AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC CARRIAGE
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
BAGSTER LYALL, of No. 45, Thurloe Square, Brompton, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
all times
WHEREAS Her present most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of April, in the fourteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Bagster Lyall, Her especial licence, that I, the said
James Bagster Lyall, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said James Bagster Lyall, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in Her Majesty's Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF PUBLIC CARRIAGE;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said James
Bagster Lyall, 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 the same to be inrolled in Her said.

page_text: Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being, thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Bagster Lyall, do hereby declare that my "Improved Construction of
Public Carriage" consists, firstly, in the position and arrangement of the
seats therein, whereby increased comfort and accommodation are obtained for
passengers, with the greatest economy of space; secondly, in the mode of
manufacturing each carriage, so as to combine strength and durability with
lightness; thirdly, my improvements include a particular description of brake
for carriages to be used on common roads and on railways.
Firstly, the public carriages I shall take as examples of my plan are shewn
in the following Figures:-
Figures 1 and 2 represent my improved omnibus; Figures 5 and 4, my
improved cab; Figures 7 and 8, my improved funeral carriage; and Figures
9 and 10, my improved railway carriage.
In my omnibus the inside passengers sit back to back on the seats a and b,
Figure 2, which run from end to end of the omnibus. These seats are
entered by the doors A and B, Figure 1, and are divided from each other by
elbow rests, or in case entire privacy is desired for each passenger, by' upright
partitions. The passengers on the roof sit face to face, and reach their seats
by the steps c, c, c, between the doors A and B. The advantage of these
arrangements is at once apparent. The elevation required for the seats out-
side affords ample headway to the inside passengers, and the recess in the roof,
as shown at E, Figure 1, gives room for the feet and knees of the outside
passengers, without encroaching in the least upon the room and comfort of
those within the omnibus. A wire may be passed along the inside of the hand
rail in the roof of the omnibus, Figure 1, so as to sound an alarum within
hearing of the conductor, and at the will of each passenger whenever he wishes
to stop.
4
My cab is on one pair of wheels, as shewn at Figure 5; the passengers
enter at the doors A and A, Figure 4, and take their seats round the carriage
at B, B, B, Figure 4; the entrance being near the box C, Figures 5 and 4,
enables the driver to open the door and take his fare without leaving his seat.
My funeral carriage provides, as shewn in Figure 8, which is an end view,
two rows of seats for the mourners, sitting back to back, and entering by
separate doors, A and B, as shewn above, in the description of my improved

page_text: omnibus: The coffin is to be placed in an air-tight compartment below, and
between the mourners' seats, and entered by a door C; the floor of this com-
partment is provided with rollers to facilitate the movement of the coffin..
My improvements in railway carriages consist, so far as the comfort of the
passengers and the economy in the space of the vehicle are concerned, in
placing them back to back, as well as with their faces towards each other,
A, A, A, B, B, B, Figure. 9.
Secondly, I propose to manufacture such carriages, as above described
of iron, framed and united together, as shewn by way of example in the
Figures 3, 6, 9, and 10 respectively, whereby strength and durability are
combined with lightness.. In the Figures last mentioned, a, a, a, repeated,
are ribs made of T-iron, and the spaces filled up with thin plate iron. The
floors and seats. of the several carriages may be of wood, and the decorations
and furniture attached in the usual manner.
:
Thirdly, my improvements include a brake for carriages to be used on
common roads and on railways. The first description of brake is shewn at
Figures 11, 12, and 13. The brake d is brought against the hinder wheels by
the strain or tension of the chains i, i, Figure 11, attached to the horse collars
at one end, and by the rods b, b, to the brake at the other; when the horses
attempt to stop the carriage, its speed is immediately arrested by the pressure
of the brake d, against the hinder wheel; and as soon as they are about to
move the carriage forward, "the chains thereby become slackened, and the
springs ff, remove the brake from contact with the wheel. Figure 13 is a
similar application of the brake to the fore part of the hinder wheel. In this
last example, when the horses move the carriage forward the brake drops
from the wheel without the necessity of any springs. The second description
of brake is shewn in Figures 14, 15, 16, and 17. Figure 14 represents the
under side of my railway carriage; C, C, are my supplementary or collision
springs, to come into use only when from some accidental cause the ordinary
springs B, B, are not sufficient. In addition to this method of checking the
momentum of the carriage, I provide a brake to be urged against the wheel by
a spring E, Figure 15, which is fixed to each buffer rod. The brake D, it will
be seen, is guided by the bar F and the slot G. This arrangement is also
shewn by the same letters in Figure 14. Figure 16 shews another applica-
tion of this brake, so as to affect both pair of wheels at the same moment;
when the buffer is urged inwards, the spring I is drawn up by the lever H,
which works on a centre at the end of the buffer rod; the spring I being
attached to the lever J, working on its bearings in the bracket K, the rods

page_text: L, L, and with them the brakes M, M, are forced against the wheels. As
soon as the extraordinary pressure on the buffers is removed, the brakes fall
away their own weight. Figure 17 is an enlarged view of the same
arrangement.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Bagster Lyall, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one.