IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE AXLES AND WHEELS OF CARRIAGES, AND IN THE MEANS OF PROPELLING THE SAME
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Sainsbury and Henry Edward
Merritt at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th October
1877.
HENRY SAINSBURY and HENRY EDWARD MERRITT, both of Curtain Road, in the
County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO THE AXLES AND WHEELS
OF CARRIAGES, AND IN THE MEANS OF PROPELLING THE SAME."
The objects of this Invention are, firstly, to obtain security for a carriage, should
the axle or axletree by any accident become fractured, bent, or otherwise disabled;
and secondly, to dispense with the necessity of employing horse or other external
traction power for drawing the carriage, such as is usually employed with ordinary
road or other carriages.
In carrying out the first part of the Invention a circular groove is made round
the periphery of the boss or nave of the wheel, so that the latter is capable of
working up and down on vertical guides forming part of a peculiarly shaped slide,
to which are attached helical or spiral springs, upon which the body of the carriage
rests instead of upon the ordinary elliptic carriage springs. As the boss of the
wheel is furnished with a groove which is fitted into a portion of the slide (pre-
ferably of a semicircular form), and the axletree passes through the centre of the
boss, the latter may be made much larger and not so strong as those generally
used.
It will now be understood that should any accident occur to the axle or axletree,
the body of the carriage would only drop an inch or two, as the semicircular portion
of the slide would go "home" into the groove formed on the boss or nave of the
wheel, and would thereby support the whole structure without detriment to its
running or rolling powers.
The second part of the Invention relates to the means of propelling carriages, for
which purpose we use a powerful spiral or volute spring, which is enclosed in a
case or drum, on one side of the periphery of which is a cog or spur wheel which
gears into a pinion attached to the boss of the wheel, or some convenient part of
the axle.
On the opposite side of the drum or spring box is a ratchet wheel keyed on the
same centre pin as that to which the spring is attached. There is also loosely

page_text: mounted on this centre a long lever furnished with a spring and pawl that takes
into the before-mentioned ratchet wheel. The opposite end of the long lever is
slotted, and is traversed by a crank pin attached to the side of a heavy fly wheel
keyed on a crank shaft, which is turned by a treadle under the command of the
conductor of the carriage. Another ratchet wheel and pawl are secured to the same
centre pin as that to which the spring is attached, the ratchet teeth in this instance
being formed in the opposite sense to those upon the first-mentioned ratchet wheel.
The whole apparatus (excepting of course the long end of the lever) is then par-
tially enclosed in a strong case and attached by plates, bolts, or other suitable means,
to the axles of the wheels. Long spiral springs mounted on mandrils or guides
are secured to the outside of the casing in order to prevent jolting while travelling.
We prefer to adapt a spring apparatus and treadle arrangement to each of the hind
wheels; but if preferred, the motive-power spring may be adapted to the central
part of the axletree on which the two running wheels may be keyed.
The modus operandi is as follows:-The spring of the apparatus is first wound
up by a key, box spanner, or winch, and then set in motion by the conductor, giving
a turn to the fly weel. The effect will be that the spring will cause the spur wheel
to turn, and motion will be communicated to the axle through the pinion with
which it gears, and' after one revolution of the wheels of the carriage, an amount of
the stored power of the spring (equal to, say, three teeth of the ratchet) will have
been expended. In order to restore this power to the spring the conductor will
force down the treadle attached to. the crank axle of the fly wheel, and the motion
being communicated through the fly wheel to the long lever, and pawl, and thence
to the ratchet, which is keyed on the centre pin of the spring, the spring will be
wound up again and caused to receive an amount of power equal to that which it
had already expended, viz., an amount represented by the space of three ratchet
teeth. The spring will then again give motion to the running wheels, and the
whole operation will be repeated.
The conductor will be supplied with hand wheels with which to put on the
brakes, and also with a hand lever arrangement to steer the carriage.