IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ELIJAH
GALLOWAY, of Buckingham Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighteenth
day of April, in the ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Elijah Galloway, my exors,
admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Elijah Galloway, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Elijah Galloway, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LOCOMOTIVE
ENGINES; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the
said Elijah Galloway, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Elijah Galloway, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
In constructing locomotive engines for railways, it has heretofore been usual
to give motion to two or more of the wheels which carry the engine. It has,
however, been proposed, several years ago, to apply a central rail to a railway,
and to employ rollers or wheels on either side of such central rail pressed
towards each other by a hand lever, and motion was to be communicated to
one of them from the axis of two of the carrying wheels. Now one of the
objects of my Invention is no longer to use the carrying wheels as driving
wheels. And another object of my Invention is to apply the power employed
to both of two wheels placed on either side of a central rail, and I obtain the
requisite holding or bite on the central rail by causing such two driving wheels
to be pressed towards each other, and consequently against the rail, by means
of springs and apparatus suitably arranged for causing the two driving wheels
(on either side of the central rail) to press the rail more or less according as
more or less holding to the rail is required from time to time. And in order
that my Invention may be most fully understood and readily carried into effect
I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
The driving wheels of the locomotive engine shewn in the Drawing are
applied horizontally on each side of a centre or middle rail. These driving
wheels are pressed towards each other by means of springs, the pressure of
which can be regulated by adjusting screws, as shewn, or by other convenient
means, so that the wheels may be pressed towards each other with any degree
of force the springs will admit of. The pressure, therefore, of these wheels is
exerted simultaneously on each side of the middle rail. By such an arrange-
ment it will be evident that the bite or adhesion necessary to propel the train
is independent of the weight of the engine; and as the adhesion can be
increased or diminished exactly according to the amount of force with which the
driving wheels are pressed against the rail this system obviates the slipping of
the driving or propelling wheels upon the rail heretofore consequent on making.
the driving wheels also carrying wheels in a locomotive engine, and my.
Invention will effectually remove that drawback in locomotive power which
has heretofore limited its application to railways which are nearly level.

page_text: Figure 1 represents a side elevation, and Figure 2 a cross section of a
locomotive engine, having my Invention applied thereto. Figure 3 is a plán
with the boiler and such parts omitted as would interfere with the view of the
same. In all the Drawings many details are omitted which are common to
both systems, or are well known. a, a, are the driving wheels worked by
cranked axes. Each wheel is worked by a pair of cylinders, the one above the
other, the pistons of which operate on the axes in much the same way as the
engines of the present locomotive. The slide valves in this arrangement may
be at either side of the cylinders, and worked by excentrics placed on the axes.
To secure the necessary bite on each side of the middle rail, the lower bearings
of the axes are at liberty to move for a limited distance horizontally in
mortices or slots for that purpose in the horizontal frame b, b; these bearings
are pressed towards each other by the springs c, c, all which will be readily
understood on examining the Drawings. To effect the desired adjustment
of the pressure of the springs, the rods d, d, d, d, are connected with the
centre pieces e, e, one of which has a right and the other a left handed female
screw through it, the threads of which fit the right and left handed screws on
the rod ff. On one end of f, f, there is a bevil wheel g, working into
another bevil wheel h, the axis of which is carried up in front of the fire box,
as seen dotted in Figure 3, and has a handle accessible to the engineer, so that
the pressure of the springs on the driving axes, and consequently the bite of
the driving wheels on the middle rail, can be adjusted at pleasure when the
engine is in motion.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would wish it to be understood that I
do not confine myself to the details herein shewn and described so long as the
peculiar character of my Invention be retained. But what I claim is the
mode of giving motion to locomotive engines, whereby two actuated wheels a, a,
are used.
And I also claim the causing of two wheels to be pressed towards each
other and to a central rail.
In witness whereof, I, the said Elijah Galloway, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
ELIJAH (L.S.) GALLOWAY.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixteenth day of October, in
the year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid Elijah Galloway came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-six.