Improvements in Road Locomotives.
Year: 1896

page_text: Improvements in Road Locomotives.
THOMAS BALLARD MARCHANT of Verney Wharf, Verney Road, Rotherhithe New
Road in the County of Surrey, Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of
this invention to be as follows:-
This my invention is an improvement of light locomotives upon common roads and
of such other similar vehicles, whether the locomotive power is generated and applied
in a separate haulage engine or combined with the vehicle which carries the desired
load, such load being either passengers or goods according to the particular object for
which the said locomotives are intended when designed.
In the first place I have invented a new method of transmitting and at the same
time controlling the power generated by the engine to the driving or road wheels,
the said driving and controlling gear being automatically actuated by the steering
mechanism of the said locomotives.
The object to be attained was this-each driving or road wheel runs free upon its
particular place upon the axle and power is applied to the said wheels by the
interposing of a friction clutch and the gear operating the said clutch or clutches is
controlled by the same motion which actuates the steering gear of the machine.
I sometimes if necessary use only one loose wheel the other wheel being made
fast to its axle, but as a rule I prefer to make both wheels loose & provide two
clutches upon the countershaft as by this arrangement both road wheels, together
with their axle ends and clutches are identical and interchangeable.
Now, when the road wheel or wheels used for steering are in their central
position and the vehicle is consequently travelling in a straight line I so construct
the mechanism that both clutches are in gear with their road wheels, thus propelling
both wheels equally, but when the steering road wheel or wheels are moved at an
angle to the centre line of the machine for the purpose of steering the machine one
of the clutches would thereby be automatically thrown out of gear, thus thus allowing
the driving wheel which would be travelling in a curve of the smallest radius to he
running freely upon its axle for the time being, the person actuating the steering
gear thus automatically controlling the said clutches.
The friction clutches may of course be of any suitable type for the purpose an the
means of communicating the motion from steering gear to clutches may be carried
out by well known means, that is by shafting, levers, chains, ropes, hydraulic pipes,
team, compressed air, electricity and so on according to the particular motive power
used for propulsion and other controlling and modifying conditions the object being
n this part of my invention simply the transmission of power from point to point.
I intend to make use of a double cam placed upon the main steering shaft or stem,
his cam having a portion of its circumference cut away for a given distance from
he centre of its shaft the portion cut away allowing the clutches to come out of
ear, so that when the said steering stem is rotated and with it the cam from its
entral position for a certain determined distance or angle, the interposed
echanism moves the clutches in and out of gear for the purpose set forth, one

page_text: clutch always being held in gear, and as explained above sometimes both that is when
the vehicle or locomotive is intended to travel in a comparatively straight direction.
Further and in the second place I have invented a method of obtaining a better
result from the use of steam engines as applied to the said road engines or
locomotive vehicles than has at present been achieved, by so constructing the steam
generator with its heating and condensing apparatus that I get the utmost efficiency
and economy from the fuel.
I attain this result in the following manner, When the steam escapes from the
cylinder into an exhaust pipe or passage it is allowed to divide itself and pass
through a number of relatively small tubes of suitable length and thinness, which
tubes are themselves separated by a small space from each other, and the whole
group or groups of these tubes being encased within an outer air tight casing
through which atmospheric air is passing or being passed for the purpose of cooling
the exhaust steam, I then pass the exhaust steam with the whole or part of its
resultant water through the tubes (or the spaces surrounding the tubes) of a surface
condenser, the result being a further and absolute condensation of all remaining
steam into water, which water is then available for feeding the boiler in the usual
manner. Furthermore in conjunction with the above mentioned groups of exhaust
tubes with their outer casing and air cooling current, and the above described
surface condenser with its cooling water circulation I fit to a part of the machine,
perferably over the surface condenser, a receptacle especially prepared to recieve
and use in conjunction with the said water surface condenser-ice, either in the form
of blocks or in any suitable form or condition, the said receptacle or receptacles
being made impervious to surrounding temperatures, and in the bottom of such
receptacles are fitted suitable supports for the ice to keep it free from contact with
water, and certain slides or shutters are provided so as to arrest or facilitate the.
melting of the ice as desired thus always ensuring the condensation of all escaping
steam from the motor engines, whether the same are worked as condensing engines
with vacuum upon their pistons or otherwise. A separate and direct exhaust steam
outlet passage can also be fitted to the engine so as to discharge exhaust steam into
furnace or direct to chimney according to nature of fuel and furnace used, and the
said exhaust steam can also be combined with and emitted to the atmosphere
together with the discharged cooling air above alluded to as used for cooling the
steam in its first stage, the said steam or steam and air being led to furnace or
chimney, or annular space around chimney as desired. I also provide and fit if
found necessary other similar receptacles upon the locomotive or motor vehicle to
recieve ice, also provided with drain pipes leading to the water supply, tank or to
the surface condenser, and the current of air is produced by suitable mechanism from
the main engines, or its moving gear, as is also the air pump, feed pump, circulating
water pump and other parts for the purposes specified above.
The general arrangement of all the above mentioned improvements in combination
with each other for the purpose of producing thereby self propelled road vehicles by
steam will be further particularised and drawn in my Complete Specification.
I have in addition to the above, and in combination with it an arrangement for
propelling the locomotive by hand power in case of emergency the said gear being
perferably fitted to each end of the countershaft which carries the above mentioned
.clutches.
Dated this 17th day of Santambar 1896

page_text: Improvements in Road Locomotives.
I, THOMAS BALLARD MARCHANT of Verney Wharf, Verney Road, Rotherhithe New
Road in the County of Surrey, Mechanical Engineer do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
In my Provisional Specification is generally described the methods I employ to effect
the improvements made in locomotives intended for hauling purposes upon common
roads, and in this my final specification, and by means of its accompanying drawings
I have further described and illustrated the manner in which I prefer to carry out my
invention. But I do not bind myself to the precise dimensions, the exact proportions,
the particular arrangement of the various separate parts which together make up the
entire machine, but I must obviously arrange the various component parts in
accordance with the general design of the haulage locomotive to which they are to
belong. As for instance one may be designed in such a manner as to constitute a
self contained locomotive carriage or waggon for passengers or goods, while another
engine may be intended to be used as a hauling locomotive only, for drawing other
vehicles along, therefore I cannot illustrate all the arrangements which may have to
be resorted to in adapting the invention as set forth in my claims below, and 1 hereby
furthermore declare that I make no claim to have invented any new mechanical
movements but only make use of well known mechanical devices as the means of
producing by their peculiar design and arrangement or combination a new effect not
hitherto applied to the subject matter and title of this my invention, producing a new
automatically controlled combined steering and driving gear for road vehicles,
whatever motive power they may be propelled by, a new and more efficient method
of applying supplementary hand gear in case of emergency such as failure of the
motive power or for purposes of moving the said motor vehicle or hauling engine whon
not charged with its peculiar propelling force. The above mentioned hand gear being
peculiarly useful in combination with the steering and driving gear hereafter to be
described.
And further when the particular motor or engine is required to be driven by steam
power 1 apply my new and improved method of condensing the steam which escapes
from the exbaust pipe of the engine, the improvements being the subjecting of the
said steam to several distinctive and successive stages, the cooling effect of atmospheric
air the further cooling by means of a surface condenser with its usual water circulating
pump and tubes, and the cooling action of ice, carried in especially designed
receptacles as hereafter described, and as drawn in the accompanying drawings.
Now the way I prefer to carry out my invention of the combined steering and
driving gear is as follows.
On Sheet 1 is shewn in plan, and in Sheet 2 in side elevation a road motor propelled
by steam power in which drawings are shewn one example of the application of my
invention, and further examples of the same are shewn on Sheets 3 & 4 hereafter to be
referred to. A are the two driving road wheels, revolving each upon the axle ends B.
Affixed to the said wheels A are their respective driving chain or toothed wheels C
by which the road wheels are driven, the said chain or cog wheels deriving their
rotary motion in either direction from the countershaft D, and upon each end of the
said shaft D is placed a friction clutch shewn at E, and these clutches are each moved
in or ont of gear by suitable levers, applying motion and force to the clutches
independantly of each other, so that by controlling these levers marked For their
equivalents, the said clutches are in or out of gear with their respective road wheels
which they drive, and the said control is given to the levers F by their attachment to

page_text: the double cam G which cam is mounted upon the centre spindle of the steering
mechanism H, and as will be seen on Sheet 1 this double cam is so designed that when
the steering road wheel I is in its central position as drawn the larger portions of the
cam are holding out at their widest limit the ends of the said clutch levers F and
where as in this instance the levers are pivoted at some intermediate point in their
length as at J it is clear that both of the clutches are being forcibly held in contact
with the countershaft and are consequently transmitting the required power to rotate
the two wheels A and thus to propel the motor in a straight line as shewn. Now
when the motor is required to turn around a curved path the person steering the
machine will rotate the spindle H and with it its steering road wheel I and likewise
the cam G, and at a required point the said cam in revolving will present to the lever
end F the portion of its circumference K which is removed, and in consequence the
one lever (according to the direction of rotation of the cam) will be liberated and with
it its clutch and of course its respective driving wheel A and under these conditions
the whole of the motive power is then being transmitted to the particular driving
road wheel which is required to traverse the outside of the circular path in which the
motor has to travel and it will now be apparant that this automatic mechanism will
materially lessen the loss of motive power usually wasted in turning corners and will
entail absolutely no thought upon the person actuating the same, slight modifications
will have to be made to suit engines of different constructions, an example being given
on Sheets 3 & 4 of its application to a motor having two steering wheels upon the
road, the same letters and description being applicable as for the preceeding examples.
In Sheets 1 & 2 the levers F are shewn guided and connected by a sliding grooved
frame in which the clutch levers F can move as far as required in either direction,
but in Sheets 3 & 4 the levers F are joined by a shaft M held in position by brackets N.
and two separate half cams are employed one on each steering spindle H, but any
modification of the mechanism does not affect the main idea of the invention-which
is the connecting together by mechanical gear of the motion of the steering gear to
that of the driving clutches of the road wheels, and it is also obvious that the pattern
of the said clutches can be varied, or that the friction clutches can be put either upon
the ends of the engine shaft from which power is derived, or upon a countershaft as
drawn or upon the road wheel or its axle, although I prefer to illustrate the invention
as drawn.
Now the hand propelling gear which I apply to road motors and the object of which
has been above described is constructed and applied in the following manner. It will
be understood that by the above described connection between the steering and driving
mechanism any power band or otherwise which is applied to the particular shaft upon
which the controlling clutches are fitted will be transmitted with the utmost effect
exactly to the driving wheel requiring it and therefore hand power is especially
efficient when fitted in conjunction therewith. Now the simplest manner is to provide
upon each end of the said countershaft D a suitable provision for a crank handle,
which handles can be carried loosely under ordinary conditions & only fixed to the
countershaft when hand power is needed. It will be seen that it would be then
unnecessary to apply force to either particular end of the shaft, and in crowded
traffic or similar conditions any power applied to one end of the shaft is properly
applied to the road wheel or wheels in relation and according to the position of the
steering wheel or wheels I. I prefer however to provide upon the clutch shaft Da
wheel having teeth, which wheel is keyed to the said shaft; as shewn on Sheet 4
and mounted upon it is a small shaft placed in a convenient position for the
attendant to reach at the same time as he is controlling the steering and clutch gear,
and I provide sufficiently powerful gear to enable the said attendant to effectually if
slowly propel the entire motor in any direction required, so that when no other motive
power is available, for instance in place of breakdown the machine is still under
manual control.
The particular mechanism applied to the above mentioned wheel with its supple
mentary shaft is obviously a matter of detail design as such gearing must be more or
less powerful as required on motors of different design and weight.

page_text: Upon Sheets 3 & 4 I have illustrated the hand gear I prefer to fit in ordinary
motors such as are shewn upon the accompanying drawings, where D is the counter
or clutch shaft and C is the spur wheel fixed to the same, C is the small hand
shaft upon which is mounted a worm C3 which is fixed to C2 and revolves with the
same. Sufficient space is provided for the said worm and its shaft to slide entirely
out of gear with the main wheel C when required and the position of the said worm
in or out of gear is controlled by a cross bolt or pin C4 passing through the friction
collar C5 and made to coincide with corresponding holes bored through shaft C2 as
drawn, C6 is a hand wheel by which power is applied, a collar shaft and falling catch
'can be substituted for the friction collar and pin, the effect being the same in each
case, the turning of the hand wheel will draw the worm in or out of gear & if a
keyway be cut in the end of the shaft as at C7 & a feather fixed into the friction
collar as drawn the insertion of the pin C4 will be facilitated thereby.
I hereby farther declare that I do not rely upon any particular application of well
known means of exerting manual power to propel road motors in case of emergency
but what I do hereby say is I have invented is an improved combination of the
steering, and driving gear so coupled together with the hand gear mechanism that a
greater amount of efficiency and convenience is obtained from the applied manual
power, as a much greater hand power would be required if it were not applied in
'combination with such automatic gear. Further it is not necessary for the man using
the band gear last described to leave his proper place upon the footplate of the
machine as the hand gear is fixed immediately against the steering gear, and it is.
obvious that the said hand gear would be also available as a turning gear for placing
the driving engines into their starting position when required.
The way in which I perfer to arrange the various parts of my improved condensing-
apparatus as applied to haulage motors is illustrated upon Sheet 1 & 2 of the
drawings referred to in this specification and their description is as follows. Steam
for motive power is generated in a boiler O, which said steam is passed to the
cylinder of a steam engine in the usual manner. Now when the said steam emerges
from the said cylinder or cylinders by an exhaust pipe or passage P it is conveyed
perferably first into a chamber Q and from which are taken a number of thin small
tubes R, which said tubes convey the exhaust steam along them until they terminate
in a second chamber S. Around the tubes R is constructed an air tight casing T
and into this casing at one end or other and throngh one of the openings U is fixed
a pipe V which conveys atmospheric air from a blower or pump, or fan, in this case
a fan shewn at W Sheet 1. When the said air has been compelled to traverse the
easing surrounding the said tubes R it is if necessary to combustion of fuel directed
under the grate or ash pan of the boiler and if not necessary for that purpose it is
allowed to escape to an annular space X Sheet 1, where it escapes to open air together
with the products of combustion from the chimney Y of the boiler. Now the said
current of air may not have sufficiently cooled the exhaust steam, I therefore now
convey what remains uncondensed through a pipe Z Sheets 1 & 2, into one end of a
water surface condenser a preferably sending the steam through the interior of the
condenser tubes as is usual (though not necessarily so as will be seen &
explained hereafter). When the steam has passed through the surface condenser a
and it has not yet been totally liquified, or its resultant water is of too high a
temperature a further cooling effect is brought to bear upon it as follows.
Fitted in a convenient part of the machine perferably over the water surface
condenser last describet is a chamber Sheets 1 & 2 made to store ice c in any
convenient form, usually in the form of artificially formed blocks, as it is of course
'mostly required in warin weather when the combined cooling effect of the air cooling
current and the water surface condenser might not of themselves be sufficient. I.
therefore then bring the cooling effect of ice to hear upon the condensing steam to.
ensure perfect condensation & the required vacuum.
The said ice receptacle drawn on Sheets 1 & 2 is made with hollow walls, thus
deaving a surrounding space d in which may be placed non-conducting substances to
prevent radiation, & loss of ice, or it may be surrounded with cold water on its way

page_text: from the cold water tank b to the surface of the tubes of the condenser a. and which
is being driven by a circulating water pump in the usual way in surface condensing
steam engines.
Or further in some cases I make use of the space around the ice chamber or
chambers or of some of them to draw through them the air to the inlet of the fan or
blower thus imparting part of the initial heat of the air to the contiguous ice, and of
course thus lowering the temperature of the incoming air. This latter method
I perfer to adopt when to economise space I have to so construct the air and water
condenser partly into conjunction with each other. I do this by placing the tubes of
the air condenser R. see Fig. 2 & 3 Sheet 4 in such a manner that they co-incide with
the position and number of the tubes of the water condenser a, then by building A
partly around the casing T and making the tubes R. pass through the set of tubes
in A, leaving sufficient space between them to enable the current of air which is
passing in from the space around the ice chamber b, to flow on its way through the
tubes in T. This arrangement is drawn on Sheet 4 Fig. 2 & 3 and is an example of
the three stages or means of cooling and condensing steam, operating partly at the
same time, one stage overlapping as it were the next, and it is within the scope of
this my invention to use any two of the stages say air & ice only, to condense the
steam, or water & ice only, or all three of the stages simultaneously as required by
surrounding conditions or contingencies.
The chamber or chambers forming the inlet & outlets U of the air tube casings T
can be enlarged so as to form one end of the condenser a, this chamber having a tube
plate e, bored with small holes to take the tubes R. The adjacent chamber f has a
tube plate bored to take larger tubes than R, therefore the cold air from the ice
chambers or the cold water from the, same can be made to flow through the annular
space g left between the two concentric sets of tubes as required & as set forth in
Sheet 4 Fig. 2 & 3.
To properly control the melting of the said ice I fit to the bottom of the chamber
or chambers in which ice is stored, certain slides h, by moving which to and fro certain
communications are made with the cooling water used for the condenser a, through
which any water from the melting ice is allowed to fall into and mix with the stream
entering the condenser, thus cooling the said water for the purpose set forth.
Supplementary ice chambers are also if required placed if possible over the water
supply tanks, and to which chambers are also fitted the above mentioned slides to
regulate the melting of their contained ice, as are also the hollow spaces around them
in a similar way to the first mentioned receptacles Sheet 1 & 2, the whole being fitted
with the necessary supports, the net work trays shewn in plan on Sheet 1. and also the
slides & drain pipes above described and for the purposes set forth herin.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
1st. The automatically worked combination of the steering mechanism of a road
vebicle with its driving wheel friction clutches and gear to facilitate turning corners &
to economise power, such driving and steering gear being so designed as to put both
driving road wheels in action when the vehicle is running in a comparatively straight
line, but only the outer wheel when turning curves of less than a desired radius.
2. The application of hand power emergency driving gear in conjunction with the
said automatic steering and driving gear whereby the same man can operate the
vehicle by hand should the motive power fail, or not be operating for the time being.
3. The described methods in combination with each other of step by step
condensation of the exhaust steam in steam driven road motors by the different.
stages and means mentioned i.e. by currents of air, by currents of water and by
currents of water or air or beth, cooled by melting ie or the combined effect of all or
any two of the described agents, acting partly or wholly together simultaneously,
or consecutavely.

page_text: 4. The combination in a road locomotive of the subject of Claim 1 and Claim 2,
whatever its primary propelling power may be.
5. The combination in a steam propelled road locomotive or motor vehicle of the
whole of the subject matter of the preceeding four claims, making in combination
with each other a new and improved condensing, steering and driving, or hand
propelled motor as described and drawn.
6. The combined air, water and ice condenser with its one set of tubes passing
through the other and outer set, one set of tubes passing the exhaust steam, the other
passing the cooling water or air, or passing one element around the outside of the
large tubes, a second in the interior of the small tubes, and a third through the
annular space left between the two sets of concentric tubes as described & drawn with
their respective chambers and tube plates for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 16th day of December 1896.
THOMAS BALLARD MARCHANT.