IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
SLAUGHTER, of Avon Side Iron Works, Bristol, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Nineteenth
day of July, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the eleventh
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Edward Slaughter, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Edward Slaughter, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Edward Slaughter, my exors, adiñors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Edward Slaughter,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that, in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Slaughter, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):-
:-
My first improvement consists in placing one of each of the double arms of
cranked axles within and through the naves of driving wheels of locomotive
engines, the object being to gain the width of the two cranked arms, as
shewn in Figure 1, of the Plan G, the wheels being hung upon the arms
instead of (as generally practised) upon the straight portion of the axle; the
wheels may be hung upon the outer or inner arms, according as the centres of
the cylinders are intended to be placed without or within the planes of the
wheels; advantage will be found to result from this combination of the wheels
and cranked arms. And this my improvement specially applies to engines
where outside cylinders are intended, for the reason that both outside and
inside framing and journals may be used to secure as much support to the
axles of outside cylinder as of inside cylinder engines without trespassing upon
the space under the boilers. And, further, this my improvement will be found
to lessen the undue wear and shake felt in the present arrangement of outside
cylinder engines, from the circumstance of inner framing only being used.
This adaptation of my improvement is fully shewn in Plan B, which represent
an ordinary outside cylinder engine, with the exception that there is an
external as well as internal frame, with the combination of cranked axle
and wheels above described. It will be evident to practical men that the
wheels may be made in various ways; for instance, the nave may be of cast
iron extended sufficiently to receive the entire arm, the spokes being made
of flat or iron, and cast in a mould, as commonly practised by manu-
facturers; or the nave may be made of malleable iron welded solid, as is also
now commonly made; or the nave may be separately made of malleable or
cast iron, circular, of sufficient diameter to include and contain the arm,
being lightened on either side to any extent, and an annular wheel of malle-
able iron shrunk upon it, the whole wheel being completed by the hoop
in the usual manner, which various means are shewn in Plans C, D, E,
respectively.
My second improvement consists of a mode of using four cylinders instead
of two or three to locomotive engines. This part of my Invention may
be readily understood by examining the Drawings. The piston rods of the
four engines give motion to the same driving shaft or axle on which two

page_text: driving wheels are fixed, Figures 1 and 4, Plan G, representing a seven-feet
guage engine, and Figures 5 and 6, Plan H, a narrow or four-feet eight-inches
guage engine, with four wheels coupled. In both cases the cranked arms are
contained in the naves of the driving wheels.
Having now generally described the nature of my Invention, I wish it to be
understood that I do not claim any particular form of wheel or axle. But I
do claim,-
Firstly, the placing the arms of cranked axles within the nave of driving
wheels of locomotive engines.
Secondly, the mode herein described of constructing locomotive engines by
employing four instead of two or three cylinders for the purpose of giving
increased power and steadiness, and materially diminishing the oscillation at
high speeds.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Slaughter, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.
EDWARD (L.s.) SLAUGHTER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1848, the aforesaid Edward Slaughter came before our
O said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.