IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1857

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Sir James Caleb Anderson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th March 1857.
I, Sir JAMES CALEB ANDERSON, of Fermoy, in the County of Cork, Ireland,
Baronet, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN LOCOMOTIVE AND OTHER CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
My first improvement consists in fixing horizontally and longitudinally a
cylinder on the top of a tubular locomotive boiler. The cylinder is to be united
to the boiler by vertical pipes. The horizontal top cylinder I use as a steam
chamber. By this arrangement the tube cylinder and fire box of a loco-
motive boiler can be kept almost full of water, which will secure the tubes and
the top of the fire box from being left uncovered with water on ascending or
descending hills.
My second improvement I call a universal railroad, which is to be con-
structed as follows:-
No. 1. The wheels of locomotive engines for common roads, or for
ploughings, carriages, omnibuses, wagons, carts, cannons, and all other
description of carriages, are to be placed within other wheels of larger
diameter, so arranged that each wheel will run on the concave surface of a
larger wheel, which is to form its railroad. The spokes of the large or railroad
wheels are to be fixed to the rims of the wheels as close as they can be to the
outside, leaving a sufficient breadth of rim from outside inwards to form the

page_text: railroad on which the wheels of locomotive engines for common roads, or
for ploughing, carriages, omnibuses, wagons, carts, cannons, and all other
description of carriages can run. The axle of each large wheel or circular
railroad is to revolve in a box fixed to a frame placed on the outside of each
large wheel forming the railroad. Two groves are to be cut through each
frame, one in the fore part and another in the hind part. Two bolts are to
be firmly fixed in locomotive or other carriage, as the case may be, for each
frame. These bolts are to pass through the grooves, one for each groove,
having a washer placed on the inside of each bolt to keep the railroad at a
proper distance from the locomotive or loaded carriage, and a nut is to be
screwed on the outward end of each bolt to retain the frames and railroad
wheels in their proper places. The grooves are to be left sufficiently long to
permit the locomotive or loaded carriage to run forward or backward on the
circular railroad as required. To turn the carriages, I fix an inside frame to
the fore axletree of each wheel of a locomotive or other carriage, and into each
inside frame two bolts are to be firmly secured to retain the outside frames
and railroad wheels in their proper places..
2nd. The universal circular railroad may be made without the outside
frames thus:-Form a circle of iron or a drum for each railroad wheel of
sufficient breadth to permit each wheel of a locomotive or loaded carriage
to run on the concave surface of its drum or circular railroad. A deep flange
is to be fixed to the outside and another on the inside of each circular railroad,
to prevent the wheels of a locomotive or loaded carriage from running off
the circular railroad. To obviate slipping, when used by locomotive engines
for common roads or for ploughing, I cog the concave surfaces of the railway
wheels and the convex surfaces of the wheels of locomotives. To effect
the same purpose, videlicet, slipping of the wheels of locomotives, I line the
concave surfaces of the railroad wheels with wood.
No. 3. Fix edged rails round the concave surfaces of the circular railroads ;
groove the wheels of the loaded carriages or locomotives, so as to fit freely on
the edge rails; the wheels of loaded carriages or locomotives will thus be
prevented from running off the circular railroads.
By this arrangement the wheels of all kinds of carriages moved either by
animate or inanimate power will, under all circumstances, have a hard surface
to work on, as each carriage wheel will have its own railroad. To simplify
the plan, locomotives for common roads may work their driving wheels on the
circular railroad, and not the steering wheels. As soon as a locomotive or
other carriage is set in motion, the weight resting on each wheel, driven or
moved beyond the points the circular railroad wheels touch the ground, will

page_text: cause them to rotate in the line of the power; the heaviest roads or even
ploughed fields can thus be travelled over with ease.
4th. To get rid of the opaque appearance of the exit steam of locomotive
engines for common roads, I cause the exit steam to pass through coiled pipes
(one for each cylinder), which are to be as long as possible. These pipes are
to be fixed to the cylinders in the smoke box to which a fan is to be attached,
having suction pipes so placed as to draw the heated air proceeding from the
fire box of the boiler around the outside surfaces of the coiled pipes containing
the exit steam. The exit steam of the pan is to be placed with its mouth
upwards in the chimney; thus the heated air would be brought into contact
with the coiled pipes containing the exit steam by being drawn into the fan,
from which it will be forced up the chimney mixed with the heated exit steam,
and act as a noiseless blast, and thereby secure a good draught. Should the
heated air drawn from the fire not be intence enough to render the exit steam
pransparent, I use a small supplementary fire to augment the heat, which may
also be increased by a second fan to blow into the ash box of the fire.
5th. And it is of importance for the saftety of the passengers conveyed by
steam carriages on common roads that the engineer should have a distinct view
of the road as well as the steersman. I place the engineer in the front of the
steam carriage, and in arranging the parts the starting and reversing levers are
fixed at the side of the engineer and the pumps below him. The fireman I
place at back of the carriage, who has, besides firing, charge of the small
engine that drives the blower, and works a small pump to keep the water at
the proper height in the boiler when the steam carriage stops. By this division
of labor each man is made responsible for his own part of the work.