IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPLIANCES EMPLOYED IN THE LOADING UNLOADING AND CONVEYANCE OF MERCHANDIZE AND IN THE ROLLING STOCK OF RAILWAYS AND IN MACHINERY USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITII
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Sir Henry Bessemer of Denmark Hill in the County of
Surrey for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPLIANCES
EMPLOYED IN THE LOADING UNLOADING AND CONVEYANCE OF MERCHANDIZE
AND IN THE ROLLING STOCK OF RAILWAYS AND IN MACHINERY USED IN
CONNECTION THEREWITII."
(Void by reason of the Patentee having neglected to file a Specification in
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Sir Henry Bessemer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th October 1882.
"IMPROVE
Sir HENRY BESSEMER of Denmark Hill in the County of Surrey.
MENTS IN THE MEANS AND APPLIANCES EMPLOYED IN THE LOADING UNLOADING
AND CONVEYING OF MERCHANDISE, AND IN THE ROLLING STOCK OF RAILWAYS AND
IN MACHINERY USED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH
"
This Invention relates to the conveyance of merchandise from place to place,
partly by means of railways, and partly on suitably constructed trucks trollies or
waggons on the public highway in such a manner that it will be unnecessary. to
unpack and repack such merchandise during the different stages of its transit by
road and rail.
For this purpose I construct trucks trollies or waggons having wheels and axles
suitable for moving over common roads, these vehicles being of different classes
suitable for special kinds of merchandise and each class having wheels of the same
width or distance apart and preferably of the same wheel base or distance from
axle to axle so as to fit in between trams or guides, such vehicles are also to have
the fore wheels made to swivel in the usual way, and to be provided with shafts or
poles at one or both ends, and which can be turned up into an erect position when
not in use on the public road.
Secondly I construct a long jointed or articulated moveable railway platform or
truck or a series of platforms or trucks without raised sides or ends, the several
parts of the platform may be connected by links or by a sort of hinge joint at the

page_text: central part of each end such joint forming either a permanent part of the carriage,
or forming part of a draw bar arrangement with or without spiral or other springs
a central beam or girder running underneath and along the whole length of each
separate portion of the platform. On the flat even upper surface of each portion
of the platform I fix a series of tram plates or dividing pieces across the platform 5
or truck so as to be at right angles to the rails of which the platform rests, each
pair of tram plates or dividing pieces having a space between them. suitable for
receiving and retaining in position one of the trucks trollies or waggons firstly
described and placed so close together as to admit of as large a number of theso
vehicles as can be placed side by side in each section of the moveable platform at 10
the several railway stations or yards where the merchandise is to be received or
delivered, I form sidings the rails of which are at such a depth below the general
surface. that the moveable platform shall be level therewith and I make these
sidings of such a width as to admit only of one line of moveable platforms between
them, the sides of the moveable platform nearly touching the edge or curb of the 18
yard or station on both sides of it so that both -men-and-horses can freely-pass-
across the moveable platform from one side-to-another-and-so that the trucks trollies-
or waggons standing-in the-yard ready loaded may be quickly drawn by horses
who pass over the moveable platform and deposit their load upon it in the spaces:
between the trams and which are to be there secured by chocks or moveable, stops 20
placed between or beneath the wheels, or by other suitablo means the engine-
drawing the moveable platform may then proceed on its journey and on its arrival
at a distant station and passing into a similar siding the loaded trucks trollies or
waggons-having-their-shafts let down inay be drawn off the platform by horses and
be-at-once conveyed by common road to their final-destination.
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Or in lieu of such use of horses for loading or unloading the moveable platform,
a series of short tram plates may be laid on the station yard and close up to the
curb of the siding.-Between these short trams a series of loaded trucks trollies or
waggons may be placed in readiness for removal and on the opposite side of the
siding a series of vertical capstan_posts may be erected_and_made to revolve by 30
means of bevilled gear in connection with an underground horizontal shaft worked
by-a small engine. Under these circumstances the hauling of the several loads into
their position.on-the-moveable-platform-may-be-effected by a rope and-hook attached
to the trolley and a hitch of the other end of the rope made round the moving
capstan will haul them into position on the moveable platform-the rope passed 35
over a snatch block and pulling.in. a.reverse direction will in like-manner serve to
unload them.
"
I would further add that when such moveable platforms are made of considerablo
length in each section I prefer to support them on a pair of swivelling bogies and
to strengthen the central part by a deep fish-bellied girder running centrally under 40
the platform from one bogie to the other but I prefer to make the several sections
of the moveable platform of a moderate length only and to have near each end of
the section a pair of flanged railway wheels of the usual type and to place between
them a central pair or sometimes two pairs of railway wheels having no flanges on
their tyres the tread of these wheels being quite cylindrical and much wider on the 45
face than the ordinary wheels-these wheels serve effectually to support the weight
and do not prevent the end pairs from guiding the moveable platform round a curvo
as would be the case if all were provided with flanges such plain unflanged
supporting wheels may be used with advantage on other vehicles used on railways
whenever such vehicles are of great length.
50