IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRAMWAYS AND IN APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE HAULING VEHICLES THEREON BY MEANS OF CABLES OR ROPES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Plenderleith Hope at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th May 1883.
WILLIAM PLENDERLEITH HOPE, of Leith in the County of Midlothian, North
Britain, "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRAMWAYS
AND IN APPARATUS FOR FACILITATING THE HAULING
VEHICLES THEREON BY
MEANS OF CABLES OR ROPES "
OF
My invention relates to the construction of tramways and to apparatus for
facilitating the hauling of vehicles thereon by means of cables or ropes arranged
within a tube placed under the ground and forming part of the tramway, motion
being imparted to the said cables or ropes from a stationary engine or engines.
One part of my' said Invention is designed to provide a continuous cast iron tube,
water-tight throughout. In this tube the grip and cable are arranged to travel.
The pulley-boxes containing the wheels, upon which the eable rests and travels,
are also water-tight through which the grip passes into the said tube. The
slot instead of being about three-fourths of an inch wide, as it has hitherto been
made is only about three eighths of an inch in width. The said tube, and a number
of wrought-iron braces connecting it with the tramway rails or sleepers, form a
perfect truss-bridge and are independent of the support of the earth in which
they are embedded. The earth might be dug entirely away from the tube and
its supports and yet a laden truck might travel along the rails without deflecting
the way or track. The track is therefore very durable. But notwithstanding this
extra strength, its cost is much less than the cheapest of the tracks now in use,
and it will outlast either of them and be easier and cheaper to maintain. No
masonry, cement or timber, is required in laying this tramway. One great
advantage of this continuous tube is that it will not be necessary to have sewer
connections. The tube runs past the pulley-boxes, and no water enters them
from it.
Another part of my present invention has for its object to provide means for
facilitating the passage of the vehicles around curves. For this purpose I provide
within the said tube a number of what I term " curve-wheels" placed at suitable
intervals along the said tube. These wheels are made with flanges and their
peripheries are slightly bevelled or inclined inwardly toward the said flanges so
that the latter form supports for the rope when the same is not held by the grip
hereinafter described and fitted to the aforesaid vehicles.
The rope or cable passes around the curve and bears upon the curve-wheels, and
at each end of the curve it passes around two grooved pulleys turning upon fixed

page_text: pivots. The said rope or cable also passes around a pulley arranged at, or near,
the middle of the curve.
Another part of my said invention relates more particularly to an improved grip
for connecting the said vehicles to the rope or cable when necessary. This grip is
arranged and fitted to a tram-car in such a manner that the engineer can stand
on the front platform of the car and have in front of him a hand-wheel similar to
those ordinarily employed for operating brakes on steam tramcars; and can with
facility operate by means of his foot a "trip" or treadle-lever. This is all the
machinery which appears on the platform of the car; the remainder of the
machinery is underneath the body of the car. By seizing the hand-wheel and
giving it a turn or two, the engineer, by aid of a lever, rack and pinion; and a
connecting rod under the car may cause the grip to hold the cable. The grip is of
novel construction and a great improvement on those heretofore used. The old grip
catches the cable by pressure from above and below, the action being such as
would be used if a rope were held by having it laid upon the palm of one hand
while the other palm pressed flat down upon it. The new grip, which hangs
centrally between the axles of the car, seizes the cable as a man would naturally
seize a rope, grippng it side wise and holding it pressed between the palm and
his closed fingers. In other words, the grip closes tight around the cable by a
side motion, thus ensuring a much firmer and safer hold and not wrenching or
stranding the cable, as other grips are apt to do. The improved grip is much
smaller than the old grip and therefore requires a much smaller channel to travel
in. Connected with the grip machinery is a swinging bar.
As soon as an
obstruction is reached, such as an intersecting cable on a cross-street or the cable
where it turns to pass into the engine-house, this bar lifts the arm which operates
the grip and releases the grip instantaneously. As soon as the obstruction is passed,
the bar falls again and the grip is again put on. The engineer has only to press the
said treadle-lever and the grip on the cable is immediately released. No turning
of the hand-wheel is necessary in stopping the car; it is only necessary in starting
the same. On cable roads or tramways as heretofore made the process of cleaning the
channel in which the grip runs is tedious and clumsy. A sort of hoe has to be
introduced into the slot, by hand and pulled along the channel until one of the pulley-
boxes is reached, whence the rubbish has to be lifted out slowly with a hoe of
another pattern. Attached to my improved grip is a scraper. The grip, as it travels,
drags the scraper along the bottom of the channel, and at proper intervals are
"sumps" into which the material thus gathered drops; to be emptied out when
convenient The releasing bar acts on this scraper whenever it acts on the grip.
When the grip is released, the scraper is raised so as to pass over any obstruction.
The grip is provided with a pulley or roller for supporting the rope or cable,
which roller is carried in suitable bearings, The rope or cable as it rests upon the
said roller lies between a fixed jaw and a movable jaw. This movable jaw is
pivotted at a point below the fixed jaw and is coupled at one end to a connecting
rod the upper end of which extends upward to within the vehicle and is provided
with suitable means for operating it.
I make the aforesaid tube of cast iron with suitable flanges and I connect it
with the rails by means of wrought iron bars bolted thereto and to the said tube
in such a manner as to form a triangular frame on each side of the said tube, and
I fix the longitudinal bars forming the guide for the grip to the horizontal bars of
the said frames. In some cases I use this continuous tube as a receptacle for
telegraph or other electrical conducting wires, for the reception of which suitable
hangers or pendents are provided so that each wire or cable is kept separate to
avoid contact