Improvements in Roundabout Railways.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 24th June, 1892
Complete Specification Left, 23rd Mar., 1893-Accepted, 29th Apr., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Roundabout Railways.
I, GEORGE ROBSON 13 Shakespeare Terrace Sunderland in the County of
Durham Engineer & Iron Merchant do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
--
My invention relates to improvements in the class of railways whereon horses or
vecheles travel on wheels and on which in addition to the circular motion commou
in all such railways other motions are sought to be obtained as for instance the
motion of galloping horses and boats at sea have been imitated by means of cranks
eccentrics connecting rods & the like generally attached to and worked from the
axles of the wheels on which the horses or vecheles run.
In my invention I dispense with these and construct the railway with one or
more tracks giving to these tracks such a configuration that the motion desired is
produced in the horses or vecheles. A further or compound motion may be given
to the horses or vecheles in addition to the motion caused by the configuration of
the track or tracks by building the platform on which the track or tracks are laid
at an angle to the level.
For the purpose of obtaining the circular motion of the roundabout I employ an
endless belt of suitable material passing round the framework to which the horses.
or vecheles are attached thence over a drum on the shaft of the driving engine.
Dated this 23rd day of June 1892.
:
f
'
GEORGE ROBSON.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Roundabout Railways.
I, GEORGE ROBSON, of 13, Shakespeare Terrace, Sunderland, in the County of
Durham, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to roundabout railways to be used for amusement or
diversion and consisting of the usual endless chain of trucks supporting cars,
figures of animals, or boats, which are carried round a circular track or railway.
The essential feature of my invention consists in the employment of an endless
band such as a wire rope or pitched chain operated from a driving shaft or electric
motor and embracing the whole circuit of the machine by which the train of trucks
are set in motion and carried round the circular railway.
Other features of my invention as hereinafter described and illustrated consist in
certain details of construction by which the strain transmitted through the driving
belt to the train of trucks or vehicles is equally and suitably distributed and applied
to the purpose intended and with a view of obviating any cross strains tending to
disturb the travel of the trucks in the manner required.
But so far as the invention described in my Provisional Specification extends to
a means of imparting a galloping motion to horses I have since found that there is
no novelty in the use of undulating tracks for effecting this purpose, I shall therefore
only refer to such features so far as they aid in the description of the general
construction of a roundabout embodying the improvements which constitute my
invention.
And in order that my invention may be fully understood and readily carried
1

page_text: into effect I will now proceed to describe the same with reference to the accom-
panying drawings in which
Figure 1 is a view in plan of a circular track corresponding to which Figures 2, 3,
4 and 5 illustrate some of the details drawn to a larger scale.
Figure 1 is to be taken in sections of which section A B exposes the trestles a, a, a,
on which the railway track or fixed platform b is supported and secured to carry
the circular rails C as shown in the section B to C. In section C to D the
trucks dare shown mounted on the platform C and coupled together in a circular
train. These trucks carry the travelling platform e as shown in the section DE,
upon which travelling platforms are mounted the figures of horses as shown in
section from E to A or their equivalents such as cars or boats the design and
construction of which and the mechanisin involved in giving galloping, oscillating
or the like motions thereto is not essential to my invention which is to be taken as
generally applicable to roundabouts when made up of a train of vehicles to be
carried round a circular railway. I shall not therefore describe such features in
detail but will here remark that where each truck is constructed to run upon two
wheels at the rear as shown more especially in Figure 5, with neither tracks in the
platform nor flanges on the wheels to keep the said trucks from running out of
the circle, other wheels are provided on which the fore part of the horse is mounted
the said wheels being flanged and fitted to the rails C, which rails are undulated if
required to impart a galloping motion to the horses the rear ends of which are
mounted on the rocking shafts and what would be a galloping motion in horses, by
a suitable adaptation of the undulations becomes an oscillating or up and down
motion in boats or cars.
Motions of this kind can be further combined with a sideward to and fro motion
by setting the plane of the circular railway to an incline which causes the horses
or their equivalents to lean outwards or inwards according as they are going round
the lower or upper part of the circular track.
g
In applying the requisite travel or motion to the vehicles or trucks I employ a
wire rope or pitched chain which embraces the whole circle of vehicles in the
roundabout and is coiled round or engages with the pulley or the driving shaft k
the pulleys serving to guide the rope into line at the intended level. It is
obviously essential that the wire rope or chain should transmit the requisite pull
on the vehicles without risk of slipping over the pulley h and any suitable means
may be used to provide against this, as for instance running a wire rope over a
clip pulley or a pitched chain over a sprocket wheel. The driving shaft k may
terminate in a pulley to be driven from an engine by a belt or be driven direct
from an electric motor or other suitable or available prime mover. It is found in
practice that when the tensile strain is transmitted to the endless rope or chain
from one point only in the circumference that cross strains are set up which tend
to shift the whole train of vehicles side ways that is to say the tensile strain on the
rope which hauls the vehicles round is unequally distributed along the rope which
transmits it and is found to be greater to one side of a diameter taken through the
point of application than to the other side of the same diameter. I therefore make
provision for controlling and equalizing these cross strains by taking the rope
round a compensating pulley m, at the opposite part of the circle, which pulley
rotates about a vertical spindle which is a fixture and so takes the cross strains off
the train of vehicles or so relieves the vehicles of these cross strains that the
tendency of the vehicles to leave the circular track is sufficiently obviated for all
practical purposes.
Although I have shown in the drawings only one driving shaft k and driving
pulley for working the endless rope g, 1 do not restrict myself to this or any
number, but may use two or even three driving shafts and pulleys with any required
number of compensating pulleys placed wherever they may be thought to be
required. It is also essential that the hauling rope or chain y should be maintained
as nearly as possible at a uniform tension, and this I effect by any well known
means, such as passing the rope or chain over two pulleys and under a third pulley

page_text: between them to which a weight or its equivalent is attached to keep the rope or
chain properly stretched.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
:-
:
Firstly In combination with roundabouts, endless ropes, or their equivalents
connected to or arranged in connection with the said roundabouts so as to operate
substantially as and for the purpose as hereinbefore described.
•
Secondly-In combination with roundabouts, endless ropes or pitched chains
passing over one or more clip pulleys or sprocket wheels to prevent slipping and
round one or more pulleys rotating on fixed vertical spindles to compensate or
equalize cross strains with or without means for sustaining a uniform tension of the
said endless ropes or chains, all combined and operating together substantially as
and for the purpose as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
Dated this 0.3 1.
1000
G. J. CLARKSON,
Chartered Patent Agent,
Stockton-on-Tees, Agent for the Applicant.
G. J. CLARKSON,
Chartered Patent Agent,
Stockton-on-Tees, Agent for the Applicant.