AN IMPROVED METHOD OF SECURING GREATER ADHESION IN RAILWAY. LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Midelton, of Stratford, in the County of
Essex, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF SECURING GREATER ADHESION IN RAILWAY. LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES."
Sealed the 22nd October 1872, and dated the 24th April 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Midelton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 24th April 1872.
I, THOMAS MIDELTON, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, Me-
chanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF SECURING GREATER ADHESION IN RAILWAY
LOCOMOTIVE ENTES," to be as follows:-
My Invention for increasing locomotive adhesion is by introducing
four friction wheels of small diameter, and at a suitable distance apart,
under and between each pair of driving wheels and the rails, thus
doubling the surface in contact, and admitting of greater weights being
placed on driving wheels, and obtaining better distribution of the said
weight on the rails.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Midelton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th October 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MIDELTON, of Stratford, in the County of Essex, Mechanical Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Midelton, Her special licence
that I, the said Thomas Midelton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Midelton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF SECURING GREATER ADHESION IN RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE ENGINES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Midelton,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Midelton, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and accompanying Drawing (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to an improved method of increasing adhesion
between the wheels of locomotive engines (used on railways) and the
rails upon which they run. By the use of my Invention greater weights
are placed upon the driving wheels of such locomotive engines, and such
weights are distributed upon the rails in a better and more effective
manner than if they were applied without the interposition of my
apparatus.

page_text: For the purpose of carrying my Invention' into effect I take four
wheels of small diameter fitted (where necessary) with flanges to enable
them to run upon the rails, and I arrange them in pairs, each pair being
fixed at a suitable distance apart upon a separate axle, and the two axles
being arranged to work in suitable bearings parallel to the axle of the
driving wheels of the locomotive engine. The bearings described are
arranged so that the tyres or peripheries of the driving wheels of the
locomotive engine rest upon the peripheries of the small wheels described,
and are supported by them, each driving wheel being supported partly by
the wheel upon one of the axles described, and partly by the wheel upon
the other axle. The bearings are fitted in and are held together by
frames, bars, or links of any convenient form and construction, and of
sufficient strength to resist the tendency of the weight upon the driving
wheel to separate the two small wheels upon the peripheries of which
it rests.
By the arrangement described the weight of the driving wheel is dis-
tributed upon the two small wheels, and through them upon the rail at
the points at which they rest upon and run upon the latter, and the
driving wheel may thus be safely loaded with a much greater weight
than in the usual method of construction, and greater adhesion to the rail
is thus obtained. When the driving wheels of the engine are made
to revolve (in the opposite direction to that in which it is intended that
it should travel), their motion is transmitted by the friction between
their peripheries to the four small wheels, which then act as driving
wheels upon the rails.
Where more than two of the wheels of the locomotive engine are
driving wheels (as in the case of "coupled" engines) I cause each pair
of such wheels to rest upon and to drive four small wheels similar to
those already described, and fixed upon axles running in similar bearings
and frames.
Instead of the four small wheels being fixed upon two parallel axles
as described, each of them may be fitted to a separate and independent
axle running in suitable bearings in the frames described, which are
firmly attached together by cross frames or stays. The two small wheels
upon which each driving wheel rests may be arranged at any suitable
distance apart (from centre to centre), so that the periphery of the
main driving wheel may be at the desired distance from the rail.

page_text: The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of my Invention.
Figure 1 is an elevation of the driving wheel of a locomotive engine
fitted with the improved apparatus described; Figure 2 is an end view
(partly in section) of the same driving wheels and axle and the improved
apparatus.
5
A, A, are the driving wheels, fitted upon the axle B in the usual
manner; C, C, are four small wheels fitted with flanges D, D, which
run upon the rails. The wheels C, O, are fixed upon axles E, E, which
run in bearings F, F, in the frames G, G, and are parallel to the driving
axle B. The bearings F, F, may be constructed in any convenient 1
manner, and the link or frame G which connects them is sufficiently
strong to resist the tendency of the weight of the driving wheel A (as
shewn in Figure 1) to separate them.
I do not confine myself to the particular form and proportion of the
several parts of the apparatus, but I claim, the construction and appli-
cation of small wheels supporting the driving wheels of locomotive
engines, substantially as and for the purposes described and shewn in the
Drawing.
1
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Midelton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of October, in the 2
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.