IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS FOR RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
EVANS, of the Haigh Foundry Company, Wigan, in the County of Lancaster,
Iron Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the eleventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Edward Evans, Her especial licence that I, the said
Edward Evans, my exors, adñors, and assigns, or such others as I; the
said Edward Evans, my exors, admors, and 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 Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS FOR RAILWAY
AND OTHER CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso that if I, the said Edward Evans, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be duly inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,

page_text: any thing therein-before contained to the contrary thereor in any wise
notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Edward Evans, 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 thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing therein referred to, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of a new and improved mode of constructing iron
wheels, by which the tire or hoop of the wheel is securely connected with the
spokes, or with the inner rim and periphery, without the use of bolts or rivets.
For this purpose I form a dovetail groove on the inner surface of the tire, as
represented by the section, Figure 1, in the Drawing hereto annexed, and
dovetail projections on the spokes, as also shewn in Figure 2. When an inner
ring or periphery, to which the spokes are attached in the usual manner, is
employed in the construction of wheels, I form such inner ring or periphery
of iron rolled on one side with a dovetail projection, so that this iron, when
bent into a circle, will have at its exterior portion a continuous tlovetail pro-
jection, which may be fitted into the tire or hoop as herein-after described, the
spokes being attached to such inner ring and the nave according to any of the
usual well known methods; or the inner ring may be formed of segments by
bending iron with a dovetail projection, as described, into segments, which are
to be brought into close contact at their sides and fastened together, and into
the nave by any of the usual methods. These segments will present an inner
ring or periphery, having a number of dovetail projections on its outer surface.
It will be seen in Figures 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, that the dovetail groove in the tire
is made wider at its narrowest part than the dovetail projection on the spokes
or inner rim is at its widest part, so that the latter will easily enter into the
former when the tire is shrunk on. The dovetail projection will not fill the
groove but will leave a space which is to be filled up as will be hereafter
described and explained. The groove in the tire, and the dovetail projections
to be introduced into it, and the relative dimensions and sizes of the several
parts, must be adjusted to each other according to the purposes for which the
wheel, is required, and so that the part which forms the side of the groove or
the inner surface of the tire or hoop of the wheel may pass over the ends of
the spokes or the outside of the inner ring or periphery when the tire is
heated to be shrunk on, and that the bottom of the groove may come into close
contact with the ends of the spokes or the outer surface, ring, or periphery of
the wheel, when the tire is contracted by cooling or shrunk on, as is well
understood in the manufacture of wheels.

page_text: Figure 4 is a section of a wheel and tire, and the plate on which they both
are laid in a horizontal position, for the purpose of the tire being shrunk on;
the red lines in the section of the tire will shew its position when hot, and the
black lines the position when it is cold. The plate on which they are laid may
either have a rib cast on it, as at a, b, Figure 4, or it may be a plain plate, and
small packings may be used instead of the rib, but the wheel, when fixed on
the plate, must be raised by either the rib or the packing pieces, so that the
groove in the tire, when put around the wheel, will be level with the rim of the
wheel, and in such position that the one will easily enter the other as the tire
becomes contracted by cooling. When the wheel has been fixed on the plate
as shewn in Figure 4, and the hoop or tire heated in a furnace, as is com-
monly practised in hooping wheels, the tire will have become expanded and
will pass over the wheel so as to encircle it. Now, it will be evident that as
the groove is rather wider at its narrowest part than the projecting dovetail is
at its widest part, and the tire has contracted so as to bring the one within the
other, there will be a space left on the sides, that is, between the sides of the
groove and the sides of the projection, and the dovetails would in that state
form no joint or security for holding the one to the other. In order, however,
to make this a perfect joint, I then fill the spaces on the sides with melted
metal or other hard substance, and for which purpose I prefer zinc as being
the hardest and cheapest of the easily melted metals.
difficulty in getting the tire off the wheel for any purpose of repairs if the
metal were not of a kind to be easily melted. If it be thought desirable the
wheel may be shifted as the tire gradually cools so as to bring one side of the
dovetail projection in contact with the side of the groove, and thus leave only
one side to be filled. I do not, however, think any advantage would arise in
adopting this latter mode.
There would be a
Figure 5 is a section of the rim of the wheel and tire, with both sides filled
with the melted metal, and Figure 6 is a section with the wheel shifted to the
side of the groove, and only one side filled with metal. The parts colored
yellow in both cases represent the metal which has been run in, and thus made
to form the joint, so as to prevent the tire separating from the wheel. The
rim of the wheel may be made of iron rolled or forged into the required shape,
or it may be turned to the proper shape in a lathe, and the dovetail groove in
the tire may be formed in a lathe, or it may be formed in the manner follow-
ing-The tire bar which is intended to form the hoop of the wheel must first
be rolled into the shape, as shewn in section, by suitable grooves made in the
rolls, as will be perfectly well understood; it must then be passed through a
groove in the rolls of the ordinary shape for making tire bars, and the angular

page_text: projections a, b Figure 7, will be deflected towards each other, and will form
a shape as shewn in the section Figure 7 in dotted lines, and thus will make
the groove in the tire sufficiently dovetailed for the purpose of holding the tire
and the wheel together, as already described. These angular projections may
also be depressed and thrown inwards by hammering while the bar is hot, and
without going through the last groove in the rolls. But I would observe that
the forming dovetail grooves or dovetail projections in or on pieces of metal
forms no part of the Invention intended to be claimed by these-Letters Patent,
except in connection with the arrangements and for the purposes herein
described.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not claim as my
Invention the use of dovetail grooves or dovetail projections in the manufacture
of wheels, many attempts having been made to render such fastenings practi-
cally available in and for the manufacture of wheels. But what I do claim is,
the manufacture of wheels in which the dovetail groove in the tire is wider at
its narrowest part than the dovetail projection on the spokes or the inner rim
of the wheel is at its widest part, and the filling the spaces left when the tire
is shrunk on with melted metal or other hard substance, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Evans, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight
Enrolled the Twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord One 30
thousand eight hundred and forty-eight.