FACI- LITATING LOCOMOTION BY APPLYING TO ALL OR SOME OF THE WHEELS OF ROAD OR PORTABLE ENGINES, CARRIAGES, CARTS, VELOCIPEDES, ROLLER SKATES, CASTORS OF FURNITURE, AND OTHER VEHICLES OR APPARATUS HAVING RUNNING OR TRACTION WHEELS NOT WORKING UPON FIXED RAILS OR TRAMWAYS, IMPROVED ENDLESS TRAVELLING OR PORTABLE TRAMWAYS WITH GUIDES TO THE SAME, AND BY MAKING CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS OR COMBINATIONS OF RUNNING OR TRACTION WHEELS TO BE USED WITH A TRAVELLING TRAMWAY
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jonathan Aldous Mays at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th February 1876.
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of Gresham House, in the City of London. "FACI-
LITATING LOCOMOTION BY APPLYING TO ALL OR SOME OF THE WHEELS OF ROAD OR
PORTABLE ENGINES, CARRIAGES, CARTS, VELOCIPEDES, ROLLER SKATES, CASTORS OF
FURNITURE, AND OTHER VEHICLES OR APPARATUS HAVING RUNNING OR TRACTION
WHEELS NOT WORKING UPON FIXED RAILS OR TRAMWAYS, IMPROVED ENDLESS
TRAVELLING OR PORTABLE TRAMWAYS WITH GUIDES TO THE SAME, AND BY MAKING
CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS OR COMBINATIONS OF RUNNING OR TRACTION WHEELS TO
BE USED WITH A TRAVELLING TRAMWAY."
This Invention has for its object facilitating the progress of engines, wheeled
vehicles, and apparatus intended to run or be moved apart from and without the
use of fixed railways or tramways, and is intended to be applied to road or traction
engines, agricultural or other portable engines, carriages, carts, wagons, velocipedes,
and such like vehicles with traction or with running wheels, to roller skates, to
castors of furniture, and to other apparatus or machinery in which the use of
traction or of running wheels not working upon a fixed rail or tramway is
employed.
The Invention consists in furnishing running or traction wheels with improved
endless travelling or portable tramways and guides to the same, and in certain
arrangements of or combinations of the running or traction wheels to be used in or
with a travelling tramway.
My improved travelling tramway is made up of a number of separate trams made
of wood or metal, or other suitable material hinged upon or jointed to each other
by means of hooks, hinges, springs, or other suitable connections or fastenings, so
that they form a continuous belt or chain within and upon which the traction or
running wheel or wheels travel. To each tram and preferably in or under the
middle of the same is fixed a roller or wheel, or rollers or wheels working in a
direction lateral to that of the running wheels, this is for the purpose of facilitating
the lateral motion of the tramway (and where rollers or wheels in a single line are
employed) permitting of the lateral rocking or canting of the tramway, and thus
enabling its upper or running surface to retain a line or level parallel to that of the
periphery of the ruuning or traction wheel.
In some cases the trams are curved or made somewhat semicircular in section, or
to their under sides are attached blocks of wood or metal, or of wood shod with

page_text: metal, such blocks being curved or somewhat semicircular in section, and the trams
so made admit of a similar rocking or canting motion of the tramway.
In other cases the under sides of the trams are fitted with blocks of or are
connected with a continuous belt or band of caoutchouc, or such like substance or
material which permits of compression, and is capable of reaction, and while this
also admits of a rocking or canting motion of the tramway it assists materially in
securing an uniformly level surface for the progress of the tramway by the
caoutchouc partly taking up or accommodating itself to inequalities in the surface of
the road.
The several trams of the travelling tramway thus far described would be hori-
zontally bent or deflected upwards and downwards upon or towards each other at
their ends, as the running or the traction wheels which the tramway is intended to
surround or circumflex would come upon the ends of cach tram in the course of its
onward progress. It is desirable therefore while maintaining the flexible character of
the tramway to secure a tolerably rigid horizontal surface upon which the running
or traction wheel may travel. This I effect by arranging plates or bars of wood
or metal, which I will call bridges or bridge pieces to lay across the upper surfaces
of the trams at the points where the latter are hinged or jointed together, in such
a way that they forin bridges taking their bearings upon about half the length of
each of the trams, over the ends of which they are placed.
When two of the trams are in a horizontal position, some of the bridges per-
taining to such trams will also be in a horizontal position, and. the bridges are to be
so made that the sides of the same are to be parallel with grooves in the trams, so
that the ends of the same may slide or be wheeled within such grooves, or the
bridges and trams may be so made that the ends of the bridges may pass through
holes in the trams when the latter are folded or bent upon or towards each other,
and the bridges and trams are also to be so made that when some or one of each
are in a horizontal position the top or tops of some or one of the trams will be level
with the upper surfaces of some or one of the bridges. In this way the pressure of
the running or traction wheel will either be borne by a single tram at a point very
near the middle of its length, or by a bridge having its bearings upon a large part
of the surfaces of two of the trams; it will thus be impossible to deflect or fold or
bend the trams upon or towards each other at the points of junction.
These bridges are to be connected with the several trams by means of springs,
hinges, or other suitable fastenings, and as the trams travel round with the running
or traction wheels, and form angles with each other as they are severally lifted up
or laid down by the onward motion of the wheel or wheels, the centres of the bridges
will rise away from, or fall towards, the angles made by the several trams as they
fold or bend upon or towards each other.
Bridge pieces may also be arranged in separate parts hinged or fastened to the
trains, and sliding by or telescoping into or upon each other when the trams fold or
bend upon each other.
I also secure a fairly rigid horizontal surface of tramway, with or without the
use of the bridges I have referred to, by arranging that more than one running or
traction wheel as the case may be shall be employed in taking a bearing upon or
resting upon the tram or trams actually upon the ground. This I effect by
providing running or traction wheels as the case may be to run behind or partly
behind each other, and so near to each other that a single tram will reach or nearly
reach from the tread or bearing surface of one wheel to the tread or bearing surface
of another wheel. The tendency of one running or traction wheel to deflect or fold
or bend the trains upon or towards each other at the points of junction, will then
be counteracted by another or other running or traction wheel or wheels standing
at or on the tram or trams at the other end or ends of the same, and resisting the
binding or folding upward of the train which would otherwise result from the
deflecting or folding or bending downward of the first now mentioned end or ends
of the train or trams upon cach other.
The binding or folding upon or towards each other of the ends of the trams at

page_text: the points of junction when the traction or running wheels bear upon such points,
may also be prevented by arranging hinged plates or bars of wood or metal upon
the trams in such a way that such hinged pieces shall be capable of hinging or
folding upon each other at right angles to or at nearly right angles to, but in a
contrary direction to the hinging or folding of the trams upon each other, and to be
controlled by suitable stops from bending or folding in the direction in which the
trams fold or bend. When some or one of the trams are in a horizontal position,
some or one of these hinged bridges, as they may be called, will be in a similar
position, and will form rigid bridges between some of the trams on the ground.
In order to secure that the travelling tramway shall always run with truth in
the direction of the running or traction wheel or wheels to which it is applied, I
provide guide bars or plates or wheels fixed to the carriage at suitable angles to the
axes of the running or traction wheel or wheels as the case may bc, or fix other
guide wheels or rollers to the tramway itself in such a way that any tendency
of the tramway to move in a lateral direction independent of the running wheel is
checked by the sides of the same, or the guide wheel upon the same being thus
brought into contact with the sides of such "guide" bars, plates, or wheels, or
rollers now referred to as being fixed to the carriage.
"
The "guide" bars, plates, or wheels fixed to the carriage may be so made that
the under sides or parts of the same or some of them may partly project under
part or parts of the under surfaces of the trams, and act as a pick up" in
preventing the trams from dropping away from the surface of the running or
traction wheel in the event of the latter being lifted from the ground as in the case
of roller skates.