IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING ELECTRO-MAGNETISM TO THE PRO- DUCTION OF LOCOMOTION, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Henri Olivier Hallez
d'Arros at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 18th March 1873.
I, CHARLES HENRI OLIVIER HALLEZ D'ARROS, of Nancy, Département
de la Meurthe, (France), do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING ELECTRO-MAGNETISM TO THE PRO-
DUCTION OF LOCOMOTION, AND APPARATUS CONNECTED THERE WITH," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to means of applying electro-magnetism for the
purpose of effecting traction and locomotion by the use of apparatus
which I call electro-running wheel engine.
This apparatus is so arranged as to cause a wheel to run along a
smooth iron rail by the force with which electro-magnets mounted on
the wheel are attracted to the rail which serves as a fixed armature to
these magnets. For this purpose I fix on the wheel a number of
electro-magnets arranged radially so that their poles pass through the

page_text: tyre of the wheel at intervals apart, the ends of the poles forming
portions of the tread of the tyre. The one end of each of the coils of
wire on these magnets is connected to an insulated conducting ring
or sleeve on the axle, which is permanently in electrical connection with
the one pole of a battery or other source of electricity mounted on the
carriage. The other end of each coil wire is permanently in connection
with a piece of metal also fixed on the axle but insulated from it, and
from the before-mentioned ring or sleeve. These pieces of metal are
arranged round the axle at intervals corresponding to those of the
magnets and are insulated from one another. A rubbing conductor
connected to the other pole of the battery bears against cach of those
pieces of metal successively as they are brought round to it by the
rotation of the wheel, and when such bearing takes place with respect
to any one of the pieces of metal, the coil to which it is connected
becomes for the time placed within the electrical circuit, and the
magnet belonging thereto becomes active. The position of each piece
of metal with relation to the rubbing conductor is so arranged that
contact takes places just as the pole of the magnet connected with that
piece is approaching the surface of the rail. The attractive force
exercised at this moment by the magnet urges the wheel along the rail,
and this attractive force is annihilated when the pole of the magnet
having passed its central or lowest position begins to leave the rail, the
contact of the piece of metal with the rubbing conductor ceasing at
that moment. The several magnets being brought successively under
these conditions by the revolution of the wheel a series of impulses
is given to the wheel, such as cause it to roll progressively along the
rail.
When two wheels are fixed on one axle the magnets on the one
wheel are by preference arranged so as to correspond in position with
the intervals between the magnets of the other wheel, so that the
magnets of the two wheels come into action in alternating succession.
The battery or source of electrical power may be mounted on the
carriage as above described and be conveyed along with it. Or it might
be fixed in position and the clectrical current might be transmitted by
conductors laid along the rails or by the rails themselves. In these
cases the communication of electricity to the magnetic coils on the
wheel would be effected either by conducting rollers arranged to run
along the conducting wires or by the tires of the wheels having arranged

page_text: on them insulated conductors spaced so as to suit the spacing of the
magnets.
The apparatus above described might be applied for effecting the
movement of trucks or carriages for the transport of loads generally. It
is however particularly applicable for the conveyance of dispatches.
For such a purpose a single electro-magnetic wheel properly balanced
might be employed to run along one line of rail or wire rope.