:
are turned at each end to a size corresponding to the perforations in the links,
and at their extreme end to a size corresponding with the boxes of the small
wheels, thus forming two shoulders on the shafts, which retain the shafts, links,
and small wheels respectively in the proper position, and prevent any side
friction between the small wheels and links. A suitable and inexpensivo
material for the construction of these links is malleable iron, and a convenient
length, about seven inches. These small shafts fit into the forked wheels or.
reels E, E, the latter supporting the front end of the bridge. The expense of
the small shaft may be avoided by simply casting a stud on one end of the link
in place of the hole, of sufficient length to pass through the hole in the con-.
tiguous end of the next. link far enough to receive a small wheel. In this:
construction the lower side of the mortise is so widened that the flooring rests.
upon it in the straight line of the tread of the wheel, in order to preservo the;
upright position of the links and travelling wheels. The floor planks by this
construction retain the small wheels upon the railway and keep the links in
place. The full size of the opening in the hub of the travelling wheel does
not extend quite to the outside. A small hole is bored through, which serves
for the introduction of lubricating oil, and the remaining flanged part answers
the purpose of a shoulder on the shaft, preserving the full strength of the
latter and lessening the cost of manufacturing the same. The main shaft may
be adjusted to any degree of nicety by means of the plates a and the screw
bolts, to regulate the tension and running of the endloss platform, the latter

page_text: being thereby kept in perfect working order whatever may be the amount o
wear of the parts...
When in operation the front part of the machine is elevated, so that the
weight of the animal or animals-employed assist in moving the platform
through which motion is conveyed to forked wheels or reels E, giving force
and motion to the shaft B, on which is a band or gear wheel. A brake is
employed to stop the running of the machine, and a governor is attached to
the brake to prevent the speed being increased beyond any desired and fixed
number of revolutions per minute.
.
In order to perform various kinds of work advantageously, different degrees
of force and motion are required. By placing the band pulley upon the end
of the shaft b, it will receive about fifty revolutions per minute, when the speed
of the animals is two miles per hour, which motion of the pulley is suitable
when great force is required with moderate velocity. By placing the same
pulley upon the countershaft C, and a pinion H upon the opposite end of the
same shaft, and the master wheel G upon the end of the shaft B to engage the
teeth of the said pinion, a velocity of about one hundred revolutions of the band
pulley per minute in the opposite direction is obtained, giving a medium
degree of both force and motion. By substituting the master wheel F in the
place of the master wheel G, as before mentioned, and engaging the same
pinion H, a velocity of about two hundred revolutions per minute is given to
the band wheel in the direction of the movement of the platform, the speed of
the animals being two miles per hour, giving great velocity with less force.
By removing the pinion H from the counter shaft C to C', so as to engage the
master wheel F, and placing the band wheel J upon the opposite end of the
shaft C, the said wheel will receive a velocity of about two hundred
minute in an opposite direction. These and other changes to produce less
revolutions and greater force can be readily made, as there is an exact
uniformity in the couplings and fastenings of the different parts.
per
In witness whereof, I, the said Horace Leeman Emery, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of April, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
HORACE L. EMERY. (L.S.)