IM- PROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND STATIONARY ENGINES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Woodlands Makinson, of Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND STATIONARY ENGINES."
Sealed the 12th December 1862, and dated the 17th June 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Woodlands
Makinson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 17th June 1862.
I, ALEXANDER WOODLANDS MAKINSON, of Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE AND STATIONARY ENGINES," to be as follows:-
The main object of this Invention is to diminish the requirement for
adhesion on the rail for the exertion of a certain tractive force. It has also a
subsidiary advantage in obtaining a more uniform developement of labouring
force. In locomotives or other engines of the present construction the con-
necting rod is attached to a crank or crank pin, which describes a circle round
the driving axle. My Invention consists in causing the end of the connecting.
rod to describe not a circle but an ellipse round the driving axle, which may
be accomplished by the following or other similar means:-I fix the con-
necting rod to a pin, not fixed at an unvarying distance from the centre of the

page_text: driving axle, but to a pin working in a slot in the crank arm, and having its
motion in this slot regulated or constrained by guides, so that the pin during
each revolution of the driving wheel will describe not a circle round the
driving axle, but an ellipse. These improvements may also be applied to
stationary engines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th December 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
WOODLANDS MAKINSON, of Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander Woodlands Makinson, Her special licence, that I, the said
Alexander Woodlands Makinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson, my executors,
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 LOCOMOTIVE AND STATIONARY ENGINES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Woodlands
Makinson, 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 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 Alexander Woodlands Makinson, 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, that is to say:-
The object of my Invention is to lessen the liability to slip either of the

page_text: driving wheels of locomotive engines or of the paddle wheels of steamboats.
This is effected by reducing the maximum rotative power as it is termed of
the steam, without reducing the power of the steam to. produce in the
locomotive or the steamboat. progressive motion, so that an engine to which
this Invention is applied, when compared with an ordinary engine of the same
power, will not make the same demand upon the adhesion at the rail in the
case of the locomotive, or upon the resistance of the water in the case of the
steamboat; and consequently, in the former case, the load upon the driving
wheels may be reduced, and, in the latter case, the area of the floats may bo
reduced.
These improvements will be readily understood by reference to the accom-
panying two Sheets of Drawings, with the figures and letters of reference
thereon.
In Sheet 1 is shewn the application of the Invention to a single cylinder
locomotive engine. In Fig. 1 is shewn partly in elevation and partly in
section so much of the engine as is necessary to explain the Invention; Fig. 2
is a plan, and Fig. 3 is a cross section. The sanie letters are used to denote
the same parts in all. the Figures.
A is the driving axle, which is in two halves; B is the crank arm on either
half;
and B' is the crank arm continued, forming a counterbalance to B. In
cach crank arm is a slot C. D is the crank pin, of which the connecting rod
E lays hold. To the bars F, F, extending from the motion plate to the
boiler, are firmly attached the guide pieces G, G, of which a separate view is
given in Fig. 4. A groove His formed in each of the guide pieces. As the
crank arm revolves, the two ends of the crank pin D travel in the grooves H
in the guide pieces, the slot C in the crank arms allowing the pin free motion
to do so. The guide pieces G, G, may be made in one or more pieces, and the
driving axle passes through the centre of them. I, I, are lubricators for the
grooves H, H.
In Sheet 2 is shewn the application of this Invention to a double cylinder
locomotive. The same letters apply to the same parts as in Sheet 1. Fig. 1
is an elevation; Fig. 2 a plan, and Fig. 3 a cross section of so much of the
engine as is requisite to explain the application of my Invention. In this case
the slotted crank arm is formed in the driving wheels. The guide pieces
G, G, are attached one to the outside and the other to the inside frame.
Figs. 4 and 5 shew an elevation and plan of one of the guide pieces.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention, I
desire it to be understood that I claim the improvements in locomotive and

page_text: stationary engines, as herein described and illustrated in the accompanying
two Sheets of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Woodlands Makinson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of December,]
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ALEX. W. MAKINSON. (L.S.)
igned, sealed, and delivered, by the above-
named Alexander Woodlands Makin-
son, in the presence of
E. T. HUGHES,
Patent Agent,
London.