Improvements in or connected with Motor Cars and like Vehicles.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Nov., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 21st Aug., 1897--Accepted, 9th Oct., 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or connected with Motor Cars and like Vehicles.
I, ALEXANDER BEWICKE BLACKBURN, Manager of the Electric Construction
Company Limited, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, do hereby declare
the nature of my Invention to be as follows:-
My Invention has for its object to provide means whereby the driver of motor
cars and like vehicles can control the action of the motor or gearing by which
power is applied to or removed from the vehicle without using hrs hands or feet
for the purpose and my said Invention consists in making the driver's seat
movable and connecting it to the motor or to the mechanism actuated thereby
or to other operative parts in such manner that the driver by moving the seat
can start or stop or regulate the speed of travel of the vehicle or actuate the brako
as required or perform either any or all of these or other operations. For con-
venience in readily determining the exact distance which the seat is to move to
perform the required operation there may be provided a device (such for instance
as a spring catch working in notches) which will cause a slight impediment to
the movement of the seat or otherwise give an indication when the positions
requisite to effect the required operations have been attained.
Dated this 28th day of November 1896.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.
Improvements in or connected with Motor Cars, and like Vehicles.
I, ALEXANDER BEWICKE BLACKBURN Manager of the Electric Construction
Company Limited, of Wolverhampton in the County of Stafford, do hereby declare
the nature of this Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My Invention has for its object to provide means whereby the driver of motor
cars, and like vehicles, can control the action of the motor, or gearing, oy which
power is applied to, or removed from, the vehicle without using his hands or feet
for the purpose, and my said Invention consists in making the drivers seat
moveable and connecting it to the motor, or to the mechanism actuated thereby,
or to other operative parts, in such manner that the driver, by moving the seat,
can start, or stop or regulate the speed of travel of the vehicle, or actuate the
brake, as required, or perform either any, or all, of these, or other operations.
For convenience in readily determining the exact distance which the seat is to
move to perform the required operation there may be provided a device (such for
instance as a spring catch working in notches) which will cause a slight impedi-
ment to the movement of the seat, or otherwise give an indication when the
positions requisite to effect the required operations have been attained.

page_text: The accompanying Drawing shews in elevations at right angles to each other, a
method of applying this Invention to the control of an electrical series and parallel
starting stopping and regulating switch as applied to a motor car in which the
energy for propulsion is derived from accumulators. S is the seat having at each
side and underneath it, strips N of metal or other wear resisting material, and F
is part of the frame of the car to which are connected brackets p carrying rollers P
upon which the said strips N bear so that the seat can be moved backwards and
forwards upon the said rollers. Attached to the seat S by the bracket r is a
toothed rack R which engages with a toothed wheel W secured to the axis 63
carrying the barrel B on which the switch contacts b are mounted, the said axis
being mounted in bearings in a frame 12 secured to a casing or box B³ fixed to the
frame of the vehicle.
In the strips N are notches n so placed that when the respective contacts are
made, the forward rollers P rest in one or other of these notches corresponding to
the contacts made.
The positions in which the seat is, when the various contacts are made, are
presumed, in the arrangement shewn, to be as follows:-
When the seat is "home" or in the position shewn in full lines in the upper
figure the circuit is broken and the vehicle is at a standstill.
By sliding the seat so that the forward rollers P engage in the next notches n
in the strips N the cells of the accumulator are connected in two parallel sets with
the motor for giving a slow movement to the vehicle. A further movement of the
seat in the same direction causes the rollers to enter the next notches n and then
the cells are connected in one set so that all are in series with the motor and a
high speed is given to the vehicle; and when the seat is still further moved in the
same direction so that the rollers enter the last of the notches n the field of the
motor is weakened and the highest speed is imparted to the vehicle.
It will be understood that these effects are obtained by reason of the rack R,
when the seat is moved, turning the wheel W so as to operate the rotary switch B
to make the contacts for giving the aforesaid effects respectively.
The seat can be moved by the driver in the same manner as an ordinary chair
can be moved across a floor by a jerking movement of the body of the operator.
It is obvious that a similar arrangement of seat and connections can be applied
to a vehicle propelled by power derived from an oil engine, steam engine, or other
engine, for actuating the regulating mechanism of the stop valve, the oil supply,
and other devices, which are employed to give various speeds and start and stop
the vehicle and that it can also be used to actuate a brake on any description of
motor car or like vehicle.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In motor cars and like vehicles a seat so connected with the vehicle as to be
capable of being moved by the driver seated thereon, and connections from the
said seat to the devices by which the motion of the vehicle is controlled
substantially as hereinbefore described.
2. The arrangement hereinbefore described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing, for the purposes mentioned.
Dated this 21st day of Awoust 1907
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.