AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF PORTABLE RAILWAY
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Colborne Cambridge, of Bristol, Agricultural
Implement Maker, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF
PORTABLE RAILWAY."
Scaled the 15th May 1857, and dated the 11th December 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Colborne Cam-
bridge at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th December 1856.
I, WILLIAM COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE, of Bristol, Agricultural Implement
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED.
CONSTRUCTION OF PORTABLE RAILWAY," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel construction of portable or endless
railway to be applied to the wheels of engines and carriages, for the purpose of
facilitating their movement over loose ground and irregular surfaces. To each
wheel I apply a set of plates or sustaining pieces, made flat on their under
face, which severally receive in turn the pressure of the wheel as it revolves.
These sustaining pieces are connected together by being jointed to a double
set of levers, which act as links, and bind all the parts together into an endless
railway. At about the middle of the length of the sustaining pieces, and at
either side thereof, lugs are formed to receive the junction pins of the levers or
links, and they also act as guides between which the wheel runs; the sustain-

page_text: ing pieces are provided with bearing rails to receive the pressure of the
periphery of the wheel, and being thus-supported at the middle of their length,
they are severally free to take up a horizontal position, or adjust themselves to
the irregularities of the road or way, before the pressure of the running wheel
comes upon them. Thus the action is rendered smooth, and no unnecessary
strain or wear is put upon any parts forming the portable railway..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Colborne Cambridge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 11th June 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLBORNE CAMBRIDGE, of Bristol, Agricultural Implement Maker, send
greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Colborne Cambridge, Her special license that I, the said.
William Colborne Cambridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Colborne Cambridge, my executors, adminis-
trators; and assigns, should at any time agreo 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 "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF PORTABLE RAILWAY," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Colborne Cambridge,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describo 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 Colborne Cambridge, 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, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention of "An Improved Construction of Portable Railway," relates

page_text: to a novel construction of portable or endless railway to bo applied to the
wheel of engines and carriages, for the purpose of facilitating their movement
over loose ground and irregular surfaces. In carrying out my Invention, I.
adapt to each wheel a set of plates or sustaining pieces, mado flat on their
under face, which severally receive in turn the pressure of the wheel as it
revolves. These sustaining pieces are connected together by being jointed
to a double set of levers, which act as links, and bind all the parts together.
into an endless railway. At about the middle of the length of the sustaining.
picces, and at either side thereof, lugs are formed to receive the junction pins
of the levers or links, and they also act as guides between which the wheel
runs. The sustaining pieces are provided with bearing rails to receive the
pressure of the periphery of the wheel, and being thus supported at the middle
of their length, they are severally, free to take up a horizontal position, or
adjust themselves to the irregularities of the road or way, before the pressure
of the running wheel comes upon them; thus the action is rendered smooth,
and no unnecessary strain or wear is put upon any parts forming tho portable
railway.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the portable or
endless railway, adapted to a wheel which may be supposed to belong to a
portable steam engine, steam plough, or other implement. Fig. 2 is a plan
view of one of the sections of which the railway is composed; Fig. 8 is a sido
view; and Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the same.
a, a, represents a wooden wheel of the ordinary construction, and provided
with an iron tyre as usual. The portable railway is divided into sections, con-
sisting of an iron rail b, which has a projecting rib made along its centro from
end to end, and is bolted or secured to a thick wooden plate c. Sido picces or
guides d, d, made of angle iron, are secured in any convenient manner on cach
side of the central projecting rib of the rail, as shewn in Figures 2 and 4.
These pieces, by forming a kind of groove in which the wheel runs, servo to
keep the wheel on the central projecting rib of the rail. Lugs or cars e, e,
are bolted to the rail, and are provided with centre pins, bolts, or studs, which
pass through holes at the end of the rods f, f, whereby the several sections of
the railway are jointed or connected together, as shewn in Fig. 1. It will be
seen that the railway is in no way connected or attached to the wheel, but is
entirely independent of the same, and merely forms a kind of endless chain
round the periphery of the wheel, from which it may be removed by simply
withdrawing the centre pin or bolt from one of the pairs of rods f, f, so as to
break the continuity of the endless chain. The wheel will then assume the
appearance of an ordinary wheel, and may then travel in the usual manner on

page_text: common roads, but the portable endless railway may be adapted thereto again
with facility when required. It will also be evident, that as no special modo
of constructing the wheel is required, the same railway may be adapted to any
ordinary wheel of the same dimensions.
Having now described my Invention of "An Improved Construction of
Portable Railway," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I claim, as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid, the
mode herein shewn and described of constructing and adapting portablo rail-
ways to the running wheels of carriages.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Colborne Cambridge, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Sixth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
WC. CAMBRIDGE. (L.B.)