IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING CARRIAGES AND OTHER .MACHINERY
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Bannehr at the Office
of the Commissioners. of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
January 1870..
I, THOMAS BANNEHR, of 82, Fort Road, Upper Grange Road,
Bermondsey, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING CARRIAGES AND OTHER
.MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in propelling carriages
and other machinery.
In describing the nature of my Invention I think it desirable first to
state the modes heretofore adopted for propelling carriages by hand; by
horse, and by steam. The mode adopted of adjusting carriages for
propulsion in all cases has been by fixing the carriage by means of axles
in the centre of wheels, thereby throwing the weight of the carriage and
its contents on the centre of the wheels; and which from thence descends
to the base or that part of the wheel resting on the ground.. In thus
adjusting carriages to wheels a kind of compound fulcrum is created
acting alike at the centre, the base, and the intermediate parts of the

page_text: wheels, and in using them thus adjusted they act in the nature of
revolving or endless levers.
Now as it is an arbitrary law of mechanics that forces of the same
power are only equal to each other, so it is evident that a force or power
applied against any force or power from whence it is derived can only
equal such force or power from whence it is so derived, so no leverage
can be obtained from a fulcrum if the power-so obtained be applied to
the fulcrum or part from whence the power is obtained, therefore, in the
adjustment heretofore used for the propelling of carriages it is evident
and is a fact that no power can be obtained from and applied to the
centre, the base, or any intermediate part of the wheels. In the case of
carriages propelled both by hand and by horse an extraneous power is
applied to the centre of the wheels, the man or horse being the acting
power or lever, the ground on which they stand being the fulcrum from
whence they derive their leverage or power, and this is evidenced by the
fact that if the weight or power of the man or horse be less than the
resistive weight or power of the carriage to be propelled no motion can
be obtained. In the case of carriages propelled by steam or otherwise
where the power used is not used or applied from an extraneous or
foreign object, but is applied from the carriage to be acted upon in order
to overcome the before-mentioned arbitrary laws of mechanics and their
influence upon locomotives as well as upon machinery in general, a
crank or lever is applied to the wheel at a point above or superior to the
space in the wheel acted upon as a fulcrum; by this application of either
steam or any other power to a crank or lever immediately the power is
set in force it begins to lose its power, and as soon as the crank has
arrived at its extreme point of leverage the power is entirely lost and it
becomes necessary continuously to apply a fresh power in order to sustain
a continuance of motion or propulsion in the carriage or machinery to be
propelled. By my Invention I not only save this loss of steam or other
power, but I also save or avoid the complexity of mechanical contrivances
heretofore adopted and also the necessary costliness of such, by which
means it will become no longer necessary in a pecuniary view that any
carriage should be propelled by either hand or horse.
My Invention consists in keeping the fulcrum free from the centre of
the wheels to be acted upon as endless levers and placing it at such a
point between the centre and the base of the wheels as I may find most
convenient, and to effect this purpose I-adjust or fix the carriage to be

page_text: propelled on axles in the ordinary manner as now used, and cause these
axles either to run in grooves or otherwise, or to be fitted with small
wheels made to run in grooves or otherwise on the sides of the wheels
to be acted upon as endless levers at any point below their centre.
that I may find most convenient, by which adjustment I create a
fulcrum beneath the centre and am enabled to apply either steam or any
other power to the centre of the wheels acted upon as endless levers
without the loss or diminution of power at present sustained by the use
of the crank, and to effect the before-mentioned objects or purposes I
employ any of the ordinary mechanical appliances.