CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES AND PARTS OF CARRIAGES, APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ROUSE, of Great Barton, near Bury Saint Edmund's, in the County of Suffolk,
Wheelwright, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and forty-four, did give and grant unto me, the said William Rouse,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said William Rouse, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
during, the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her United Kingdom called
England, the Principality of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES AND PARTS OF CARRIAGES,
APPLICABLE TO VARIOUS PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained. a proviso, obliging me, the said William Rouse, particularly to describe
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,, to be enrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same
Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I have ascer
tained and set forth the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be carried into effect, by the following description thereof
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
The improvements which constitute my Invention are comprised under two
heads.
The first of these improvements consists in a mode of constructing carts
and waggons, and similar carriages, so as to avoid the cutting of mortices in
the cills or frame of the waggon or other carriage, to receive the standards or
ribs by which the sides are fixed and sustained, and so as that such sides may
be readily and separately removed and refixed, as occasion may require. In
the ordinary mode of constructing these carriages a number of upright ribs or
staves are driven tightly into mortices, cut in the cills or frame of the carriage,
and to these ribs the side planks are attached; in that mode of construction
the cills or frame are weakened by the mortices being cut therein, and the sides
cannot be removed. But in my improved mode of construction I avoid cutting
mortices in the cills, and the planks which compose each side are framed
together so as to constitute one piece, which is attached to the carriage in a
mode which admits of its being readily removed or replaced as occasion may
require. This mode of, construction is shewn in Figures 1 to 7, Figure 1
being a plan of a portion of the bottom of the carriage with the bottom boards
removed; Figure 2, a side elevation of the same; Figure 3, a transverse
section of the same; and Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7, some of the parts shewn
detached. a, a, are portions of the side cills or frame of the carriage, and b,
a part of the central sleeper or bearer; c, c, are bars of iron, having one end
turned down so as to clasp the centre sleeper, and the other end, which projects
a little beyond the side of the cill, is formed into a screw d. The planks e, e, of
which the sides of the carriage are composed, are attached to a set of vertical
standards of iron f,f, which, in order to combine strength with lightness, may
be made of angle iron. These standards have holes g, g, to permit the screw
ends d, d, of the bars c, c, to pass through them, and to which they are secured
by nuts h, h. Figures 4 and 5 represent respectively an elevation and plan of
the bars c; Figure 6 represents a transverse section of one of the sides of the
carriage; and Figure 7, an elevation of a portion of the same.
The second of my improvements relates, firstly, to the wooden axles employed
in some classes of carriages used in agriculture, and consists in a method of
increasing the strength of such axles, by combining them with iron in the
manner which I shall proceed to describe, and which is shewn in Figures 8, 9,
10, and 11; Figure 8 being a side elevation, and Figure 9 an end view, of an

page_text: axle constructed according to my improved plan; and Figure 10 being a
horizontal section, and Figure 11 a transverse section of the same. a is the
wooden axle, out of which a portion of the central part is cut in the line of
the axis, so as to form a vertical groove, which extends some distance beyond
5 the shoulder, or that part of the axle on which the wheel of the carriage
works. Into this groove is driven an iron plate 6, corresponding in size and
shape to the groove, and secured in its place by bolts passing at right angles
through it and the axle; c is a hollow truncated cone of iron, which is driven
upon that part of the axle on which the wheel works, and is secured thereto
by bolts or rivets. To give increased strength I sometimes use, in addition,
two arms or horns d, d, which are formed at the larger or inner end of the
cone, and extend along the sides of the axle beneath the carriage, and are
firmly bolted thereto. Figures 12 and 13 represent a plan and elevation of
the flat plate of iron b, and Figures 14 and 15 exhibit a section and end view
of the truncated cone c. In lieu of a single cone, extending the whole length
of the arm or of that part of the axle on which the wheel works, I sometimes
employ two conical rings, placed one at each extremity of the arm, leaving a
portion of the arm between the two rings uncovered. This construction is
shewn in Figures 16, 17, and 18; Figure 16 being a side elevation of the
axle, Figure 17 an end view of the same, and Figure 18 a horizontal section.
a is the axle, having, as before explained, a vertical groove cut in it in the line
of the axis, and a plate of iron 6 inserted in the groove, and secured therein
by bolts; c, c, are the two conical rings, bolted to the axle, the larger one
having horns extending along the sides of the axles beneath the carriage, and
firmly bolted thereto, as herein-before described.
The other improvement, under the second head of my Invention, consists in
an improved form for iron axles for agricultural carriages, shewn in Figures 19
and 20; Figure 19 being a plan of my improved axle, and Figure 20 an end
view. The improvement consist in forming two cylindrical rings or shoulders
a and b, on the axle, the inner ring or that nearest the carriage being of greater
diameter than that which is near the extremity of the axle.
Having thus set forth and described my Invention, I claim,―
First, the mode of attaching the sides of the frame of the carriage in the
manner herein-before described.
Secondly, I claim the method herein shewn and described of strengthening
wooden axles of carts, waggons, and similar carriages used for the purposes of
agriculture, by cutting a vertical groove through the line of the axis, and
inserting therein an iron plate, secured by bolts or rivets, or by other equivalent
means; also the covering of the arm or portions of the arm on which the

page_text: wheel works with a cone or conical rings or hoops of iron, as shewn in
Figures 8 and 16.
Thirdly, I claim the construction of iron axles with two cylindrical rings or
shoulders formed thereon, as shewn in Figures 19 and 20.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Rouse, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of August,. One thousand eight
hundred and forty-four.
AND BE IT' REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fourth day of August,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid William Rouse came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Sagyvona
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.