IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC RAILWAYS, AND IN CARRIAGES USED THEREIN
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Webster Rammell, of 3, Westminster
Chambers, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC RAILWAYS, AND IN CARRIAGES USED
THEREIN."
Sealed the 6th November 1866, and dated the 18th July 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Webster Rammell
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th July 1866
I, THOMAS WEBSTER RAMMELL, of 8, Westminster Chambers, Westminster,
in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PNEUMATIC RAILWAYS, AND IN CARRIAGES USED THEREIN,
to be as follows.―
In the construction and working of pneumatic railways it is found that the
airangement of terminals described in my former Patent, dated the 10th of
February 1860, may in some respects be modified with advantage. Double
sets of terminal doors are therein shewn, applied to single lines of railway,
the embrauchment of the ways being effected within the limits of the tubular
way.
I now propose to improve the arrangement of these parts by setting the
terminal doors backwards from the station towards the tubular way sufficiently
far (say from about 100 to 120 feet) to allow of the embranchment of the
ways being made between the tubular way and the platforms of the station,

page_text: enlarging the intervening covered way (if any) for the purpose. In this
manner I am enabled to work single lines of pneumatic railway running into
the double ways required at stations with single sets of terminal doors.
In the working of pneumatic railways difficulty has been experienced in
giving motion to the train at stations where the train being wholly outside
the tubular way the pneumatic pressure cannot be brought to bear upon it.
To obviate this inconvenience I lay the ways at all stations at an inclination
downwards from the station towards and into the tubular way, and at a
gradient (say about 1 in 60) sufficiently steep to give a proper velocity to the
train on the breaks being relieved. At terminal stations the ways are thus
made to fall entirely towards the tubular way, and arriving trains are received
and brought to rest upon a rising gradient. At intermediate stations the ways
fall from a summit near the middle towards the tubular way on either hand,
and arriving trains are made to pass over this summit by the momentum they
have acquired, and are brought to rest upon a descending gradient, when they
are in a position to be again put in motion by gravitation, and to run into the
next section of the tubular way on the brakes being relieved. The necessity
for using any additional appliances to put the train into motion at stations, or
for running the head or leading part of an arriving train into the entrance of
the forward section of tubular way with that object is thus avoided.
In adapting my pneumatic ejector to the working of passenger railways,
and other purposes whore large quantities of air have to be dealt with, and
the machine must consequently be of large size in order to avoid the incon-
venience of too great distance between the points of support, I place tho
bearings of the shaft intermediately between the exhaust passages on either
side, and the middle or pressure chamber, fixing them upon suitable girders
carried across the indraught openings in the side walls of the chamber, and so
formed as to impede as little as may be the flow of air into the machine; I
complete the connection between the exhaust passages and the entrances of
the ejector by means of mouth pieces attached to the walls of the pressure
chamber around the openings described. In constructing these machines of
large diameter in order to obtain the greater accuracy of form and lateral
stiffness in the outer parts I make use of one or more pairs of metal rings of
sufficient substance. These stiffening rings I aflix externally to the principal
ribs which radiate from the central parts of the machine, and are set up from
their base into true position, and by the lateral resistance they afford, and the
stiffness of the rings between them, I am enabled to bring the intermediate
and outer ribs, which have no sufficient base, from which they may be set up
also into true shape. With such machines the valves and air passages are of

page_text: considerable size, and it is important that they should be ai ranged in the most
convenient manner for working; with this view 1 place the supply and escape
valves horizontally at the upper part of the machine, where they open freely
into the outer air, and their indraught and discharge curients having a vertical
dnection occasion no inconvenience. The exhaust and pressure valves I place
in a vertical position below ground at one end or one side of the machine,
where they open into a common chamber communicating with the connecting
au way of the tubular way, through which single connecting air way both the
pneumatic pressure and exhaust can be applied to the train by an independent
valve, which I torm the main valve, and which I prefer to place near the junction
of the air way with the tubular way. In all cases 1 make use of balanced
valves sot in on frames, and by means of proper rods, levers, and geaung I
connect the exhaust, the pressures, the escape, and the supply valves together
in such manner that they may be worked together or separately from a common
and convenient point, and either by hand on the spot, or by intermediate
appliances from any distance. At whatever distance the pneumatic machinery
may be situate from the station I connect the various valves and also the
terminal doors with a room which I call the signal 100m, from which, with
propor apparatus and appliances, and the aid of pressure gauges and telegraphic
siguals, they may all be worked by a single operator, and for the greater
certainty and safety of working I prefer to place this 100m either in the station
or near the termination of the tubular way within view of the anniving and
departing trains.
In the working of pneumatic railways resistance is now experienced in a
train entering the tubular way from the inertia or from the opposing
In order
momentum, as the case may be, of the mass of the contained au.
to remedy this inconvenience, and insure the easy entry of the tiain into and
its free movement within the tube, and also to enable the driver to regulate
the application of the pneumatic pressure to the train, and to liberate from
pressure at the proper moment the terminal doois, so that they are free to
open for the exit of the train, I make the sail plate of the piston carriage of
a train paitly of fixed, and partly of moveable parts, which latter by suitable
apparatus under the control of the driver may be contiacted or folded up, or
extended or expanded at pleasure, so as to fill up more or less completely, as
desired, the transverse area of the tubular way; I thus make about th of
the entire area of the sail plate moveable, finding that proportion of opening
sufficient to allow of the free movement of the train through the air in the
tubular way, and I prefer to hang the moveable portion of the sail plate in
two equal divisions, one on either side of the piston carriage. It is desirable

page_text: that the permanent way of pneumatic railways should be compact in size,
securely fixed, and smooth and easy in use, and also capable of ready adjust-
ment and renewal. I propose to lay the way in iron chairs built into the
brick work or masonary of the tube, and sufficiently large to contain the rail
with packing pieces of wood or other suitable material beneath it, and on both
sides. The chair is wedge-shaped, and has a table to receive the lower packing
piece, upon which the rail rests, and by the greater or less thickness of which
its level is determined; I prefer to make this piece somewhat elastic, either
by hollowing out the slab of elm or other hard wood composing it, or by
combining with the piece a layer of cork, caoutchouc, or other elastic material,
or by the use of a steel spring. The sides of the chair and rail are to be
so formed that wedges or packing pieces of greater or less thickness may
be inserted on either side, and by these tho rail is not only held firmly in
position, but is set laterally to truo gauge.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
_ by the said Thomas Webster Rummell in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 12th January 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WEBSTER RAMMELL, of 3, Westminster Chambers, Westminster, in the County
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by ler Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Пer reign,
did, for Herself, ller heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Webster Rammell, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
Webster Rammell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Thomas Webster Rammell, 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 PNEUMATIC RAILWAYS, AND IN CARRIAGES USED THEREIN,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Webster
Rammell, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or then, 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

page_text: 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 Thomas Webster Rammell, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly desenbed and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say.-
One of my Inventions consists in an improved arrangement of the terminal
parts of pneumatic railways. In my former Patent, dated the 10th of
February 1860, double sets of terminal doors are shown applied to single
lines of railway, the embranchment of the ways being effected within the
limits of the tubular way.
I now propose to improve the arrangement of these parts by setting the
terminal doors backwards from the station towards the tubular way suffi-
ciently fai (say, fiom 100 to 120 feet) to allow of the embranchment of the
ways being made between the tubular way and the platforms of the station,
enlarging the intervening covered way (if any) for the purpose. In this
mannet I am enabled to work single lines of pneumatic railway running into
the double ways required at stations with single sets of terminal doois.
Figure 1, Sheet 2, represents a plan, and Figure 2, in the same Sheet, a
longitudinal section of an intermediate station on a single line of pneumatic
railway.
A, A, A, 1epresents the station itself with the double lines of way required;
B, B', B, B', the terminations of the single lines of tubulai way, and C, C¹,
C, C³, the intervening spaces (which may be covered or not) in which the
embranchment of the ways is effected. The terminal doors are represented at
D, D', one pair only being required at the end of each section of tubular way
Another of my Inventions consists in an improved arrangement for giving
motion to the tiain at stations, where the train being wholly outside the
tubular way the pneumatic pressure cannot be brought to bear upon it To
obviate this inconveniece I lay the ways at all stations at an inclination
downwards from the station towards and into the tubular way, and at a
giadient (say, about 1 in 60) sufficiently steep to give a proper velocity to
the train on the breaks being released. At terminal stations the ways are
thus made to fall entirely towards the tubular way, and arriving trains are
received and brought to rest upon a rising gradient. At intermediate stations
the ways fall from a summit near the middle towards the tubular way on
either band, and arriving trains are made to pass over this summit by the
momentum they have acquired, and are brought to rest upon a descending

page_text: gradient, where they are in a position to be again put in motion by gravita-
tion, and to run into the next section of the tubular way on the breaks being
relieved. The necessity for using any additional appliances to put the train
into motion at stations, or for running the head or leading part of an arriving
train into the entrance of the forward section of tubular way with that object
is thus avoided
An intermediate station with double ways is shown in Figure 2, Sheet 2
A train arriving at the station by the tubular way B, would by its momentum
ascend the incline E, but with a diminishing speed, and after passing over
the summit at F would be brought to rest on the descending incline E¹ by the
application of the breaks. The train would thus be brought into a position
to be again put in motion by gravitation alone on the breaks being relieved,
when it would descend the incline E¹ and run into the tubular way B', where
the pneumatic pressure would again be brought to bear upon it for continuing
its motion. A train aliving from the opposite direction would similarly
ascend the incline G, pass over the summit, and be brought to rest on the
descending incline G³, down which it would run when released by gravitation
into the tubular way B. I prefer to lay a portion of the way of the ascending
incline at a somewhat steeper gradient than that of the descending inclino with
the double object of more effectually checking the speed of the train and bringing
it to rest at a convenient part of the platform of the station. At terminal
stations the inclination of the ways is made to fall entuely towards and into
the tubular way as previously described.
Another of my Inventions consists of improvements in the arrangement and
construction of my pneumatic ejector in order the better to adapt it to the
working of passenger railways, and for other purposes where large quantities
of air have to be dealt with, and the machine must consequently be of large
size. These improvements are shown in Sheet 1, where Figure 1 represents
a plan, Figure 2 a transverse section, and Figure 3 a longitudinal section of
an ejector designed for the purposes in view To avoid the inconvenience of
too great distance between the points of support I place the bearings of the
shaft intermediately between the exhaust passages II, II, II, II', on either side,
and the middle or pressure chamber I, I, 1, fixing them on suitable guders
carried across the indiaught openings in the side walls of the chamber, and
so formed as to impede as little as may be the flow of air into the machine.
This arrangement is shown at Figures 1, 2, and 3. I complete the con-
nection between the exhaust passages and the entrances of the ejector by
means of mouth pieces attached to the walls of the pressure chamber around
the openings described. This arrangement is shown at B, B, B, Figures 1,

page_text: 2, and 3. In constructing these machines of large diameter, in order to
obtain the greater accuracy of form and lateral stiffness in the outer parts, I
make use of metallic rings of sufficient substance; these stiffening rings
I affix externally to the principal ribs K, K, which radiate from the central
parts of the machine, and are set up from their base into true position, and
by the lateral resistance they afford and the stiffness of the rings between
them I am enabled to bring the intermediate and outer ribs L, L, which have
no sufficient base from which they may be set up, also into true shape. The
arrangement of these rings is shown at C, C, C, Figures 1 and 2, Sheet 1.
Another of my Inventions consists in improved aangements of the valves
and an passages of such machines, which are of considerable size. As the
most convenient arrangement I place the supply and escape valves in the
upper part of the machine, where they open ficely into the outer au, and their
udraught discharge currents having a vertical direction occasion no incon-
venience. This arrangement is shown in Figures 2 and 3, Sheet 1, where
D, D', D, represent the supply valves, and E, E, E, E, E, the escape valves.
The exhaust and pressure valves I place in a vertical position below ground at
one end, or on one side of the machine. This arrangement is shown in
Figures 1, 2, and 3, Sheet 1, F, F, being the exhaust valves, and G, G+, the
pressure valves, and in Figure 1, Sheet 2, where K, K', represent the
exhaust valves, and L, L', the pressure valves These valves are shown in
duplicate, being applied to an ejector intended for the working of two sections
of tubular way. These valves open into a common chamber communicating
with the connecting an way of the tubular way through which single con-
necting air way both the pneumatic pressure and exhaust can be applied to
the train by an independent valve, which I term the main valve, and which I
prefer to place near the junction of the air way with the tubular way. This
arrangement is shown in Figure 1, Sheet 2, where II, II', represents the
common chamber into which the exhaust and pressure valves open, I, I',
the connecting air ways, and J, J¹, the main valves In all cases I make use
of balanced valves set in on frames, and by means of proper 1ods, levers,
and gearing 1 connect the exhaust, the pressure, the escape, and the supply
valves together in such manner that they may be worked together or sepa-
rately from a common and convenient point, and either by hand on the spot,
or by intermediate appliances from any distance.
Another part of my Invention consists in connecting the various valves at
whatever distance the pneumatic machinery may be situate from the station,
and also the terminal doors with a room, which I call the signal room, from
which with proper apparatus and appliances, and the aid of pressure gauges

page_text: and telegraphic signals they may all be worked by a single operator, and for
the greater certainty and safety of working I prefer to place this room either
in the station or near the termination of the tubular way within view of the
arriving and departing trains M, M. Figures 1 and 2, Sheet 2, represents
the signal room, with which I connect, either by means of rods and levers
or other gearing, or by hydraulic appliances, the various valves and terminal
doors.
Another of my Inventions consists in improvements in the piston carriages
of pneumatic railways. In the working of pneumatic railways resistance is
now experienced in a train entering the tubular way from the inertia, or from
the opposing momentum, as the case may be, of the mass of the contained air.
In order to remedy this inconvenience, and insure the easy entry of the train
into and its fiee movement within the tube, and also to enable the driver to
regulate the application of the pneumatic pressure to the train, and to liberate
fiom pressure at the proper moment the terminal doors, so that they are free
to open for the exit of the train, I make the sail plate of the protor carriage
of a train partly of fixed and partly of moveable parts, which latter by suitable
apparatus under the control of the driver may be contracted or folded up, or
extended or expanded at pleasure, so as to fill up more-or-less-completely, as
desired, the transverse area of the tubular way. I thus make about one-
fourth of the entire area of the sail plate moveable, finding that proportion of
opening sufficient to allow of the free movement of the train through the air
in the tubular way, and I prefer to hang the moveable portion of the sail
plate in two equal divisions, one on either side of the piston carriage. This
arrangement is shown in Figures 3 and 4, Sheet 2, in which N, N, N, repre-
sent the moveable parts of the sail plate, and the apparatus for folding up and
extending these moveable parts is shown at 0, 0, 0, 0, 0
Another of my Inventions consists in improvements in the permanent way
of pneumatic railways, which it is desirable should be compact in size,
securely fixed, and smooth and easy in use, and also capable of ready adjust-
ment and renewal. I propose to lay the way in iron chans built into the
brick work on masonry of the tube, and sufficiently large to contain the rail
with packing pieces of wood or other suitable material beneath it and on
both sides. The chair is wedge-shaped, and has a table to receive the lower
packing piece upon which the rail rests, and by the greater or less thickness
of which its level is determined. I prefer to make this piece somewhat
elastic, either by hollowing out the slab of elm or other hard wood composing
it, or by combining with the piece a layer of cork, caoutchouc, or other
elastic material, or by the use of a steel spring. The sides of the chairs and

page_text: rail are to be so formed that wedges or packing pieces of greater or less thick-
ness may be inserted on either side, and by these the rail is not only held
firmly in position, but is set laterally to true gauge. These arrangements are
shown in Figures 5 and 6, Sheet 2, where P, P, P, is the iron chair, the
lower packing piece is shown at Q, hollowed out to give elasticity, and at Rit
is shown combined with a layer of elastic material; S, S, S, represent the side
wedges for adjusting the rail laterally and for holding it down.
In witness whereof I, the said Thomas Webster Rammell, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
T. W. RAMMELL. (L.s.)