Improvements in Railways.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Dec., 1891-Accepted, 2nd Jan., 1892
VUMILIELM
Improvements in Railways.
I, HENRY DAY, of Fairview, in the County of Bergen and State of New Jersey,
United States of America, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention relates to a new system of constructing and operating railways
for the purpose of combining or multiplying velocities, and of avoiding the use of
the dangerous, expensive and cumbersome machines called locomotive engines and
tenders, as now used, and for obtaining the greatest advantages of safety and speed
with continuous travel and frequent stopping as may be desired, and also moving
with lighter and safer cars and more frequent trains.
To these ends my invention consists in a flexible endless driven or travelling
rail moving in a continuous manner and combined with cars sustained upon said
moving rail by means of driving wheels whereby the cars partake of the speed of
the rail, and also have an independent propulsion of their own, which together
multiplies or compounds the velocity of the car and secures the advantage above
described.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a section of my improved railway:
Figure 2 is a vertical cross section of the same on a larger scale:
Figure 3 is a partial side view of the same on the same scale as Figure 2; and
Figure 4 is a plan of the circulating track in one of its forms.
Figure 5 is a vertical cross section of another form of support for the rail.
A, is one continuous endless flexible bar or rail, which is preferably made of
steel shaped in cross section like a board set up edgewise and bending at the ends
of its travel like a great steel belt, with joints or articulations if preferred. This
rail or track may be made of any metal or material, and may be made as desired
in longer or shorter lengths: This belt-rail may be made to move in the form of
a loop, or it may be a circle, ellipse, or of other form which runs into or returns
into itself. It is made to circulate at any desired velocity by being sustained upon
driving wheels B, of any suitable diameter or width, flanged at the sides to keep
it from slipping off, which driving wheels are placed along the line of its route.
These driving wheels B may be driven by any motive power, but I prefer to drive
them by electric motors placed on the same shaft with the wheels and connected
together along the line by electric conductors or wires, by which, power may be
conveniently, economically and efficiently distributed to all the driving wheels B
along the route. As the travelling rail A circulates or moves from the frictional
driving power of its supporting wheels B, it is guided and held in true vertical
position either by gyroscopic power, or by guide arms f, fastened to it upon opposite
sides and provided at their extremities with travelling wheels cc running upon
track rails of any desired construction, or by suitable stationary rollers g', Fig. 5
mounted in brackets or standards h, the brackets being secured on each side of the
rail A. I do not, however, confine myself to these particular methods of supporting
and guiding the rail, as it is obvious that other suitable devices may be employed
with equal success.
These cars are
D D, are cars of any approved material or form of construction adapted for the
conveyance of freight, passengers, mails, or munitions of war.
provided with one or more supporting and propelling wheels d, which are flanged
When only one propelling
and rest upon the upper edge of the travelling rail A.
wheel d is used, it is placed in the middle of the car and other supporting wheels
are placed at each end. When under motion these cars will maintain their erect
position, by reason of the tendency of moving bodies to preserve their planes of

page_text: .
motion, but to further steady and guide this car when starting and stopping, it is
provided with arms or staysyg, reaching down from each side of its bottom and
bearing at their lower extremities friction rollers a a, which bear against the sides
of the travelling rail A. For giving an independent propulsion to this car on the
track A, it is supplied with any desired motor, which is either placed upon the
same axis with the drive wheeld and is coupled directly to it, or may be placed
at any other point.of the car and cor nected to the drive wheel by pulley and belt
or chain wheel, as shown. For many reasons I prefer an electric storage battery
and motor located upon the car, but the electric current may be delivered to the
motor on the car through a trolley and wire, or through the rail A as a
conductor.
Now it will be seen that when the rail A is travelling at a definite speed from its
propelling and supporting wheels B, it will carry with it the cars D and, as the
cars D have still an independent means of propulsion on the rail, they have an
independent progressive motion on the rail A, which causes their speed to be
multiplied in a cumulative way that secures a very high velocity in a perfectly
safe manner.
I will now proceed to describe the means for stopping these cars at stations
without interfering with the continuous through travel, and for this purpose the
stationary axles of the wheel d are extended beyond the sides of the car and are
provided with wheels e e, and at the stations are provided suitable inclined track
sections E, which may be moved laterally to or from alignment with the lower
edges of the wheels e e. When thrown out into alignment with the wheels e e, the
car runs upon these inclined and elevated sections of track, and a lateral motion is
then provided for shifting this track section and car out of line of rail A, so as to
side track any car without interfering with the continuous following through travel
on the travelling rail A. To restore a car to the main rail A, the track sections E
are switched or moved laterally with the car until the wheel of the latter is in
line with the travelling rail, and the car is then allowed to run down the incline
at the opposite end of the side track and renew its connections with the travelling
rail A.
In operating such a system of railway, very short curves for the travelling rail A
may not be practicable, but with a gradual curve of long radius it will be found
that a steel bar of suitable form and thickness hinged, jointed or otherwise,
possesses sufficient pliancy for lateral deflection as to easily accommodate itself to
the gradual bends of the route. At such bends or curves it is of course necessary
to have stationary guide rollers or pulleys for guiding and controlling the curvature
of the travelling rail.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is
1. A single moving endless flexible rail, supported upon and driven by driving
wheels disposed along the route of the railway, in combination with devices for
keeping said rail in place upon the driving wheels, said rail being adapted to
carry wheeled cars, substantially as shown and described.
2. An endless flexible belt rail, combined with and supported upon driving
wheels, and one or more cars provided with propelling wheel or wheels resting
upon the top of the circulating belt rail, and having an independent propulsion
thereon, substantially as shown and described.
3. The combination, with the supporting and driving wheels B, of the endless
belt rail A resting edgewise upon said wheels and provided with laterally disposed
arms or standards carrying rollers or wheels for steadying, guiding, and maintaining
the upright position of said belt rail, substantially as shown and described.
4. The combination with the endless circulating belt rail A, of a car having one
or more propelling wheels resting upon the upper edge of the rail A, and having
arms or stays projecting from the car, and provided at their ends with friction

page_text: rollers bearing against the belt rail to steady the car, substantially as shown and
described.
5. The combination with the endless circulating belt rail, and the car having
independent means of propulsion thereon and laterally projecting wheels e e; of the
inclined side track rails E arranged to be aligned with the wheels e e for the purpose
of side tracking the car, substantially as shown and described.
6. The combination of the driving and supporting wheels B for the belt-rail,
the belt-rail A, set edgewise thereupon and having laterally projecting arms with
wheels resting upon independent rails, or standards with guide rollers '; the
car D having driving wheels d resting upon the belt-rail and guide arms y with
rollers a, the side track wheels e e, and the side track E, substantially as shown
and described.
Dated this First day of December 1891
F. W. BARKER,
Applicant's Agent.