IMPROVEMENTS IN TRACTION ENGINES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bruckshaw, of Oakley Mills, in the County of
Stafford, and William Scott Underhill, of Newport, in the County of
Salop, Agricultural Engineers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
TRACTION ENGINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bruckshaw and
William Scott Underhill at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 27th March 1865.
We, JOHN BRUCKSHAW, of Oakley Mills, in the County of Stafford, and
WILLIAM SCOTT UNDERHILL, of Newport, in the County of Salop, Agricultural
Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TRACTION ENGINES," to be as follows, that is to say:-
1.
E
The object of the present Invention is, firstly, to dispense with all cogs or
projections usually formed upon the peripheries of the travelling wheels of
traction engines for the purpose of enabling them to travel over soft lands,
which cogs or projections not only involve loss of time in fixing or removing,
but are also productive. of considerable injury to the engine when travelling
upon hard roads.

page_text: And, secondly, our Invention consists in an improved contrivance for
steering such traction engines. With regard to the wheels, we make the
felloes or peripheries of the travelling wheels in a zig-zag or serpentine form
laterally, or in the line of the axle, keeping the running surface of such
peripheries flat and in a line concentric with the axle, so that the bearing of
the wheels upon soft land is gained by the impact of the sides of the zig-zag
or serpentine peripheries against the earth, whilst there are no projections
whatever upon the rolling face of the wheels to impede progress or jar the
engine when running upon hard land or roads. The steering apparatus is
formed by a connecting rod attached by a joint or swivel to the axle of the
locking wheels as far as practicable from the locking centre; the connecting
rod being bent so as to allow the nearest locking wheel to lock. The other
end of the connecting rod is formed into a rack, into which works a pinion
fixed upon a shaft, upon which is hung a hand or steering wheel. This shaft
is supported in suitable bearings near the foot plate, so that the steersman
standing on the foot plate, or in any other convenient position at the rear
of the engine, by turning the steering wheel works the pinion, and thus
actuates the rack upon the connecting rod backwards and forwards, thus
causing the axle of the locking wheels to make a partial rotation upon its
locking centre..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Bruckshaw and William Scott Underhill in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 27th September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
BRUCKSHAW, of Oakley Mills, in the County of Stafford, and WILLIAM SCOTT
UNDERBILL, of Newport, in the County of Salop, Agricultural Engineers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Bruckshaw and William Scott Underhill, Her special licence that
we, the said John Bruckshaw and William Scott Underhill, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Bruckshaw
and William Scott Underhill, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRACTION ENGINES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said John Bruckshaw and William Scott Underhill, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one
of us, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Bruckshaw and William Scott
Underhill, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:-
The object of the present Invention is, firstly, to dispense with all cogs or
projections usually formed upon the peripheries of the travelling wheels of
traction engines for the purpose of enabling them to travel over soft lands,
which cogs or projections not only involve loss of time in fixing or removing,
but are also productive of considerable injury to the engine when travelling
upon hard roads.
And, secondly, our Invention consists in an improved contrivance for steering
such traction engines. With regard to the wheels, we make the felloes or
peripheries of the travelling wheels in a zig-zag or serpentine form laterally,
or in the line of the axle, keeping the running surfaces of such peripheries flat
and in a line concentric with the axle, so that the bearing of the wheels upon
soft land is gained by the impact of the sides of the zig-zag or serpentine
peripheries against the earth, whilst there are no projections whatever upon
the rolling face of the wheels to impede progress or jar the engine when
running upon hard land or roads. The steering apparatus is formed by a
connecting rod attached by a joint or swivel to the axle of the locking wheels
as far as practicable from the locking centre; the connecting rod being bent
so as to allow the nearest locking wheel to lock. The other end of the con-
necting rod is formed into a rack, into which works a pinion fixed upon a
shaft, upon which is hung a hand or steering wheel. This shaft is supported
in suitable bearings near the foot plate, so that the steersman standing on
the foot plate, or in any other convenient position at the rear of the engine,
by turning the steering wheel works the pinion, and thus actuates the rack

page_text: locking wheels to make a partiál rotation upon its locking centré.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of à traction engine constructed with our
improved wheels and steering apparatus; Figure 2; a plan of the same;
Figure 3, á plan of a wheel having its periphery in a serpentine line instead
of a zig-zag.
We will proceed to describe those parts in which our improvements consist,
namely, the wheels and the steering apparatus, the remaining parts being
exhibited solely for the purpose of rendering the new parts more intelligible.
(a, a,) are the travelling wheels with their peripheries, consisting of felloes
and tyres, formed in a zig-zag line laterally, or in the line of the axle. The
surface of the periphery, or that part which comes in contact with the ground,
is either flat without any cog or projection, or sunk with a 'groove as at (6),
to avoid jerking or jarring if the machine travels over loose stones; (c) is
the hub or nave of the wheel, made either in one solid piece or in two or more
parts secured together in the centre, and from which húb the spokes (d)
extend in curved lines to the points of the zig-zag shaped periphery. The
purchase or bearing of these wheels when travelling over soft lands is 'gained
by the force of impact of the side of each plane of the zig-zag against the soil,
instead of by cogs or projections upon the surface of the tyre or periphery
imbedding themselves in the soil, whilst in travelling upon hard roads the
running face of the tyre being level, jarring or concussion is considerably
reduced. The same remarks will apply to the serpentine form of 'periphery
shewn at Figure 3.
We will now describe our improved steering apparatus. '(e) is a con-
necting rod attached by the joint or swivel (f) to the axle '(9) of the locking
wheels (h, h¹,) as far as practicable from the locking centre (5)'; the connecting
rod (e) is cranked or bent as at (k), so as to allow the nearest locking
wheel (h) to be locked. The opposite end of this connecting rod (e) is
formed into a rack (1), into which works a pinion (m) fixed upon the shaft (o),
which carries the hand or steering wheel (n). The shaft (o) 'is supported in
suitable bearings near the foot plate (p), so that the steersman standing upon
this foot plate can, by operating upon the steering wheel, 'control the axle (9)
of the locking wheels (h, h',) compelling (the axle (9) to make a partially
rotary movement upon the locking centre (5), and thus guiding the engine in
any required direction.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, we claim, without limiting ourselves to these
precise details, the improvements described in the construction of traction
engines, such improvements consisting in forming the peripheries of the
travelling wheels of such engines in a zig-zag or serpentine form, together
with the improved apparatus or mechanism for steering traction engines, as
herein more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Bruckshaw and William Scott
Underhill, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth
day of September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-five.
JOHN
(L.B.) BRUCKSHAW.
WILLIAM SCOTT (L.B.) UNDERHILL.