gawa Waggons and other Carriages.
Year: 1806

page_text: egawa Waggons and other Carriages.
9947
To
f.
COOKE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COOKE, of Chute House, in the County of Wilts, Gentleman, do send
greeting
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of October,.
in the forty-sixth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, t
the said
William Cooke, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence that I,
the said William Cooke, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my”
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WAGGONS AND
OTHER CARRIAGES WHICH HAVE MORE THAT TWO WHEELS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William
Cooke, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation
being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Cooke, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Inven-

page_text: tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, as follows, that is
to say:-
Instead of connecting the wheels with the carriage in the usual manner,
which confines the lower or bearing parts of all the wheels nearly in one and
the same plane, I allow one pair or more pairs of the wheels to have consider-
able play or liberty in the axis or axletree of each pair, so that the said axis
or axletree, when one of the said wheels shall be either raised or depressed
by any obstacle or irregularity or other cause, may and shall assume various
positions out of the level without requiring or causing the bed of the carriage,
or any appendage belonging or fixed to the same, to deviate from the ordinary
position of the said bed or appendage, unless such elevation or depression of
the said wheel shall exceed the allowed limit of the said quantity of play or
liberty; and the manner or means in which and whereby I do connect the
last-mentioned pair or pairs of wheels with the carriage itself, in order to allow
the considerable play or liberty as here described, doth and do consist in the
forming or adaptation or addition of a part or parts of the apparatus at or
about the pluce where the axis of such pair or pairs of wheels shall be con-
nected with the carriage, so that the said part or parts may produce or admit
of the effect of an hinge or joint, by which the said axis may be allowed to
have either of its ends raised or depressed without affecting the carriage within
the limits before mentioned, and so that this effect may take place in all the
practicable or convenient angles of obliquity formed between the pole or perch
and the said axletrec in turning or backing or in any other part of the
working of the same. And I do further declare that the mechanical methods
or construction of the said parts are easily deducible from the before-mentioned
effects and purposes of my said Invention by men of competent skill and
experience in works of the nature and kind here described; but that I do
in some cases make the upper part or termination of the main pin in the
form of a knob or piece of a circular figure with respect to the central line or
axis of the said main pin (that is to say):-All the sections of the said knob
that can be made at right angles to the said axis will be circular, but of a
conical or spherical or other bilging figure in its longitudinal section, in order
that when the said knobs shall be placed or inserted within an hollow cylinder
of the same diameter as that of its greatest circular section, the said main
pin may be at liberty to move sideways out of the direction of the axis of the
said cylinder. And I do accordingly place or insert the said knob or upper
extremity of the inain pin in a cylindrical hole in the bed of the carriage
or flying pillow, or other fit part or appendage, taking care by a nutt or other
suitable means to prevent the same from coming out; and the said knob or

page_text: cylinder do in this construction constitute that part of the connecting appa-
ratus between the carriage itself and the axletree of the pair of wheels to
which the main pin belongs which was herein-before described as producing
or admitting of the effect of an hinge or joint; and I do suffer the pole or
perch or other part which may be used to support or steady the lower end of
the main pin to have a little play to the right and left, and the said main pin
to have a limited space for motion up and down in the holes through which it
passes. And I do also make the bearing part, which is usually circular, and
called the sweeps or hanging pillow, or spring bed, somewhat prominent, cir-
cular in its or their upright section, so as to be lowest in the middle, and to,
admit the face of the lower pillow or axle bed to shift its place of bearing.
accordingly as the tilt or inclination of the axletree is greater or less; and by.
all the said contrivances the before-described effect is produced. Or otherwise,
I make the knob cylindrical, and the hole widening one or both ways from its
smallest perforation; or I do make both the knob of the main pin and the
hole receiving it bilging or conical in contrary directions; or otherwise I do
place and secure the main pin, or a piece or pieces answering the purpose of
a main pin, in such a manner as not to allow of any side motion or angulor
change of position in the same with relation to the bed or carriage. And I.
do connect the pole or perch with the same, and upon or to the said pin or
piece or pieces as an axis, or operating as such, I do fix or apply another piece
which shall be capable of moving round against the sweeps, or in the same
manner, by well-known contrivances equivalent to the sweeps. This last-men-
tioned piece is provided with two pivots or gudgeons fixed in a line at right
angle to the main pin, or through the line or axis about which the said piece
may be moved by other gear equivalent to the main pin, which gudgeons are
received in sockets attached or fixed to and in a line at right angles to the
axis of that pair of wheels which shall or may be intended to have the consi-
derable play or liberty of motion first herein-before mentioned. By this
means the axletree is allowed to tilt or move on the said pivots or gudgeons
in the manner aforesaid, at the same time that the said axletree is at liberty
to be put into any position with regard to the direction of the pole or perch,
and the carriage itself will not be tilted or inclined to one side in consequence
of the inclination of the said axletree, or of any obstacle or impediment which
might have caused it so to incline. And I do further declare that the kind
of joint or jimbal last described is capable of great variation in its structure
by several obvious changes in its dimensions and parts, and their relative
situations and action upon each other. Or otherwise, instead of the said pivots
or gudgeons, I do make an actual hinge or joint, or socket and bearing pieces,

page_text: which produce the same effect when interposed and properly secured between
the axletree, as aforesaid, and the piece which was before described as having
the said gudgeons or pivots.
And lastly, in order that my said Invention may be more clearly under-
stood and apprehended, I think fit to observe that the advantages to be gained
by my said improvements are not only that the carriage itself is less affected
in its position by any rise or depression of one of the wheels of any of the
pair or pairs herein-before alluded to, but also that all the wheels are
constantly kept in a state of bearing upon the ground, notwithstanding
any irregularities of the same, and that the extreme strain of the machinery
and actual danger to which common carriages are exposed are thereby
obviated and avoided.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Cooke, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and six.
WILLIAM COOKE. (L.B.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1806, the aforesaid William Cooke came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.