CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON WHEELS FOR CARRIAGES
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
MEADEN, of Milbrook, near Southampton, in the County of Hants, Coach-
maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourth day of December, in the eighth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Meaden, His special licence that I, the said John Meaden,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Meaden, my executors, administrators, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON WHEELS FOR CARRIAGES;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John
Meaden, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery with six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said 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
John Meaden, do hereby describe and ascertain that the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is as follows
(that is to say):-
My improvements on wheels for carriages consist in binding them with an
iron hoop tire, having its internal surface concave, instead of an iron hoop tire
with a flat internal surface according to the present practice, and of adapting,
and fixing, and fitting the said iron hoop tire with a concave internal surface
on wheels for carriages, the felloes whereof are of a convex and tapered form,
instead of using for such carriage wheels concave tires in streaks or separate
plates, according to the old and present practice; and I hereby declare that I
do not claim as any part of my said Invention the well-known practice of bind-
ing carriage wheels with an iron hoop tire having a flat internal surface; and
that I do not claim as any part of my said Invention the well-known practice
of giving the felloes of carriage wheels a convex and tapering form adapted to
the dishing of the wheel, and of binding them with concave iron tires in streaks
or separate plates, but solely claim as my discovery. and Invention the binding
of carriage wheels having convex and tapering felloes with an iron hoop tire
with a concave internal surface; and I do hereby declare that the method of
performing and making use of my said Invention is set forth and explained
by the description herein-after following, and Drawings hereunto annexed (that-
is to say)-
I take a wooden wheel constructed to any given diameter, and for any given
<description of work, with both sides of the external surface of its felloes-planed
or turned off equally, so as to form a convex surface or segment of a circle, as
is commonly done for the purpose of binding with concave tire in streaks or
breadths formed of separate pieces or plates of iron. The bar iron, froni
which the improved tire is to be 'made, is' first rolled or wrought so as to
make, when taken in section breadthwise; any given segment of a circle
internally and externally, to be determined by reference to the breadth or
thickness of the wheels it is intended for, and is then bent into a circular
form, and welded in the same manner as the common hoop tire, but so
as to make a hoop which, besides its generali circular form, has an internal
concave surface, has an external convex surface likewise; (but I do not claim
to have invented an external convex surface). My said hoop tire, before being
heated for the purpose of being laid on the wheel it is intended for, is previously
heated to a low red heat, just visible in the dark, and then placed on a cast-

page_text: iron frustrum of a cone, and the said frustrum which I use is of the taper or
bevil which is described or is delineated in Figure 1 in the Drawing A; here-
unto annexed; for the purpose; in the first place, of working the hoop to a
perfect circle, and in the next place, to work it with the hammer precisely to
such a taper as will correspond with the taper of the felloes of the wheel it is
to be prepared for, and which taper-may be required to differ slightly from the
exact figure of the frustrum of the cone which I employ, but which difference
may be easily accomplished with the hammer on the said frustrum.
Figure 10 represents a section of the tire upon the frustrum. The method
of fixing or placing on the hoop tire after it has been so prepared is as follows:
I lay the wheel on its back in a large cast-iron conical dish, such as is
delineated in Figure 2 of the Drawing, and the nave being settled on a proper
iron.plate or bearing, the wheel is fixed firmly in the dish by the screw clamps
A, A, &c., put through the slits or holes B, B, &c., made in the dish for the
purpose, and of which said screw clamps one is shewn separately in Figure 3.
The front or smallest diameter side of the wheel will consequently be upwards,
which, I-believe, is the reverse of the usual position of the wheel in putting on
the common hoop tire (but I do not claim the said variance as any part of my
Invention.) The taper or bevel of the surface of the felloes is by this means
more fully presented to the workman. The tire, so prepared as before men-
tioned, is 'then 'heated in a circular kiln or oven, (a plan of which is given in
Figure 4, and an elevation of it in Figure 5,) to a high red heat, and can then
be placed on the wheel. Immediately that it is placed in its position, it is
suddenly made cold, either by inmersion in water in the manner herein-after
described, or by pouring water upon it, without loosening the clamps or
removing the wheel from the dish. The tire may be afterwards secured to the
wood-work in the same manner as the common tire is, or by means of screws,
as shewn in Figure 11. The manner of immersing the wheel and tire in water
is shewn in Figure 6, the cast-iron conical dish being mounted so as to turn up
and down upon a wooden horizontal axis, with pivots at its ends, turning in
proper-bearings affixed upon two uprights placed on the edge of a semicircular
pit lined with masonry, so as to be water-tight. In the centre of the horizontal
wooden shaft or axis an iron axis is fixed at right angles, which passes through
the hole in the middle of the nave of the wheel, and upon which said axis the
cast-iron dish, with the wheel bound fast upon it, can be turned round, as before
mentioned, when immersed in the water in the said pit, the periphery or external
edge of the cast-iron dish resting upon a cylindrical friction roller mounted in
a proper carriage, and affixed at the bottom of the pit to prevent it from being
turned down too far into the pit. The nave of the wheel rests upon one or

page_text: more iron plates with a hole in the centre of each, and which is or are slipped
upon the iron axis. Several of these plates are shewn separately in Figure 7:
There are also one or more iron washers or circular plates, with holes in their
centres, placed around the lower end of the iron upright axis to lessen the fric-
tion of the cast-iron dish, and the wheel in it, in turning them round. The
screw clamps A, A, &c., have cross heads to lodge underneath the cast-iron
dish, as shewn in Figure 3, besides which they have also two wings projecting
from them, which are intended to lodge or rest upon the upper side of the
conical cast-iron dish, and prevent the clamps from yielding or swerving from
their proper position in binding the wheel upon the dish, and as shewn in
Figures 6 and 8. The circular kiln or oven shewn in plan in Figure 4, and in
elevation in Figure 5, has a fire-place in front, fitted up with bars and a door
as usual, and the flame and heated air from it passes away sideways through a
circular flue or channel made in the brickwork, and passes off to the chimney
through another flue made opposite to the fire-place. The wheel tire rests
upon a number of wrought-iron bars let into the walls of the kiln, as shewn in
the Drawing, Fig. 4, and the kiln is covered by a flat cast-iron circular plate
mounted upon hinges on one side of it, and having two loops or eyes upon the
other side, by which to raise and lower it. It has a circular hole in its centre,
to allow the circular mass of brickwork in the middle of the kiln to enter when
it is shut down in use. The improvements on the wheel gained by my Inven-
tion are, that the wood-work of the felloes being bound in some degree laterally
as well as vertically, the whole wheel is better compacted, and is therefore
stronger, and the tire will wear more equally than any hoop tire heretofore
used, and will consequently wear longer.
I, the said John Meaden, hereby further declare that I do not claim any part
of the apparatus and machinery, and description of the method of performing my
Invention, or of affixing my said iron hoop concave tire to carriage wheels, as
being new Inventions, or as being the only method by which the same end may
be obtained, but as being, to my belief, the best method, and as being machines,
methods, and practices which I now successfully employ in performing my said
Invention of binding carriage wheels having convexed and tapered felloes with
an iron hoop tire with a concave internal surface.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Meaden, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
JOHN
(L.S.) MEADEN.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourth day of June, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid John Meaden came before our Lord
the King in his Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fourth day of June, in the year above written.