IMPROVED MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE TRANSPORT OR CONVEYANCE OF MERCHANDIZE AND PASSENGERS BY RAILWAY
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT. to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVED MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE TRANSPORT OR CONVEYANCE OF
MERCHANDIZE AND PASSENGERS BY RAILWAY."-A communication from
abroad by Léon Dathis, of Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said. Alexander Melville,
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his.
Petition, on the 28th August 1874.
:
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVED MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE TRANSPORT OR
CONVEYANCE OF MERCHANDIZE AND PASSENGERS BY RAILWAY," to be as-
follows:-
The working of railways has not up to the present time proved as
remunerative as might reasonably be expected. In order to reap the
1

page_text: amount of profit which they are capable of producing considerable
modifications are necessary, particularly in the method of transporting
merchandize on the branch lines by which the trunk lines are fed, the
object of such modifications being to reduce the cost of construction and
the working expences to a scale commensurate with the amount of
traffic, so that extensions and branches may be carried to the utmost
extent possible compatible with profitable working on the one hand, and
with the requirements of the district on the other.
On most of the present railway systems the main or trunk line only
affords a fair return for the capital embarked, because having been
established for communication between important centres of trade the
amount of traffic is generally proportionate to its carrying capacity. In
the case of extensions and branches however the traffic is very much
less, and this deficit, owing to the heavy and disproportionate expense
which the branch line entails, absorbs in a great measure'the profit of
the main line. In order to remedy this state of things it is necessary to
find a means of constructing and working the different sections of a
railway on a scale proportionate to the importance of the ordinary
channels of traffic which it is designed to replace, and consequently pro-
portionate to the amount of traffic which each district is capable of
furnishing, and of connecting the different sections or ramifications of
the system together and with the sources of traffic in such a way that
the breaking of bulk to transfer the goods from one waggon to another
and the loss due to the rolling stock lying idle a great portion of the
time may be avoided, thereby considerably diminishing the working
expences and increasing the productiveness of the railway.
.
This Invention has for its object to afford a means of attaining this
desirable result, and relates to a system of employing carts, trucks, and
waggons, having the body part or receptacle independent of, and there-
forc removable from the under framing, whereby I am enabled to
extend the ramifications of the railway system to the smallest tributaries,
affording the most important contributions to its traffic.
Hitherto the bodies or receptacles of railway trucks and waggons have
been constructed in one with the wheeled frames upon which they are
carried; and in order to transfer the waggons from the main line to a
branch it has been absolutely indispensable that both lines should be
constructed on the same gauge, otherwiso it would be necessary to break

page_text: bulk in order to transfer the load from one waggon to another. In
order to remedy these disadvantages and to enable merchandize and
goods to be transferred from one liue to another without loading and
unloading when it is desired to transfer the same from one line to another
of the same or of a different gauge (as for example to a trunk line from
a narrow gauge railway or tramway having one or more rails) the
system hercafter described has been designed. It is distinguished by
certain characteristic features, namely
bulk in order to transfer the load from one waggon to another. In
order to remedy these disadvantages and to enable merchandize and
goods to be transferred from one liue to another without loading and
unloading when it is desired to transfer the same from one line to another
of the same or of a different gauge (as for example to a trunk line from
a narrow gauge railway or tramway having one or more rails) the
system hereafter described has been designed. It is distinguished by
certain characteristic features, namely :-
1st. The bodies of the waggons and trucks or other conveyances
instead of being fixtures on their under frames are independent thereof
and removable.
2d. The bodies or receptacles, of which there may be one or several
to cach truck or waggon, are mounted on rollers or wheels running on
rails on the under frame.
3rdly. These rails are laid either in the transverse or in the longi-
tudinal direction of the under frame, or both, so that they may be in
communication either directly from one waggon to another or by means
of an elevated siding, platform, or junction constructed on the ground,
and upon which rails are laid corresponding in height to those of the
waggon frames or travelling platform, so that the bodies or receptacles
can be rolled off and on the under frames or travelling platforms as
required.
4thly. An automatic stop or locking device, by which cach body or
receptacle is firmly secured and fixed. in position on the travelling,
platforms, until it is necessary to transfer it from one to another, the
action of this locking device being such that whilst the body or
receptacle is being rolled along the travelling platform it is disengaged
and re-engages itself immediately the body or receptacle arrives at its
proper position on the travelling platform, where it is firmly secured, as
above mentioned. In order to move it it is simply necessary to
disengage the locking device, which is automatically held out of gear
immediately the wheeled body or receptacle begins to move along the
rails.
It should be mentioned that the rail on which the said bodies or
receptacles run on the travelling platforms or trucks may be either
| single, double, or multiple, and of any desired form and gauge.
t

page_text: main line, and B the branch line or tramway; C, elevated platform or
junction connecting the two lines together, as shewn; d, switch by
which the movable receptacles are guided into one line or the other;
a, b, the locomotive attached to a train of trucks or travelling platforms,
on which the receptacle arriving by similar trains on the other line are
conveyed onwards..
Figure 3 shews a plan of a similar junction of two railways, together
with the means of transferring to and from carts; Figure 4 is an eleva-
tion of the same. The same letters of reference indicate the same parts
in these Figures. K, yard for the carts or drays, to or from which the
wheeled receptacles are to be loaded or unloaded; L, loading platform;.
M, arrival and departure lines of railway; q, rails on which travels a
truck to convey goods from one part of the depot to another.
Figure 5 shows the manner of unloading merchandize transported
loose in bulk. P, tilting truck running on rails; q, q, arrival or
departure lino shews where the receptacles load or discharge their
contents.
Figure 6 shows the method of loading and unloading the receptacles
into or from carts or drays. t, dray loaded with the receptacles;
u, portable incline by which the latter are transferred to and from the
dray; v, a receptacle resting on the ground; X, cart or truck loaded
with a single movable receptacle.
}
5 SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 27th February 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
O Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters. Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year.
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-

page_text: eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Alexander Melville Clark, Her special licence
that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Melville Clark,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVED MEANS TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE TRANSPORT OR CONVEYANCE OF
MERCHANDIZE AND PASSENGERS BY RAILWAY," a communication to me from
abroad by Léon Dathis, of Paris, France, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, 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 dato
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reférence being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say) :-
The following is the description of the Invention as communicated
to me :-Railway trade has not heretofore by far produced the amount
of advantages which were to be expected therefrom. This powerful
implement needs, to be quite effective, certain transformations.
The improvements to be made therein are the following:-To
diminish the working and setting up expenses, and make them concord
with the traffic resources that each of the sections of the line can afford
so as to permit said line its due extension, to improve on one hand
all interests, and on the other hand to render possible all alimentary
elements. In the actual state the old line or track only affords few
benefits, because as it was merely established for the purpose of tentering
the principal resorts, the resources deriving from secondary traffic are

page_text: immense. The new line on the contrary, the traffic of which is less,
is deficient, and absorbs, on account of the too heavy expenses it has
to undergo, a more or less large part in the benefits thereof. This
situation, which can be considerably modified or improved, is still
amendable, as the balance of the product of the two combined lines
leaves the working companies a notable profit; but there is the limit ;
and when the question is to establish the secondary lines which are to
subsist by themselves out of their own resources, or results from their
own benefits, and from a few subventions of the district they serve, the
securing of the profits so ardently claimed becomes quite unattainable..
In presence of such facts a means must be found out to establish the
iron line from the very principles on which was based the tracing of
the common roads which it is to replace, that is to say, to proportionate
the construction of each section thereof to the importance of the traffic
they are to afford.
To connect without extra expenses all the sections which would be
themselves connected to the cartering line intended to feed them, so as
to dispense with the transshipment, the standing still of the material,
and consequently to diminish the working expenses, a system of inde-
pendent trolly and truck, cars, and vehicles will allow obtaining it, and
consequently the extension of the iron line from the least affluent line.
The car trollies running up to this day on iron lines were heretofore
making part of their supporting trucks. To make a car pass from one
line to another it was necessary to have the rails equally apart. for not
incurring the necessity of transshipping the contents of one car box
to another, to obviate which and in order to enable the transshipment
from a line to another without unloading and loading again of the car
chest contents when the same has to run through identic or differently
apart lines, such for instance as a large line and a narrow one, or a single
or several railed tramway, &c., I have contrived a system (which I
claim) that secures the following elements,-
1. My car chests or trollies instead of making part of the truck are
movable.
2. The said chest or trolly, either single or multiple for one truck
is set upon rolls or wheels and rests on rails laid on the truck.
3. These rails are arranged on the truck either longitudinally or
transversely so as to be connected in all directions either from a truck

page_text: to another, or intermediately through a wharf provided with rails and
raised to the height of the trucks.
4. A self-acting stop device of any system will permit to unmobilize
the chest or trolly on the truck up to the moment when it will be
necessary to cause it to pass from one truck to another. This stop
device is so acting that when the chest is slided up on the truck it will
by itself lower down to its normal position as soon as the box is slided
to the place it is to occupy on the truck where it stands fixed by the
stop device, as aforesaid. In order to disengage it, it suffices to set the
stop when it is released, and as soon as it has commenced sliding on the
rail it holds the stop lowered until it has passed entirely over. But let
it be well understood that different means or devices may be used for
unmobilizing the chests on the trucks. I will state besides that the rails
laid on the corresponding trucks and wharfs may be single or multiple,
so that the chests may run on cither one or several rails, and that the
same rails may be of any suitable form, and laid apart, as deemed
proper.
With the above system the car chest or trolly being movable can run
from a truck to another either directly or on the intermediate wharf,
and vice versa; it will leave off the truck it was carried by and which
remains on the track, and be placed on another truck to be then con-
veyed on to its intended place without any transshipment of its contents.
By this process, first, all expenses are saved of ordinary intermediate
handlings, and also all waste and breaking caused by such are avoided.
As the car has leads affixed to at starting, the receiver is enabled to
ascertain the genuineness of the delivered goods, and may dispense with
ascertaining the weight stated at starting, and controled by the railway
administration who effected the transport. By these means again may
be fractioned without supplemental charge the complete cargo of an
ordinary car in as many parts as the truck is able to admit chests.
The system as aforesaid permits imparting to the rolling stock a quite
unexceptional activity, owing to the speed with which can be effected
the shipment of the chests, cither topwise or endwise on the trucks
intended to convey successively either on identic lines, or on various
by-lines or sidings, or again on single railed tracks, either on one or
both, &c,

page_text: the movie chests on a set of trucks, and from a first track
to a series of trucks placed on another track by utilizing, through such
transshipment of the chests or trollies on the trucks, the means or
devices made use of for causing a common train to pass from a track to
another.
Again, I reserve using an intermediate wharf, inclined or not, provided
with rails to facilitate the transshipment of the movable chests from a
track to another on such trucks.
Finally, the application of this my system will allow the moving on
trucks and wharfs of chests or trollies by the very same means as
employed generally for causing ordinary cars to circulate and be dis-
tributed on ways laid on the ground. It will likewise permit to use for
the moving of the trollies an engine running either on the upper rails or
on such as are laid on the ground, or horses, or inclines, or other trans-
mitting device, as may be used conveniently.
It is well understood that the size, forms, number, and material of the.
very elements of the herein mentioned system are to be considered as
mere hints, and can be modified.
I claim also applying my transshipment system from truck to truck
through single or multiple trollies, by means of rails laid on trucks,
either directly or on the rails of an intermediate wharf coming from one
railway line to another of same or different section, as herein-before
stated, and to the transshipment from a railway line to cither a
terrestrial, fluvial, or naval one, and vice versa.
.-
I can also use my system for conveying raw materials, such as coal,
peat, coke, &c., by employing my improved cars provided with similarly
apart rails, so that the car chest, serving as car, may pass directly from
the car truck to the floor of the mine, workshop, expediting wharf, or
boat, thence to return through rails or cranes, and pass ultimately by
similar means on to the car truck, either in stopping on a wharf or
directly, thence to be conveyed without any other transshipment to its
intended place.
And in awlan

page_text: and truck railway cars and carriages, Figure 1 showing an elevation of
a junction of different section lines, and Figure 2 a plan of the same.
A, main broad gauge line; B, secondary narrow gauge line, or if desired
a tramway; C, transfering wharf at the junction of the two lines;
d, switch to direct the movable chests upon the wharf track; a, b, machine
for hauling the chests from the opposite track or truck which forms the
train.
Figure 3 shows an elevation of the junction of the railway lines with
the carting track, as also the discharging platform; Figure 4 shows a
plan and Figure 5 an elevation of the same, showing the discharging
wharf for expediting purposes. In these Figures the same letters of
reference stand for the like parts wherever they recur. F, unloading
platform on to which the bodies of the trucks are run, for being
. transferred to common road trucks, as at G; h, position of pointsman
for shifting the truck bodics; K, unloading place of the car trucks for
delivery; L, loading wharf for receiving the movable chests on car
trucks; M, starting point at the station; O, switch for directing the
truck bodies on to the railway trucks; 2, q, track for the horse
waggon.
Figure 6 shows the discharging-in docks of the goods transported
loose; p, transfering and distributing goods at the depots by means of
waggons; r, arrival or departure lines; 8, transfering or starting places.
Figure 7 shows the carting of the goods packed up in the movable
chests; u, inclined movable plane connecting the dray t to the ground;
v, chest laid on the ground; x, car loaded with its movable chests or
trollies.
Having described the nature of the Invention, as communicated to
mc, and the manner of performing the same, I declare that what I claim
as the Invention to be protected by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is,-
Taking any goods from any discharging place to their destination
without transshipment of any kind in my movable boxes or trollies,
closed at need, circulating (either from truck to truck directly or on the
rails of an intermitting wharf, and also in any other manner) from one
track to another by means of a railway placed on the trucks intended to
transport them successively, whether these trucks are waggons, carriages,
boats, ships, steamboats, steam ships, &c.

page_text: Also the propriety of the application of my Invention or system by the
same means to the conveyance of. travellers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-sixth day of
February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-five.