IMPROVEMENTS IN ROUNDABOUTS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Abraham Waddington and John
Coulson Rowbotham at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
29th July 1882.
ABRAHAM WADDINGTON, Engineer and JOHN COULSON ROWBOTHAM, Tin Plate
Worker, both of Bradford, in the County of York "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ROUNDABOUTS AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
"
This invention relates to improvements in Roundabouts and consists in
constructing the same by preference with boats which are suspended from strong
rafters and which receive by a peculiarly constructed apparatus a slow and easy up
and down motion, something like a boat riding on the waves of the sea; by which
means we do away with the present costly plan of having carriages (in which
people are seated) fitted with wheels and running on a circular track or rails which
are secured on strong circular frames to a roundabout.
For this purpose on the top crown wheel of a roundabout working on a circular
bearing fixed to the chimney of a steam engine, we secure a strong circular frame
in which are secured rafters, on the tops of which are fitted plummer blocks in
which work strong shafts and which give the up and down motion to the boats by
means of gear hereinafter explained; the boats are held up by strong wrought iron
rods, the top ends having hooks which are passed through eye bolts, secured to the
underside of the rafters and the bottom parts of the iron rods are made with bosses
bored out through which are passed small cross shafts which work in bearings
secured to the underside of the bottoms of the boats and the rods pass through and
work in slot holes made in the bottoms of the boats; the cross shafts are kept
in position by inside wrought iron rods and by bearings secured to rounding
boards of the roundabout and which boards are suspended by other rods connected
to rafter stays. Over the strong circular frame and secured to the chimney of the
steam engine we fit a casting having a spiral race which is so constructed as to give
the necessary pitch for the rising and falling motion to the boats; in the spiral race
work rollers which are fitted and work on collars and cranks which are formed on
the ends of the strong shafts fitted over the tops of the rafters. To the outer ends
of the shafts are firmly secured or welded cross levers to which are connected
wrought iron rods and the other ends of these rods are made with bosses through
the bored holes of which are passed cross shafts which work in bearings secured at

page_text: each end of the boats and on the underside of the bottoms; when the roller of each
shaft is either lifted or lowered by the action of the spiral race it gives through the
crank a kind of rocking or a to or fro motion to the shaft consequently to the cross
lever welded or fitted on the shaft which through the wrought iron rods gives the
slow up and down motion to the boat, producing a motion similar to a boat riding
over the waves of the sea.
The shafts also work in plummer blocks secured on the top of the circular frame
and the cranked ends are close to the outer sides of the blocks; the circular frame
works upon the bottom flange of the casting secured to the chimney and a space is
left between the outside of the casting and the inside of the circular frame in which
are fitted small pullies or rollers to reduce the friction when the apparatus is
working. On the top of the plummer blocks secured to the circular frame is fitted
and bolted a cast iron circular plate having a projecting piece through which passes
the chimney and over the projecting piece and strongly secured to the chimney is a
strong casting having a bottom flange which rests on the top of the projecting piece
and which leaves a space between the top of the circular plate and the bottom of the
bottom flange of the casting secured to the chimney; in this space work pullies fitted
between two wrought iron rings; the pullies coming in contact with the underside
of the strong casting secured to the chimney when one of the pullies or rollers
rises in the spiral race, prevents the circular frame having a lifting or lowering
motion and allows of the crank of the shaft being actuated to give the rocking or to
and fro motion to the cross levers which actuate the boat. The frame, rafters and
stay rafters are kept up in the ordinary way; and the cross levers secured to the
shafts are fitted with wrought iron rods at each end which pass through slot holes
made in the bottom of the boat and the rods give the lifting and falling motion to
the boat We may instead of boats employ carriages, horses, or other figures of
animals which we suspend, and work in a similar manner to the boats.
t