IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPRESSING COTTON OR OTHER LIGHT MATERIALS, INTO TRUCKS OR WAGONS FOR TRANSIT UPON RAILWAYS OR OTHER ROADS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Walker and Arthur Warner
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the
4th May 1866.
We, JOHN WALKER, of Cowper Street, City Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, and ARTHUR WABNER, of Lawrence Pountney Lane, in
the City of London, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPRESSING COTTON OR OTHER LIGHT
MATERIALS, INTO TRUCKS OR WAGONS FOR TRANSIT UPON RAILWAYS OR OTHER
ROADS," to be as follows:-
I
This Invention relates to the arrangement and application of suitable
mechanism to railway or other trucks or wagons for the purpose of com-
pressing cotton or other light materials placed therein into a comparatively
small compass for the purpose of transit upon railways or other roads,
whereby such trucks or wagons are rendered capable of carrying a much
larger quantity of cotton or other light conipressible materials than they
would otherwise do without having our improvements applied thereto.
We would remark that our improvements may be readily applied to the
railway trucks or wagons now in common use, but we prefer to construct such
trucks of suitable strength and dimensions for having our improvements
applied thereto in the most advantageous manner.
We will proceed to describe the best means we are acquainted with for
applying our improvements to railway trucks or wagons of ordinary construction,
although we do not strictly confine ourselves to the arrangement we are about

page_text: to describe, as the means employed for compressing cotton or other light
materials into trucks may be considerably varied without deviating from the
essential character of our Invention. For this purpose, in accordance with
our improvements rolls or drums are fixed on the ends of the trucks or wagons,
so that by the aid of chains worked by levers, the cotton or other light
compressible materials may be compressed into a comparatively small space.
At each end of the truck or wagon there is a frame of suitable strength corre-
sponding in size with the ends of the truck, wagon, or other carriage to which
our improvements are to be applied. On this frame we fix two horizontal
shafts or axes, one along the top and the other at the bottom, and on each
shaft we mount two or more hollow rolls or barrels, so as to revolve freely
thereon. Across the centre of this frame we mount another shaft with two or
more fixed drums or barrels to correspond with those mounted on the top and
bottom shafts. This shaft is arranged to revolve freely in three or more
bearings, and on each end we fix a ratchet wheel for a pall to fall into, which
is fixed on the outside of the truck or wagon. This shaft is caused to rotate
by means of levers and palls taking into the teeth of the ratchet wheels, or by
other suitable mechanical means. At the end of each fixed drum or barrel
the end of a chain or rope is fixed, one of which passes under the bottom
roller and along inside the bottom of the truck, the other end being made fast
to a follower inside the truck, the other chain or rope passes over the top
roller, and is fastened to the top of the said follower, so that when two or
more chains or ropes are fixed and the middle shaft is turned round it
draws the follower with the cotton or other light material close up to the end
of the truck. Similar apparatus is applied to each of the end frames of the
truck or wagon. The shafts may, if desired, be fixed on the ends of the trucks
without employing the intermediate frames.