Improvements in Hand Trucks.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Nov., 1894-Accepted, 8th Dec., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hand Trucks.
I, HENRY ORRIS THOMAS, of 67 Dearborn Street, Chicago, County of Cook,
State of Illinois, in the United States of America, Mechanic, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to trucks designed to be operated by hand in loading,
unloading and transferring merchandise and heavy articles, and is an improvement
upon a somewhat similar structure for which my petition for Patent with Provisional
Specification was filed November 29 1893, No. 22,927. The improvements
comprise a modification by which the loading wheels and carrying wheels may be
brought into engagement or peripheral contact during the process of loading and
details of construction of the frame for strength and a specific form and arrange-
ment of the pawls and their operating spring which adapts both pawls to be thrown
into and out of engagement by one movement of the operator. It comprises also
a modification in the arrangement of the pivoted shoe or shoes by which the load
is first engaged, which adapts such shoes to serve as a fulcrum over which the load
may be tilted back onto the truck and off the loading wheels.
In the drawings,―
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my improved truck, being shown in a position which
it normally occupies when not in use, that is, substantially upright, resting on all
the wheels, but having represented in partial outline a load lodged upon its shoes
in the position which might be occupied just prior to or in the act of unloading.
Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the truck without the load, one handle being
broken away.
Fig. 3 is a side elevation showing the truck in the act of engaging the load.
Fig. 4 shows the truck brought to horizontal position after engaging the load
with the lips, showing the load as it would rest upon the loading wheels at that
stage of the loading process.
Fig. 5 is a detail section at the line 5-5 on Fig. 2.
Fig. 6 is a section at the line 6-6 on Fig. 5.
Fig. 7 is a detail section at the line 7-7 on Fig. 2.
Fig. 8 is a section at the line 8-8 on Fig. 1.
Fig. 9 is a plan of the shoes slightly modified from the form shown in former
views by the addition of a brace binding the shoes rigidly together.
Fig. 10 is a plan of a further modification in which the shoes are integral.
Fig. 11 is a perspective of the grapple-hook or claw shown in the principal
figure.
Fig. 12 is a detail showing a form of grapple-hook and connection different from
that shown in Figs. 1 and 2, section being made through the hook and the fastenings
of the rod in which it is held in a plane axial with respect to the rod.
Fig. 13 is a detail side elevation of the lower forward end of the truck, showing
a modification of the bearings and arrangement of the loading wheel or wheels
adapted to permit them to come into peripheral engagement with the supporting
wheels when the load is upon them.
Fig. 14 shows the same device in the position under the load.
Fig. 15 is a bottom or inverted plan of the truck of this modified form.
Fig. 16 is a detail section at the line 16-16 on Fig. 15.
The truck frame comprises the handles or side-bars A, A, and intermediate bow
or brace B, the wheel bearing castings or forgings C, C, at the lower or forward
end, cross-ties D and D' toward the upper and lower ends respectively, straining

page_text: rods E, E, by which the side-bars A, A, are stiffened or trussed through the
co-operation of such straining rods with the struts or posts a, a, a, a, in a manner
too familiar to need further explanation. For the side-bars and the bow, seats or
sockets are provided in the upper ends of the wheel bearing brackets C, C. Both
the side-bars and the bow, but especially the side-bars, are made tubular, both for
lightness, and, in respect to the side-bars, for the further purpose of accommodating
certain pawl-operating rods hereinafter described.
F, F, are the supporting wheels. They are journalled in the wheel bearing
brackets C, C, respectively on a common shaft F which extends through both the
brackets spanning the width of the truck and constituting a connection between the
two wheel-bearing brackets, through each of which it passes upon both sides of
the wheel in each bracket, cotter-pins F, F", at the ends serving to retain it in
place, and the sleeve C' on the shaft between the two brackets C, C, and abutting
at its ends against their inner sides respectively, serving as a stop on the shaft to
hold the brackets positively apart.
G, G, are the shoes. They may be either independent as shown in Fig. 8, or
rigidly connected by the brace or cross-tie g, as shown in Fig. 9, or integral and
virtually only one as in Fig. 10. Each of these shoes, however, whether they are
rigid or independent, and whether there be two shoes or only one, comprises the
lip G and the side arms G, G³, which extend back from the lips embracing
between them the bracket C, (or both said brackets when the form is that shown
in Fig. 10) and being pivoted at their rear ends to the brackets. In the form
shown in the principal figures, the shoes are pivoted to the brackets upon the
rod g', which extends through both the brackets and both arms of both the shoes,
reaching therefore from side to side of the truck and retained in place by a head
and holt go and g" at the ends, respectively, of the rod. On the rod is a sleeve G³,
which extends between the proximate sides of the wheel bearing brackets C', C',
and by its ends stops the brackets longitudinally on the rod, holding both shoes
and brackets a proper distance apart or assisting in so doing if the shoes are
connected by the brace 9. This description relates to the form shown in all the
figures, except Fig. 9 and Figs. 13 to 16, inclusive. The modification shown in
these figures will be hereinafter described.
H, H, are the loading or load-supporting wheels. In the principal form shown
these wheels are journalled independently in the wheel supporting brackets C, C,
in front of or above the supporting wheels F, F. Their relative position with
respect to the supporting wheels in the brackets respectively is seen in Fig. 6, and
in the several side views of the truck. The periphery of both the truck supporting
wheels and loading wheels may be corrugated or roughened in any desirable manner
to increase their traction power. The position of the supporting and loading
wheels relative to the truck as a whole is such that they are all adapted to
constitute supporting wheels for the truck when the latter is in upright position, as
seen in Fig. 1. That is, the center of gravity of the truck as a whole, without
any load upon it, is in vertical line between the lines of floor contact of all the
wheels, so that the truck rests stably upon all the wheels and may be moved about
freely and without danger of falling while resting upon them all, and is thereby
adapted to be pushed aside when out of use and occupy the least possible space
in storage, and occasion the least possible inconvenience by its presence in a
warehouse when not in use. The shoes G, G', being pivoted to the wheel
supporting brackets tend to fall into position approximately at right angles to the
general direction of the frame and handles of the truck, when the truck is upright
as in Fig. 1. A boss c is provided on the frame which arrests the shoes at the
position shown in Fig. 1, so that when the truck stands on all the wheels the shoes
are off the floor, so that they do not interfere with the free handling of the truck,
as described. When the operator desires to engage the shoes under a load to be
lifted onto the truck, the truck being seized by the handles and pushed forward,
will naturally be lifted from the position shown in Fig. 3, the carrying or supporting
wheels being lifted off the floor and the weight being thrown wholly upon the

page_text: loading wheels, which, for the time being, become the supporting wheels; and in
this position, the truck can be pushed rapidly forward, the shoes resting on the
floor, and by reason of their free connection to the truck being adapted to follow
any inequalities in the floor, keeping the points close down to the floor, so that
they will enter under the edge of the box or load resting on the floor. The
momentum of the truck pushed rapidly in this manner serves to drive the edges of
the shoes under the load, and this is accomplished easily, because the operator is
not obliged, while pushing the truck forward thus, to take any special pains in
order to keep the points of the shoes on the floor, and can apply whatever force is
necessary to obtain the desired speed and momentum, the whole weight being on
the wheels and not on the points of the shoes, though the latter are upon the floor.
The shoes being thus engaged under the load, the truck will be tilted back, the
weight coming again on the supporting wheels, and as the handles are farther
depressed, the loading wheels are lifted off of the floor, the load engaged by the shoes
is tilted up at the side thus engaged and rests on the points of the shoes. If the
truck is now pushed under the load, the shoes will rock rearward, letting the load
down onto the loading wheels, and the shoes being free, will fall back toward the
truck frame, the position being as shown in Fig. 4. If the load is not too heavy,
and is in such position that it will not too easily slide at the end which rests on the
floor, the truck may be now pushed under the load, the loading wheels serving as
anti-friction rollers in contact with the load, while the supporting wheels perform
like function on the floor, until the load is balanced on the loading wheels, or so
far advanced that it may be easily tilted onto the truck over the loading wheels as
the fulcrum, and pushed up on them as on anti-friction rollers, as far as desired.
Preferably, the shoes are stopped in their backward fall against the wheel supporting
brackets, as seen in Fig. 4, with their points in such position with respect to the
upper face of the truck frame and the upper periphery of the loading wheels, that
the load, when pushed up on the truck so far as to be overbalanced on the loading
wheels, will rest upon the points of the shoes before it strikes the truck frame at a
point farther up, and upon being pushed a little farther up on the truck, will
fulcrum on the points of the shoes and being overbalanced upon them, rest at the
upper end on the truck. The points of the shoes thus tend to act as detent pawls
to prevent the load sliding down.
Thus far, the action is that which would occur if all the wheels, both supporting
wheels and loading wheels, were free to revolve in either direction on their axles or
in their bearings. But the efficiency of this device is very much increased by the
pawl and ratchet devices pertaining to these wheels which will now be described..
At the outer side of each of the wheels, both supporting wheels and loading wheels,
the rim or felly is interiorly ratchet toothed. These ratchet teeth are shown at fon the
supporting wheels and at h on the loading wheels. To the inner side of the outer
arm or bar of each of the wheel-supporting brackets are pivoted the pawls F
and H, respectively, which are overhung by the ratcheted rims or flanges of the
wheels F and H, and are adapted to engage with the ratchet teeth, as seen most
clearly in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 shows how these pawls are pivoted on studs f' and h',
respectively, rooted in the brackets C, C. The engagement of the pawls with the
ratchets is such as to permit the supporting wheels to rotate in the direction required
by the forward movement of the truck when it is supported on these wheels, and to
permit the wheels or rollers H to revolve in the direction required by their engage-
ment with the load resting upon them when the truck is in like manner advanced
under the load, or to permit the truck to be pushed forward when it is inverted, as
it may be, and is supported on these loading wheels. The ratchets prevent the
rotation of the wheels respectively in the opposite direction. The wheels thus have
opposite rotary motion, or such motion as they would have relatively if they were
In order to hold
peripherally engaged with each other at their proximate sides.
the pawls thus in engagement with the ratchets of the wheels respectively, when
this mode of operation is desired, and also to permit them to be thrown out of
engagement when it is not desired, the pawls are provided with tails or rearward

page_text: extensions F10 and H₁o, respectively, which stand outside the planes of the outer
peripheral margins of the wheels, respectively, that is, out of range of the ratchet
rims, and the bodies of the pawls proper are also extended laterally outside the same
planes to the inner side of the arm or side-bar of the bracket C, to which the pawls
are pivoted. I provide a spring L upon each side of the truck which consists of a
spring wire or rod coiled to form an eye at its middle, and extending from the eye
in two branches, one of which bears against the pawl F, and the other against the.
pawl H on the shoulders or ledges which project outside the wheels respectively.
These shoulders or ledges F and H, respectively, extend as described the whole
length of the pawls, both as to the operating nose or body and as to the tail,
constituting seats on which the ends of the spring L may bear or slide. The eye
of the spring stands within the lower end of the tubular handle or side-bar A of the
frame, which, at the lower end, is cut away at one side, as seen at a¹ to permit the
spring to move longitudinally with its eye in the pipe and its arms extending out
downward and not directly out at the end of the pipe, as clearly seen in Fig. 5. To
the eye of the spring, a rod L' is connected, which extends up through the
tubular side-bar A to a point conveniently near the handle end where it is provided
with a bend or offset ', which projects through a slot a' in the side-bar, as seen in
Fig. 1.
When the offset is at the upper end of the slot a¹, the spring ends rest
upon the rails of the pawls and hold the operating ends of the pawls in engagement
with the ratchets. If the rod be pushed down until the offsets are at the lower end
of the slot, the lower portions of the springs pass by the line of the pivots of the
pawls and rest upon the inner face of their operating ends, forcing the pawls out from
engagement with the ratchets. When the pawls are in engagement, as shown in
full lines in Fig. 5, the truck having been gotten under the load in the manner
described and to the extent shown in Fig. 4, the movement by which the handles
were depressed to that position, causes the supporting wheels F to roll on the floor
under the load, the loading wheels being prevented by their pawls from rotating in
a direction which would permit them to roll out from under the load, and they
have, therefore, in that action constituted the fulcrum at their point of contact
with the load, for the action of a lever, the long arm of which is the distance from
that point of bearing of the loading wheels against the load to the handle end of
the truck, and the shorter arm the distance from the same bearing point to the
floor contact of the supporting wheels F. If the motion is reversed, the handles
being lifted, the fulcrum shifts to the bearing of the supporting wheels resting on
the floor, and the loading wheels will roll under the load in contact with its inner
surface; the depression of the handles again shifts the fulcrum back to the most
advanced point reached by the loading wheels, and the supporting wheels are
further advanced on the floor under the load; and this pump-handle movement being
continued, the truck is easily entered under the load to a point at which the load is
overbalanced rearward on the loading wheels, and may be tilted easily back onto
the truck, or, more accurately speaking, onto the points of the shoes, and being
nearly balanced on the loading wheels can be easily handled and pushed rearward
on them as on rollers until the points of the shoes become a fulcrum on which the
load will be overbalanced rearward and dropped at its rearward or upper end onto
the truck. In order to keep the pawl springs from accidentally sliding over and
becoming entangled in the wheels, the pawls are provided with guard flanges F"
and H respectively, between the spring ends and the wheels, so that the springs
operate in paths which are guarded upon one side by the inner faces of the outer
arms of the brackets C, and on the other side by the flanges on the pawls. In the
ordinary use of the truck after it is loaded, in order that it may be wheeled in either
direction and turned readily upon its wheels, the pawls will be set out of engagement
with the ratchets.
When the two shoes are made independent, they accommodate themselves
independently to the floor in the movement in which the momentum of the truck is
utilized to drive the shoes under the load to effect the first engagement, and in this
respect there is a slight advantage in having the shoes independent of each other!

page_text: But this feature is of less consequence than that the forward edge or lip is not
continuous across the whole width of the truck, whether the shoes be independent
or not; but in any form there is an interval at the middle part, or interruption in
the lip, making a recess, one advantage of which is that such loads or barrels and
casks can be picked up without driving the lips under the edge or chine of the
barrel, if it is standing on end, but merely running the truck up against the side of
the barrel, so that the latter lodges in the interval between the two lips or interrupted
lip, and is engaged on its curved sides by the corners, as indicated by the curved
line Z on Fig. 8, and the usual swell of the barrel or cask from the heads toward
the center will prevent the barrel, when thus engaged by the corners of the lips,
from slipping, especially if there are hoops or other protuberances on the surface.
The form shown in Fig. 9, in which the two shoes are made rigid by a cross-brace,
is not essentially different in its adaptation for engaging barrels and casks, but the
bevelling off of the inner corners of the lips of the shoes adapts this form to receive
the barrel or cask somewhat more deeply into the recess. Fig. 10 shows a form in
which the two shoes are not only rigid, but integral, in which case the inside arms of
each may be dispensed with, the forward bar which constitutes the lip extending
continuously across the front, and having at the middle, a recess or notch for the
purpose above described.
A modification of this device is shown in Figs. 13 to 16 inclusive, by which the
loading wheels are adapted to come into peripheral engagement, at least by frictional
contact, with the supporting wheels when the load comes onto the loading wheels:
The advantage attained by this is that after the wheels have been introduced under
the load, as seen in Fig. 12, without resorting to the pump-handle movement, it may
be pushed directly under a load of considerable weight and extent, because the
engagement of the wheels at their proximate sides makes them assist each other in
the movement. It will be observed that this movement is not interfered with by
the engagement of the pawl and ratchet devices, so that they can still be present
and even left in engagement but for the simple movement indicated, without the
pump-handle movement, they may as well be left out of engagement since their
action does not in any manner affect the result. The modified structure preferably
has the wheels more nearly of the same size than the structure shown in the
principal figures, and the details are otherwise modified and will now be described
particularly. In this form, the shaft F" constitutes also the pivot for the shoes, as
seen clearly in Fig. 13. In this form the two loading wheels are journalled on a
common shaft on which they are each loose and free to revolve, this shaft h.
extending through from side to side across the interval between the shoes, and
obtains support in the side-bars of both the wheel bearing brackets at the oblique
slots,, best seen in Fig. 14. The length and direction of these slots is such as
to permit the shaft to fall to a position which will bring the loading wheels in
contact with the supporting wheels, as seen in Fig. 14, when the truck is horizontal
or in any position such that the pressure of the load on the wheels, or the weight of
the wheels and shaft themselves can operate by gravity in any direction toward the
supporting wheels, but so that when the truck stands upright, the weight of the
truck will cause the shaft to cccupy the upper and forward end of the slots, and
keep the loading wheels out of contact with the supporting wheels, so that all the
wheels will operate as supporting wheels when the truck stands upright, and so that
the loading wheels will operate as the sole supporting wheels while the truck is
thrown onto them, as shown in Fig. 3, for the purpose of forcing the shoes under
the load. In order to permit this shifting of position of the loading wheels and
their shaft, it is only necessary to locate and proportion the hubs of the
wheels and the hubs of the pawls so that they can clear each other in the move-
ment described. Evidently, the wheels might be made with space enough within
their ratchet peripheries to perform this movement without any modification of
but in the principal drawings they are.shown more compactly designed, and
without changing them is this respect, the hubs are made to clear by the slight
modification made in Fig. 15, which consists in cutting away the outer end of the
form;

page_text: hub of the wheel, so that it will pass by the hub of the pawl in the described
movement of the wheels. This necessitates providing a stop collar or equivalent
device 0, on the shaft outside of the hub of each of the wheels H, the wheels
having been stopped directly against the side-bars of the wheel bearing frame in
the principal form, as seen in Fig. 6. The shoes in this form have their inner side-
bars each provided with a notch in the under edge, to admit the shaft h.-that
is, to permit the shoes to swing down or forward to the position shown in Fig. 13.
The shaft thus constitutes the stop for the shoes at this position, and in order
that the strain of lifting which comes on such stop may not be borne entirely by
the inner side-bars, the shaft h³ is extended through the outer bars of the wheel
bearing bracket C, projecting beyond them, and the outer side-bars of the shoes
have thrown inward from the inner face of each, a boss 90, shaped as shown by
dotted lines on the shoes in Fig. 12; and this boss stops on the projecting end of
the shaft precisely as the edge of the notch on the inner side-bars stops on the
shaft. The notch on the inner side-bar somewhat weakens the side-bar, and this
may be compensated by throwing out the boss go from this side-bar also. The two
shoes may be secured together in this form as in the other form by a cross-brace 9,
which is best located directly over the shaft ³, as seen in Figs. 15 and 16. The
rear edge of the slot g³, and the corresponding edge of the boss go, has the incline g
adapted, as the shoe swings down to place, to force the shaft h forward, and
thereby upward in the slots *, if the mere weight of the truck has not already
done so, and if even the weight of the truck and the weight of the shoes should
not make the shaft take this position, the weight of the load on the shoes
will do so.
The form and arrangement of the loading wheels with respect to the supporting
wheels, which is shown in Figs. 13 to 16 inclusive, has another advantage not
possessed by the form shown in the other figures, in that after the load has been
overbalanced on the loading wheels, so that its weight is carried by them, if the
truck, being let down to an approximately horizontal position, is wheeled forward
on the supporting wheels, the loading wheels, rotated by their engagement with the
supporting wheels, propel the load resting on them to the rear, that is, further up
onto the truck, and this expedient may be resorted to to relieve the operator. of
the necessity of pushing the load up by hand.
M is a chain, for which a rod M₁ may be substituted (see Fig. 12), which is
stretched between the two cross-bars D and D' of the frame at the middle of the
truck. N is the grapple-hook or claw, which is hung on the chain and has its
hooked nose adapted to engage the load when it is suitable for such engagement, as
seen in Fig. 1, so that it may be kept from tipping off the truck after it has lodged
upon it, even though the truck may be lifted to a position where, but for such
detention, it might tip off. The peculiarity of this device is its adaptation to engage
automatically between the links of the chain at its eye, by which it is hung thereon
when the point of the hook is engaged with the load, so that if the load tends to tip
forward or off the truck, the hook is pulled positively into engagement with the
chain, as seen in Fig. 1, and by the yielding of the chain slightly out of the direct
line in which it is stretched, the engagement is rendered more effective. In order
that the load may, notwithstanding the presence of the hook and of its engagement
.with the load and with the chain as shown, rest half upon the truck when the
position of the truck tends to cause it to fall onto the latter, the eye of the hook
extends practically its entire length, the loop being a loop, one end of which is the
sharpened nose or claw. This permits the hook, when engaged with the load, to
drop back between the bars of the bow B, when the load falls back onto these bars,
.the chain occupying the long eye in the hook, as seen in detail Fig. 2. As stated,
a rigid rod may be substituted for the chain, but not with all the advantages above
described, for in that case, in order that the hook may at its connection with the
rod be adapted to grip the rod tightly. when the load tilts forward, it must be made
substantially as shown in Fig. 12, the hook having a solid hub, through which is an
eye which fits loosely on the rod, so that it can, cramp on the rod and bind the

page_text: latter at its opposite edges, as seen in Fig. 12, when the load engaged with the hook
pulls the latter forward.
:
Some details of the construction of the truck frame, adapted to give it rigidity,
may be now described. As already stated, the tubular side-bars A, A, and the
bow B, are provided with seats or sockets in the upper ends of the wheel-bearing
brackets. The construction in this respect is seen in Fig. 7, these seats or sockets
C, C, and C, C³, being half round and overhanging the tubular arms which seat
under them. The cross-bar D¹ is provided with suitable seats upon the upper sides
of these half round sockets, and being supplemented by the bar D' on the lower
side, and bolt c inserted through the bar D, the tubular arms A, A, the half round
seats C and the cross-bar D' bind the parts firmly together. The struts a are
inade hollow, as seen in Fig. 5, and cap and conceal the lower end of the bolts of
and the nuts thereon, as seen in that figure. The two bars D' and D' are then
bound together at the middle, having been each provided with a transverse groove
struck in them at the middle point, which grooves, coming together, make a socket
or eye for the stem of the bolt which terminates the chain M, or for the end of the
rod M' which may be substituted for the chain, and the two bars being riveted together
in the opposite sides of seat thus formed, constitute the transverse truss of the
frame, as seen in Fig. 7. The ends of the bow B, lodged in the overhanging half
round seats C, C, are bound in that position by bolts which pass through the
bars D' and D¹ respectively, as seen in Fig. 7. At the upper end of the truck, the
cross-bar D is similarly secured to the arms A, A, and the sides of the bow B, and
specific description or illustration of the structure at this point is not needed, in
view of the description already given of the structure shown in Fig. 7. The
straining rods E, E, which, at the upper end, pass through the side-bars A, A, and
are provided with nuts at their ends above the bars at the lower end enter through
the notch a' in the lower side of the side-bars A, and are riveted fast to the side-
bars, and at the same time to the wheel-bearing brackets at the seats of said side-
bars in the brackets, as seen in Fig. 5, e representing the rivets at that point.
The handle ends of the side-bars A are preferably provided with rollers A
journalled in the metal knobs Aº, which terminate the handles, so that the truck
needs no further support at the handle end, but may be supported at this end when
in horizontal position, by the handles, and may in this position be rolled about on
the floor, the rollers at the ends of the handles rendering this mode of use easy.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a truck, the employment of loading wheel or wheels having movable
bearings on the frame and located in such position as to receive the pressure of the
load and be forced thereby onto the truck-supporting wheels and adapted to move
away from the latter wheels when relieved of the load and the truck is set upright:
substantially as set forth.
2. In a truck, the employment of a pivoted shoe and loading wheel located.
within the arc described by the edge of the shoe, the latter as it is tilted back past
the loading wheel being stopped on the frame with its edge in position to remain
engaged with the under side of the load after the latter has reached the load-
supporting surface of the truck frame toward the upper or handle end, whereby
such shoe operates as a detent pawl or dog to prevent the down-sliding of the load
on the truck substantially as set forth.
:
3. In a truck, the employment of a pivoted shoe and a loading wheel located
within the arc described by the edge of the shoe, the latter, as it is tilted back past
the loading wheel, being stopped on the frame with its edge in position to serve as
a fulcrum over which the load may rock to lift its lower or forward end off the
loading wheel by the time it reaches the load-supporting surface of the truck frame
toward the upper or handle end: substantially as set forth.
4. In combination with the truck frame, the truck-supporting wheels journalled

page_text: thereon; the load-supporting wheels also journalled on the frame forward of or
above the truck-supporting wheels, said wheels having ratchet rims; pawls pivoted
on the frame adapted to engage said rims respectively, and the spring L having
two arms which operate against the pawls respectively adapted to be shifted at will
past the fulcrum to hold them in or out of engagement with the ratchets respectively,
and a rod from said spring extending up to the handle end of the truck substan-
tially as set forth.
5. In a truck frame, comprising the wheel-bearing brackets C, C, provided with
seats or sockets at their upper ends for the longitudinal bars, the handle or side
bars A, A, and the bow B, having their ends lodged in such seats respectively, and
the cross-bars D and D', and the supplemental bars D', and bolts extending through
said cross-bars and supplemental bars at the seats of the tubular bars in the
brackets: substantially as set forth.
6. In combination with the wheel-supporting brackets and the tubular handle-
bars secured thereto, the wheels journalled in said brackets, and the pawl and
ratchet devices pertaining thereto, the pawl-actuating springs and the rods by which
said springs are adjusted on the pawls extending up through the tubular bars and
emerging at the handle end: substantially as set forth.
Dated at Chicago, Ill., U.S.A., this 1st day of October 1894.
HENRY ORRIS THOMAS.