IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING GRADIENTS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING
GRADIENTS."A communication.
Sealed the 29th July 1856, and dated the 1st April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st April 1856.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for IMPROVED APPARATUS POR ASCERTAINING
GRADIENTS, to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to ascertain and register the varying
gradients of roads and ways while travelling over the ground; rotary motion
from the axle of a waggon or other vehicle is communicated by gearing to a
set of three cones suitably mounted therein. Over the periphery of these
cones two friction wheels are traversed, for the purpose of receiving therefrom
á variable rotary motion; these wheels are capable of sliding on their respec-
tive shafts, and an endway motion is given to them by arms projecting from a
rack bar lying parallel with their shafts (that is, in the line of progress of the

page_text: waggon), and carrying arms which take into grooves turned in the boss of the
wheels. In the teeth of this rack bar a segment rack gears, and keyed to the
axle of the segment rack is a pendulum, which, as it has always a tendency to
retain a perpendicular position, will, when the waggon is inclined by reason of
the acclivity or declivity of the road, slide the rack bar backward or forward,
and cause it to traverse the friction wheels to an increased or decreased
diameter of the cones. The rotary motion of these wheels will therefore vary
according to the gradient. The shaft of one of these wheels communicates
a traverse motion to a pen or marker, while the other effects the traverse
under the marker (by means of a pair of rollers) of the paper, to receive the
indication of the gradients. A fixed pen marks the base line as the paper is
travelling, and thus the valve of the zigzag lines made by the traversing pen
can be readily ascertained. Over the pendulum, and connected with it, is
an indicator with a pointer, which marks the degree of ascent or descent
in the gradient. As the curves of the road (in a horizontal direction) will be
represented in the base line, it is necessary to have the regulation of a ma-
riner's compass. To accomplish this, a compass is fixed to the machine at
the centre, over the pivot of which is a reservoir of ink conducting to the
periphery to a hair or a hair pencil, which describes a line in accordance with
the curves of the road; or a hand machine can be used, and the operator,
watching the change of the needle, will turn the shaft thereof by a pinion out-
side the box of the compass, so as to keep the needle directed to the pointer,
and at the same time it moves along a rack carrying a red pencil which marks
the curve of the track.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, Her. special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent

page_text: Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, tho
said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree 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 "Im-
PROVED APPARATUS FOR ASCERTAINING GRADIENTS," being a communication
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should
particularly describe 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 im-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, 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) :-
This Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, relates
to a novel construction of apparatus for ascertaining and registering the varying
gradients of roads and ways while travelling over the ground; this result is
obtained by transmitting motion to an indicating apparatus from a waggon
wheel or axle through the agency of cones, which convey to friction wheels,
with which the indicating apparatus is provided, a graduated motion regulated
by a pendulum.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a plan view shewing the construction
of the indicator, and the means for driving it; Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and
Fig. 3 an end elevation of the same. Keyed to the axle of the waggon in
which the apparatus is placed is a spur wheel in gear with a cog wheel upon
the main shaft A, at right angles to this is the short shaft B, connected with
A by bevil gearing. The shaft B drives by spur gearing the "paper cone "C,
and this cone abuts against and drives by gearing a second.cone D, which is
for driving the paper and for moving the pen to mark the "down grade."
Connected with the short shaft B is the long shaft F, which drives by a
cog wheel at its end, the up hill cone E. There are two friction wheels G
and H, which are always equi-distant, and which press upon the cones, and
receive therefrom a graduated motion. These wheels slide upon two separate
shafts I and J, connected at the middle, the end of one extending into a tube
bored in the end of the other. The forward and back motion of these wheels

page_text: .
is produced by a segment rack K, fixed upon and above the shaft of the pen-
dulum L, and working in a rack M, to which the friction wheels G and H are
attached by forked pieces N. The pendulum bangs upon a shaft (below the
friction wheels), on which it is set firm. The segment rack K is also keyed to
the same shaft, so that its motion corresponds (in opposite directions) with the
motion of the pendulum. Upon the shaft J of one of the friction wheels
is a bevil wheel that gears into a bevil pinion keyed. on the shaft O. On the
opposite end of this shaft is a worm, which takes into. a worm wheel on the
screw shaft P, and thereby imparts: rotary motion thereto for operating the
grade pen. Upon the shaft I of the other friction wheel G is a worm,
which operates a worm wheel upon a.shaft Q, and through similar gearing at the
opposite end of that shaft drives the feed rollers R, between which the paper 1,
to receive the register marks passes. These rollers R are geared together,
and are of the length required for the width of the paper upon which the grade
is to be described. Near to the rollers R is the paper rest S, over which the
paper passes while being marked. Upon the standard T, in which runs the
journal of the screw shaft P, is a stationary pen U, for marking the base line
as the paper passes under it. V is the grade pen, connected with a nut upon
the screw shaft P, and moved by the rotary motion of that shaft, so that as the
paper moves along, the pen vibrates back and forth across the
paper according
to the variations of grade in the road. At the outside of: the machine is the
roller W, upon which the paper for use is wound. The cones are intended to
graduate the motion given to the pen and to the paper. At the extreme
point a cone conveys to the friction wheel the minimum motion, or none at all.
At the base the cone conveys to the friction wheel the maximum speed.
When the waggon to which the apparatus is applied is running npon a level,
the friction wheel H (which drives the grade pen) is off the point of the cones
E and D, and receives no motion from either of them, therefore the grade pen
makes a line parallel with the base line. At the same time the other friction
wheel G and which moves the paper, is at the bases of the cones. C and D, and
moves at the same speed with the cones. As the machine is drawn up hill, the
pendulum, continuing to hang perpendicularly, moves by means of the semi-
cog wheel K, the rack M carrying the two friction wheels along; one of them
H going upon the up hill cone E towards its base, and the other G moving
from the base of the "paper cone" D towards its point. If the acclivity be
at an angle of forty-five degrees, the two wheels will be at the middle of the
cones D and E, both moving at the same speed, and causing the pen and the
paper to move at the same rate, describing the proper grade; and in ascending
a perpendicular, the friction wheel G, which drives the paper, would be off the

page_text: point of the cone D and standing still, the paper, consequently, would not
move, and the other friction wheel H, driving the pen, would be at the base
of the cone E, (supposing it to be an entire cone), and marking a perpen-
dicular line.
In the actual machine as shewn in the Drawing, the cones C and E are not
made full length, as it would never be necessary to mark so steep a grade.
The scale on which the grade will be drawn can be made as desired by the
relative sizes of the gear wheels. Over the pendulum, and connected with it,
is an indicator with a pointer, which marks the degree of ascent or descent in
the grade. As the curves of the road (in, a horizontal direction) will be
represented in the base line, it is necessary to have the regulation of a
mariner's compass; to accomplish this there is fixed to the apparatus a
compass, at the centre or over the pivot of which is a reservoir of ink for
supplying ink to a hair pencil, which describes a line in accordance with the
curves of the road. When the machine is required to be at rest it is thrown
out of gear. If a compass cannot be found strong enough to make the hair
line for the curve, a hand machine can be used, and the operator, watching
the change of the needle, will turn the shaft thereof by a pinion outside
the box of the compass, so as to keep the needle directed to the pointer X,
and at the same time it moves along a rack Z, carrying a red pencil Y, which
marks the curve of the track.
Having now set forth the nature and object of the Invention of "Improved
Apparatus for Ascertaining Gradients," as communicated to me by my foreign
correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I
wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I
claim, the arrangement of mechanism as herein described, or any mere modi-
fication thereof, for indicating the varying gradients of a road or way while
travelling over the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the First day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)