IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS FOR DATATYS AND CARRIAGES
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Ward, of the City of Auburn, in the
County of Cayuga, and State of New York, one of the United States of
North America, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS FOR
DATATYS AND CARRIAGES"
Sealed the 11th May 1860, and dated the 15th November 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Ward at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th November 1859.
I, WILLIAM HENRY WARD, of the City of Auburn, in the County of Cayuga,
and State of New York, one of the United States of North America, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS FOR
RAILWAY ENGINES AND CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
It consists in giving that peculiar (ogee shaped) form to the tread or perí
phery of the wheel whereby it is made self-adapting to any line of railway in
common use, without the flange coming in contact with the rail for guidance,
thereby obviating all lateral or unpleasant motion of the (railway) coaches
while in motion, and requires less power to propel the train at high or other
rates of speed, likewise securing ease and safety.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Henry Ward in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 14th May 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY WARD, of the City of Auburn, in the County of Caynga, and
State of New York, one of the United States of North America, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent. Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Henry Ward, Her special licence that I, the said William
Henry Ward, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said William Henry Ward, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed; should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom, of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS FOR RAILWAY ENGINES AND CARRIAGES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Henry Ward, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Henry Ward, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and 'by the
following statement, in which the accompanying Drawing represents a sectional
plan of the ogee tread on the line of A, B, and C, as given to wheels for railway
engines and coaches made after this Invention.
To point out the advantages and merits of these wheels a brief description
of those in common use will be necessary for comparison.
Wheels for railway engines, coaches, and carriages, as generally constructed,
are dependent on their flanges for direction and guidance while under motion
upon railway tracks, owing to the form of their tread, which is somewhat

page_text: tapering or inclining from the flange, with the outer corner more or less
rounded; hence the reason why the flanges of the wheels, from necessity, must
rub against the rails on one or the other side of the line of roadway (rail-
way), to give direction to the engine and coaches, which, at high rates of
speed, is brought suddenly in contact with the rails, with such force as to cause
the displacing of a rail or the breaking of an axle, and causing serious
damage.
Railways, as generally constructed, have more or less curves; on which the
trains have to pass to make the journey from one terminus to that of another,
to accomplish which, the flanges of the wheels running on the outer line of
track necessarily rub against the rail on which they
and cause the
engine, coaches, and carriages (to which they are attached) to pass around the
curve, but not without additional friction, and sometimes to that extent as to
cause heavily laden trains to stop, provided a slight grade occurs at the
curve.
'
In the manufacture of wheels for railway engines and coaches they are not
always of the same diameter, which, upon direct lines of railway, causes the
wheels of the greater diameter (however small), to force the flange of the
wheels of the lesser diameter against the rail upon which they
and
thereby cause unnecessary friction while running on direct lines, and is doubly
increased when the wheels of the lesser diameter have to pass on the outer
rails of the curve (which frequently happens), thereby increasing the friction to
that extent as to cause one if not both the wheels on the same axle to slide to
that degree as will tend to make small flat spots on the treads of the wheels,
and rendering them unfit for service.
The object of my improvement is to overcome these difficulties; and my
Invention for effecting the same consists in giving to the tread of the wheel
that comes in contact with the rail on which is has to
such form as
will make it self-adapting to any line of railway on which railway and other
trains have to pass, without the flange of the wheel (from necessity) coming
in contact with the rail for guidance or direction, and thereby obviate all un-
pleasant or unsafe lateral motion of the engine and coaches while running at
high rates of speed, and cause the train rising wheels, made after this Inven-
tion, to pass around the curves on the lines of railway over which they are
required to move, with the same ease and freedom as upon direct lines; and
may be more fully understood by a reference to the accompanying Drawing,
in which the curved line A, B, and C, form the said ogee tread that gives to
the wheels, made after this Invention, a changing diameter, and causes them

page_text: to be self-adapting to any line of railway track in common use, without the
flange of the wheel, from necessity, coming. in contact with the rail for
guidance.
Having thus fully described the nature of my Invention, what I claim
therein as new, and desire to secure by Royal Letters Patent is, that peculiar
ogee form of tread, or its equivalent, that makes the wheels self-adapting to
any line of railway in common use, without the flange (from necessity) coming
in contact with the rail for guidance or direction, as described, for the purposes
set forth in the forgoing Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Ward, have hereunto
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of May, in the year of our
set my
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.