An Automatic Attachment for Balancing Two Wheeled Vehicles.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Mar., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Automatic Attachment for Balancing Two Wheeled Vehicles.
THOMAS ADAM SIMPSON Inverboyndie Cottage Banff N.B. Distiller, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The principle object of this invention is to secure as nearly as possible the equal
balance of any weight or load carried by means of any two wheeled conveyance,
especially when travelling over roads of varying gradients.
In the case of a two wheeled cart or car drawn by a horse, it is well known that
an adjustment of the weight of such a conveyance & its load, which would make it
balance evenly on level road, would be too heavy on the back of the horse going down
hill & too light on its back going up hill & the self acting balance to be presently
described is designed mainly to compensate for the displacement consequent upon the
change of level & thus to facilitate the ease & conveyance of the transport.
The chief arrangements by means of which the aim of the invention is achieved are
briefly as follows :-
Instead of the vehicle or conveyance being rigidly attached to its axle or springs,
as is usually the case, I provide simoothly turned & faced sliding rods or bars on each
side of the conveyance such rods or bars being made to fit nicely into smoothly
bored sockets or dead eyes. These sliding bars may obviously be either fastened to the
body of the cart or conveyance by means of bolts or any other suitable attachment,
the sockets or dead eyes being fastened to the axle or springs, or this arrangement
mav be reversed.
The object is to attach the wheels to the upper part of the conveyance by means of
a sliding adjustment, which allows the centre of gravity to be changed with the
changing gradients of the road. This sliding adjustment can be used upon
conveyances either with or without the ordinary springs. Under the bottom of the
conveyance a suitable spring is fastened at or near the centre, its ends being connected
with the sliding rods or dead eyes at each side of the cart. This spring acting
longitudinally takes the pull of the load & controls the sliding of the rods, so that the
greater the pull, the more the centre of gravity is thrown forward, & when there is
no pull or when there is a thrust backward as in the case of going down hill the
centre of gravity slides backwards.
Instead of a transverse spring under the conveyance however, a spiral or other
spring may be attached to the sliding bars for the purpose of regulating their forward
or backward movement as before described. Or if desirable cushions or buffers can
be fixed at the ends of the sliding rods to take the place of springs. Other minor
modifications in the construction can be employed if found advisable but such need
not be further explained here.
Dated the fith dor of March 1806

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Automatic Attachment for Balancing Two Wheeled Vehicles.
I THOMAS ADAM SIMPSON of Inverboyndie Cottage Banff Distiller do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
The principal object of this invention is to secure as nearly as possible the equal
balancing of any weight or load carried by means of any two wheeled conveyance,
especially when travelling over roads of varying gradients. In the case of a two-
wheeled cart, or car drawn by a horse, for example, it is well known that an
adjustment of the weight of such a conveyance and its load, which would make it
balance evenly on level road, would be too heavy on the back of the horse when
going down hill, or too light on its back when going up hill. The self-acting attach-
ment to be hereinafter described is designed mainly to compensate for the displacement
consequent upon such changes of level, thus facilitating the ease and convenience of
transport. At the same time the attachment serves to prevent jerk, and soften the
movement in starting and stopping a vehicle. The following description will
substantially explain what is hère indicated.
Reference is to be made to the accompanying drawings forming part of this
specification, and in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in
all the figures.
Figure I, is a side elevation showing a spring and sliding attachment fixed on
broken side of vehicle.
Figure II, is a plan of Fig. I, showing a sliding attachment regulated by a cross
spring, connected to ordinary cart springs, on broken axle.
Figure 1II, is a side elevation showing sliding arrangement regulated by two
spiral springs.
Instead of the vehicle or conveyance being rigidly attached to its axle, or springs,
as is usually the case, I provide smoothly turned and faced rods, or bars a on each
side of the conveyance, such rods or bars being made to fit nicely into smoothly bored
sockets, or dead eyes b, so that the bars will slide easily backwards and forwards in the
sockets. These faced rods a may be fastened to the body of the vehicle d by means
of bolts or screws as shown at c, or any other suitable arrangement. The socket, or
dead eye can then be attached to the ends of any ordinary carriage springs e carried
upon an axle in the usual way. On drawing the vehicle forward, the pull being upon
the body of the vehicle and not upon the axle, it will be seen that the socket b, placed
about on the middle of the rod a, and being connected by the springs e to the axle
and wheels of the convevance, will tend to slide backwards. For the same reason if
the thrust upon the body of the conveyance be backward the sockets will slide forward,
the sliding adjustment being the only connection between the body of the vehicle and
its wheels. In order to regulate and control this sliding movement I place a horizontal
spring under the bottom of the cart, and fixed to it in the middle as at 9. The ends
of this cross spring enter into suitable nitches h made in two opposite sliding sockets,
and by this arrangement the spring takes the pull of the load and thus controls the
sliding adjustment upon the bars a. Hence the greater the pull, as in the case of
going up bill, the more the centre of gravity of the load is thrown forward. Similarly
when the thrust is backwards as in going down hill the centre of gravity slides
backwards.
Considerable modifications may be made however, in the foregoing details, as for
example the sockets or dead eyes b may be fixed to the body of the vehicle, the sliding
rod being attached to the spring e, in which case the rod a might be continuous along
the bottom of the cart. The regulating spring can then, if desired, be placed across

page_text: the centre of the cart just over the axle. The sliding bars, or ways may be made
either round, square or partly flat iron, or steel, or smoothly faced angle iron, with the
sockets, or slide bearings always cut and faced to correspond with the shape of the
bar, or other sliding way.
Instead of the cross spring f, as seen in Fig. II, spiral springs may be employed if
preferred, as shown at iiu Fig. III. Such spiral springs put upon the rod a, on each
side of the dead eye b, will regulate either a pull or a thrust as in the case of the
cross spring before explained. Springs of this kind are of course placed on each
side of a vehicle, and may be put at either, or both ends of the ordinary spring e, if
desired. These sliding attachments may all be covered over, or placed out of sight
under the vehicle, or made to work inside a continuous shaft or other part of the body
of a cart. Many different methods of arrangement will suggest themselves to those
skilled in such mechanical matters, and need not be further described here.
This sliding adjustment can be used together with back springs, or any of the
various springs commonly employed upon two-wheeled conveyances, or it may be used
upon carts without springs, by being made the connecting system between the body
of such cart, and its axle, and wheels, and cushions, or buffers may, if expedient,
he fixed so as to take the place of the spiral or transverse springs.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In any two-wheeled vehicle a sliding attachment or way working substantially
as described, controlled and regulated by means of a transverse spring f, having the
effect of displacing the centre of gravity of a load in proportion to the force exerted
either backwards or forwards.
2. A sliding attachment or way controlled by means of a spiral spring or springs
as shown, or such sliding adjustment or way used either with or without springs,
cushions or buffers, substantially as hereinbefore described.