IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES AND CARRIAGE WHEELS
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Botwood at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 28th June 1879.
WILLIAM BOTWOOD, of the Carriage Works, Woodbridge Road, Ipswich, in the
County of Suffolk. "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES AND CARRIAGE WHEELS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in carriages and carriage
wheels.
In order to enable persons to readily pass from the back portion or body of a
Stanhope or such like carriage on to the box seat, various ways have been adopted
for making one half of the box seat with its back rail capable of being moved out
of the way, but all the ways with which I am acquainted are attended with some
one or other disadvantage.
According to my Invention, I hinge the moveable box seat and also hinge its
sloping back by horizontal hinges to a bar, which at one end is itself hinged by a
vertical hinge to the fixed portion of the box seat. By this means the moveable
seat can be turned up, and its sloping back turned into a vertical position, or
nearly so, and the seat and back can then be turned forwards on the vertical hinge
so as to open a free passage from the back portion or body of the carriage on to
the box.
In order also to give free access to the box or front seats of carriages without its
being necessary to get over the front wheels, I place one, or two, or more steps,
one over the other, on one or both sides of the fore part of the carriage, and I
employ a single central front wheel, or it might be a pair of wheels near together
instead of a pair of front wheels as usual, at a distance apart equal to the distance
between the hind wheels.
The axle of the central wheel or wheels I carry by a fork having a vertical stem,
which is received into and can turn within a corresponding box secured to the
fore part of the body of the carriage. Within the box is a spiral spring to bear
against a shoulder on the interior of the box and against another shoulder on the
stem of the fork, and serve as a spring for the front wheel or wheels. The top of
the box is closed by a hollow cap which carries oil, the oil can pass slowly down-
wards into the box through a small perforation in the cap; when a single wheel
is used, the axle for the wheel is at one end welded to one of the arms of the fork.
To the other end of the axle is screwed a prolongation with a collar at one end to
enter the axle box of the wheel and bear against a shoulder within it. The end of
the box is closed by a cap screwed into it, the prolongation passes through the cap,

page_text: and the inner end of the cap is coned to prevent the escape of oil. The other end
of the prolongation is received into the lower end of the other arm of the fork.
The upper end of this arm of the fork is made so that it can be detached from, or
turn on, a hinge carried by the stem of the fork to facilitate the oiling of the
wheel axle.
The shafts of the carriage are connected to the arms of the fork and also to its
central stem. When a pair of wheels are used, the axles for the wheels may be
welded to the opposite sides of a vertical stem, and the outer ends of the axles be
stayed by fork arms carried down to them from the upper part of the stem.
To prevent the rotting of the shafts where the breechen staples are attached to
them, I secure the staples to the under side of the shafts instead of to their sides as
usual, and I form the staple with projections to come up at the sides of the shafts
to prevent the sides of the shafts being worn by the breechen straps; a free water
space is left between these projections and the sides of the shafts so that water
cannot remain between them, and so the rotting of the shafts is prevented.
In order to be able to put a break on any of the wheels, I secure an arm to the
axle of the wheel by forming the foot of the arm as a clip to clip the axle. The
arm rises up from the axle and is bent over so as to come above the back of the
nave of the wheel. A vertical screw screws through the end of the arm, and at
its lower end has a break block swivelled to it. The break block is prevented
from turning by a pin rising up from its side, and passing through the arm or the
block, is otherwise prevented from turning. When the screw is turned by a lever
handle on its upper end, the break block can be lowered and caused to press on the
nave, or can be raised up away from it. In place of the break block being applied
by means of a screw, it may be carried by a lever jointed to the arm and be caused
to bear upon the nave by turning the lever.
In order to reduce the vibration of the carriages and the sound produced when
they are travelling, I form the wheels with a light iron tyre slightly roughened on
its outer face. Over this I stretch a tyre of india rubber, and afterwards shrink
over this elastic tyre an outer tyre of steel. Pins are screwed into the steel tyre
and passed through the elastic tyre into slots in the inner iron tyre; the slots
allow the rubber tyre when it is compressed, as the wheel rolls and as the weight
coines upon it, to move slightly endwise, and so give free play to the elasticity of
the rubber tyre.
To securely hold the ends of the wooden felloes of wheels where they abut
together, I bore a hole down through the joint equally in the two abutting ends
and pass a rivet through the iron tyre and through this hole. The inner end of
the rivet is also passed through a metal burr or plate of circular, oval, or other suit-
able form, having around it a sharp flange projecting towards the wooden felloes, so
that when the end of the rivet is hamınered over, the flange enters the wood of the
felloes and holds them correctly end to end and prevents them moving sidewise.
Or in place of forming the burr or plate with a sharp flange it may be provided
with spikes to effect the same object.