CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAM ROADS OR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE WHEELS OR OTHER PARTS OF CARRIAGES TO BE WORKED THEREON
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I JOHN YATES,
of the Parish of Saint Anne, Limehouse, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty William the Fourth did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland' called England, bearing date at Westminster, the
Ninth day of December, in the seventh year of His reign, give and grant unto
me, the said John Yates, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Yates, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
in and within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAM ROADS OR RAILWAYS, AND IN THE
WHEELS OR OTHER PARTS OF CARRIAGES TO BE WORKED THEREON;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said John Yates, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in His Majesty's Court of Chancery
within six calendar monthis next immediately after the date of the said in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent, reference being thereunto bad, may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Yates, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be known and performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, refe-
rence being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon:-
First, my Invention consists of an improved wheel or wheels adapted to an
improved railway, and yet capable of being used on the ordinary edge railroad,
or on a tram or plate road, or on the turnpike road. By my improvements I
obtain greater adhesion or attachment between the locomotive engine wheels
and the railway, and the locomotive engine has thereby a better hold on the
railway, and is enabled to effect locomotion on inclines with a greater power
of haulage or traction than can be done on edge railroads of the ordinary
construction.
Secondly, my Invention consists in applying to railroads already constructed,
or to those which may be constructed in future, a tram or trams, wheelway or
wheelways, inside or outside of each single line of edge rail, more especially
where there is an inclination on the railway, such tram being made either of
wood, iron, stone, concrete, or other suitable material or surface, in such
manner that when the engine arrives at the part so constructed, the wheels,
instead of working only on the edge rail, shall bear upon the tram, and thus
obtain for themselves a greater adhesion or attachment by means of the larger
bearing surface.
With reference to the Drawing, I shall now descibe my improved wheel.
Fig. 1 is an inside view of it, Fig. 2 an outside view, Fig. 3 an end view,
and Fig. 4 a section of the rims. It will be seen that the bearing or rim or
felloe is double, one portion being of larger and the other of smaller diameter,
as if it consisted of two wheels of different diameter placed side by side and
concentric with each other. The rim of smaller diameter (a), Figs. 1, 2, 3,
4, 5, 6, which I call the "edge rim," is intended for running or working on
the edge rail (c), Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8; and (b), the larger diameter, which I call the
tram rim, is for working or running on the tram (d); the outside of the tram
wheel serves in both cases as the flange to keep the engine in its course.
When it is intended to furnish an inclined plane (E, F, Figs. 7 and 8) with.
trams constructed of wood, I lay down suitable beams close against the inside
of the iron rail, and support them upon the stone or other sleepers, as shewn
on Figs. 6, 7, and 8, and at suitable distances I place pieces (g, g,) transversely

page_text: or in any other suitable manner between them, in order to preserve the
parallelism of the trams, which the motion of the engine might otherwise dis-
arrange. By making the distance between the top of the edge rail and the
surface of the tram somewhat less than the distance between the edge rini
and the tram rim, the engine, as soon as it arrives at the incline, having passed
along the level from H to E (Figs. 7 and 8), will rest on the tram rims of the
wheels instead of the edge rims of the wheels, and will continue so until it
arrives at the point where the trams cease to be laid, when the tram rims of
the wheel, having no trams whereon to work, will be thrown out of work, and
the edge rims will work on the edge rails. The action of the wheels of the
train carriages being essentially different from the action of the wheels of the
locomotive engine, the wheels of the train carriages may be of the ordinary
construction, as shewn in Fig. 11, and follow or be impelled on the edge rail
without any provision for working on the trams. As a sudden passage of the
locomotive carriage wheels from the edge rails to the trams might occasion a
shock, I cause the ends of the trams, that is to say, at their commencement
and termination, to be laid not quite parallel to the surface of the edge rail,
but slightly angular, as at E (Fig. 7); by this means the engines will pass
gradually from the one to the other. Fig. 5 shews an end view of a pair of
wheels when resting on the edge rail (c), and Fig. 6 the same when on the
tram, and on Fig. 7 the red line (a, a,) shews the bearing which is adapted for
the edge rail, and the blue line (6) that adapted for the tram. It will be seen
that when the wheel is at H the " edge rim" is in action also, that when the
wheel arrives at the commencement of the incline at E (Fig. 7), both the
"edge rim" and the "tram rim" will be in action, and when the wheel
arrives at J, the "tram rim" alone will be in action. When it is desirable to
make the trams of iron instead of wood, the chair which supports the edge
rail and part of the iron tram may be cast in one piece, and fastened in the
ordinary manner to the sleepers, as represented on (Fig. 10), where (d) is the
tram for the "tram rim" of the wheel to run upon, and (c) the edge rail for
the outer bearing; or the trams may be cast separately or made of wrought
iron, and laid by the side of the rails in manner similar to the wooden ones
already described, and may be either kept in their places by transverse pieces
of wood or iron between, or by being bolted down to the stone sleepers or
other sleepers. When the sleepers are placed at any considerable distance
from each other a feather or rib may be made or fixed or cast on the under
side of the trams, in order to strengthen them. When it is advisable to use
stone, concrete, bitumen, or other surface, instead of iron or wood, I should
recommend that such be laid with a well-dressed and rather smooth surface.

page_text: Fig. 9 exhibits the manner in which the wheels already described as working
on Figs. 5, 6, 7, may pass from a turnpike road or common road to a railroad.
On the turnpike road they will rest on the (blue) "tram rim" b, and on the
railroad they may either rest on the (red) "edge rim" (a) and edge rail, or
on the "tram rim" and trams, or, if need be, both the "tram rim" and the
"edge rim" may be in action. In some situations I propose laying flat rope
or other surface upon the trams for the tram wheels to work upon. I consider
these double-rimmed wheels as valuable for carriages which have to work or
to be worked upon a railway or tram road at one time, and upon a turnpike
road or other surface at another time.
I have now described my improvements in "Tramroads or Railroads, and
in the Wheels or other Parts of Carriages to be worked thereon," with reference
to the annexed Drawings, in such manner as to enable persons conversant with
works of a similar nature to practise the Invention; and I hereby declare that
I do not claim as my Invention the use of an iron edge rail; I do not claim
the use of a tram or trams; I do not claim toothed wheels and toothed rails;
but I do claim as my Invention the combination of the iron or other edge rail
and tram for locomotive purposes in such manner that the locomotive power
may work upon either the edge rail surface or the tram surface, or upon both;
and I do not limit my claim merely for inclined planes, for sometimes when
great weights are to be moved my improvements may be advantageous on a
level.
Further, I claim the combination of the edge rail and other surfaces whereon
the improved wheel herein described may work.
Further, I claim the wheel with the double periphery or double rim for use
upon railways, and for use alternately upon edge railway surface and upon
trams or other surface, and for use upon both kinds of surface at the same
time; and I claim it whether one rim is made to bear upon the tram whilst
the other is raised off the edge rail, or one upon the edge rail whilst the other
is off the tram, or whether the one bears upon the tram and the other upon
the edge rail at the same time.
Further, I claim my improved double-rimmed wheels, whatever kind of rail-
road they may be used upon, and whether the carriage is moved by animate
or inanimate power; and I claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to
my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Yates, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-eight day of February, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-seven.
JOHN (L.s.) YATES.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-eighth day of February,
in the seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth,
the said John Yates came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Ninth day of March, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-seven.