IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING TRAMWAY CARS AND OTHER VEHICLES ON RAILS, TRAMWAYS, OR COMMON Roads
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Daniel Spill at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
November 1873.
I, DANIEL SPILL, of High Street, Homerton, in the County of
Middlesex, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PROPELLING
TRAMWAY CARS AND OTHER VEHICLES ON RAILS, TRAMWAYS, OR COMMON Roads,”
to be as follows:-
This Invention relates more especially to the propelling of tramway
cars, and consists essentially in the application and use for that purpose
of what are known as atmospheric engines, whether working with a
plenum, or with a plenum and vacuum combined, the atmospheric air
being used either alone or in combination with hydrocarbon, carburetted
or sulphuretted fluids, vapours, or gas.
In applying my improvements I employ a driving wheel in the form
of a disc placed either vertically or horizontally in any convenient part
of the framing of the car, by preference underneath a "bogie" frame
forming a part of the platform of the car. This disc wheel is driven
direct from the engine and imparts motion by frictional contact to a

page_text: friction wheel mounted so as to slide along a feather on its shaft. This
shaft works in bearings at each end, one of such bearings being capable
of sliding in a guide so as to admit of the friction wheel being brought
into or taken out of contact with the face of the main driving disc, for
the purpose of starting and stopping the vehicle without stopping the
engine.
The bringing of the friction wheel into action may be accomplished in
various ways, one of which may consist for example of a chain and
winding drum actuated by a handle, which handle also serves to apply
the breaks simultaneously with the throwing out of action of the friction
wheel, and vice versa.
The speed of the vehicle and the direction in which it should travel
are varied by simply moving the friction wheel along its shaft, so as to
bring it nearer to or further from the centre of the driving disc, or to
bring it to one side or the other of the said centre. This movement may
be accomplished by a hand wheel provided with several radial handles
numbered successively from say 1 to 10, the number on the handle
brought opposite to the driver indicating the speed in miles per hour to
which the driving gear has been adjusted; by the act of bringing that
particular handle to the position indicated provision is made for thus
regulating the speed and changing the direction in which the vehicle
should travel, and also for stopping and starting the same from either
end of the vehicle as may be required.
The power is transmitted from the shaft of the friction wheel to the
axles of the wheels of the vehicle, either by fixed gearing or by a pitch a
chain or chains.
In order to suppress the noise caused by the exhaust from an atmo-
spheric engine worked with a plenum, I cause the exhaust to enter a
partially enclosed chamber having an opening to the atmosphere, but.
separated from it by a series of layers of woven wire or other small a
orifices, through or between which the exhaust will gradually and noise-
lessly escape out into the atmosphere. This chamber may be fixed in.
any convenient place or at any suitable distance from the engine.