CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THOSE AXLETREES AND BOXES WHICH ARE USUALLY TERMED OR KNOWN BY THE NAMES OF MAIL AXLETREES AND BOXES
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MASON, of Castle Street East, Oxford Market, in the City of Westminster
and County of Middlesex, Patent Axletree Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of January, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven, in the seventh year of His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Mason, His especial
licence that I, the said William Mason, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Mason, my exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF THOSE AXLETREES AND BOXES WHICH ARE USUALLY TERMED OR KNOWN BY THE
NAMES OF MAIL AXLETREES AND BOXES;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Mason, 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 to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in
part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at-large-appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said William
Mason, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
Fig. 1 is a longitudinal view and section of an improved mail axletree and
cast-iron box mounted in the nave of a carriage wheel and firmly secured by
wedges. A, the nave; B, B, two of the screws and nuts, which pass through
holes made in the nave and in the iron circular end plates C and D, as usual;
E, F, the front and back hoops of the nave; G, a solid collar formed upon the
axletree, and behind which collar and against the back end of the box the end
plate C is secured by the three or four screws and nuts, two of which are shown
at B, B, in order to keep the nave upon the axletree, a collar of leather H being,
however, previously interposed. I is another leather collar introduced between
the opposite side of the collar G, and a projecting ring J formed withinside the
box K to keep the oil from escaping at that end of the box; L, L, is the larger
cylindrical or wearing part of the axletree or arm within tho box K; M, a
reduced cylindrical part of it, made in order to afford a receptacle for oil around
it within that end of the box; N, a still farther reduced cylindrical part of the
axle, accurately fitted into a cylindrical hole made in the centre of the plug O,
which is screwed into the front end of the box K. The end or bottom
of the hole in the plug O is made flat, and bears against the centre of that
end of the axletree or arm, and which is made slightly convex or rounding, in
order that it may be sure to act against the centre of the flat end of the hole
in the plug with the least possible degree of friction. A piece of leather may
or may not, however, be introduced between that end of the axle and the end
of the hole in the plug O at pleasure. By this means I avail myself of the
whole length of the axletree or arm in order to obtain steadinoss, whilst at
the same time by reducing the length of the larger or bearing part of it L, L,
I cause the wheel to run with more ease and lightness, lessen the friction, and
also obtain a reservoir or receptacle for oil, as before mentioned, at the front
end of the box. In order to lessen the friction of the collar G of the axlotrec
and the leather I upon it against the ring J in the box, I have provided an
adjustinent for the screwed plug O at the opposite end of the box K in the
following manner :-I employ collars of leather of various thicknesses, to be
introduced at P, between the flat shoulder of the screwed plug O and the front
end of the box, and can secure and retain the plug in any required situation
agreeable to the thickness of the interposed leathers by means of a number
of holes Q, Q, formed around the flat circular end of the box, as seen in the

page_text: end view of it, Fig. 2, and also in the sections, Figs. 1 and 8. Into any of
these holes the small end of a screw R(shewn separately in Fig. 6), which
is screwed into a screwed hole made to receive it in the plug O, as shown in
the section of it, Fig. 4, can be made to enter, and the screw being turned
until its head binds fast in the bottom of the enlarged hole made to receive it
in the plug O, it effectually prevents the plug from becoming unscrewed in
use. I can also accomplish a similar purpose by interposing leathers of dif-
ferent thicknesses between the end of the axletree and the bottom of the hole
in the plug O. In order to supply oil to this mail axletree and box, I have
invented the following contrivance :-In Fig. 1, S is a cylindrical hole, made
partly across and near the external end of the plug O, as shewn in the section.
From this hole two others T, T, proceed at right angles, and enter the
reservoir or receptacle for oil provided at the front end of the box, as above
mentioned. The hole S can be closed by a screw U with a collar of leather
under its head, this hole S being brought by turning the wheel nearly into a
vertical position, as shewn in Fig. 1, and by dotted lines in Fig. 8; and the
screw U taken out, the oil must be poured into it from a proper vessel. It'
then flows out at the lower of the holes T, T, into the receptacle in that end of
the box, and from thence passes along the grooves V, V, V, in the box into
the hinder oil reservoir W, W, the air in the meantime escaping through the
uppermost of the holes T, T; and when the oil appears at the top of the hole
S, which shews that the box K is filled with it, the screw U must be replaced.
Fig. 7 is an end view of the plug O, shewn separately; and Fig. 9, the axletree
or arm, also shewn separately. Fig. 10 is a section of the box K, taken at
the dotted line X, X, in Fig. 3, shewing the grooves V, V, V, V. In adjusting
the plug O the screw R. must be previously unscrewed, as shewn by the
dotted lines in Fig. 4, until its point is sufficiently withdrawn to allow of the
plug being turned round freely either way when screwed into the end of the
box. The plug being adjusted, the screw R must then be advanced, and its
point be made to enter one of the nearest of the holes Q, Q, by turning the
plug a little one way or the other, the screw R being at the same time
urged forwards by means of a turnscrew until its point finds its way into the
hole, when it must be further turned until its head binds fast in the enlarged
hole or seat provided for it in the plug O, as above described.
I do not mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention any of the various
parts of which these mail axletrees and boxes are composed, which may have
been already known or in use; but I do hereby claim as my Invention, and the
objects of this my said Patent, the construction and application, and the mode
of accurately adjusting the situation of the plug O, so as to regulate the

page_text: degree of end shake to be given to the box upon the axletree or arm, and
the mode of supplying and retaining the oil, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Mason, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.