CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROWAN, of the firm of John Rowan and Sons, of the Doagh Foundry,
County of Antrim, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventh day of November, in the seventh year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Rowan, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I,the said William Rowan, my exors,
admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said William Rowan, my exors,
admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Inven-
tion of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES; " in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso, that I, the said William Rowan, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Rowan, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully set forth and ascertained
in and by the following Specification thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say) :-
The nature of the said Invention consists in lessening the resistance opposed
by friction to the rotation of the axles of wheels and other revolving machines
and parts of machinery, and thereby encreasing the effective working power
thereof, and the manner in which the same is performed is exemplified in the
said Drawings hereunto annexed.
Figures 1 and 2 of these Drawings represent the application of the Inven-
tion to a railway carriage, the former being an elevation, and the latter an
under plan, partly in section, of so much of the said carriage as is necessary to
exhibit the peculiar features of my Invention.
A, A, are the wheels, which are constructed as usual; Bis the axle, which
so far as regards the part between the wheels and their bearings therein, may
be also of any known and approved form. At the ends the axle is prolonged
to the extent shewn in Figure 2, but of the diminished diameter from a to b
also there represented. To each end there are attached the parts following,
marked C, c, d, e, D, f, g, E, F, G, h, and i. C is a friction cylinder or wheel
carrier, of which a separate view in plan and section is given in Figures 3
and 4. This carrier consists of two circular rings c and d, connected longitu-
dinally by four bars e, e, each of which serves as an axis to one of the four
hollow friction cylinders or wheels D, D, D, D, which are of such diameter as
to project a little away beyond the rings c, d. The carrier with its friction
cylinder is slipped loosely upon the end of the axle, so that both may revolve
freely thereon; it is then secured in its place partly by a cap f, which screws
on to the end of the axle, and is of diameter just sufficient to overlap small
segments of each of the friction cylinders D, D, (see Figure 1); (or instead of
this it may
be secured by means of a cap of the like diameter at top, made to
screw into a recess in the end of the axle), and partly by a nut 9, which fits
into a recess in the outer end of the bush F, afterwards described. E is a
metal bearing, which is secured to and projects downwards from the frame.
work of the carriage, having a bush or socket F, through the centre of which
the end of the axle is passed, and within which the friction cylinders and carrier

page_text: revolve, the friction cylinders revolving on the inside in contact with the axle B,
and on the outside in contact with the interior of the socket F. The ends of
the friction cylinders are bevilled or rounded off, as shewn in Figure 2; and
the better to prevent them from swaying to either side they abut at the inner
end against corresponding bevils h, i, in the axle and bush, and at the outer
end against corresponding bevils on the inner faces of the screw cap f, and
nut g. G is an external plate to the bearing E, which, when fixed, covers in
and protects from dust the whole of the bush or socket F. In one half of
Figure 1 this external plate is represented as fixed in its place, and in the
other as removed. The improvements in axles which I have thus exemplified
in their application to railway carriages will be found also more or less appli-
cable to common road carriages, to water-wheels, windmills, and generally to
rotating machines and machinery of every description, observing only in each
case to make use of such obvious modifications as the peculiar circumstances
belonging to it may render necessary.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I am well aware that
friction wheels have been heretofore employed to diminish the friction of axles,
and that I do not therefore lay claim to their general employment for that
purpose; but that what I claim as of my Invention is, the application of
friction cylinders or wheels to axles in the particular manner before described,
that is to say, the application to axles of friction cylinders or wheels with
bevilled or rounded ends, mounted or fixed in a carrier, which fits loosely upon
the axle, and revolves as well as the friction wheels round the axle,and which
carrier and friction wheels are kept in their places on the axles by means of
bevilled parts in the axle and bush at one end, and of a screw cap and a nut
at the other, or by any other equivalent contrivances. And I declare, further
that though the friction cylinders or wheels are represented in the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and before described, as four in number, I do not limit
myself to any precise number, but that they may be of any number adapted to
the size of the axle to which they are applied. I declare also,that the wheels
instead of being of cylindrical may be of a conical form, with the bushes
altered to correspond.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
WILLIAM (L.s.) ROWAN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of April,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid William Rowan came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein 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.
Enrolled the Seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand