IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING FRICTION OF MACHINERY USED IN PROPELLING VESSELS, LATHES, AND OTHER MACHINES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM
E PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLES, of Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of August, in the third year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Coles, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said William Coles, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others
as 1, the said William Coles, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, my
Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING FRICTION OF MACHINERY USED IN
PROPELLING VESSELS, LATHES, AND OTHER MACHINES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained proviso that 1, the said William Coles, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar mouths next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at-large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Coles, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist,
first, in the application of certain antifriction wheels to the paddle shaft of a
vessel propelled by paddles or otherwise, whereby the friction of the said shaft
is reduced; and by employing such machinery over a turning lathe, or over a
shaft in mining, making a well, or drawing water, &c., much friction and wear
in machinery may be saved. And whereas great friction attended with danger,
may be avoided on common roads or on railroads by the use of antifriction
machinery, providing the axles on which such antifriction wheels run could be
made to traverse or form right angles with curves; my attention has been
directed thereto, and by recent discoveries I find that a knuckle joint,
possessing the advantage of a binnacle motion, viz, moving vertically and
horizontally, attached by arms to collar bars of the running wheels, and by
making a thick flange to such wheels, and sinking a step in the rails for the
outer wheels to work thereon, when they would in effect be enlarged, and
thereby enabled to keep pace with the wheels on the inner side of the curve,
which have less distance to run. And in further compliance with the said
proviso, I, the said William Coles, do hereby describe the manner in which my
said Invention is to be performed by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawing annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say):-
'
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents the section of a vessel. A is the keelson; B, frame to
support the friction wheels; C, the axle; D, D, the friction wheels; E, E,
antifriction wheels with their axle working on wheels D, D; F, F, frame
connecting the bottom of vessel with the deck; G, G, two antifriction wheels
with their axle on the wheels E, E; H, H, paddle wheels; I, the paddle
wheel shaft, supported on the antifriction wheels G, G; K, K, driving wheels
or drums attached to the paddle wheel shaft, to which steam or any other
power may be applied; L, L, two friction wheels, with their axles and other
apparatus working in grooves, and screws to set the same; M, the deck of the
vessel; N, N, frame bolted to side of gunnel, with friction wheels working
against the paddle wheel shaft.
Figures 2 and 3, other views of the same.
Figure 4: a, a, the frame of carriage; b, b, collar bars; c, c, c, c, c, arms of
knuckle joint; d, the knuckle; e, the joint in the knuckle; f, f, f. f. the
wheels.
Now, whereas I claim as my Invention the application of such series of

page_text: wheels as aforesaid to support and relieve the paddle shaft of a vessel, lathes,
and other machines of their friction, as also the improved knuckle joint, as
aforesaid, all being, to the best of my knowledge and belief, entirely new, and
never before used within that part of Ier said Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick upon Tweed; I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of
the same, and that I do verily believe this my Specification doth comply in all
respects, fully and without reserve or disguise, with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained: wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Coles, have hereunto set my.
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty