IMPROVE- MENTS IN RAILROAD WHEELS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Webster Woodman, of No. 14, Boulevart Mont-
martre, in the City of Paris, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RAILROAD WHEELS."-A communication from J. W. Alden, of
New York.
Scaled the 29th September 1857, and dated the 10th July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Webster Woodman at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th July 1857.
I, WEBSTER WOODMAN, of No. 14, Boulevart Montmatre, in tho City
of Paris, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILROAD WHEELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in railroad wheels, and
consists in constructing a wheel of two wrought-iron plates combined with
a suitable hub or nave, and united together at the flange. For this purpose
one of the plates is (by being pressed or stamped between dies or otherwise)
bent into a cylindrical or conical form to produce the tread or periphery of
the wheel, and is further bent to form the flange thereto; the other plate is
formed suitably to be connected with the flange of the first plate. Both of

page_text: the plates are made concave between the centre and the circumference, and
at the centre a hub or nave of cast or wrought iron, suitably formed to fit the
concave surfaces of the plates, is placed between them, so that when the two
plates aro rivetted or otherwise united together at the flange, the hub or nave
is securely held between them, or the hub or navo may be otherwise secured
to the plates. The hub or nave and the plates are each made with a suitable
hole in the centre for the axle. Instead of forming the wheel with a hub or
nave of cast or wrought iron, the space between the two plates may be filled
with iron either poured in in a molten state or first cast to the required form.
A tyre similar to that of an ordinary railway wheel may, if desired, be shrunk
on over the periphery of the wheel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Webster Woodman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WEESTER
WOODMAN, of No. 14, Boulevart Montmartre, in the City of Paris, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Webster Woodman, Her special licence that I, the said Webster Woodman, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Webster
Woodman, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILROAD
WHEELS,
a communication from J. W. Alden, of New York, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Webster Woodman, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, of 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
mouths next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Webster Woodman, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
The Invention consists in constructing a railroad wheel of two wrought-
iron plates combined with a suitable hub, and united at the flange, as hercin-
after described.
Figuro 1 in the Drawing represents a section of the front plate of the
wheel, parts of which form the tread and half of the flange, said section being
taken in a plane passing through the axis; Figure 2 is a corresponding
section of the back plate, parts of which form the other half of the flange;
Figure 8 is a section of the wheel complete; Figure 4 is a section of a similar
wheel with the addition of a steel or chilled cast-iron tyre. Similar letters
of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures. The front
plate A, shown in Figures 1, 3, and 4, and the back plate B, shewn in
Figures 2, 3, and 4, are cach formed from a suitable sheet or mass of wrought
iron by a pressing or stamping operation between suitable dies. Of the front
plate, a, a, is the portion constituting the tread of the wheel; b, b, is the
portion constituting half the flange; and c, c, is the portion which unites
the tread with the hub. Of the back plate, d, d, is the portion which con-
stitutes half of the flange; and e, e, the portion which unites the flange and
hub. The portions a, b, d, unite to produce the same form as the cor-
responding portions of other railroad wheels, and the parts c, c, and e, e, may
be of the same form as the corresponding parts of other double plate wheels,
or of any other suitable form; but I generally make both plates concave
internally near the centre, or bevelling outward towards the centre, so that
a hub C of cast or wrought iron made with two convex or bevelled faces,
substantially as shown in Figures 3 and 4, may be firmly confined between
them when the parts band d, constituting the two halves of the flange are
united together. Tho parts b and d are united together by riveting or any
equivalent means by which they can be firmly secured together so as to give
the flange the characteristics of a solid flange. D, in Figure 4, is the tire,
which is shrunk on in the same manner as the tires of other railroad wheels,
whose tires are made separate from the other parts of the wheel. The
application of the tire involves no change in the construction of the wheel.
The tire, however, constitutes no part of the Invention, as the wheel is in
a measure complete without it. Instead of providing the wheel with a hub c,
as shown in the Drawing, the whole space between the plates A, B, inay be

page_text: filled with cast iron, which may be poured into it in a molten state or first
cast to the required form. The wheel constructed as above specified, that is
to say, with the two plates A and B formed and united as described, combines
cheapness with great durability.
In witness whereof, I, the said Webster Woodınan, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
T. BASSET, of Paris.
WEBSTER WOODMAN. (L.S.)