IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES FOR TRAKWAYS AND OTHER ROADS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hugh Greaves, of No. 18, Abingdon Street,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES FOR TRAKWAYS AND OTHER
ROADS."
Sealed the 20th February 1872, and dated the 24th August 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hugh Greaves at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th August 1871.
I, HUGH GREAVES, of No. 18, Abingdon Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES FOR TRAMWAYS AND
OTHER ROADS," to be as follows :—
According to this Invention I construct the carriages with wheels
having very wide rims without flanges. In order to reduce the draught
of the carriages, and at the same time to lower their centres of gravity
and facilitate the ingress and egress of passengers, I employ wheels of
large diameter and form double partitions or walls in the carriages,

page_text: which serve to receive the wheels or their axles as well as for dividing
the bodies of the vehicles into compartments to accommodate different
classes of passengers.
In some cases these double partitions are arranged longitudinally
along the centre part of the body of the carriage, and the large wheels ||
situated partly within the same are made to run upon a single line
of rails and to take the principal weight of the carriage, subsidiary
wheels being employed to keep the large bearing wheels in a vertical
position. The carriages are made by preference with two or more bodies
jointed together at their upper and lower parts to facilitate travelling
round curves, and provided with doors at both sides of their ends for the
convenient ingress and egress of passengers. Cupboards or receivers
are formed in the bodies of the vehicles provided with doors or covers
having guiding apertures formed therein, and within the said cupboards
or receivers removeable drawers or receptacles are placed to receive 1
letters, so that such drawers or receptacles with their contents can bo
withdrawn when requisite and others substituted therefor. This arrange-
ment will be of very great public advantage in transmitting letters from
suburban districts to post offices for expediting the transmission thereof,
the vehicles so constructed serving in fact as travelling Post Office 2
receiving houses.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hugh Greaves in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 24th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HUGH 2
GREAVES, of No. 18, Abingdon Street, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the 3
thirty-fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Hugh Greaves, Her special licence
that I, the said Hugh Greaves, my exccutors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Hugh Greaves, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no 3

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CARRIAGES POR TRAKWAYS AND OTHER ROADS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Hugh Greaves, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Hugh Greaves, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement theroof (that is to say) :-
According to this Invention in order to reduce the draught of the
carriages and at the same time to lower their centres of gravity and
facilitate the ingress and egress of passengers, I employ wheels of large
diameter and form double partitions or walls in the carriages, which
serve to receive the axles as well as for dividing the bodies of the
vehicles into compartments to accommodate different classes of pas-
sengers. The carriages are made by preference with two or more bodies
jointed together at their upper and lower parts to facilitate travelling
round curves and provided with doors at both sides of their ends for
the convenient ingress and egress of passengers. Cupboards or receivers
are formed in the bodies of the vehicles provided with doors or covers
and having guiding apertures formed therein, and within the said
cupboards or receivers removeable drawers or receptacles are placed to
receive letters, so that such drawers or receptacles with their contents
can be withdrawn when requisite and others substituted therefor. This
arrangement will be of very great public advantage in transmitting
letters from suburban districts to Post Offices for expediting the
transmission thereof, the vehicles so constructed serving in fact as
travelling Post Office receiving houses.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of
a carriage constructed in two parts jointed together according to my

page_text: Invention; Fig. 2 is an end elevation; and Fig. 3 is a plan partly in
section through the line A, B, of Fig. 1.
a are the double partitions or walls which serve to receive the axles 6
as well as for dividing the bodies of the vehicle into compartments c, d,
e, and f, to accommodate different classes of passengers. The two t
bodies g, h, of the vehicle are jointed together by means of eyes and
bolts, as shown at i, k, or cup-and-ball joints may be substituted for the
arrangement shown in the Drawings; I are the doors at the respective
ends of each body of the vehicle; m is a cupboard or receiver provided
with a door m' and having a guiding aperturen through which letters
Instead of
may be passed into the removeable drawer or receptacle o.
constructing the carriages with two bodies, as shewn, it will be evident
that three or more such bodies may be jointed together to form a
compound carriage as described.
.
It will also be obvious that carriages having only one body may be
constructed with double partitions or walls serving to receive the axles
as well as for dividing the body into compartments to accommodato
different classes of passengers according to my Invention.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be or may be performed or carried into
practical effect, I would remark that I do not claim as of my Invention
or the exclusive use of the several parts herein-before described or
referred to when the same are used separately or otherwise than in and
for my
said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist in the novel
combination and arrangement of parts forming the improved carriages
for tramways and other roads, substantially as herein-before described
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hugh Greaves, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.