IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGE WHEELS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th December 1872.-A communication from abroad by James
A. Woodbury, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY CARRIAGE
WHEELS," a communication, to be as follows :—
The said Invention relates; first, to constructing the wheel in three
parts, namely, a tire and two hub portions, the inner part of the tire being
interposed between the two hub portions and provided with two or more
conical or bevelled surfaces on either side thereof; the said conical
surfaces are bevelled in opposite directions and at such an angle as will
best resist both the vertical and lateral blows to which railway wheels
are subjected. It also relates to the formation of corresponding conical
or bevelled surfaces on the inner surfaces of both hub portions, and to
securing the whole together by rivets or bolts passing through the three
parts, but fitting only in the two hub portions, also to placing rings of
india-rubber or other suitable elastic material between the several conical
surfaces.

page_text: The tread or rim of the wheel is provided with a flange, and the outer
portion of the latter next the "tread" is so made that a cross section cut
through it in a radial line from the centre of the wheel would present a
waved or corrugated line, and it is provided with strengthening ribs.
The inner portion of the web next the axle is a flat disc having ribs
cast on either side thereof, the inner sides of which are bevelled at an
angle which may be varied from twenty to forty-five degrees to the axis
of the wheel.
Each portion of the hub is formed with a disc and is bored out to fit
the axle, and the two together form the hub of the wheel. These discs 1
are of such a diameter as to lap over the straight or flat part of the web
of the wheel and have formed upon their inner sides inclined or conical
surfaces corresponding to the inclined surfaces on the said web. The
hubs or bosses formed on the inner sides of the said discs nearly meet in
the centre of the thickness of the web, the hole through the web being
sufficiently large to allow the passage of said hubs without touching the
web.
A packing of vulcanized india-rubber or other elastic substance is
placed between the inclined surfaces and the whole of the parts are
firmly secured together by rivets or bolts arranged parallel to the axis of
⚫ the wheel.
In this way I am enabled to construct a wheel in parts with an elastic
substance interposed between them in such a way as to intercept the
lateral or vertical blows received by the tire, and prevent its transmission
to the axle.
It is obvious that a wheel may be constructed in two parts embodying
the same general principles by dispensing with one of the hub discs, and
making the hub on the other disc long enough to properly secure the
wheel to the axle. In this construction a rubber washer may be placed
under the nut on the holding bolts to prevent the transmission of the
vibrations of the tire to the hub portion of the wheel.