CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CERTAIN LOCOMOTIVE APPARATUS ;
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WALKER WOOD, of Austin Friars, in the City of London, Merchant, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I did, by Petition, represent unto His most Excellent Majesty
King William the Fourth that I had invented "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
CERTAIN LOCOMOTIVE APPARATUS ;" and whereas His said Majesty, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Soventeenth day of May, in the sixth year of His reign, did, for
Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Walker Wood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence
that I, the said Henry Walker Wood, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry Walker Wood, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, during
the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within England and Wales and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; in which said Letters Patent there is con-
tained a proviso obliging me particularly to describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to.be

page_text: enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Walker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention to consist
in the use and combination of certain rails and wheels, herein-after described,
whereby locomotive carriages, alone or together with other carriages, may, by
the application of steam or other mechanical power, be propelled or drawn
along iron or other railways laid horizontally, and also propelled or drawn up
or down iron or other railways laid in a plane inclined to the plane of the
horizon, and attain various levels without the use of stationary engines. And
in further compliance with the said proviso, I do hereby describe in what
manner the said Invention is to be performed, by the following statement (that
is to say)-
Where the railway is horizontal, I adopt the smooth iron or metallic
parallel rails in general use; and where the railway is inclined at an angle to
the horizon, I adopt iron or metallic parallel rails, called herein-after compound
rails, each of which is formed by combining a smooth rail with a toothed or
cogged rail in manner herein-after described (that is to say):-To the inner
side of the smooth rail I weld or otherwise unite a toothed or cogged rail, the
teeth or cogs whereof project about two inches, the precise height being
immaterial, higher than the upper surface of the smooth part of the rail; and
between the smooth part of the rail and the toothed or cogged part thereof I
interpose a groove sufficiently deep and wide to admit the flanges of the wheels,
herein-after described, to rotate and pass without friction; so that each com-
pound rail consists of a smooth rail of the same size as, and exactly similar to,
the smooth rail adopted where the railway is horizontal, and of a toothed or
cogged rail, with the teeth or cogs projecting higher than the upper surface of
the smooth rail, the smooth part of the rail-being on the outer side of the
groove, and the cogged part thereof on the inner side of the said groove; and
the rails are so placed that such smooth part of the compound rail is in the
same straight line with the smooth rail adopted, where the railway is hori-
zontal, or so that the wheels of a locomotive carriage in ordinary use would, if
the carriage were pulled along the horizontal railway, and up or down the rail-
way inclined at an angle to the horizon, move and run upon the smooth part
of such compound rail, in the same way as if, instead of such compound rail,
there had been a continuation of the smooth rails used. Where the railway is
horizontal, I continue the compound rails for a few yards after the railway bas
ceased to be inclined at an angle to the horizon, along the upper horizontal
railway, say about one hundred yards, or for about a distance a little exceeding

page_text: the number of years the carriages attached to the locomotive carriage are in
length; and towards the termination of such compound rails I gradually dimi-
nish, or feather off, or bevil off the size of the teeth or cogs; and in like
manner I adopt the compound rails along the lower horizontal railways for
about one hundred yards immediately before the railway becomes inclined at
an angle to the horizon, and the teeth or cogs are gradually diminished, or
feathered, or bevilled off towards the commencement thereof. I make the
rails on the two sides of each railway exactly similar and actually corre-
sponding. My system of rails, then, consists of the ordinary parallel smooth
rails on the level of the horizon, with the similar compound parallel rails
herein-before described for a few yards before the railway commences to rise at
an angle to the horizon (and this angle ought not to exceed an angle of nine
degrees, or one in ten; I prefer it to be less, and of a continuation); of
the similar compound parallel rails, where the railway is horizontal, for
some yards after the upper horizontal level has been attained; and then
of the ordinary parallel smooth rails. The same system of rails is adopted
for a descent from a higher horizontal to a lower horizontal level.
The
four wheels of the carriage whereon the locomotive engine is fixed are
of the same size, and exactly similar; and I form each of them as fol-
lows; that is to say, to the inside of a wheel such as is in ordinary use
for locomotive carriages (and which consists of a smooth metallic circumfer-
ence a little broader than the rail whereon the locomotive carriage runs, with
a flange towards the inside thereof of the usual depth, for the purpose of
keeping the said wheel on the rail), and on the same axis I weld or otherwise
unite another toothed or cogged wheel of a smaller radius, and the distance
from the centre of such toothed or cogged wheel to the extremity of the teeth
or cogs thereof, is rather less than the radius of the smooth wheel, and the
teeth or cogs of the wheel are made to correspond with the teeth or cogs of
the compound rail, but not to fit so closely into them as to prevent the smooth
part of the wheel resting on the smoth part of the rail, it being my intention
that the vertical weight of the carriage shall rest as much as possible upon
the smooth part of the rail, and the teeth or cogs merely act as successive
fulcrums for the wheels to act against in order to obtain progressive motion
on the plane, each of the wheels then consists of the ordinary wheel with the
flange, and which, during the transit of the locomotive carriage along the
horizontal railways, acts in the same way as if such other part, as herein before
described, had not been welded or united to it, and of the toothed or cogged
wheel; and when the carriage reaches the compound rail the smooth part of
the wheel supports the carriage on the smooth part of the rail. The flange

page_text: rotates and passes within the groove of the rail, and the toothed or cogged part
of the wheel presses against the toothed or cogged part of the compound rail,
and by such pressure the locomotive carriage is forced up the inclined plane.
The toothed or cogged part of both the sets of rails, or of one of the sets of
rails, may be placed on the outer instead of the inner side of the rail, and a
corresponding alteration must be made in the wheels. But I prefer and
generally adopt the plan I have described, and I prefer and generally use
beaten or wrought iron for the making of the combined rails and wheels, but
this is not essential. To regulate the velocity in descending, I adopt a break
formed as herein-after mentioned. To the axle of the fore wheels of the
locomotive carriage I unite a strong wheel of smaller radius than the wheel
of the locomotive carriage, but of about the same breadth of circumference,
and with a projecting rim going round each side of the circumference, in
order to prevent the iron or metal girdle herein-after described from slipping
from off the said wheel; to the axle of the hinder wheels of the locomotive
carriage I fasten a like wheel, and I put the two wheels immediately in a line
with each other, so that the line drawn from the centre of one of such smaller
wheels to the centre of the other of them would be perpendicular; to each of
the axes I pass a bar of iron parallel to and immediately above each of the
axes, and I fasten such bar firmly to the frame of the locomotive carriage,
and through each of such bars I fasten one end of a strong circular bar of
iron or other metal of rather less width than the space between the rims of
the wheel, and each of such bars is rather longer than half of the circum-
ference of one wheel, and is carried round the wheel on the axle under it, in
a direction towards the front of the locomotive carriage, and the other en 1 of
cach of such bars is rivetted or fastened to another similar bar, passing round
the other side of the wheel, and the other end whereof is fastened to a rod
which goes immediately above the said wheel and perpendicularly to the axis
thereof, and which extends to the front of the locomotive carriage, and the end
whereof towards the front forms a screw which works in a female screw under
the command of the engineer, and being screwed tighter produces a tightening
or pressure of the metallic girdles round the smaller wheels, and retards the
rotation of the axes. The uniform rotation of the fore and the hinder wheels
is secured by connecting one of the fore wheels with the corresponding hind
wheel with a rod in the usual way. Motion is produced on the wheels of the
locomotive carriage by means of steam or any other mechanical power, in the
usual way.
I also adopt the carriages in ordinary use on railways and with
the ordinary wheels, and attach them to the locomotive carriage in the usual
way, the action of the herein-before described wheels of the locomotive car-

page_text: riage and of the rail and compound rails, being sufficient for the drawing the
attached carriages along the horizontal railway or up or down the railways
laid at an angle to the horizon.
Now whereas I do not claim as my Invention the use of the break herein-
before described, or of the rod connecting the fore and hind wheels, but I do
claim as my Invention the following improvements (that is to say), the usc
and combination of the rails and wheels herein-before described, whereby
locomotive carriages alone, or together with other carriages, may be propelled
or drawn along iron or other railways laid horizontally, and also propelled or
drawn up or down iron or other railways laid on a plane inclined to a plane of
the horizon, and attain various levels without the use of stationary engines;
and such Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely
new and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's United
Kingdom of Great and Ireland called England, His said Majesty's Dominion
of Wales, or the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare this to
be my Specification of the same; wherefore I do hereby claim and maintain
exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Walker Wood, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.
HENRY WALKER WOOD. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Seventeenth day of Novem-
ber, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Henry Walker Wood came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute in that case made and provided
Inrolled the said Seventeenth day of November, in the year above
written.