AN IMPROVED CARRIAGE TO BE PROPELLED BY THE MANUAL ACTION OF THE PASSENGER OR PASSENGERS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Randall and William
Ralph Crabb at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 30th June 1868.
We, JOHN RANDALL and WILLIAM RALPH СRABB, both of Battersea,
in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED CARRIAGE TO BE PROPELLED BY THE MANUAL
ACTION OF THE PASSENGER OR PASSENGERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the construction of a carriage capable of being
propelled by the manual action of the passenger or passengers without
the use of cranks, levers, or treadles, and consists principally in trans-
mitting rotary motion to the driving axle by means of an endless chain,
belt, or band passing round a toothed or grooved (or toothed and grooved)
pulley keyed on the driving axle and round a similar pulley attached to
a disc or wheel provided with a handle or handles and placed within
easy reach of the passenger or passengers.
In constructing our improved self-propelling carriage to carry four
persons, for example, we place the seats back to back over the
driving axle (as in a dog cart), each seat being of a sufficient width to
carry two persons. In front of the front seat and within easy reach of

page_text: the hand we mount in suitable bearings a short horizontal shaft or first
motion axle, on which is keyed a stud wheel or grooved or other pulley;
this wheel or pulley is fixed to a disc or wheel provided with a handle
by means of which it may be turned by hand, and is furnished with a
suitable endless chain, belt, or band passing round it and round another
similar wheel or pulley of larger diameter keyed fast on the main
driving axle, to the ends of which latter the propelling wheels are also
made fast. The first driving wheel or pulley or its disc may be provided
with a handle on each side, so that both persons on the front seat may
drive it at the same time, or a separate driving pulley may be provided
for each person, in which case there will be two endless chains or belts
and also two driving wheels on the main axle. A fly wheel revolving
in a case between the two passengers may be keyed on the first motion
axle, if preferred, for heavy work, but ordinarily this is not required.
The seats may be covered in if desired by a movable or fixed hood, or
closed in entirely in the manner of a brougham or other carriage. The
front or steering axle has two wheels of a smaller diameter than the
propelling wheels mounted loosely so as to run free; it turns on a wheel
plate or vertical spindle in the usual manner, a grooved wheel being
fixed at the upper end of the vertical spindle. An endless band passes
round this wheel and round a similar hand wheel placed within easy
reach of the passenger, by turning which he can steer the carriage in
any direction required, and this hand wheel is provided with a locking
nut by means of which it can be fixed when the carriage is required to
be driven in a straight line without any steering. The frame of the
carriage is supported by springs bolted or otherwise fixed to the front
and back axles.