AN IMPROVED MEANS OR METHOD OF PROPULSION ON RAILWAYS
Year: 1837

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
FLEMING BERGIN, of Westland Row, Dublin, Civil Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS His late Majesty King William the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,.
the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the seventh year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto James Pim, junior,
of College Green, Banker, and me, the said Thomas Fleming Bergin, our
exors, admors, and assigns, His especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that we, the said Thomas Fleming Bergin and James Pim, junior,
our exors, adñiors, and assigns, and no others, from time to time and at all
times hereafter during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and.
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "AN IMPROVED MEANS OR METHOD OF
PROPULSION ON RAILWAYS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that we, the said James Pim, junior, and Thomas Fleming Bergin, or either
of us, should cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed,. by an instrument in
writing under the hand and seal of either of us, to be inrolled in His said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next inime-

page_text: diately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Fleming Bergin, do hereby declare that the nature of our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof,
and by the explanatory Drawing hereunto annexed and referred to (that is to
say):
:-
The nature of our said Invention consists in rendering human strength
available for the rapid and economical propulsion of carriages on railways, by
applying the same for the purpose through the medium of certain auxiliary
or secondary agents, which enable the men employed to work independantly of
the rotation of the wheels, and to obtain from their combined efforts a greater
ultimate motive power than they could do by direct means.
And whereas there are various methods by which the principle of our said
Invention may be carried into effect, I have shewn in the Drawing hereunto
annexed that method which we have found and now deem to be the best.
A, A, in the said Drawing represent the frame of a locomotive carriage,
supported on four wheels, two only of which, B, B, and C, C, C, are seen in
the Drawing; the two corresponding wheels on the near side being, for the
sake of greater clearness, omitted. A2, A2, are seats for the men, two, three,
four, or more, by the application of whose strength the carriage is to be
propelled; D is the axle of the driving pair of wheels C; H is an auxiliary
axle, supported on four standards I, I, (two of which are also, for clearness sake,
omitted in the Drawing,) rising from the centre of the framework of the s
carriage, and turning freely in all directions; E is a drum affixed to the
axle D; and G, a drum affixed to the auxiliary axle H. The drum E is
intended to revolve only in one direction, and there is a ratchet wheel and
pall Fattached to it, to prevent its turning in the opposite direction, without
also forcing the axle D round in the same direction. K, K, and N, N, are
two straps, which are carried round and connect the two drums E and G.
When the drum G revolves in the direction indicated by the arrow L, the
strap K, K, causes the drum E to revolve in the opposite direction, or that
indicated by the arrow M. When again the drum G revolves in the direction
of the arrow O the strap N, N, causes the drum E to revolve in the opposite s
direction, or that indicated by the arrow P. To the axle H there is attached
(in addition to the drum G) a pulley Q, in one groove of which runs a band or
rope T, from the end of which is suspended a weight U; and in other grooves

page_text: thereof, the straps R and S, which are attached to transverse bars or handles
V, V, placed within reach of the workmen on the seats A³, A³. The manner
of working is as follows:-The workmen, by means of the handles V, V,
attached to the straps R and S, round the drum G in the direction indicated
by the arrow O, whereupon (by means of the combinations before described)
the weight U is drawn up, and the strap K, as it is unrolled from the
drum G, is passed on to and over the drum E, while, on the other hand
the drum E revolves in the direction of the arrow P, without affecting the
axle D (which it is enabled to do by means of the pall and ratchet F),
and the band N, as it is unrolled from the drum E, is passed on to and
over the drum G. When the weight U has been drawn up to the extent of
the stroke of the workmen they cease applying their strength to the handles
V, V, upon which the weight U descends, carrying round with it (by means
of the combinations before described) the axles H and D, and the hind
wheels C, thereby causing the carriages to advance in the direction indicated.
by the arrow W. As soon as the weight U has descended to its original
position, the workmen again apply their strength to the handles V, V, and
repeat the operation and effects last before described; and by so continuing to
draw up the weight U as often as it descends to its lowest part of suspension,
and then allowing it to run down by its own gravity, a continuous motion is
given to the carriage, which motion is not intermitted during the time of
drawing up the weight U, but is kept up by the momentum acquired by the
carriage. The quantity of the weight U, the length of descent given to it, and
the relative proportions of the several drums and pulleys, must all of course
be determined by the magnitude of the entire machine and the rate of speed
at which it is required to be propelled. Instead, too, of one weight only, two
or more weights, equivalent in the aggregate to the single weight, may, to suit
convenience, be employed. Again, should it be desired to have the power of
reversing the motion of the carriage, that is, to move it in a direction contrary
to W, this power can be easily obtained by attaching a second drum to the
axle D, with ratchet and pall, to make it act in the opposite direction to F,
and by carrying a second set of bands or straps from the drum G, which shall
act in the opposite directions to N and K, and by setting free the ratchet and
pall F. It is hardly necessary to add, that by any of the ordinary contrivances,
with which every practical mechanic is familiar, the ratchet and pall F. and
the ratchet and pall of any second drum which may be affixed to the axle D,
may be so made and introduced that one only of them shall be in action at one
time, or that both may be thrown out of action at one and the same time,

page_text: producing this ultimate effect, that the axle D and the wheels C shall revolve
independantly of, that is, without disturbing or counteracting the operation of
the other parts of the machinery. And although I have herein specified the
drawing up of a weight as the intermediate means by which the principle of
our said Invention may, according to our present experience and the best
of our judgment, be carried out into practice with the greatest advantage,
I declare that we do not limit ourselves to the employment of such particular
intermediate agency alone, nor to the particular manuer of employing the
same, herein-before set forth, but that we understand our Patent to include
any and every intermediate or secondary agent (such as the winding and
unwinding of a spring, the compression and rarefaction of air, &c.) by the inter-
position and aid of which, whether employed by itself or in combination with
other agents, human strength may be employed for the propulsion of carriages
on railways with greater effect than by any direct means heretofore known and
in use, and any and every manner of using the said intermediate or secondary
agent which shall involve no material departure from the principle of our said
Invention.
And such our Invention being, to the best of our knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of
Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or in any of Her said Majesty's
Colonies or Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be our Specification
of the same, and that I do verily believe this, our said Specification, doth
comply in all respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso
in the said herein before in part recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore
I do hereby claim that we maintain exclusive right and privilege to our said
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Fleming Bergin, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven.

page_text: A
This is the Specification referred to in the Affidavit of William Angus
Robertson, sworn before me, this 25th day of October 1837.
·A (2).
G.. B.. ROUPELL.
This is the Specification referred to in the Affidavit of Henry Desborough,
Esquire, sworn before me, this 25th day of October 1837.
G. B. ROUPELL.
William Angus Robertson, of Peterborough Court, Fleet Street, in the City
of London, Patent Agent, maketh oath and saith, that he is acquainted with
the manner and character of the handwriting of Thomas Fleming Bergin, of
Westland Row, Dublin, Civil Engineer. And this deponent further saith,
that the name or signature "T. F. Bergin," set, subscribed, and written upon
or indorsed at the foot of the Specification marked A', hereunto annexed, and
dated the Twenty-third day of October instant, and stated to be acknowledged
by the said Thomas Fleming Bergin before George Studdut, Esquire, a Justice
of the Peace acting in and for the City of Dublin, within that part of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Ireland, on the said
Twenty-third day of October, is of the proper handwriting of the said Thomas
Fleming Bergin.
Sworn at the Public Office, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, this 25th day of October
1837, before me,
G. B. ROUPELL.
Henry Desborough, of the Atlas Assurance Office, Cheapside, in the City of
London, Esquire, maketh oath and saith, that he is acquainted with the
manner and character of the handwriting of George Studdut, Esquire, a
Justice of the Peace residing at Dublin,. in the City of Dublin, within that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Ireland.
And this deponent further saith, that the name or signature "Geo. Studdut,"
set, subscribed, and written upon or indorsed in the margin of the Specification
marked A, hereunto annexed, and dated the Twenty-third day of October
instant, and executed by Thomas Fleming Bergin, of Westland Row, Dublin,
aforesaid, Civil Engineer, whereby it is stated that the said Specification was
acknowledged by the said Thomas Fleming Bergin before the said George

page_text: Studdut, on the said Twenty-third day of October, at Dublin aforesaid, is of
the proper handwriting of the said George Studdut, and that the said George
Studdut, at the time of setting and subscribing his name on the said Speci-
fication in manner above stated was and now is (to the best of the knowledge
and belief of this deponent) one of the Justices of the Peace acting in and
for that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called