AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WAGGONS THAT HAVE TO TRAVEL ON RAILWAYS OR ON TRAMWAYS.
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CHAPMAN, of the Town and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourteenth day of August last, for Himself, His heirs and suc-
cessors, did give and grant unto me, the said William Chapman, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Chapman, my exors, adññors, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and
themselves, or by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or
such others, as I, the said William Chapman, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term of years therein unexpired, should. and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WAGGONS THAT HAVE TO TRAVEL ON
RAILWAYS OR ON TRAMWAYS.;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso, obliging me, the said. William Chapman, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, particularly. to. describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
.

page_text: on or before the Fourteenth day of October now next ensuing, as in and b
the same, reference being thereto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the sai
William Chapman, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same and every part thereof is to be
performed, by the Plan or Drawing hereto annexed and referred to, and the
following description thereof (that is to say):
The chief inconvenience designed to be obviated by my said Invention of
an improvement or improvements in the construction of waggons that have
to travel on railways or on tramways, I cannot illustrate more forcibly
than in the following explanation, deduced principally from Mr. Nicholas
Wood's valuable Treatise on Railways :-
66
"6
"
"In the form of railways carriages placed upon four wheels, the weight
upon any one of them is far from being regular. The frame of the car-
riages is necessarily made square, and the sides quite parallel to each other,
"and are kept permanently so by the sides being strongly bolted or fastened
"to each other. The bearing section of the wheels is therefore perfectly
square and parallel, and when the road is not similarly square and parallel
(which in practice is seldom the case), the weight of the carriage will
"therefore be frequently resting on three wheels only, but chiefly on two, in
a diagonal direction; and from which cause, unless the rails be nearly twice
as strong as otherwise necessary, a considerable breakage of them must take
place."
"
66
My Invention proposes to remedy this inconvenience in the simply effica-
cious and inexpensive method herein-after described and ascertained, which is
as easily applicable to existing waggons as in their first construction, and
without any inconvenience to their modes of loading and unloading.
Fig. I. is the side elevation of a common coal waggon, with the position of
its wheels shewn only by dotted lines. Fig. II. is an inside elevation of a
common waggon wheel, in which 1, 1, is a cylindric plate, rising at right
angles several inches beyond the axle of the wheel, the use of which plate (as
the carriage only rests upon and is not attached to the axletree,) is, that when
the linear course of the waggon is altered by the wheel coming in contact
with an oblique bar, placed to change the direction of the carriage, this plate
strikes against the outside face of the adjacent sole tree of the waggon (see 3
Fig. III.), or more generally against an iron plate outside of it, and conse-
quently forces the wheels to assume a new direction. a, Fig. I. and Fig. III.,
shews the position of one end of the axletrees when the rails forming the

page_text: different sides do not accord with each other in the same line of elevation or
depression, in which case one end of an axletree will fall below the sole of
the waggon, and nearly the whole weight will be borne by the fore wheel
on one side and the hind one on the other, so as to charge the rails with
nearly double the weight they ought to carry. It is scarcely practicable;
particularly in newly-formed ways, to avoid some inequality of level
of the opposite sides. This inequality of level is shewn in Fig. I. and
Fig. IV., in which the black line under the wheels shews the near line, of
railway, and the far one is expressed by the dotted lines upon which the far
wheel has its outline, also shewn by small dots. Now, this portion of my said
Invention of an improvement or improvements in the construction of waggons
that have to travel on railways or tramways, consists in equalizing the pressure
on the four wheels, notwithstanding any casual inequality of ascent or descent
between the two sides of the way, by the following method, (that is to say,)
by placing under one of the side sills of the waggon a detached bar of
wood or metal (shewn in Fig. IV. and in Fig. V.) moving upon a centre half
way between the axles of the two wheels on that side of the carriage, and
resting near the ends upon the journals of those axles, so that the carriage
and its load may always rest upon four wheels, notwithstanding any casual
disparity of level that may exist between the two sides. In the instance given
in Fig. IV. this bar "a, a," which I shall call an equalizing bar, is formed
of cast iron, with an opening at each end to pass over the journals of the
two axles on that side; "b, b," Fig. IV., is an upright or ring post; and
b, c," "b, c," are two diagonal iron rods through the ring post and side
sil towards its end, to give it the strength necessary to sustain the weight
there;
d, d," is a metal plate under the sill, with its concavity resting on the
axle of the equalizing bar; the lines "h, h," shew a strong staple, one of
which should be on each side of the sill or sole tree of the waggon, and passed
over the projecting axis of the equalizing bar to retain it in its place; "u, u,"
are staples or individual upright bars on each side of the waggon sole tree,
which may be placed as a security to prevent the ends of the equalizing bar from
being moved sideways on any change of direction which they are not materially
liable to be, because the fore wheel on either side, on receiving a side shock
from the oblique bar (or switch rail) to alter the course of the waggon, gives
its necessary impulse by means of the circular plate (1, 1, Fig. II.) striking
the outside of the adjacent sole tree of the waggon, the shock of which would
quickly derange any machinery not perfectly protected. Heavy waggons with
great loads must strain greatly, by the half of their weight being frequently
"

page_text: and alternately supported at one end only of their sole trees in place of bearing
uniformly, which point is attained by the equalizing bar, and, therefore, the
waggons will be less liable to need repairs, or may be made of a slighter con-
struction; coals also will be less subject to be partially ground to dust than
they now are in long distances by the shaking and working of the waggons.
The above described improvement of the permanent fixture of an equalizing
bar on one side of a four-wheel railway carriage is not applicable to the side
sill of a waggon of more than four wheels, because a lateral as well as a
vertical motion then becomes requisite to every set of four wheels, and they of
course require a transome resting upon a centre under the body of the carriage,
without which a carriage of six or eight wheels could not move along any curve
of railway, or deviation from a straight course. Another improvement is the
advantage arising from the axles never falling at either end below their seat,
which consequently continues to rest upon them, so that no casual opening is left
for the admission of coal or other dust, and also that by the method shewn at
the extremity of the equalizing bar a compress of tow or hemp, or other soft
substance, or two or three folds of thick woollen or other cloth or material
saturated with tallow, lard, or other unguent, may always press under the
journal of the axletree so as to keep it greased, which method may likewise
be adopted on the other side of the waggon, as will be shewn in the explana-
tion of the subsequent Figures. Also, if deemed expedient, the equalizing
bar may have some degree of elasticity so as to reduce the shocks and con-
sequent resistance arising from any impediment on the rail. It may be
necessary to observe that in common practice, although the load be not always
borne by four wheels, the wheels themselves at all times necessarily rest on the
railway or tramway, because if any one was lifted up through inequality of
the two sides of the way, the opposite wheel on that axle, from being confined
on one side only, would soon get off the way; therefore, under the existing
construction the axles cannot properly be confined to the bushes or seats
under which they revolve, but have liberty to fall downwards so far as the
inequality of the two sides of the way may require. This is effected by leaving
an open space below the journals, guided by a downward projection on cach
side by bolts or otherwise, which are in many instances connected by a cross
bolt "y" at some distance below the axle to prevent its being totally displaced
by any accident, as shewn in Figure VII., where. "t, t," are, in their lower
portion, guide bars with shoulders below the bush or carriage under which the
journals of the axle wheels rest; in their upper part these bars are formed as
bolts to pass upwards through the side sill, and are secured by nuts.

page_text: "
Fig. V. shews the equalizing bar on an enlarged scale, on which "n" is a
projection at each end with a bolt hole through it, by means of which the
greasing apparatus, shewn at one end, may be affixed to it. This apparatus
consists of the forked piece "m" piece "m," which receives in its fork the
connecting bar, sustaining the cradle ".
g at one end, and the counterbalance
"w" at the other. This bar is secured to "m" by a pin put through both.
In this instance the connecting bar passes through a slit in the downward end
of the equalizing bar and presses under the cradle, which, at a due distance
to allow for the thickness of the compress, has its upper surface concentric to
the journal, and extends in both directions nearly to the wilth of the cavity in
which the journal revolves. The cradle may be a thin curved plate of iron,
grooved or indented to prevent the compress slipping from it, and if not
attached to the connecting bar, the latter should lay in a groove or between
projections under the greaser, which in most cases may be preferably formed
of wood. The counterpoise "w" may be either fixed or moveable to such a
position inwards or outwards as may be sufficient to give due pressure to the
saturated compress. The cradle and compress may obviously be forced
upwards by a spring; one way of doing which is shewn in Fig. VI., where
"s, s," are staples affixed to the sole tree of the waggon, and "t, t," are th
combined bolts and guide bars already described, with this difference, that below
the shoulders of the bolt the guide bar "t, t," should be forked, through which
and through the staples "s, s," a thin plate of steel "v, v," may pass in a
groove under the cradle to prevent its slipping off. The steel bar may have a
projection at its ends to prevent its slipping off. Its stress may also be
increased or diminished by screws under its ends at "4, 4." The counterpoise
shewn in Fig. VII. and VIII. obviously admit of due adjustment to any
required pressure of the compress. Fig. VII. shews a lengthway view of the
greasing apparatus, by counterpoise applied to the common construction of wag-
gons already described, where the journal of the wheel axles is prevented by a
bolt and flat bar on each side from getting out of its place, and Fig. VIII. shews
a bottom view of the counterpoise and greaser (where the letters of reference
are the same as in the preceding Figures; "t, t," shews the lower ends of the
guide bars. Where the equalizing bar is used on one side of the railway carriage,
it is obvious that the axles on the opposite side cannot fall below the bushes
they revolve in; without the equalizing bar they certainly must do so casually, in
which case they will of course be subject to an accession of coal or other dust

page_text: above them, which will require a more frequent change of the compress.
Under any predicament it is not only essential to keep the journals of the
wheel axles well greased, but the saving of waste of tallow or other grease in
its casual and frequently neglected application is a considerable advantage
attendant on this apparatus, as an additional and constituent part of the
construction of waggons travelling on railways or tramways; on which it may
be necessary to observe that when the compress is nearly saturated, the
counterpoise "w" should be run so far inwards as to press lightly on the
greaser, and may be moved outwards when the contents of the compress are
nearly exhausted. Likewise to prevent the unguent, of whatever description
it may be, from being wasted through the ends of the compress, it will be
advisable to tack a slip of leather (properly formed) on each end of the
greaser.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Chapman, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Fourth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named William Chapman (being first
duly stamped), in the presence of
WILL" (L.S.) CHAPMAN.
HENRY SHADFORTH MORTON.
COCKERILL, Ud.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of October, in the
year of our Lord 1827, the aforesaid William Chapman came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.