IMPROVEMENTS IN STRAM CARRIAGES FOR TRAMWAYS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Grantham, of King's Arms Yard, in the
City of London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STRAM CARRIAGES FOR TRAMWAYS.”
Sealed the 9th January 1872, and dated the 28th July 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Grantham at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
: 28th July 1871*
1, JOHN GRANTHAM, of King's Arms Yard, in the City of London,
Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM CARRIAGES FOR TRAMWAYS," to be as follows :-
66
My Invention consists in an improved steam carriage adapted to
carrying passengers on tramways.
The carriage I employ is made with two compartments, and between
them 1 place the steam boiler and other necessary apparatus for pro-
pelling the carriage, as will be presently described. I also apply means
by which the jet of steam will be converted into a continuous stream

page_text: and much of it condensed; also apparatus by which the machinery can be
controlled by the men at either end of the carriage; also I propose to
employ flanges for the wheels only on one side of the carriage.
The
I will proceed to describe the construction more in detail.
carriage consists of a longitudinal frame 30 or 40 feet long, made
generally of steel plates and light wood. The platform and roof are
framed together so as to form a strong truss, and the metal ladders at
either end of the carriage serve as ties or tension rods. This frame is
placed inside the wheels, which support it with the intervention of the
usual journals and springs; on the centre of this frame is mounted a
vertical steam boiler, with chambers for coal and water; and the other
portions of the frame are surmounted by the two bodies for the pas-
sengers, each of which has a door and platform at one end for the passengers
and the conductor. The feet of the passengers go between the two side
frames, and the seats are made on or over them. On the side of these
frames, under the seats and boiler platform, are placed two steam cylinders
working direct by connecting rods and cranks to one pair or both pairs of
wheels. To neutralize the jet of steam and to condense it I pass the whole
of the waste steam from the engines through a series of pipes exposed to
the atmosphere; these may be placed horizontally along the top of the two
bodies or vertically in a group over the space allotted to the machinery if
passengers ride on the outside; but in either case the water and the
uncondensed steam return into the supply tank, from which there is a
small pipe leading into the chimney. In the neighbourhood of the boiler
and steam pipes there is formed a double air casing to prevent the heat
affecting the passengers.
The apparatus for working the engines consists of two rods, one leading
from the steam cock on the boiler to one end of the carriage, and the
other to the other end, so made that either may be disengaged from the
cock. The same system will be applied to the reversing gear, so that
the man who is on the fore part of the carriage for the time will have
exclusively the control of the engines; suitable levers and dials for the
men to work these rods are applied at each end of the carriage where the
conductors stand.
I also employ flanges to one of the wheels of one side of the carriage
only, and to remove the necessity for moveable switches I have a lever
and a wheel at each end of the frame set at an angle; this being let
down into the groove of the rail will divert the course of the carriage

page_text: into the sidings; this is now done by the horses being driven at an angle
to the carriage, and thus the course of the carriage is changed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Grantham in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th January 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GRANTHAM, of King's Arms Yard, in the City of London, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Grantham, Her special license that I,
the said John Grantham, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said John Grantham, 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,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM CARRIAGES
and Isle of Man, an Invention for
FOB TRAMWAYB," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Grantham, 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 John Grantham, 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 :-
My Invention consists in an improved steam carriage adapted to
carrying passengers on tramways.

page_text: The carriage I employ is made of the form and in the manner
generally adopted for carrying passengers en tramways in towns and
other populous places, but to be worked by steam instead of by horses.
To accomplish this I place the machinery in a chamber on each side of
the carriage, as shewn in the plans, so as to divide the passenger space
into two compartments, but so as to preserve a passage through the
carriage. I prefer placing these chambers in the centre of length of the
carriage, but they may be also be placed nearer to either end. Each
chamber contains a boiler, water tank, and coal box, the fires being fed
by machinery, as hereafter described. A double casing or air space
may be made round these chambers and
radiation of heat into the carriages.
other means taken to prevent
It may be convenient here to describe how the carriage and machinery
will be worked, as the object and uses of the several parts will then be
better understood. The man who works the carriage, and whom I will
call the engineer, will stand on the platform which is for the time the
front end and where the driver now stands. To the same place will be
led the various shafts and handles required for working the engines and
boilers. When the carriage travels the reverse way the engineer having
disengaged these handles goes to the other end, where there are corre-
sponding handles, which being thrown into gear enables him to work the
engines as before. The brake is worked as at present. These arrange-
ments are shewn in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and are represented
by Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Figure 1 is the elevation shewing the boiler and machinery in dotted
lines; Figure 2 is a plan shewing the top of the carriage with the
position of the wheels; Figure 3, a plan shewing the interior of the
carriage with the chambers A for the boilers B and their fittings;
Figure 4 is a section through the passenger department of the carriage;
Figure 5 is a section through the boiler chambers; and Figure 6 is an end
view. These being plainly shewn in the Drawings do not require to be
more particularly described, a few references to special portions of the
machinery only being necessary. The boilers B are united by the steam
pipes 6 attached to the box C, which cortains two safety valves. On
one of these pipes is the steam cock D, which is connected by a rod and
levers to the shaft E leading to the end platform at R, where the
engineer stands.
The waste steam is led from each cylinder into the

page_text: coils of pipes F, and thence into the water cisterns G; after this it passes
into the funnel H through the pipe h. The cylinders J are attached to
the frame M of the carriage, and are worked in the usual manner with
connecting rods, cranks, eccentrics, drag links, and valve gear, the rod K
leading to each platform at S being the means by which the valves are
moved and the engines reversed. The coal boxes L are attached to the
boilers under the water cisterns, and are formed as shewn in Figure 5.
The bottoms have semicircular channels opposite holes leading to the
furnaces. In these channels are placed coarse spirals, which are set in
motion by the ratchet wheels, rods, levers, and shafts, marked respectively
m, n, o, and when in action force the fuel into the furnaces. The
handles T on the platform worked by the engineer when the fires require
to be supplied give motion to the levers and shafts marked o.
In forming the carriage the longitudinal frames M are placed inside
the wheels, and are made of wood stiffened by plates of steel. On the
top of the carriage are run two horizontal bars N; these are connected
with the ladders O, which are attached to the horizontal frames at P.
There are also added vertical columns over each wheel Q, thus strong
but light trusses are formed from end to end of the carriage. The several
handles for working the steam cock, reversing gear, and furnaces are
represented on the platform at the points R, S, T, respectively.
I con-
struct the wheels on one side of the carriage without flanges, and also
allow the wheels to run loose on the axles to facilitate the action of the
carriage at curves.
In the above Specification I have not described the details or the
particular form of boilers I employ, or other parts of the steam engines,
rods, levers, or handles for the use of the engineer in controlling the
carriage, as several arrangements may be adapted to this purpose; and
it will be obvious also that many other forms may be given to the
carriage.
1st. I claim the peculiar arrangement by which steam machinery can
be applied to propel the ordinary tramway passenger carriage instead of
horses, substantially as described.
2nd. I claim the so arranging the propelling apparatus on either side
of the carriage as to divide the passenger space into two compartments,
but allowing a clear passage from end to end of the carriage, substantially
as described.

page_text: 3rd. I claim the methods by which the machinery for starting and
reversing the engines and for feeding the fires can be performed by the
engineer from either end of the carriage, substantially as described.
In witness whereof I, the said John Grantham, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
JOHN GRANTHAM. (L.S.)