A NEW IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION, USE, AND APPLICATION OF WHEELS
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HUNTER, of the City of Edinburgh, late Clothier to His Majesty, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth
did, by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Seventh day of November, in the sixth year of His reign, give and grant
into me, the said George Hunter, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
George Hunter, niy executors, administrators, and assigus, during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend my Invention of "A NEW IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION, USE, AND
APPLICATION OF WHEELS," within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and ail His said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, in
such manner as to me, the said George Hunter, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should in our discretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that if I, the said George Hunter, should not particularly
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

page_text: seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chan-
cery within six calendar months next and immediately ensuing the date of the
said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the said recited Letters Patent, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Hunter, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following description
thereof, that is to say:―
My said Invention does not consist so much of the conformation of any one
of the individual parts as of the arrangement and use of the parts; my said
Invention being or consisting of the construction and adaptation of one, two,
three, or more wheels to act within a rim or felloe of a wheel, forming a
moving railway for the said inner wheel or wheels, as delineated in the said
Drawing, vizt
Figure First represents a waggon mounted on the said new-invented
moveable railway wheels, the wheels A, A, A, moving on the axles of the
waggon, and communicating action to the rims or felloes B, B, B, which act
together by means of grooves or hollows made on the circumferences of
wheels A, A, A, so as to act on the inner side of rims B, B, B.
The
wheels A, A, A, name the action wheels, and the rims B, B, B, I name the
road wheels; and the whole wheel, consisting of A and B, and any more
wheels that may be introduced to act within the rim B, whether consisting of
one, two, three, or more wheels, that is to say, the whole wheel, whatever
number the parts may be or consist of, I name the moving railway wheel.
The road wheel B is so formed that the inside part on which the action
wheel A moves or acts on is similar to that part of the common edge railroad
on which the waggon wheel moves, and is made to fit very easily the groove
or hollow of the action wheel A, which admits the two wheels to act together
when in motion.
In Figure Second C represents a section of the action wheel A, and A the
wheel itself.
In Figure Third D represents a section of the road wheel B, and B the
wheel itself.
Figure Fourth represents one of the moving railway wheels as Figure First,
with another wheel E placed above the action wheel A, but within the
wheel B. This small wheel E I name the guard wheel, and its support F

page_text: I name the support. b is a section of guard wheel E, and d is a section of
support F, and c is a section of the action wheel. In this support F is placed
a sheath in which the guard wheel acts on its axis, and this sheath has a screw
to tighten or ease the action of the wheel as may be required. The guard
wheel E, and any other guard wheels that may be used in the moving railway
wheel, is for the purpose of preventing the action wheel being displaced from the
road wheel by any sudden jerk, and to steady the motion of the road wheel.
Figure Fifth is the same as Figure First, with guard wheels G and H, and
supports J and J are merely pieces of metal, being alike in size, and placed one
on each side of the action wheel, on the axle or cylindrical part of the axle ;
being supported on that part of the axle, they act as washers to the action
wheel, and at the same time support the two guard wheels G and H in their
position. These supports may be made of any form so as they answer the
purpose designed. a is a section of this wheel, the upper half of the wheel
being cut off.
Figure Sixth represents the same action wheel as Figure First, but different
in appearance. K represents an action wheel, and L is a section of it. This
wheel is flat, not grooved on its circumference, as the section shews.
In Figure Seventh M represents a road wheel, and N is a section of it.
This road wheel is formed of a stout malleable iron rim, the same as the
shoeing of a common carriage or cart wheel, on the inside of which rim, and
on its edges, but inside, are two cast-iron or malleable iron rings or circles. See
O, Figure Seventh. These side circles may be fixed by rivets, where they join
the malleable iron rim or shoeing. These two side circles O form a groove or
hollow for the action wheel K to move or act on or within this part of the
wheel. This wheel, Figure Seventh, will have nearly the same movement as
the wheel Figure First, and the guard wheels and supports, Figures Four and
Five, may be used with this wheel, making the guard wheels flat on their
circumference; not grooved, but flat, to fit the inside hollow of road wheel M
in Figure Seventh, the sides of which O may be solid or open as required, and
the sides or side circles O may be made of any breadth.
These moving
railway wheels may be made with teeth or cogs.
represent these, as the different sizes must be varied to the purposes for which
they would be used. The before-mentioned wheels are represented as made
of metal, but they may be made partly of wood and partly of metal, or any
other material sufficiently strong for the purpose.
action of the new-invented moving railway wheels.
and Seven are illustrative of some of the methods in which the wheel may be
I made. The road wheel of Figure Seven may be enlarged to any size or breadth
It is unnecessary to
Figure First shews the
Figures Four, Five, Six,

page_text: required, while there is no occasion to increase the size of the action wheel to
correspond with that of the road wheel, and in like manner the road wheel of
Figure First may be enlarged.
Javing described the construction and action of the moving railway wheels,
I will now mention the manner of using and applying them. They may be used
on an axle of either wood or iron, as other wheels are now used, but I would
recommend that the ends of the axles should be made cylindrical, and not
tapered as now much in use.
Further, I propose an improvement for turning the carriage without
causing the fore wheels to move under the carriage, by which means a great
advantage will be gained in casing the draught or pull of the carriage over
obstacles which may impede its progress, as by this means the fore wheels of
all carriages may be made as large as the hind wheels, or larger if required.
This will appear from the Drawing, whereof
Figure Eight represents a waggon turned upside down, to shew the action
in turning the waggon. A, A, represents the bottom of the waggon. B, B, B, B,
the four waggon wheels, all of equal size. C. C, the part of the waggon
covered with thin iron to prevent the movement that acts on it from wearing
the bottom of the waggon. D is the hind axle. E, the fore axle. F, a
piece of iron, which I name the axle arm. G, the centre bolt on which this
axle arm moves. H, a secure bolt or action pin on which the slit or aperture I, I,
of the axle arm moves, when the axle arm moves on its centre on bolt G.
J, J, J, are the bolts which fix the fore axlo to the axle arm F. K and R
are two hooks fixed to the fore axle E, by which the drag ropes or traces to
pull the waggon are fixed. On the axle E being pulled or turned to the right
or left side the axle arm moves on the centre of bolt G, and turns the fore
axle by a movement either to the right or left side, as the action is given, and
places the fore wheels in such a position as to give a turning to the carriage
without the wheels going under the carriage. The common custom of placing
the fore axle is upon a centre bolt as at or on bolt G; now it is evident that
were the fore axle E fixed on its centre on the bolt G and moved on its centre
it would not produce the same effect. This improvement is the placing the
fore axle on the circumference of the axle arm, instead of fixing the movement
of the axle on bolt G, the centre, which is the common practice. This im-
provement may be applied to the wheel commonly called the transom wheel of
four-wheeled carriages; I mean the wheel on which the fore axle moves when
the carriage makes a turning. But the Invention now claimed by me consists
of the construction and adaptation of a wheel or wheels to act within a rim or
felloe of a wheel forming a moving railway for the inner wheel or wheels in

page_text: the manner in the Drawing delineated and herein above described, and not of
the above-described improvements for turning a carriage.