IMPROVEMENTS IN ROAD AND OTHER ROLLERS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Balls Hughes, of Bayswater, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROAD AND OTHER
ROLLERS."
Sealed the 9th May 1871, and dated the 17th November 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Balls Hughes
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th November 1870.
I, ROBERT BALLS HUGHES, of Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ROAD AND OTHER ROLLERS," to be as follows:-
:―
My Invention relates to an improved construction of roller for levelling
or consolidating the ground, to be worked either by manual or horse
power, and which I am enabled to make of increased weight whilst
effecting a reduction in the draught or effort required to set it in motion.
I construct my improved roller of a cast-iron cylinder of considerable
diameter, around the interior of which towards each end of the cylinder
I provide a rib or fillet. These ribs are securely fixed to the cylinder,

page_text: and serve as continuous or circular rails for carrying a pair of grooved
or flanged wheels supporting a weight (or carriage for weights) equal
to or greater than that of the cylinder. The wheels are about two-thirds
the diameter of the exterior cylinder, and run free on their axles so as
to be independent of one another and of the weight which they support.
The weight may either be constant by supporting a mass of metal on
the wheels, or these may carry a receptacle, as before mentioned, by
filling which the roller may be loaded to any required degree. The
wheel axles may be extended beyond the outer cylinder to facilitate
the attachment of rods or chains to obtain the draft in the usual way,
which causes the wheels and also the exterior cylinder to rotate, the
wheels running on the rails within the cylinder and the latter on the
surface to be levelled or consolidated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Balls Hughes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th May 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
BALLS HUGHES, of Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Seventeenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Robert Balls Hughes, Her special licence
that I, the said Robert Balls Hughes, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert Balls Hughes, my exc-
cutors, 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
ROAD AND OTHER ROLLERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Robert Balls Hughes, 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

page_text: 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 Robert Balls Hughes, 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 following statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say):
My Invention relates to an improved construction of roller for levelling
or consolidating the ground, to be worked either by manual or horse.
power, and which I am enabled to make of increased weight whilst
effecting a reduction in the draught or effort required to set it in motion.
I construct my improved roller of a cast-iron cylinder of considerable
diameter, around the interior of which towards each end of the cylinder
I provide a rib or fillet. These ribs are securely fixed to the cylinder,
and serve as continuous or circular rails for carrying a pair of grooved
or flanged wheels supporting a weight (or carriage for weights) equal
to or greater than that of the cylinder. The wheels are about two-thirds
the diameter of the exterior cylinder, and may either run free on their
axles so as to be independent of one another and of the weight which
they support, or they may be fast to the axle. The weight may either-
be constant by supporting a mass of metal on the wheels, or these may
carry a receptacle, as before mentioned, by filling which the roller may
be loaded to any required degree. The wheel axles may be extended'
beyond the outer cylinder to facilitate the attachment of rods or chains
to obtain the draft in the usual way, which causes the wheels and also
the exterior cylinder to rotate, the wheels running on the rails within
the cylinder and the latter on the surface to be levelled or consolidated.
The improvements are applicable to land, road, and garden rollers.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2 a section on line 1-2, Figure 1,
of a horse roller constructed according to my Invention, but by applying
5 the ordinary handle to the ends of the axle the same construction of
roller may be used for garden purposes.

page_text: A is the outer cylinder of iron, and B, B, a pair of grooved wheels
running on rails C fitted within the cylinder A, near either side, and.
forming continuous ribs around the interior. The wheels B are fitted
on a squared part of their axle D, so as to turn with the said axle, whose
ends project beyond the cylinder A for supporting the framework E,
which has bearings F as usual in which the ends of axle D rotate.
G are weights slipped on the axle D, and which may be replaced by
others of greater or less diameter, so as to increase or reduce the weight
of the roller as may be required, for which purpose one of the wheels B
is made removable from the axle D, whilst the other may be fixed. In
some cases I may cast the weights G and wheels B in one in the form
of a solid cylinder or roller having grooves near either end to run on
rails C, similar to the grooves H in the periphery of wheels B; or in
the case of a garden roller I may suspend a receptacle for weights from
lever arms fixed to the axle D in the position of the counterweight
usually employed in garden rollers to raise the handle E, in which case
the wheels would run freely on their axle, which would be fixed rigidly
at the ends of the handle E, as shown in Figure 3. I is the receptacle
which is hung on journals from the extremities of lever arms K, so
that when the handle E is raised the weights with which I is loaded
to the required amount will not be thrown out. In this position the
receptacle I also acts as a counterbalance to the handle, but the recep-
tacle may be replaced by the ordinary counterweights. The rails C.
may be cast on the interior of the cylinder A, but I prefer to make
them of hoops of wrought iron (see Figure 4), having a number of
notches L around their circumference to receive a number of iron
ribs M, Figure 5, placed longitudinally in the cylinder A, as shown in
Figure 1. These ribs M are notched towards cither end at M' to
receive the rails C and hold them at the proper distance apart. The
rails C and ribs M are fitted together in the form of a cage, which is
introduced in the outer cylinder A, and wedges N are then inserted in
the notches L, by which the rails C and ribs M may be firmly locked
or secured in position within the cylinder A, or the rails C may be
otherwise secured. The weight of the wheels B and their load, or of
the inner roller (as the case may be), should be greater than that of the
cylinder or outer roller A, so that the momentum of the load moving
on the rails C may aid the movement of the cylinder A over obstruc-
tions or inequalities in the ground and so lessen the draught. The
cylinder H may be cast with grooves on its interior surface in lieu of

page_text: the rails O for wheels B to run in, said wheels being in this case provided
with a corresponding flange.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to
be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,
constructing a road, land, or garden roller of an outer cylinder with a
heavy interior roller, or a weighted carriage on wheels running within
the same, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the
Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Balls Hughes, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
ROBERT BALLS HUGHES. (L.S.)