IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR ENDLESS TRAVELLING RAILWAYS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Clayton Mewburn, of 169, Fleet Street, in the
City of London, Patent Agent and Consulting Engineer, for an invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR ENDLESS TRAVELLING RAILWAYS." A com-:
munication from abroad by Guillaume Fender, of Buenos Ayres, in the
Argentine Republic.
:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Clayton Mewburn at.
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1882.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN of 169 Fleet Street in the City of London, Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR ENDLESS
TRAVELLING RAILWAYS." [A communication from abroad by Guillaume Fender,
of Buenos Ayres, in the Argentine Republic.]
""
A great difficulty is met with in the use of road locomotives due to the fact that
they can only travel on sound paved or macadamized roads; if the road is in bad
condition they sink in because their weight is distributed over only a small surface
of the ground-the surface of contact of the wheels. Tramway locomotives on,
the contrary have their weight better distributed because their wheels do not bear
directly upon the ground but upon rails which in their turn rest on sleepers; thus
all the portion of the ground between the wheels supports the weight of the
locomotive, and the pressure per unit of surface is less.
Now the object of the present Invention is to enable road locomotives, wagons,
agricultural engines and other like vehicles to possess the advantages of running on
rails and at the same time to retain their power of travelling on ordinary roads.
The Invention essentially consists in the arrangement of endless cables or chains
which form the railway and in the means by which they are continuously taken up
and relaid in front of the wheels of the vehicle. At the back and front of the
vehicle are drums or pulleys, the former to lift up the endless railway when the
wheels have passed and the latter to lay it in front of the wheels. If the loco-
motive draws wagons behind it the endless railway should be long enough to
embrace all the wheels; it will therefore be a little more than twice the length of
the train.

page_text: In the attempts which have hitherto been made to construct endless travelling
railways and which have been abandoned, the rails employed have always been too
short. In the present Invention the railway is made in lengths each equal to the
distance between the axles of the vehicle. This distance can be reduced by
increasing the number of wheels. The rails will be cut in lengths of say from
16 to 24 inches according to circumstances and will form an endless chain or
railway of which each length will constitute a link.
The steering wheel in road locomotives is replaced by a polygonal drum of 5 or 6
times the diameter of the wheels and over this drum the endless railway passes.
At the back of the locomotive is a smaller drum which lifts and supports the
railway.
In order to protect the rails from injury or shocks from hard and uneven bodies
they should be fixed on an elastic and resisting material. For this purpose a band
may be formed by the juxta position of iron wire ropes the combined width of
which is equal to the width of the base of the rail.
To prevent the rails getting out of place it is well to employ flat rails which
have more stability; wooden rails may be employed taking care that the lengths
are always equal to the distance between the axles.
In order to enable the locomotive to ascend inclines each rail may be formed of
two endless chains connected together by a number of small cross pieces or stays;
a travelling rack is thus formed upon which the wheels of the locomotive run, the
wheels being formed with corresponding teeth.
at
The wire rope rails may be made as follows:-Upon the rope are placed metal
rings to each of which is fixed by soldering or otherwise two side plates or cheeks
and at the top a cap having the form of the rail head. In this case the wheels will
have felloes shaped so as to be maintained on the rails thus formed. The object of
the side plates is to give more stability to the rings and to the cap or top plate;
the same time they distribute the pressure over all the breadth of a bottom piece
to which they are strongly screwed. This bottom piece is formed of an endless
band which may be made of gutta percha, felt, woven wire or other suitable
material; in some cases it may even be made of straw. This bottom piece must be
bound or strengthened externally and sometimes internally. For this purpose
wires may be used say 18 inches long with flattened ends and which are fixed to
the bottom piece side by side but without interfering with the flexibility; or these
wires may be replaced by rounded boards at the sides. Or instead of the endless
band the bottom piece may be formed of transverse laths connected together so as
to form an endless series.
use.
Where locomotive engines have to ascend inclines the arrangement of endless
rails or chains will be more convenient than the toothed rail arrangement now in
In this case I employ two or more endless chains connected together at
regular distances apart by iron or steel bars so as to form a sort of endless ladder;
and I make the wheel felloes with teeth or projections which take onto the bars
of this ladder.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Clayton Mewburn in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th September 1882.
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN of 169 Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE OR ENDLESS
TRAVELLING RAILWAYS.' (A communication from abroad by Guillaume Fender
of Buenos Ayres in the Argentine Republic.)
A great difficulty is met with in the use of road locomotives due to the fact
that they can only travel on some paved or macadamized road; if the road is in
bad condition they sink in because their weight is distributed over only a small
surface of the ground-the surface of contact of the wheels. Tramway
locomotives on the contrary have their weight better distributed because their
wheels do not bear directly upon the ground but upon rails which in their turn
rest on sleepers; thus all the portion of the ground between the wheels supports
the weight of the locomotive, and the pressure per unit of surface is less.
Now the object of the present invention is to enable road locomotives, wagons,
agricultural engines and other like vehicles to possess the advantages of running
on rails and at the same time to retain their power of travelling on ordinary
roads.
The invention essentially consists in the arrangement of endless cables or chains
which form the railway and in the means by which they are continuously taken
up and relayed in front of the wheels of the vehicle.
In the annexed drawings Figure 1 is a diagram of the arrangement of cables
applied to a locomotive and the other figures illustrate cables in detail.
At the back and front of the vehicle are drums or pulleys, the former to lift up
the endless railway when the wheels have passed and the latter to lay it in front
of the wheels. If the locomotive draws wagons behind it the endless railway
should be long enough to embrace all the wheels; it will therefore be a little more
than twice the length of the train.
In the attempts which have hitherto been made to construct endless travelling
railways and which have been abandoned the rails employed have always been too
short. In the present invention the railway is made in lengths each equal to the
distance between the axles of the vehicle. This distance can be reduced by
increasing the number of wheels. The rails will be cut in lengths of say from
16 to 24 inches according to circumstances and will form an endless chain or railway
of which each length will constitute a link.
The steering wheel in road locomotives is replaced by a polygonal drum A
Figure 2 of 5 or 6 times the diameter of the wheels and over this drum passes the
endless railway B formed in lengths bb. At the back of the locomotive is a
smaller drum C which lifts and supports the railway.
In order to protect the rails from injury or shocks from hard and uneven bodies
they should be fixed on an elastic and resisting material. For this purpose a band
may be formed by the juxtaposition of iron wire ropes the combined width of
which is equal to the width of the base of the rail.
To prevent the rails getting out of place it is well to employ flat rails which
have more stability; wooden rails may be employed taking care that the lengths
are always equal to the distance between the axles.
I have mentioned by way of example the employment of iron wire ropes to
support the rails, but it is evident that other materials will answer the purpose.
In order to enable the locomotive to ascend inclines each rail may be formed as

page_text: seen in Figure 3 of two endless chains DD connected together by a number of
small cross pieces or stays dd; a travelling rack is thus formed upon which the
wheels of the locomotive run, the wheels being formed with corresponding teeth.
It is to be understood that the lengths ee of which the chains D D are formed are
always equal to the distance between the axles, the positions of which are indicated
in the figure by dotted lines.
The wire rope rails may be made as represented in Figure 4. Upon the rope a
are placed metal rings x to each of which is fixed by soldering or otherwise two
side plates or cheeks c c and at the top a cap y having the form of a rail head. In
this case the wheels will have felloes shaped as shown in the figure so as to be
maintained on the rails thus formed. The object of the side plates c c is to give
more stability to the rings and to the cap or top plate; at the same time they
distribute the pressure over all the breadth of a bottom piece d¹ to which they are
strongly screwed. This bottom piece d' is formed of an endless band which may
be made of gutta percha, felt, woven wire or other suitable material; in some cases
it may even be made of straw. This bottom piece must be bound or strengthened
externally and sometimes internally (see Figure 5). For this purpose wires may
be used say 18 inches long with flattened ends and which are fixed to the bottom
piece side by side but without interfering with the flexibility; or these wires may
be replaced by boards suitably rounded at the sides (see Figure 6). Or instead of
the endless band the bottom piece may be formed of transverse laths connected
together so as to form an endless series (see Figure 7).
Where locomotive engines have to ascend inclines the arrangement of endless
rails or chains will be more convenient than the toothed rail arrangement now in
use. In this case I employ two or more endless chains connected together at
regular distances apart by iron or steel bars so as to form a sort of endless ladder;
and I make the wheel felloes with teeth or projections which take onto the bars of
this ladder. This arrangement is shewn in Figure 8. fis the outer shoe constituting
a kind of iron sleeper to which are fixed the way formed as in Figure 4 of the
cable a, rings x, soldered side plates c c, and cap y; bars h of steel or iron connect
at regular distances the two cables to each other and form the rounds or steps of
this sort of ladder. Figure 9 represents the felloe of one of the wheels; it has
teeth or projections g in the middle and two gaps or spaces i i to allow the endless
railway to pass
Having now described the nature of the said Invention as communicated to me
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I claim :-
The several arrangements of portable or endless travelling railways substantially
as hereinbefore described and represented in the annexed drawings.
In witness whereof I the said John Clayton Mewburn have hereunto set
my band and seal this second day of September One thousand eight
hundred and eighty two.