IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAYS AND CARRIAGES TO RUN ON RAILWAYS AND IN THE CONSTRUCTING AND ARMING SHIPS OR VESSELS
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Sir
SAMUEL BROWN. Knight of the Hanoverian Guelpic Order, and Captain in Her
Majesty's Navy, of Blackheath, in the County of Kent, send greeting
WHEREAS He 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 Fourteenth day of July, in the
tenth year of Ici reign, did, for Heiselt, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Sir Samuel Brown, my cñois, aditiois, and assigns, Ier
especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Sır
Samuel Brown, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Su Samuel Brown, my exois, adññiois, 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 RAILWAYS AND CARRIAGES TO RUN ON RAILWAYS
AND IN THE CONSTRUCTING AND ARMING SHIPS OR VESSELS," in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Sir Samuel Brown, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manne
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 pait recited.
Letters Patent, as in and by the saine, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appeal.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
Si Samuel Brown, 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, icference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked theicon,
that is to say
Before specifying the nature of any improvements and new inventions it may
be necessary to state, that iccently I obtained a Patent for improvements in
the construction of railway camages and other objects connected with railway
communication, and as my new improvements are not intended to supcisede
the original designs, I only claim them as adjunctive improvements on my
former Patent In both the present and previous Patent the primary object,
and which is paramount to all other considerations, has been to effect additional
security to railway communication; and the most remarkable feature in the
proposed system is, that the very means by which this gicat desideratum has
been accomplished has necessarily, I might say inevitably, given effect to an
imineuse increase of rotary power in the proportion of five to three over the
present low wheels, or in other words a diminution of resistance to the motive
power in the same ratio As it 15 of the utmost importance that these improve-
ments should be modified and rendered applicable as far as possible to the
whole railway system of the United Kingdom, I have devised several methods
of accomplishing the same object My additional inventions and improvements
are delineated and described as follows, viz
There is in this
Figure 1 is a longitudinal clevation of one of the improved cannages, mounted
between four wheels of five feet in diameter, being in the ratio of five to thicc
with the common rails. The flanges are inci cased in depth in the same
proportion Figure 2 is an elevation of one of the improved Great Western
or broad guage carnages Figure 3 is an elevation of one of the improved
camages, mounted between two pan of five feet wheels, plain wheels without
flanges, adapted to run on wood rails made of becch or other hard wood, and
preserved from decay by the most approved chemical process
case a centic rail, with deep centie groove wheels on separate axles, not seen in
this view, these run upon a wood or iron dge 1ail hereafter described These
centie groove wheels may either be used also as guide wheels, to prevent the
bearing wheels from diverging on the 1ail, or they may be adjusted to iclieve
the bearing wheels of a portion of the weight a is a longitudinal section of, b
is a plan of the same, shewing the groove wheels revolving on separate axles
The wheels having a wide bell-mouth groove, if the carnage should be jumped
o jolted up, will not be thrown off the rails, but will drop down over the

page_text: idge al Figure 3 is a side clevation of a canage mounted on two
pan of five feet groove wheels which run in the ridge rail A, which is conical
at the sides but quite flat on the 1dge, and two and a half inches wide and
six inches from the ridge to the base The groove wheels are three and
a half inches wide in the bed. to admit of then running ficely without
ubbing on the edge of the rail. Figure 7 is a transverse section of the
same, showing the bell-mouth form of the edge of the groove. is a transverse
section of the base of the 11lge rail, moiticed into the transverso sleeper, and
wedged tight by a dovetail wedge. The dotted line is an additional fastening
of a bolt or treenail into the sleeper Some of these Drawings, which were
exhibited in the former Patent, form no part of the present Specification, but
are utended to shew the staking difference of the altitude, and consequent
security, of my improved callages over those of the present constiuction,
inasmuch as the weight of the carriage and contents are clevated so high above
the periphery of the wheels Thus the whole load becomes top weight above
the centre of gravity and rotary motion, whereas two tlunds of the whole load
is suspended below the centre of gravity There is no difficulty in accounting
for the locomotive engine or part of the carnages being thrown off the rail by
duect collision or any evident obstruction on the line; but I ficquently hear of
the engine and carriages being thrown or jolted up, and sometimes off the line,
without any apparent or accountable cause. The inference, I think, is there-
fore reasonable that these disastious casualties have been occasioned by the great
preponderance of the top weight above the centre of gravity while the locomo-
tive engine and train are passing rapidly over sharp cuives, under the combined
influence of the centrifugal force and the lateral pressure of high winds, and,
by panty of reasoning, they would in all such cases be prevented by the ргероп-
derance of the weight being below the centre of gravity Independently of this, as
there-before stated. the accession of power oi diminution of resistance of the
outside five feet wheels at five to thice, for, according to the law of rotary motion,
the mechanical power of wheels is as the diameter is to the axle, for example, if
a five feet wheel iequued a five inch axle it would possess no greater it would pos-
sess no greater mechanical power than a thicc feet wheel with a thice inch axle;
but as the five feet wheels have no greater weight to support than the three feet
wheels, they only require the three inch axle, and consequently the increase of
power or diminution of resistance as to the traction or propelling force is theic-
fore as five to three These advantages, combined with additional safety, are
of the utmost importance to the whole railway system of the United Kingdom.
It is admitted that it would require greater power to propel or track the engine
and cauages mounted over the present low wheels on a wooden rail than on
iron rails; and, in fact, there is a certain degree of gradient that no increase of

page_text: power will overcome, by reason of the wheels slipping on the rail without
But the cannage mounted between, not over, the five feet wheels, as shewn in
Figures 1, 2, and 3, require considerably less power to draw or propel the
same weight or number of carriages at equal speed on the wooden rail Con-
sequently I am enabled to ascend acclivities with the five feet wheels on the
timber rails, which would be altogether impracticable upon iron rails The
advantage of this increase of power or decrease of resistance, besides the addi-
tional safety, will enable me to ascend steeper gradients, and avoid tunnels
below instead of above the centre of gravity, will in almost every instance where
tunnels have been deemed indispensable, every instance where they have been
hitherto been considered unavoidable Figures 1, 2, and 3 are clevations of
the improved carriages mounted between five feet wheels, the preponderance
of weight below the centre of gravity Figuic 4 is an elevation of the Great
Western carriages mounted over four feet wheels. the whole being top weight
above the centre of gravity Figure 5 is an elevation of the narrow guage
carriages mounted over three feet wheels, the whole load being in like manner
top weight Figure 6, a locomotive carnage of the common construction.
A, B, are centre grooved wheels, running either backward or forward Figure 1
a common locomotive engine A is a middle rail, either of wood or iron, B,
groove wheels, which I call pilot wheels, running on this rail on separate axles
from the bearing wheels; the groove in these instances is five inches deep, and
sufficiently wide to admit of the wheels revolving freely in passing round sharp
curves, without rubbing on the rail. These pilot 01 gunle wheels will prevent
the engine or carriages in the tram from diverging or jumping off the rail.
They may also be adjusted so as to bear part of the weight of the carnages.
Figure 8 is another method of preventing the engine or cannage from running
off the rail by means of conical horizontal wheels These guide wheels differ
from Kollman's or any other guide wheels which have hitherto been proposed
or adopted, and may be used with any plain or flange 1ail, either central or
lateral, as they do not run under a 1 abbet rail They are free to be jolted up
if any body by accident or design should be placed on or between the rails,
whereas Kolman and others, running under a rabbit rail or other confined
means, would inevitably either stop the whole tram or tear the rails up if any
obstruction should occur. Figure 9 is a sectional plan of one of my improved
carnages, which is constructed in such a manner as to admit of its running on
both broad and nanow and intermediate guages, and Figure 10 is a transverse
section of the same a, a, are cast-11on foundation plates. firmly bolted to the
main beams or fiames b, b, of the cannage. On each side of these foundation
plates are horizontal grooves c, c, in which the vertical cast-iron frames and
bearings d, d, slide. On the axle e, e, there is a pinion f, taking into another

page_text: pinion g, keyed on to the shaft h, having at each end a square threaded screw,
which works into the screw holes in the upright cast-iron frames d, d, and
causes them to slide along the grooves c as the screw revolves, until they have
carried the axles and their wheels fixed thereto to the required place or guage
The pinon f on the axle c, e, is allowed to remain stationary until the clutch i
is drawn forward by the level k, when it becomes koyed to the axle e, e, until
it arrives at the change of the guage; then the lever k is set at liberty, and is
caried back by the counterbalance weight 1, when the carriage proceeds on
without further adjustment The same means are employed to retuin. No other
movement or application of machinery is requied in the change of guage, and
therefore there is no necessity for changing carriages of any description at the
junction of the different guages.
My improvements in the department of ship building, which is applicable to
a certain extent to vessels of all descriptions, consists chiefly in the construc-
tion of the fiame, the shape and manner of hanging the rudder, which increases
its power of steerage and its security, being less liable to be displaced or disabled
by shot; and it affords the peculiar advantages of being shipped and unshipped
at sea or in harbour with the greatest ease, and without loss of time; and as
an example, I may state that the rudder of a line-of-battle ship or a frigate
could be lowered or diawn out of the rudder pipe, and hoisted up to the ship's
quarter, or any other place, and lashed thereon, in about a quarter of an hour,
and lowered down and drawn up by the rudder chain, which is fixed in the
head of the rudder post, and hung in its place in less than half an hour, this
15 shewn in Figure 14.
The other improvement consists of the employment of two propellers, one
extended beyond the stern post of the ship oi vessel, and revolving in a space
cut out of the dead wood or between the main stern and an additional stern
post Letter R, the other propeller, is extended beyond the stein, or a space
may be cut out of the dead wood, and a false or extra stern post may be brought
on, between which and the main stein post the propellers revolve at letter N.
Another improvement consists of applying either two propellers on each side
of the stern post, and two on each side of the stem, or two at either end, but not
on both ends of the ship. Then the two propellors, single or double, at each
end of the ship, may be worked together by the shaft W, extending the whole
length of the vessel, and fixed on the bosses of the propellor wheel; they may
be worked separately by different shafts The velocity or number of revolu-
tions may be increased by the usual connexion of wheels and pinions, or the
shafts may be worked, if preferred, by the direct movement of the cranks.
As these improvement may be adapted to all ships and vessels, it is only

page_text: necessary to say that the dimensions of the propellers and the power of the
engines must be made in proportion to the dimensions of or measurement of
the ships Figure 12 is a side elevation of part of the main body of a two-
decked ship of the line O is the scarf of the timbers transversely in the
section. P is a copper or iron plate let into the timber on both sides, above and
below the point of the scarfs, and bolted with copper or iron bolts properly
rivitted over washers This plan of scarfing may be used throughout the whole
frame of the ship, and in various modifications, according to the dimensions or
shape of the timbers at the junctions. Figure 13 is a sectional elevation of the
same vessel. In this view only the edge of the plate and of the one point of
the scarp will be seen at Q R is the face of the scarp plate, S, S, the old
method of scaiping and fitting on which with chock T, T, the present method
of the timber butting on each other with square ends and wood or iron dowels.
By either of these methods it is evident that every other timber is severed, and
the dowels o chocks add little or any thing to the strength of the timber till it
is planked over In fact, if a timber having one or two scarp or dowel points
were to be supported on thicc props, one under the scarf, the other under the
ends, the moment the centre prop was removed the timber would break in two.
On the contrary, by scarfing the timber edgeways to the transverse section of
the ship, and securing it between the plates of copper or iron, it would not only
hold together, but require a very heavy pressure to disturb the joint. Conse-
quently by this improved plan of strengthening the joints of the timber, the
ship would be much stronger with every other timber dispensed with than with
a solid mass of timber scarfed or joined as at present with these weak Joints,
which possess no inherent strength. Figure 16, supposed sectional elevation
of the quarter of a frigate R is the metal rudder pipe, securely fixed to the
stern post, passing up the transum, the mouth of the pipe being two feet above
the load-water line, S, S, the shaft of the rudder being made of copper or strong
amalgamated metal The sectional auca of the rudder shaft for a frigate would
be twenty-five inches, the shafts for other ships in proportion to their size.
It would requne a transverse stiam of upwards of forty tons to bend the shaft
at the lower mouth of the pipe, and upwards of seventy tons to break it. It
is, in fact, more than ten times stronger than the present pintles and gudgeons
for a ship of this class In consequence of this superior strength it is not
necessary to be connected with the stein post at all The head of the shaft
ests in the upper mouth of the rudder pipe, or a metal toggle oi fid The
head of the rudder is provided with a strong eyebolt U, to which a chain of
sufficient strength is attached by a shackle and bolt. The following is the
simple and easy manner of shipping :-V, plan of the tiller, detached, either in

page_text: dock or afloat Suppose the rudder, for convenience, is hung to the quarter,
something like an anchor to the bow chain t being love in the pipe, the end is
brought up to the rudder head and shackle to the eyebolt, lower the rudder
down, or drop it, if preferred, like an anchor, it will immediately become
plumb with the centre of the rudder pipe. Apply the pin purchase to the
chain; it cannot fail to enter the pipe when it is drawn up to its place in the
pipe to ender the fid or toggle This is the whole process, & under ordinary
circumstances it may be accomplished in about a quarter of an hour. Th
tiller may be shipped and worked in the gun room, but it may with greater
security and equal effect be worked in the bread room.
The last of my improvements consists of forming floating railways in canal
and other inland navigations, by means of a continuous wooden or iron trough
A, A, extending the whole length of the canal from lock to lock. Those troughs
will be of the following dimensions for general purposes, but they may be
increased or diminished according to the weight and size of the carriages,
whether for the transit of goods, cattle, or passengers
For ordinary railway
locomotive engines and trains of carriages the troughs will be eight feet wide,
six feet deep, and unlimited as to length. They must necessarily be in a small
degree flexible while the trains are passing along; but this flexibility will not
cause any distortion or opening, either on the sides or bottom of the troughs,
and as these troughs cannot pass through the locks, the railway is raised by an
inclined plain of props shewn in Figure 15, something like the timber viaducts;
the gradient, about one foot in fifty, to form a connexion with nails laid down
on the embankment of the locks, as shewn in Figure 15. Figure 16 is a plan,
and Figure 17 an elevation These trunks or troughs will also be allowed to
ise and fall between two rows of piles G, G, driven about fifty feet apart, in
the bed of the canal or the sloping sides. There will be two iron rings H, H,
onc near the top of the side, the other at the water line, to keep the troughs in
their lateral position with the sides of the canal, and at the same time to admit
of the troughs 11sing and falling according to the depth of water in the canal,
and the depression of the trough when the locomotive engine and train are
passing along. Figure 18 is a transverse section of the trough or trunk,
shewing the construction of the same, also section of the rails and the backs
of one of the carriages shewn thercon. The section will represent the iron
trunk or trough, the one being constructed in the usual manner of iron barges,
and the other of tiniber barges.
In witness whereof, I, the said Sir Samuel Brown, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Loid
One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
SAM. (LS) BROWN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of January, in
the year of our Loid 1847, the aforesaid Sir Samuel Brown came before our
said Lady the Queen in He Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing theicin 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
the
Enrolled the Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One-
thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.