SPRINGS FOR CARRIAGES OR RAILROAD CARS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Perry G. Gardiner, of New York, in the United
States of America, Engineer, for the Invention of "SPRINGS FOR CARRIAGES
OR RAILROAD CARS."
Sealed the 28th February 1860, and dated the 20th December 1859.1
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Perry G. Gardiner at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th
December 1859.
I, PERRY G. GARDINER, of New York, in the United States of America,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "SPRINGS FOR
CARRIAGES OR RAILROAD CARS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain peculiar constructions and arrangements
of bearing springs for common road or railway carriages, whereby greater
economy, simplicity of construction, and lightness are combined with increased
elasticity. According to this Invention it is proposed to combine two elliptic
spring blades with an elastic or extensible tension bar, the ends of the elliptic
springs being confined in the heads or caps at the extremities of the inter-
mediate tension bar. The heads or caps may either be formed in one piece
with the tension bar or fitted thereto by screws and nuts, and are grooved or
slotted to receive the ends of the elliptic springs; or the caps may be fitted by
means of screws and nuts. to the ends of the tension bar, or the ends of the
tension bar may be turned over so as to form eyes, into which the corre-
spondingly turned ends of the elliptic springs are fitted, a bolt or rivet being
passed through for the purpose of keeping them in their place. The tension
consist of
bars may be of an undulating form in the middle part, or they may
•

page_text: a pair of elongated curved steel blades placed together with their curves
outwards, but joining or meeting at the ends, where screw threads are cut
fitted with nuts for holding the caps.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Perry G. Gardiner in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PERRY
G. GARDINER, of New York, in the United States of America, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Perry G. Gardiner, Her special license that I, the said Perry G.
Gardiner, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Perry G. Gardiner, my executors, administrators, or 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, an Invention for
"SPRINGS FOR CARRIAGES OR RAILWAY CARS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Perry G. Gardiner, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the sanie 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 Perry G. Gardiner, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to certain peculiar constructions and arrange-
ments of bearing springs for common road or railway carriages whereby greater
economy, simplicity of construction, and lightness are combined with increased
elasticity. According to this Invention it is proposed to combine two elliptic
spring blades with an elastic or extensible tension bar, the ends of the elliptic

page_text: springs being confined in the heads or caps at the extremities of the inter-
mediate tension bar. The heads or caps may either be formed in one piece
with the tension bar, or fitted thereto by screws and nuts, and are grooved or
slotted to receive the ends of the elliptic springs, or the caps may be fitted by
means of screws and nuts to the ends of the tension bar, or the ends of the
tension bar may be turned over, so as to form eyes into which the corres
pondingly turned ends of the elliptic springs are fitted, a ball or rivet being
passed through for the purpose of keeping them in their place. The tension
bars may be of an undulating form in the middle part, or they may consist of
a pair of elongated curved steel blades placed together with their curves
outwards, but joining or meeting at the ends where screw threads are cut fitted
with nuts for holding the caps.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
:
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents a side view of my
improved spring with the ends of the elliptic blades confined in caps or heads
fast on the intermediate tension bar; Figure II. shews a top view of the
elliptic blade; Figure III. represents a side view of spring with the exterior
blades confined in caps to which the tension bar or bars is secured by screws
and nuts; Figure IV. is top view, and Figure V. a side view, of a spring
with the exterior blades confined in the ends of the tension bar, and connected
together by bolts or rivets.
The two exterior blades or plates A, A; (Figures I., II. and III.) aro
provided at the four corners with lugs or projections (a,) (Figure II.) forming
thereby on their ends recesses, which are rounded off to produce a curved
edge. These plates are bent into an elongated curve, each curve being
similar; the blades taper slightly from the middle towards each end, and both
blades are uniform in size and shape; B, (Figure I.) is the tension bar, bent
in the middle part into a succession of curves or corrugations, so as to assume
an undulated shape, and made a little thicker in the centre, tapering towards
the ends gradually. At both ends of this tension bar an enlargement in the
form of a cap or crosspiece C, C, is provided, of the same width as the recesses
between the projections a, a, herein-before referred to on the ends of the
blades A. These heads or caps are curved or grooved to receive the ends of
the blades A, and when in their places, they are prevented from sliding out by
the said projections a, a.

page_text: In Figure III., A are the elliptic plates constructed in a similar manner to
the plates in Figures I. and II.; T, T, are caps, the width of which is a little
less than the recesses on the ends of the plates A between the projections a, a,
and by which the ends of said exterior blades or plates A are confined in
suitable grooves provided in the said caps; B' is the tension bar composed of
two steel plates, properly tempered, and bent in to elongated curves in the
middle, but joined together at their ends, where threads are cut fitted with
nuts, by which the whole spring is fastened together, the ends of the tension
bar being passed through the caps T, T. The tension bar B₁ in Figure V. is
formed in the middle similar to the one described and represented in Figure I.,
but the ends of this tension bar are curved or turned over, and the ends of the
exterior blades A are turned likewise to fit into the ends of the tension bar,
and at the same time to form an eye for a bolt or rivet to pass through. The
exterior blades or plates A and the ends of the tension bar B", are in this
case made of the same width, and after the ends of the exterior blades or
plates A are placed in the turned ends of the tension bar, bolts or rivets (*)
are put through the eyes formed by the ends of the blades A, provided with
large heads or washers, by which the ends of the exterior blades and the tension
bar is kept together, and prevented from sliding out of place.
The exterior blades A when first made and bent, are of such a length as to
spread a little more than the distance between the caps or ends of the tension
bar, and are then forced into the said grooves in the ends, so as to fit tight.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore clain as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First, the general constructions and arrangements of springs for carriages
as herein-before described.
Second, the combination of an elastic or flexible tension bar with elliptic
blade springs as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Perry G. Gardiner, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of March One thousand
eight hundred and sixty.
PERRY G. GARDINER. (L.S.)