IMPROVE- MENTS IN CARRIAGE WAVE AND IN CARDLICESWAYS INRIAGES FOR THE S
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry James, of the Old Kent Road, in
the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CARRIAGE WAVE AND IN CARDLICES PO
Sealed the 5th September 1865, and dated the 9th March 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry James
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th March 1865.
I, WILLIAM HENRY JAMES, of the Old Kent Road, in the County of Surrey,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " IM-
PROVEMENTS IN CARRIAGEWAYS AND IN CARRIAGES FOR THE SAME," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in improvements on and modifications of an Inven-
tion for which Letters Patent for England were granted to me, 16th September
1842, No. 9473. These improvements are as follows:-
1st. Instead of fixing posts or pillars in the ground itself, I fit them into
sockets, from which they may be easily withdrawn at pleasure, such sockets
being first fixed firmly in the ground.
2nd. Instead of placing the cross bearings upon springs, I dispense
altogether with such springs, and fix the cross bearings firmly on the posts or
pillars.
3rd. Instead of passing the rods, bars, or strips through dovetailed aper-
tures, for the purpose of keeping them in position, I now merely let them
rest in open grooves, and keep them therein by thin sheet metal fitting over
them, and fastened to the cross bars.
4th. Instead of forming these tension carriageways upon a level necessarily,
I form them either on a level or at various inclinations, as required, and the

page_text: stations generally being upon the ground, and the weighted bent levers for
giving the rods, bars, or strips of metal the requisite tension also near the
ground, and very frequently under the surface and flooring of the stations, the
rods, bars, or strips of metal rising at an angle, and passing over curvilinear
bearings level with the carriageway, so as to save the expense of raising
buildings to enable the weighted bent levers to correspond with such level.
5th. In some cases I substitute for the weighted bent levers for giving
tension to the several rods, bars, or strips of metal forming the carriageway,
wheels and pinions actuated by weights or springs.
6th. In some cases instead of using rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal for
forming the carriageways, I sometimes use chains, ropes, and framework
hinged together, or plates of metal joined end to end by rivetting or other-
wise, and kept in a state of tension.
7th. I convey the passengers and goods upon jointed and railed platforms
generally of great length, resting upon a series of rollers and antifriction
wheels, upon which platforms seats are placed for the passengers, or a series
of narrow boxes or small close carriages, also upon wheels or rollers, are
placed at any given distances apart from each other for the convenient
accommodation of one or two passengers only (as I should recommend, though
not absolutely confined to that number), my object being, by the before-
mentioned arrangement, to distribute the weight of the passengers and goods
over an extended surface, by which the number of passengers between any
two supports may be regulated as desired. I generally also have a narrow
tramway formed of wood, though metal may be used instead if preferred, laid
upon and extending the whole lengths of these moving. platforms, upon which
these small boxes or carriages may be made to run for the conveyance of the
passengers and goods from one end of such platforms to the other, or, when a
small engine of any kind is used for propelling these platforms, to admit of its
running from one end to the other to enable such engine to be situated in
front of such platforms, whether going or returning, between any two
stations.
I have caoutchouc or other kind of springs between the several carriages
upon the platform railway, which are gradually extended as the carriages are
drawn forward at starting, which when fully extended are fixed in that
position until the end of the journey, but on being released should have the
power of bringing all the carriages together into the station or terminus of the
carriageway.
Instead also of changing the direction of these locomotive platforms by turn-
tables or otherwise, I prefer their running in straight lines from one station to

page_text: another, only one such platform being employed between them; and should
the journey be for any great distance, the passengers should transfer them-
selves and their luggage or be transferred to another locomotive platform,
which might be brought up alongside the former (say at every 50 or 100 miles),
from which point the direction of the route might be changed if desirable.
There are so many ways of propelling or rather dragging these platforms both
on a level or up ascents, that I do not claim any particular mode of effecting
that object. I have mentioned small steam engines. In the event of passing
up steep inclines there may be changes from a fast to slow movement in
connection therewith proportionate to the power required, which motion may
be communicated to any required number of the rollers by means of straps,
cords, rods, or otherwise for short distances; and when great speed is not
required, compressed air, strong springs, manual or pedomotive labour may be
employed, and even the wind itself, by means of low sails, might in some cases
be employed as a useful adjunct. Fixed engines might be used also for
dragging these platforms up very steep inclines by means of ropes, straps, or
chains. In passing from the level down any such inclines I leave sufficient
height between the several pairs of rollers to prevent any part of the carriage-
way coming into contact with the under portion or supporting sides of the
platform.
I sometimes connect the posts or pillars by tie or truss rods, and for the
purpose of rendering the framework of the locomotive platforms very strong
and light, I sometimes truss the same on the principle of wire bridges.
Independent tension may be imparted to the several rods, wires, or plates, as
often as may be found necessary, at any intermediate points.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Henry James in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th September 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, WILLIAM
HENRY JAMES, of the Old Kent Road, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth 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 me, the
said William Henry James, Her special licence that I, the said William

page_text: Henry James, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said William Henry James, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree. with, and no others, from time to time and at 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 CARRIAGEWAYS AND IN CARRIAGES FOR THE SAME," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Henry James, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, 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 I, the said William Henry James, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
These improvements consist of modifications of an Invention for which
Letters Patent, No. 94,731, were granted to me on the 16th of September
1842. In my former Patent, as will appear by reference to the Specification
and Drawings thereto annexed, I proposed to form carriageways and carriages
to run thereon for the conveyance of goods and passengers by means of a
series of parallel rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal, or other suitable
materials carried over a series of horizontal intermediate spring bearings
placed at intervals across the lines of carriageway on posts, pillars, or other
suitable supports fixed in the ground, such rods, bars, wires, or strips being
constantly kept in a state of tension by mechanical means, and the passengers
and goods being conveyed in carriages propelled upon and along carriageways
so formed. Now it may be seen by the Specification of such former Patent,
as well as by the Drawings thereto annexed, that these carriageways were
only intended to be formed upon a dead level, the posts, pillars, or piles. which
support the carriageway being made of various heights to suit the irregulari-
ties of the ground over which the carriageway is carried, no provision or even
mention being made of forming the lines of carriageway or any portion
thereof at various gradients or degrees of inclination for passing over bills or
surmounting other obstructions that might be met with in the formation of
such lines of carriageway, upon which single carriages only were intended to
be employed. The carriages containing the passengers and goods intended to

page_text: be conveyed at any one time, as well as the propelling machinery, were con-
structed of such lengths (singly) as to average something more than half the
distance of the carriageway from one support or bearing thereof to another,
so as at no time for the pressure of any one carriage and its load to exceed
one-half of its gross weight upon any particular transverse section of the
carriageway between such supports. My present improvements upon my said
formerly patented Invention consist as follows:-
(1.) Instead of fixing the posts or pillars for supporting the lines of
carriageway in the ground, and forming them of various heights to compensate
for the differences of level or of any irregularity of surface, in order to
produce level lines of carriageway, as in my said former patented Invention,
I now let them into sockets fixed firmly in the ground, and brought to an
uniform line of range to suit any varieties of level or of any irregularities of
the surface of the ground, as before mentioned, so as to admit of such posts or
pillars being all of equal lengths (as particularly advisable when made of cast
iron, as I generally prefer them to be, although wood or any other suitable
materials may be used), proper means being afforded for their being easily
attached to such sockets or conveniently separated therefrom, if ever after-
wards requiring removal to another locality or line of carriageway.
(2.) Instead of placing the cross bearings employed for supporting the
lines of carriageway upon springs, as described in my former Specification,
I now abolish such springs with the object of preventing oscillation of the
carriages or platforms when traversing the carriageways or the depression
of the carriageways themselves to a greater degree on one side than the other
by the unequal loading of such carriages.
(3.) Instead of passing the rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal con-
stituting my carriageways' through dovetailed grooves for the purpose of
retaining them in their proper positions upon the cross bearings, I now,
particularly when they are of a round shape, let them rest in semicircular
grooves formed in those cross bearings which are permanently fixed on the
posts, pillars, piles, or other supports of the carriageways, and retain them
therein by means of thin sheet metal corrugated so as to fit over them,
and then fastened to such cross bearings, so as to be readily-detached when
requisite, sufficient end play being allowed for the rods, bars, or wires to slide
to and fro through them, though I still prefer, as in my former patented
Invention, the use of dovetailed grooves for this purpose when flat bars of
metal are employed:
(4.) Instead of employing rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal only, kept in
a state of tension for the formation of my carriageways, I sometimes use in

page_text: their stead chains, ropes, or frameworks hinged together, or plates of metal
joined together end to end by riveting or otherwise.
(5.) Instead of using weighted bent levers only for giving and producing
tension continuously upon the rods, bars, wires, strips of metal, or chains,
ropes, frameworks, or plates of metal before mentioned, I now use wheels and
pinions for that purpose, or in conjunction with such weighted bent levers,
through the medium of ratchets, with the view of affording an increased range
of motion and power for producing such effects.
(6.) Instead of raising the bent levers on buildings or elevated frameworks
for giving direct tension to the rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal at a great
expence, in consequence of the immense strength required for resisting the
united power of tension upon such rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal, I now
fix such bent levers or other tension-producing apparatus upon the ground or
underneath its surface, and very conveniently under the flooring of the stations
used for the reception or disembarking of passengers, the rods, bars, wires, or
strips of metal being made to rise at an angle from such weighted bent levers,
to which they are connected in the first place over antifriction cross bearings
fixed upon framework, and then over the other supports to form the
carriageway.
י
(7.) Instead of forming my tension carriageways upon a dead level
necessarily, as described and shewn in the Drawings of my former patented
Invention, I now construct them, or any portion thereof, at any degrees of
inclination that may be required in passing from one level to another, or over
any kind of country in which it may be desired to form such lines of carriage-
way. I may here remark as regards the general construction of these carriage-
ways, which may be varied as to their dimensions in any manner that may be
found requisite, that the posts, pillars, piles, and their cross bearings for support-
ing the carriageways may be conveniently situated on the average (say, for
the sake of example,) at about thirteen yards apart from each other, and of
sufficient height as to allow a clear opening of about eight or ten feet under
the carriageways and carriages employed thereon, with the view of avoiding
ordinary obstructions, and to admit of persons on horseback, cattle, carriages,
&c. passing freely under them; the breadth of the carriageways, as well as
the position of the rods, bars, wires, or strips of metal upon the cross bearings,
may also be so varied as to allow of railed and jointed platform carriages,
hereafter described, as wide as the deck of a moderately sized steamboat
travelling thereon, or of platforms no wider than necessary for the transit of
passengers seated in single file, as hereafter described. I may also here
mention that when I employ two or more carriageways running parallel to

page_text: each other and near together, I connect their supports, so as to give increased
stability to the whole.
(8.) Now as regards the construction of carriages. Instead of conveying
passengers and goods and propelling machinery in single carriages limited in
their lengths to merely something more than half the distance between any
two supports or cross bearings, as exhibited in the Drawings of my former
patented Invention, I now convey them upon jointed platforms usually of very
considerable length, and of two kinds, each involving a somewhat different
construction of carriageway, the one being more suitable for carriages running
at a very high velocity than the other, as will afterwards appear.
When very great velocity of transit is required I employ very narrow platforms
of about four feet in width, joined together in lengths of about six and a half
yards each (when the distance between the supports of the carriageway does
not exceed about thirteen yards, as previously proposed), in which separate
lengths of platform between such junctures I have openings made of about
six yards in length and two feet in breadth, into which openings I fix by their
upper edges open boxes of similar dimensions, and about two feet in depth;
these I divide into three compartments of six feet each, with seats in each of
them for two passengers made to sit facing each other; or these compart-
ments may be again subdivided, cach division then accommodating one
passenger only, if preferred, and which compartments may have such additions
made to them as to constitute close carriage bodies possessing facilities of
being opened at pleasure by means of folding joints. I keep these jointed
platforms only a few inches above the carriageways, such platforms, with the
load of passengers and goods, being made to hang upon the central axles of
large drum wheels (formed of wood) through the medium of antifriction
wheels or rollers contained in standards attached to the platforms, which drum
wheels are made to roll upon the carriageways through openings left in the
sides of the platforms for that purpose, to effect which object also the carriage-
ways must be divided into two portions for allowing the small boxes or carriage
bodies containing the passengers to pass and remain suspended between them,
the rods, bars, wires, strips, ropes, chains, or whatever else may be used for
forming the carriageways being in such case brought near together over and
upon suitable supports, which supports must also be so formed as to allow
the carriage bodies passing between them. The carriageways, when so divided,
would then have the appearance of two flat ropes, each of about twelve
inches wide, to serve as rails (for the roller wheels of the platforms to travel
upon) when kept in a state of tension by weighted bent levers, as before
described; side rollers with flanges must also be attached, either centrally or

page_text: externally, to the platforms for keeping them when moving in a rectilinear
position on the carriageways for the prevention of friction, which might other-
wise arise from the sides of the platforms rubbing against the sides of the
carriageways. The object of this latter improvement is to afford me the very
important advantage of having it in my power to distribute the whole weight
of the passengers and goods over any length of carriageway, and consequently
over any number of intermediate supports, so as to lessen the bearing upon
each of them as desired, and by which latter arrangements also I am enabled
to reduce the dead weight of material in the carriages themselves, in proportion
to the weight of the passengers and their luggage to be carried, in a very
extraordinary degree when compared with that of any other system of
transit.
(9.) When great speed is not necessary, I then construct these locomotive
platforms of considerable width, so as to allow passengers under proper
restrictions to traverse them from end to end as on the deck of a steam vessel,
having separate boxes or berths to avail themselves of in case of bad weather,
and possessing every other convenience enjoyed by steamboat passengers.
These platforms being supported upon the axles of small rollers through the
medium of antifriction wheels or rollers contained in brackets attached to the
under surface of each platform, which platforms should have railings around
them for the safety of passengers, and for preventing friction against the sides
of the carriageways.
I use antifriction rollers attached to the platform. I likewise sometimes
use a narrow tramway or tramways formed of wood (though metal may be
used if preferred) to enable any locomotive engine that may be employed for
propelling or rather dragging these platforms to pass from one end of them
to the other, to admit of their transfer to the front thereof on their return
journeys; it is probable, however, that other more suitable means of propelling
will be employed. Instead also of changing the direction of these locomotive
platforms by means of turntables or otherwise, I much prefer running them
in perfectly straight lines from station to station, thereby avoiding the great
friction and danger of running around curves at very great speed. And for
the complete prevention of collisions, I propose that only one such locomotive
platform should be employed between each pair of stations, and should the
journey be for any great distance that the passengers shall transfer then selves
or be transferred to another similar locomotive platform situated on another
extension carriageway, to facilitate which transfer these carriageways might be
constructed and the platforms brought alongside each other at the several
stations (say at every thirty or fifty miles apart), at which points of transfer

page_text: or at any other intermediate points of disembarkation the route might be
changed, and passengers transferred in a similar manner to another line of
carriageway. There are so many ways of propelling or rather dragging these
platforms, both on a level and up ascents, that I do not herein propose for
adoption any particular mode of effecting that object; I have mentioned
small locomotive steam engines. In the event of having to pass up steep
inclines, there may be changes from a fast to a slow movement in connection
therewith proportionate to the power required, and which motions may be
communicated to any number of the rollers or roller wheels by means of
straps, cords, rods, or otherwise for short distances, and when great speed is
not required compressed air, strong springs, or manual or pedomotive power
may be employed, and even the wind itself, by means of sails, might in some
cases be used with advantage as an adjunct; fixed engines might also be
rendered available for dragging these platforms up any steep inclines by
means of ropes, straps, chains, and pulleys. In passing from a level down
any such inclines I leave sufficient height between the several pairs of rollers
to prevent any part of the carriageways coming into contact with the under
portion or supporting sides of the platforms, and I sometimes connect the
posts or pillars or other supports of the carriageways by tie or truss rods;
and for the purpose of rendering the framework of the locomotive platforms
very light and strong, I sometimes truss them on the principle of wire bridges.
Independent tension inay be imparted to the several rods, bars, and wires, as
often as may be found necessary, over suitable antifriction cross bearings at any
intermediate points of the lines of carriageway by means of weighted bent
levers or other tension-producing apparatus with small portions of fixed
carriageway between them at such points, if necessary, for keeping them in a
line with each other, so that both the surfaces and the sides of such carriage-
ways should always present a smooth, straight, and uninterrupted line of way
for the platform carriages to run from one station to another.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry James, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-five.