IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK AND TRACTION ENGINES."
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Sterne, of Victoria Street, in the City
of Westminster, Engineer, and Loftus Perkins, of Seaford Street,
Regent Square, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer; for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY ROLLING
STOCK AND TRACTION ENGINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Sterne and
Loftus Perkins at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 30th October 1873.
We, LOUIS STERNE, of Victoria Street, in the City of West-
minster, Engineer, and LOFTUS PERKINS, of Seaford Street, Regent
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do' hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF
RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK AND TRACTION ENGINES," to be as follows:
The object of our Invention is to diminish the jolting or oscillation

page_text: produced in railway rolling stock and traction engines by unevenness
or inequalities in the rail or road. And our Invention consists in the
employment in addition to the ordinary bearing springs of other springs
which are attached to the horn plates of the axle box or to other
suitable fixed part. These springs in their normal state are in com-
pression, and they expand as the bearing springs are compressed. They
thus, so to speak, act as counter springs, that is to say, that when
the axle box rises and compresses the bearing springs these counter
springs expand so as to be ready to receive the shock or impact when
the axle box again descends, thereby considerably diminishing the
jolting or oscillation of the vehicle.
Our Invention will be fully understood by the following description
of the manner in which it may be applied to a railway carriage :-Below
the axle box we fit a horizontal plate between which and the axle box
we place one or more spiral or other springs. We then by means of
nuts screw up the plate so as to compress these springs to any required
degree. The nuts work-on vertical rods attached to brackets on the
horn plates. The springs being thus compressed will have a tendency
to force up the axle box, which is however kept down by the bearing
springs or by the weight of the carriage. But when the axle box is
forced up owing to the wheels passing over some inequality or elevation
in the road, the bearing springs are compressed as usual, while the
counter springs expand to an extent equal to the rise of the axle box in
the horn plates and are therefore ready to receive and absorb the shock
or impact of the same when it descends, and at the same time prevent
the bearing springs returning too quickly to their normal position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Louis Sterne and Loftus Perkins in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th April 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, LOUIS 30
STERNE, of Victoria Chambers, in the City of Westminster, Engineer,
and LOFTUS PERKINS, of Seaford Street, Regent Square, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the year
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Louis Sterne and Loftus Perkins,
Her special licence that we, the said Louis Sterne and Loftus
Perkins, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as we, the said Louis Sterne and Loftus Perkins, 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, àn Invention for “IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RAILWAY ROLLING STOCK AND TRACTION ENGINES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Louis Sterne and Loftus
Perkins, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or one of our 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 we, the said Louis Sterne and Loftus Perkins,
do hereby declare the nature of our 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, reference being
had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
The object of our Invention is to diminish the jolting or oscillation
produced in railway rolling stock and traction engines by unevenness
or inequalities in the rail or road. And our Invention consists in the
employment, in addition to the ordinary bearing springs, of other
springs which are attached to the horn plates of the axle box or to other
suitable part. These springs in their normal state are in compression,
and they expand as the bearing springs are compressed. They thus, so
to speak, act as counter springs, that is to say, that when the body of
the carriage descends and compresses the bearing springs these counter

page_text: springs expand so as to be ready, to receive the shock or impact when the
carriage body again rises, thereby considerably diminishing the jolting or
oscillation of the vehicle.
Our Invention will be fully understood on reference to the annexed
Drawings which represent several ways in which our Invention may be
carried into effect.
In the arrangement shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, two spiral
springs A, A, are placed in boxes B, B, on the horn plates. Above the
springs A, A, are blocks C, C, which form the bearings for the ends of
screws D, D, these screws are passed through female screws in the
flanges E, E, of a bracket F which extends down the sides of and
under the axle box G, forming as it were a seat for. the axle box.
The screws D, D, are screwed up so as to compress the springs A, A,
to any desired degree; these springs will thus have a tendency to force
up the bracket F. together with the axle box which is however kept
down by the bearing springs H or by the weight of the carriage;. but
when the carriage body comes down, owing to the wheels passing over
some inequality or elevation, in the road, the bearing springs H are com-
pressed as usual while the counter springs. A expand to an extent equal.
to the descent of the carriage body and are therefore ready to receive or
absorb the shock or impact of the same when it rises, and at the same.
time prevent the bearing springs H returning too rapidly to their
normal position.
t
Inthe arrangement represented in Figure 4 the ends of the ordinary
bearing springs H have attached to them the ends of other laminated
springs Aof less power which form the counter springs. The springs H
and A are connected at their middle by a frame composed of plates I
and vertical rods K. The springs A are compressed to the required
degree by screwing up the nuts L. When the carriage body comes
down and compresses or forces up the bearing springs H the frame I, K,
rises to an equal extent, thereby allowing the counter springs A to
expand also to the same extent. These springs A are therefore ready
to act in a similar manner to the spiral springs A, Figure 1, as already
described.
+

page_text: brought close together, the latter being compressed as before to the
desired degree by means of the nuts L.
In witness whereof, I, the said Louis Sterne, on behalf of myself
and the said Loftus Perkins, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-four.