AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF METALLIC SPRING
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF METALLIC
SPRING." A communication.
Sealed the 3rd October 1854, and dated the 21st July 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st July 1854.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION. OF METALLIC
SPRING" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the employment of a thin metallic strap and rigid
bar, which are securely attached together at their extremities by rivets or
otherwise, and so arranged that the thrust of the carriage on the spring shail
tend to elongate the metallic strap. The elastic force rendered available in
this construction of spring is the tendency of the thin metallic strap to retain
its length and form in opposition to a tensile strain.
The thin metallic strap may be corrugated, and that to any extent, dependent
upon the degree of elasticity desired. As the number of corrugations are
increased, the elasticity of the spring will be increased.
Instead of a single thin strap, a series of two or more straps may be used.

page_text: When it is desired to make a stiff spring, capable of sustaining a great pressure,
the thin strap may have either a single slight corrugation or no corrugation
at all. In the latter case, the cohesive tendency of the strap to preserve its
original length against the tensile strain will be solely relied on.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 20th January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that 1, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF METALLIC SPRING," being a communication
from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
1
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention consists in the employment, as a substitute for the ordinary
construction of spring, of a thin metallic strap and rigid bar, connected together

page_text: at each end, for the purpose of sustaining the weight of carriage bodies. The
elastic force rendered available in this construction of spring is derived from.
the tendency of the thin metallic strap to retain its length and form, in oppo-
sition to the tensile strain put upon it by the load which it carries. To enable
others skilled in the art to make and use this improvement, I will proceed to
describe its construction and mode of operation.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is an edge view of the improved
spring applied to a railway carriage frame; Fig. 2 is an edge view of the
spring detached; and Fig. 3 is a plan view of the same. A, B, is a rigid
metallic bar of sufficient strength to prevent its bending to the ordinary strain
put upon it. This bar may be made of wrought or cast iron or steel, and in
ordinary passenger carriages it should be about two inches square in section..
It should be long enough to extend from the journal of one axle to the journal
of the next axle on the same truck, as shewn at A, B, Fig. 1.
To the extremities A and B of this rigid bar, a metallic strap of wrought
iron C, D, is securely attached..
This metallic strap is made of wrought iron, about three quarters of an'inch
thick (varied of course according to the degree of pressure to be resisted) and
about three inches wide, and it is attached to the extremities of the rigid
bar, either by hooking and. rivets, as shewn in Fig. 2, or by welding.
A series of slight corrugations, not extending more than one inch in depth, is
generally made along the length of this strap, as shewn in the Drawing. E is
one of a pair of upright inetallic supports or brackets (shewn detached at
Fig. 4); it is flat on top, and has a pin F, which passes across and bears on
the strap at about the middle of its length.
A pair of these brackets is to receive the vertical pressure of the carriage,
and transfer it to the metallic straps C, D, with which the brackets are
respectively in connection.
The compound spring thus formed is attached and operates as follows:—
The carriage frame on each side rests upon the top of a bracket E, as shewn
at Fig. 1, and the extremities A and B of the rigid bars respectively rest upon
the top of the boxes of two contiguous axles, as shewn in Fig. 1. The down-
ward pressure of the carriage gives the metallic strap C, D, a tendency to
recede from the rigid bar A, B, at the point G, but this it can only do
by increasing its length and by drawing out the corrugations; in other
words, the strap tends to assume the position indicated by the dotted lines of
Fig. 2.
The thin metallic strap may be corrugated to any extent, dependent upon
the degree of clasticity desired, the increase in the number of corrugations

page_text: Instead of a single thin strap a
When it is desired to make a stiff
giving an increased elasticity to the spring.
series of two or more straps may be used.
spring, capable of sustaining a great pressure, a single slight corrugation may
be formed in the thin strap, or the strap may be made without corrugations,
reliance in that case being had solely on the cohesive tendency of the strap to
preserve its original length against the tensile strain.
The property on which the improved spring depends for its efficiency is the
cohesive force of the metallic strap, and its tendency to preserve or regain the
corrugated form.
The strap C, D, may be corrugated, if desired, by blows of a hammer on the
anvil upon the cold iron, or in any other convenient manner. The number
and position of these corrugations across the strap may be varied, and any
convenient mode of attaching the spring thus formed to a locomotive engine or
carriage may be adopted.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "An Improved Con-
struction of Metallic Spring," as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it
to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim,
the combination of the rigid bar and thin metallic strap, in the manner and for
the purpose substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, 'the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twentieth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)