IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE STOPPING AND STARTING OF OMNIBUSES AND OTHER VEHICLES
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Gresham at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd September
1861.
I, JAMES GRESHAM, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lan-
caster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MECHANISM OR APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE STOPPING AND
STARTING OF OMNIBUSES AND OTHER VEHICLES," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to retard and stop vehicles by mechanism
or apparatus by which the force or momentum of the vehicle when in
motion is reserved and accumulated in such manner as to be used in starting
the vehicle into motion again.
My Invention consists in the use of springs, air, or other elastic medium,
weights, or the pressure of the atmosphere. The springs are charged, the air
or other elastic medium is compressed, the weights are lifted, or the atmo-
sphere is withdrawn from a cylinder by mechanism brought into geer with the
wheels of the vehicle by a suitable lever handle, and connecting and transmit-
ting mechanism when the vehicle is to be stopped; then, when the vehicle is to
be set in motion again the force thus reserved and accumulated will be made,
by means of reversing geer, to react upon the wheels of the vehicle, and start or
assist the starting of the vehicle into motion. The springs employed may be
spiral, helical, or of other form, or of india-rubber. or an elastic combination;
the air may be compressed in a cylinder by a piston, or a vacuum may be
formed by this means, or a vacuum may be formed and the air compressed by
[Price 8d.1

page_text: the same piston and cylinder, which may be placed under the seats or in any
other convenient part of the vehicle, and if a weight be used it may be sus-
pended over pulleys by means of a rope or chain. The weight, piston, or
spring may be connected by a rope, chain, or strap with a pulley, which is
geered and arranged so that when the wheel of the vehicle is moving forward
the pulley can be brought into geer with it so as to turn in the opposito
direction, this will retard and stop the vehicle; then by reversing the clutch,
the pulley is made to geer directly with the wheel of the vehicle, when the
force reserved and accumulated will act to start the vehicle, as the pulley and
the wheel of the vehicle will then both turn in the same direction. Any con
venient arrangement of toothed wheels and clutchor geering may be employed
capable of producing a reverse and direct motion. In place of the toothed
geer a spiral spring may be employed, placed in a box formed by two discs,
one within the other, each free to rotate separately, and both placed free to
rotate on the boss or nave of the wheel of the vehicle; one end of the spring
is secured to one disc, the other end to the other disc; both discs are arranged
so as to geer when required with a clutch carried round by the wheel of the
vehicle. When this mechanism is to be used one of the discs is brought into
geer with the wheel of the vehicle and the other is held so that it is prevented
from revolving, and thus the spring becomes charged, and when the force thus
reserved or accumulated is to be used, the disc which is in geer is brought out
of geer, and that which is out of geer is brought into geer with the wheel of
the vehicle (by passing the clutch from one to the other), and that disc which
is held is liberated, and that which was connected with the wheel is held to
prevent it from revolving, and thus the reaction of the spiral spring operates
upon the wheel of the vehicle so as to turn it in the direction of progression.
One of these arrangements may be applied to each wheel of a vehicle, or one
will do for two wheels if both are fixed on the same revolving axle.
Redhill: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office. by Love & Malcomson Ltd