IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR DISTRIBUTING SAND OR OTHER MATERIALS UPON STREETS AND ROADWAYS, AND WHICH MAY BE USED AS WELL FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, AND ALSO IN ARRANGING such AND OTHER CARRIAGES AND VEHICLES UPON SPRINGS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Lowry at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 14th December 1876.
GEORGE LOWRY, of Cross Street Iron Works, Salford, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGES AND ARRANGEMENTS FOR DISTRIBUTING
SAND OR OTHER MATERIALS UPON STREETS AND ROADWAYS, AND WHICH MAY BE
USED AS WELL FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES, AND ALSO IN ARRANGING such
AND OTHER CARRIAGES AND VEHICLES UPON SPRINGS."
Firstly. The object of my Invention is a carriage to contain the sand or other
material, and combined therewith self-acting arrangements or mechanism, which
will cause this sand or material to be evenly distributed upon the street, roadway,
or surface over which the carriage is drawn by animal or other power; or the
arrangement for containing the sand or other material and the self-acting mechanism
is made separately so as to be placed, when required, upon any suitable carriage,
which may also be used for other purposes.
My Invention consists of a carriage to contain and a hopper or arrangement of
screws to conduct or convey the material to the distributing mechanism, which may
be a trumpet-shaped tube, rectangular in cross section, having partitions or channels
in it, and mounted upon an axis placed horizontal, and in the line in which the
carringe moves, so as to be oscillated to and fro like a pendulum, the sand passing
from the hopper down the channels of this oscillating tube, to be thrown first on
one side and then on the other side as the carriage moves along. The oscillations
are produced by a crank, and conveyed by a connecting rod, and the crank is
rotated by gearing in contact with, or by toothed wheels or chains working upon
the supporting wheel or wheels of the carriage. There may be two or more oscillating
distributing tubes working together. Rotary or vibratory distributing mechanism
may be used in place of an oscillating tube or tubes.
Secondly. My Invention relates to arrangements for mounting carriages, such as
those used to carry out the first part of my Invention, or other carriages or vehicles
upon springs, which will be explained in reference to two-wheeled vehicles, the
arrangements being duplicated for four-wheeled vehicles, and it consists in fixing a
descending stem to the bottom of the vehicle in the centre line. The lower end of
this stem has a head or flange upon it, which fits into a cylindrical socket in an
axle of the frame, which I prefer to form of metal in one piece. In the bottom of
the socket one or more discs of india-rubber is placed, upon which the head of the

page_text: stem rests, and round the shank of the stem à ring of india-rubber is placed to come
close against the sides of the socket; these two arrangements of india-rubber provide
both for the vertical and lateral or oscillatory clasticity or spring required by the
vehicle. The wheels run upon axle pins having heads; each pin passes through the
boss of the wheel, and into a hole or socket in the axle frame, which sockets are at
right angles to the vertical socket containing the india-rubber springs, and the ends
of the pins pass into the vertical socket just above the inner edge of the head or
flange of the stem, and thus prevent it from being withdrawn from the socket, the
pins or axles being secured in their sockets by set screws passing through the
latter. There are projections from the body of the vehicle that descend past the
axle frame to prevent it from turning upon the central stem, but in the case of the
front wheels of four-wheeled vehicles the said central stem inay be made hollow
to turn upon a centre pivot or stem fixed to the front part of the body of the
carriage.