IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY CONNECTED WITH TRACTION AND OTHER ENGINES, AND IN ENDLESS RAILWAYS TO BE USED THEREWITH
Year: 1858

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Scotson and Henry
Charnley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 7th June 1858.
We, EDMUND SCOTSON, of Clayton, in the County of Lancaster, and HENRY
CHARNLEY, of Grimshaw Street Foundry, Preston, in the same County, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY CONNECTED WITH TRACTION AND OTHER ENGINES, AND IN ENDLESS
RAILWAYS TO BE USED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
The object of the first part of our Invention is to enable the direction of the
revolution of the locomotive wheels of such engines to be reversed without
stopping or reversing the engine itself, and also to cause one wheel to turu in
one direction whilst the other wheel turns in the opposite direction, so as to
turn the engine or machine in a very small space. This we effect by mounting
each of the locomotive wheels fast upon a separate and independent axle and
connecting such axle to the main shaft of the engine by fast & loose spur
wheels and a clutch box in such a way that when the clutch box is thrown
into gear
with one spur wheel, the axle is turned in one direction, and when
the clutch box is thrown into gear with the other spur wheel it will turn the
said axle in the reverse direction, and if the clutch box is thrown out of gear
altogether, the engine may continue at work without producing any effect
whatever upon the axles or locomotive wheels.
The second part of our Invention consists of the following arrangement of

page_text: mechanism forming an improved endless railway to be used in connection with
such engines. Around the outer periphery of the locomotive wheel we form
a groove, in which an endless chain is placed, such chain being loose on the
wheel and carried round with the wheel by means of studs attached to the
wheel, and taking into the links, or the chain may be made fast to the wheel.
This chain at intervals is furnished with flat V-shaped studs projecting
outwards. Each of these studs carries a lozenge-shaped piece forming a
section of the rail. These lozenge-shaped pieces (which are made by preference
of wood with iron plates bolted across at intervals) are entirely disconnected
with each other, and are connected to the chain only by the before-mentioned
flat V-shaped studs, each of which works in an iron box or slot let into a
section of the rail. The end of the stud is furnished with a transverse pro-
jecting pin, which prevents the stud from being entirely withdrawn from the
slot, & causes it to lift the lozenge-shaped section of the rail, as soon as tho
wheel is clear of it. The chain is provided with as many studs and lozenge-
shaped sections as will reach entirely round the wheel, and these sections are
so arranged, that as the revolution of the wheel carries them round, they are
successively laid down in front of the wheel, (their ends being then almost in
contact,) thus forming a continuous endless railway. One of the advantages of
this arrangement is that by merely opening one of the links of the chain, the
whole of the railway apparatus may be removed from the wheel.