A NEW OR IMPROVED AXLE FOR CARRIAGES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Lowe, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, William Trueman, of Birmingham, aforesaid,
Axle Maker, and John Linwood Pitts, of Birmingham, aforesaid,
Accountant Clerk, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED AXLE FOR
CARRIAGES."
Sealed the 3rd June 1859, and dated the 27th December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Lowe, William
Trueman, and John Linwood Pitts at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 27th December 1858.
We, HENRY LOWE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, and WILLIAM TRUEMAN, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Axle Maker, and.
JOHN LINWOOD PITTS, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Accountant Clerk, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED AXLE FOR..
CARRIAGES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists of a new or improved axle constructed in the manner
hereinafter explained; the said axle being simpler in construction and safer.
in use than axles of the ordinary construction.
In making an axle according to our Invention we turn a groove in the arm
of the axle, and near the end of the said arm, the said groove being turned
out of the solid metal. By making the said groove as described, the end of
the arm constitutes a head separated by a neck from the arm of the axle.
In the said neck we slide a saddle piece, the said saddle piece entering the
said groove by a vertical motion, and being guided in its motion by ribs on

page_text: one face of the said saddle piece, engaging in guide grooves on the inner face
. of the head at the end of the axle. A screw passed through the end of the
axle secures the said saddle piece in its place. On the arm, and between the
saddle piece and the axle box, we place a ring collet or washer; the said ring
collet having at its lower side a projecting piece which engages in the lower
part of the saddle piece, and by which engagement the said ring collet is pre-
vented from turning round. The end of the axle may be covered by a cap of
the ordinary kind.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Lowe, William Trueman, and John Linwood Pitts in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd June 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME; we, HENRY
LOWE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
WILLIAM TRUEMAN, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Axle Maker, and JOHN
LINWOOD PITTS, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Accountant Clerk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto us, the said Henry Lowe, William Trueman, and John Linwood Pitts,
Her special licence that we, the said Henry Lowe, William Trueman, and
John Linwood Pitts, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Henry Lowe, William Trueman, and John Linwood Pitts, our
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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED AXLE FOR CARRIAGES,
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry Lowe, William
Trueman, and Jolin Linwood Pitts, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per
formed, 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..

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Lowe, on behalf of myself and
the said William Trueman and John Linwood Pitts, 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
thereof, that is to say:-
Our Invention consists of a new or improved axle for carriages, constructed
in the manner herein-after explained and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing. Our said new or improved axle is simpler in construction and
safer in use than axles of the ordinary construction.
Figure 1 of the Drawing represents in elevation, and Figure 2 in vertical
longitudinal section, one end of an axle constructed according to our Invention;
the other Figures represent portions of our new or improved axle, as herein-
after explained. The same letters are used to indicate the same parts in the
several Figures.
In the arm a of the axle, and near the end thereof, we turn a groove, as
indicated at b, in Figure 2, but is best seen at b, in Figure 3, which said
Figure 3 represents in elevation and cross section the end of the arm a of the
axle. The cross section of Figure 3 is taken through the groove b. By
making the groove b as described, the end a' of the arm a constitutes a head
separated by the neck c from the arm a of the axle. The neck c is flattened
on one side, as best seen at c' in the cross section in Figure 3.
After the axle box f has been put upon the axle, we drop or slide on the
neck ca saddle piece d, shown separately in front and side elevations in
Figure 4. The said saddle piece d is prevented from rotating upon the neck c,
by the flat side of the said saddle piece engaging with the flattened side c'
of the neck c. Figure 5 represents in side elevation and cross section the end
of the axle arm, with the saddle piece d in its place thereon; e is a ring,
shown separately in front and side elevations in Figure 6, which said ring is
placed upon the end of the arm after the saddle piece d has been put in its
place. The position of the said ring e upon the end of the axle arm and the
saddle piece d will be understood by an examination of Figures 2 and 7;
Figure 7 representing in elevation the end of the axle arm, after the axle
box f, saddle piece d, and ring e have been put in their respective places. The
ringe is kept in its place by means of a cotter or linch pin g, shown separately
in Figure 8, which said cotter or liuch pin g is passed through a hole in the
head a' of the arm a.
The end of the axle boxf works against the inner face of the saddle piece d,
the said saddle piece having a firm bearing in the groove b. The ring e holds

page_text: the said saddle piece d firmly in its place on the neck c, and the said ring is
fixed in its place by the cotter or linch pin g.
The end of the axle is covered by a cap h of the ordinary kind, which said
cap h screws on the outside of the end of the axle box f.
The parts of the axle which we have not described are of the ordinary
construction, and constitute no part of our Invention.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not limit
ourselves to the precise details herein described and represented, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of our said Invention; but
we claim as our Invention, the new or improved axle for carriages, herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, that is to say,
an axle in which a saddle piece, engaging with or sliding upon a neck near the
end of the axle arm constitutes the bearing against which the small end of the
axle box works.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Lowe, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Twenty-first day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw.
HENRY LOWE. (L.S.)