IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROAD WHEELS FOR ROAD STEAMERS AND TRACTION ENGINES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Vaughan Pendred at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
December 1870.
I, VAUGHAN PENDRED, Engineer, of Orohill House, Milton Road,
Dulwich, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ROAD WHEELS FOR ROAD STEAMERS AND
TRACTION ENGINES," to be as follows:-
"
This Invention has for its object improvements in the construction
of road wheels for road steamers and traction engines, whereby the
cost of the same may be reduced, while other advantages are secured.
It has been found that by applying vulcanized indian-rubber in the
shape of a heavy band, or belt, or tire, to the road or driving wheels
of road steamers, and traction engines, several important advantages
are secured, the nature of which is well understood by engineers, the
most important advantage being the augmentation of adhesion or
grip between the surface of the tire and the road. The quantity of
vulcanized indian-rubber however required for this purpose in the wheels
of road steamers; and traction engines has hitherto been very great

page_text: and the cost of engines fitted with such tires has been proportionately
increased.
Now be it known that my Invention for improvements in the wheels
of road steamers or traction engines consist for the first part in so com-
bining the use of india-rubber with other elastic or semi-elastic substances
in the manner herein-after set forth that the quantity of indian-rubber
required to make a good and elastic wheel will be greatly diminished
as compared with the existing method of construction.
In carrying out this, the first part of my Invention, I make a rubber
band or tire in the form of a tube or tubes of any section found most
suitable, or I make it cellular. The walls of the tubes or cells will vary
in thickness with the size of the engine and quality of the vulcanized
indian-rubber and I fill the aforesaid hollow spaces within the tubes
or cells with compressed wool, hair, feathers, or fibre, or cork, or the
aforesaid hollow spaces, cells, or tubes may be filled with compressed
air or with water or other fluids when the engine is to be used in hot
climates, when air or other fluids or liquids are used. I prefer to
enclose the same in air or liquid proof bags of elastic material to be
placed within the aforesaid cells or tubes in the tire. In some cases
instead of enclosing elastic substances in the substance of the tire as
herein-before described, I construct a tire by taking a band of vulcanized
indian-rubber of the requisite dimensions, and say, one inch thick, and
I line the same with cork blocks cemented to each other and to the
indian-rubber, and I apply the tire so made to the rim of the wheel with
suitable cheek plates, in such a manner that the indian-rubber shall
be outside and next the road, and I protect the same with chains or
bands in the way now practised by engineers and constituting no part
of the Invention. The combination tires herein-before described may
be made up in seperate blocks and so applied to the surface of the wheels
in certain cases for the convenience of the manufacture.
And now be it known that the second part of this Invention consists
in substituting wholly or in part an indian-rubber hub or boss for an
indian-rubber tire. By preference I construct such a wheel with a central
boss (to receive the axle) on which boss I place a ring of indian-rubber
or of a compound of indian-rubber and wool, cork, etc., as herein-before
described of the proper dimensions, which will vary with the size of the
engine. At each side of this ring I secure a metal plate nearly of the full
diameter of the wheel. The space between these plates I then fill in with

page_text: segments of wood or other material, the inner ends of which will abut
against the before-named indian-rubber central ring surrounding the
boss or hub, while the outer end I cover with a thin ring of vulcanized
indian-rubber protected in the usual way with plates or chains, the
construction of which forms no part of this Invention. This outer tire
or ring may be a compound tire such as I have herein-before described.
Slots and pins or their equivalents in the segments and side plates are
used to secure the rotation of the whole composite wheel when any part
of it revolves, but the method of applying these slots and pins is so
obvious and admits of so many modifications that it is not necessary to
describe it.