CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AND UPON CARRIAGES AND OTHER WHEEL BOXES AND AXLETREES
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
COLLINGE, of the Bridge Road, Lambeth; in the County of Surrey, Axletree
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of March,
in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John
Collinge, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege, and authority, that I, the said John Collinge, my exors, admors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AND UPON
CARRIAGES AND OTHER WHEEL BOXES AND AXLETREES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Collinge, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular descrip-
tion of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Collinge, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows (that is to say) :-

page_text: In the Drawing or Figure hereunto annexed, the letters b, b, b, &c., denote
the axletree, made of any fit metal or material (but in preference, and from
experience, I use wrought iron case-hardened, properly fitted in the wheel box
a, a, a, &c., which last I do in preference make of cast iron case-hardened,
although the same may be made of brass or other well-known metals or
materials; the letters c, c, represent a bridge or part at the outer or lince end
of the box, having a small perforation or bore than the rest of the box, and the
said bridge doth serve and is used for the purpose of receiving and sustaining
the action and reaction or pressure of a correspondent face d, d, of the action,
and of a like fence e, e, of a collet or ring, represented by those last-mentioned
letters, with certain plates or washers, which may, if required, be interposed
between the said surfaces for facilitating the rotatory motion; and the exterior
part of the said axle is flattened at n, and the collet is made to fit upon such
flattened part, instead of both being completely cylindrical, so that the collet is
by this means prevented from turning round. i, i, represent a lince pin by
which the collet is kept to its place; and as a part of my said improvement, I
do make the said lince pin in one piece, or in more than one flat pieces or
thicknesses, either separate or united by rivetts, or by other means, in order to
diminish the risk of fracture, with an hole through the head or upper part
thereof; and I do pass a ring or pendant hook through the said hole, of such
size and dimensions as that the same shall hang loosely and freely, and shall drop
by its weight over the end of the axletree, when the said lince pin shall be put
into its place, as represented in the Figure, by which means the possibility of
the said lince pin rising or getting out is precluded. And I do declare that this
part of my said Invention may be used separately from the other parts or parti-
culars thereof, in carriages or machines fitted up in any of the ways or methods
heretofore commonly used. And further, that I do, in case the same shall be
preferred, make use with the common lince pin along with the said other parts
or particulars of my said Invention, secured by a split key, or by the other
means commonly made use of and adopted. g, g, is a cap, screwed or otherwise
attached to the wheel box a, a, &c., and by covering the end of the axle it would
prevent the lince pin from coming out, even if the same were not otherwise
secured. h is an hole to put in the oil, and to be kept closed when the reservoir
or space interposed between the cap and the axle is charged with that fluid;
k is a communication from the reservoir to a circular cavity f, f, which affords
oil to the washers, and to the face of the axle, into the inner or body end, and
the inner reservoir or space 1, 1; m, m, is a metal cuttoo to the bed of the axle,
which keeps out water or dirt from the body end of the axle and the said
reservoir 1, 1, and the same effect is farther promoted by the grove or cavity

page_text: And I, the said John Collinge, do hereby further declare, that my said
improvement in wheel boxes and axles, by means of a bridge or part at the
lince or outer end thereof, bearing both ways, may be made and constructed
with divers variation, in their own nature obvious and not essential to the same,
particularly with regard to the fastening at the lince end, which may be
effected by one or more screw nuts, with or without a lince pin; and that the
cap 9, 9, may be rejected where the customer may think it unnecessary, as in
common carts, to have the advantage of a reservoir of oil; and also that a flat
piece of leather may be advantageously applied and fastened to the body end
of the box, for more effectually excluding wet and dirt; but that I do not pro-
pose that the said piece should be interposed between surfaces, so as to have any
pressure, or bearing, or rub upon the face thereof, nor do I admit of any end
bearing of faces revolving against each other, except at the bridge c, c, as
aforesaid.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Collinge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Ninth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eleven.