IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING CARRIAGES AND BOATS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Louis Maxime Auguste Lepage
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 28th November 1871.
I, LOUIS MAXIME AUGUSTE LEPAGE, of Dijon, France, now of No. 8,
Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING CARRIAGES
AND BOATS," to be as follows :—
My Invention relates to the propulsion of railway and other carriages
by the weight of the passengers, merchandize, or other load carried by
the same; and the said Invention is designed to furnish a simple and
inexpensive motive force, which shall to a great extent supersede the use
of steam or horses for that purpose.

page_text: To effect the object of my Invention I employ mechanism which in
the arrangement and operation of its parts resembles clockwork, that
is to say, the weight acting on a chain or cord coiled upon a cylinder or
barrel by its descent turns the latter on its axis. The said cylinder
through a large toothed wheel fixed on its axis drives a small wheel or
pinion on another shaft or axis, and the latter through another large
wheel drives another pinion fixed either on the shaft of the bearing
wheels or geared in connection with the said shaft. The unwinding of
the aforesaid cylinder, as will be obvious from the above description, causes
the said bearing wheels to turn, and as they cannot turn without moving
the carriage the latter will be propelled.
The speed at which the carriage travels will depend upon the weight
of the load and the proportion of the gearing wheels to the pinions and
bearing wheels, but with the above-described arrangement of gearing the
weight descending slowly will give a comparatively quick motion to the
bearing or travelling wheels.
In applying my Invention to a carriage I construct the same with a
rising and descending chamber divided longitudinally into two compart-
ments, the upper one for the passengers, and the lower one for luggage
or merchandize. This chamber is attached to a rope or chain, which is
coiled on the aforesaid cylinder. This chamber with its load constitutes
the actuating force by which the carriage is propelled, the said chamber
descending as the carriage moves forward. And by properly proportion-
ing the wheels and pinions, and with an adequate load in the chamber,
the descent of the latter for two or three yards will propel the carriage
several miles.
The movement of the carriage will of course cease when the chamber
has descended its full distance. Therefore it will be necessary to so
arrange the gearing that one descent of the load will drive the carriage
the required distance.
When the chain is completely unwound from the barrel the load is
removed, and the chain is rewound by a crank applied to the shaft of the
barrel.
To allow the carriage to be stopped when desired I provide the
apparatus with a bolt or brake, or with supports arranged to adjust under

page_text: the chamber, or with other contrivances suitably arranged to arrest the
descent of the chamber, and the uncoiling of the chain from the barrel.
The brakes or supports are also used when the carriage is descending a
declivity.