A METHOD OF FACILITATING THE CONVEYANCE OF CARRIAGES ALONG IRON AND WOOD RAILWAYS, TRAMWAYS, AND OTHER ROADS
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
THOMPSON, of Ayton Cottage, in the County of Durham, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did;
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of October, in the second year of His
reign, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Benjamin Thompson; His special licence, that I, the said Benjamin Thomp-
son, my executors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as I, the said
Benjamin Thompson, my executors, administrators, 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 that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; my Invention of "A METHOD OF FACILITATING
THE CONVEYANCE OF CARRIAGES ALONG IRON AND WOOD RAILWAYS, TRAMWAYS, AND
OTHER ROADS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso
obliging me; the said Benjamin Thompson, 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 such instrument in writing to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after.the date

page_text: of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Benjamin Thompson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed or carried into effect,
are as follow, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the application or use of two or more fixed or
stationary steam or other engines placed upon the railway, tramway, or road
intended to be used, at such a distance from each other as the nature of the
line chosen shall render most convenient, and in such a manner as that the
action of such steam or other engines shall be interchangeable and reciprocal,
in the mode herein-after mentioned. In order that my Invention and the use
of it may be the better understood, it may be necessary to state that there
are various modes in use by which animal and mechanical powers are made
available for the purpose of conveying carriages upon rail and tramways,
where the trade or carriage is principally or altogether in one direction. Fixed
engines are employed to draw loaded carriages up inclined planes, the empty
carriages being enabled by their gravity, and the declination of such planes,
to run down the same, and take out the rope from the engine along with
them. Self-acting inclined planes are made use of where it is expedient to
pass loaded carriages down declivities sufficiently great to allow their pulling
upward an empty set of carriages at the same time. And where neither the
acclivity nor the declination of a road is such as to admit of one or the
other of these methods being adopted, then horses are used for the purpose of
drawing the carriages, and in some, although very few instances, locomotive
engines. Endless chains have also been applied, but, owing to the great
friction and consequent waste of power attendant on them, their use has been
very circumscribed, and their application limited to comparatively very short
distances. These modes, combined or separately, according to circumstances,
have hitherto afforded the means by which rail and tramways have been
travelled. My method might in most cases, and with considerable advantage,
supersede them all. Whether the line of road rises or falls much or little, is
level or undulating, matters not; the carriages loaden and empty are made to
pass in both directions with a uniformity of progress, and at the same time
with a dispatch not heretofore known. A road on which my Invention is
about to be applied must be divided into stages, attention being given in
determining their distances to the nature of the line in regard to curves or
bends, and to the undulation of the surface. The nearer it approaches a
level, and the fewer as also the easier the bends are, the better will it allow

page_text: of the stages being extended. On the other hand, should the line prove to
be a very uneven one, with frequent and short bends, then the intervals or
spaces between stage and stage will necessarily be required to be shortened
accordingly. I shall probably be able more clearly to explain my method of
describing a supposed case. Let the supposed road to which my Invention is
to be applied be a railway (either already in being or to be made) from a
colliery to a staith, quay, wharf, or trunk seven and a quarter miles in length.
A proper survey being taken, and a plan and section of the line made, I find
it to be expedient to divide it into five stages, in the manner shown by the
Drawing annexed to this Specification. A is the collery, and B the staith,
quay, wharf, or trunk. The first stage from the colliery may be formed at
a tolerably uniform ascent by the aid of cutts and batteries of one and a half
inch to the yard, being three quarters of a mile in length, and terminating at
a summit, on which is to be erected a steam engine of power sufficient to
draw up the plane six loaden coal waggons at once, containing a Newcastle
chaldron each, at the rate of seven and a half feet per second. This stage is
a regular inclined plane, and is to be wrought according to the first of the modes
already described as now in use; for the returning empty waggons will pass
downward by their own gravity, and take the rope with them, preparatory to
the drawing up of another loaden set. The full set being drawn up in eight
minutes and forty-eight seconds, the empty set allowed to pass down in seven
minutes and eighteen seconds, and three minutes occupied in the changes at
the ends, will cause one operation of the plane to be completed in nineteen
minutes and six seconds. This engine, which I call No. 1, is the first station.
The second stage lies over a variable or undulating surface, the two extremities
of which are distant one mile and three quarters, and stand nearly level with
each other, the intermediate country not admitting, but at two great a cost, of
the line being rendered level. The ascents and declivities are moderate; neither
exceeded one inch in the yard; and the curves or bends are easy, and not
numerous. A steam engine (No. 2) is erected at the further termination,
which is the second station to be used, for drawing twelve loaden waggons
along this stage at once at the rate of eight and three quarters feet per
second, and bringing along with them a rope from No. 1 engine, which is
allowed to run off a wheel not connected with No. 1 engine, during their
passage to No. 2 engine, upon their arrival at which twelve empty waggons
are substituted, which are drawn back to No. 1 by the reconnection of the
rope wheel with that engine, bringing with them a rope from No. 2 engine,
which is in like manner suffered to run off a wheel then thrown out of con-
nection with No. 2 engine. The operation of this stage, both from and

page_text: towards the colliery, is thus carried on by the alternate action of Nos. 1 and
2 engines standing at its extremities. The passage of a set of waggons
takes up seventeen minutes and thirty-six seconds each way, and the change
three minutes, making together for a completion of the operation thirty-
eight minutes and twelve seconds, or double the time taken by a set of half
the number on the first stage. The third stage is also one mile and three
quarters long, and very similar in regard to plan and section to the second
stage. A steam engine, No. 3, is placed at the third station, which is the
further extremity of the stage, to draw the loaden waggons along the same,
and the empty ones are to be taken back by No. 2 engine, in the manner
which has just been described on the second stage. The speed and the number
of waggons to a set are the same. Also the fourth stage is more favourable
than the second and third, extending over a gently undulating country, and
being nearly straight, the fourth station, or further extremity of the stage,
being in point of level twenty feet higher than the other end of it. A steam
engine (No. 4) is to stand at the fourth station, to be used for drawing the
full waggon from the third station. Nos. 3 and 4 engines will thus alternately
act to each other on this stage as Nos. 1 and 2 have been described to reci-
procate on the second stage, and also Nos. 2 and 3 on the third stage. The
length of this stage is two miles, and twelve waggons are to travel together at
the rate of ten feet per second, which will complete the process of a passage
each way, with the changes, in thirty-eight minutes and twelve seconds. The
5th and last stage, which is one mile long, declines regularly by the help
of cutts and battenes to the staith, quay, wharf, or trunk, averaging three
quarters of an inch to the yard. The loaden waggons are made to pass down
the same in connection with the machinery of No. 4 engine, and also during
the time of its drawing a set of full waggons along the fourth stage, the
waggons along the fifth stage moving with half the velocity of the waggons
along the fourth stage, or five feet per second, and consequently performing the
journey in the same time. The advantages of this co-operative movement are
that No. 4 engine, being aided by the gravity of the twelve loaden waggons
passing down the inclined plain to the staith, quay, wharf, or trunk, requires
only about one half the power which otherwise would have been necessary for
drawing independently. The full waggons from the third station, and the
descending waggons themselves, are restrained from proceeding too rapidly,
and their speed accurately regulated. The engine (No. 4) is used to draw the
empty waggons back again from the staith, quay, wharf, or trunk. This mode,
whereby the gravity of the loaden passing down an inclined plane is applied
in aid of an engine for drawing loaden waggons forward upon another stage, is

page_text: quite new, and has never been used before, but I do not claim it as any part
of my said Invention. The second, third, and fourth stages are those on
which my method is applied. Nos. 1 and 2 engines reciprocate or act inter-
changeably with each other in the second stage, No. 2 drawing the loadeń
from the first to the second station, and No. 1 pulling the empty (or in case
of need loaden) waggons back again. Engines Nos. 2 and 3 operate alter-
nately in the same manner with each other upon the third stage, and so also
do Nos. 3 and 4 on the fourth stage. The engines are severally to be furnished
with two rope wheels and a rope to each, of a length and strength suitable to
the stage upon which they are to be used. The rope wheels must so con-
structed as to allow of a ready connection, or the contrary, with their respective
engines, so as to be capable of being acted upon by them, or of turning round
independently, at the will of the engine man. This may be readily accom-
plished by any one of the modes in use with millwrights for throwing machi-
nery into or out of geer with a moving power, and does not acquire to be
bere described. I make use of very light friction wheels a, b, b, c, d, in the
Drawing placed vertically, at proper intervals, to bear the ropes from the ground
where the road is straigh; and round the curves or bends I place similar
wheels on inclined positions for the same purpose. Although two miles have
been mentioned as the longest of the stage upon the supposed road, it is
practicable, under the circumstance of a favourable country, to extend the
operation to much longer stages. Without the application of my Invention to
the supposed road, of which a detailed account has been given, horses would
be required to draw the waggons upon the second and third stages, because
the ascents of one inch to the yard are too great for locomotive engines to be
used upon, independent of the question as to their effecting or saving at all
upon horse labour on those level roads where they are applicable. Upon the
fourth or two-mile stage they might be adopted; but, from the doubt as to an
advantage under any circumstances arising by their use, horses would most
likely be deemed the more eligible for working it. Also, compared with horse
labour, my method would, upon those three stages, effect in all probability a
saving of seventy-five per centum. In cases of greater inequality of surface
the saving would be in a still greater ratio. A further and very important
reduction in the cost of a new road would result from its adoption. In the
formation of a road it is generally necessary to make deep cutts and raise high
batteries, in order to obtain an uniformity rising, falling, or level surface; and
it frequently happens too that the direct line of way must be materially diverged
from to favor that purpose. My plan dispenses with such nice attention to regu-
larity, the engines being capable of surmounting acclivities, and the wheel

page_text: which gives out the following or passive rope affording the means of restraining
'the too rapid progress of the waggons down a declivity. In short, there is no
country, however uneven or variable its surface, but that may by my method
be traversed. For conveying of minerals underground, where the uneveness
of the strata and their general disposition to undulation do not allow of an
uniformly ascending, descending, or level road, my Invention is peculiarily
applicable. Briefly then, and it will easily be collected from what has been
said, "My Method of Facilitating the Conveyance of Carriages along Iron and
Wood Railways, Tramways, and other Roads" is the reciprocal action of two
engines standing at the extremities of a stage or portion of road to be tra-
velled over, one engine drawing the carriages forward in a direction towards
itself, and along with them a rope from the other engine, which rope in its
turn pulls the same or other waggons by means of the other engine back
again, and also a rope therewith; thus, by the alternately active and passive
agency of two ropes are the powers of fixed engines made to act in opposite
directions, thereby causing a road to be traversed both ways by loaden or
empty carriages, and at any desired speed. It is the reciprocal and inter-
changeable application of power, as hath been described, which I claim to be
my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Thompson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of December, in the second
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Fourth, by the
grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of December, in the year above written..