CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AXLES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GEORGE BRIGGS, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester, Coach Proprietor,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifth day of October, in the seventh year of Iler reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John
George Briggs, my exors, adiiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John George Briggs,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John George
Briggs, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter, during the term of years
therein expressed, 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 AXLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso that I, the said John George Briggs, shall cause a parti-
cular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto bad, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
John George Briggs, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following Specification thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say) :-
The nature of the said Invention consists in formning axles of two pieces
or shafts, one solid and the other hollow, the former fitting within the latter
by which combination much greater strength and less risk of breakage are
obtained with the same quantity of metal than when the axle consists wholly
of a solid or a hollow shaft.
Figure 1 is a pair of railway carriage wheels mounted upon an axle con-
structed according to my said improvements; Figure 2 is a section of one of
these wheels together with a portion of the axle; and Figure 3 is a side
elevation of the same. A is the external or hollow axle, which is of sufficient
length to pass through the eye of both wheels; B is the internal or solid axle
upon which the bearings or journals C, C, are formed. This axle is of such a
diameter that it may as near as possible fill the bore of the axle A when
passed through the same, and when put in its proper place it is to be securely
fixed with keys or wedges a, a, fitted into corresponding grooves formed in
both shafts, in the manner represented in Figures 1, 2, and 3, or by having a
groove cut in the hollow shaft, and a flat upon the solid, or by screws or
any other suitable means. The wheels being placed upon the axle A at the
proper guage, are to be securely fixed there by keys b, b, or otherwise, having
also proper key scats prepared for them both on the axle and in the eye of the
wheel. By this arrangement the internal axle may be removed from its place
without disturbing the external one, when it is found necessary to do so, by
simply removing the keys or wedges a, a.
Figure 4 is an elevation, partly in section, of another pair of railway wheels
mounted upon a shaft constructed on the same general principles as that
herein-before exemplified, with this difference, that the external or hollow
shaft is continued out the whole length, which makes it necessary that the
substance of it should be cut into so as to form the journals or bearings C, C;
the axles are keyed to each other and to the wheels in the same manner as in
Figure 1. In both the axles before described the bearings fall upon the
outside of the wheel, and, therefore, the bearings may be either formed in the
internal or external axle; but in all cases where the bearings fall between the
wheels, the external axle must be cut into so as to form the journal for the
saine, otherwise ruffs or collars must be welded thereto, as represented by
the dotted lines at E upon the axle in Figure 4. And although I have

page_text: described these improvements in axles as applied to railway carriages alone,
I declare that they are equally applicable to the axles of all other sorts of
wheel carriages, and also to rotating axles or shafts of every description,
subject only to such modifications as peculiar circumstances may render
necessary in the forms of the bearings. In some cases I pass both the external
and internal axle through the axle box in the nave of the wheel, in others
only the internal is passed through. And although I have represented and
described these axles as being round, the one solid and the other hollow, they
may be both square, or the outer one may be square on the outside and round
in the hollow, or any other shape, as octagon.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I lay no claim to the
application of either solid or hollow axles when used separately or by them-
selves. But that what I claim is, the construction of axles by combining
together solid and hollow shafts, one within the other, in the manner before
exemplified.
In witness whereof, I, the said John George Briggs, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-four.