AXLETREES, TO REMEDY THE EXTRA FRICTION ON CURVES TO WAGGONS, CARTS, CARS, AND CARRIAGES, USED OR TO BE USED ON RAILROADS, TRAMWAYS, AND OTHER PUBLIC ROADS
Year: 1826

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
STEPHENSON, of Bridge Town, in the Parish of Old Stratford, in the County
of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS 1Lis present Majesty King George the Fourth, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of January last, for Iimself, His heirs and
successors, did give and grant unto me, the said Robert Stephenson, my exors,
adiñors, and assigns, is especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and
authority, that I, the said Robert Stephenson, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their deputy or
deputics, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Robert Stephenson,
my exors, admors, or assigns," should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Inven-
tion, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
called England, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's Colonics and Plantations abroad, of
"AXLETREES, TO REMEDY THE EXTRA FRICTION ON CURVES TO WAGGONS, CARTS,
CARS, AND CARRIAGES, USED OR TO BE USED ON RAILROADS, TRAMWAYS, AND OTHER
PUBLIC ROADS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,

page_text: obliging me, the said Robert Stephenson, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the
same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said recited
Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereto had, will more
fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Robert Stephenson, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by the Diaw-
ings hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof, that is to say
My Invention of "axletices to remedy the extra fuction on curves to
waggons, carts, cars, and cariages, used or to be used on railroads, tram-
ways, and other public roads," will be best understood by first observing that,
whenever the railways deviate from a straight line, the opposite wheels of the
carriage must necessarily pass over different extents of surface, that is, the
outer wheel must traverse over a longer line than the inner wheel. To accom-
modate, therefore, the different velocities with which the opposite wheels of
the carriage must move when running upon cuived parts of the line of rail,
the wheels have been frequently attached loosely upon fixed axles; but this
has allowed of some little freedom or play, and consequently the action of
the wheels could not be confined to the precise limits of the paralel rails with-
out enlarging the breadth of the periphery thereof, and thereby increasing
their weight and cost. The most convenient mode, therefore, has been found
to be fixing the running wheels of the carriages upon revolving axles, but
here the inconvenience of fiction presents itself, as in passing over curves the
outer wheel must necessarily be dragged or made to slide upon the rail, and
the wearing away both of the rail and of the wheel by this fiction has been
found to be so inconsiderable as to rende new wheels necessary every five or
six months, and at certain portions of the line new rails every three or four
ycars.
My present Invention is, therefore, designed to remedy this evil, and which
is effected by adopting a separate shaft or axle to each of the running wheels
in the manner more particularly exhibited in the Drawing hereto annexed.
Figuro 1 in the Diawing hereunto annexed is an horizontal view of the
frame or carriage of a railway waggon, having the improvement attached,
Figures 2 and 3 in the said Drawing hereto annexed are vertical views of the
same, taken on the inner side of the frame; Figure 4 in the said Drawing is

page_text: an end view of the carriage and one pair of the wheels. I affix to the outer
extremity of each axle the running wheel, and to the inner extremity of the
said axle a ball or curved projecting, and that part of the axle which is nearest to
the wheel is, when attached to the carriage, made to turn in a long slot or recess
in the bearing a (see Figures 2 and 3), the section of the axle being shewn
at b, and the ball or projecting end, at the inner or reverse extremity of the
axle, is made to act in a socket in the bearing at the opposite side of the
carriage. By means of the several running wheels of the carriages being thus
aflixed to distinct axles, they are enabled to turn independently of each other,
and, consequently, any difference in the length of the two paralel lines of rail-
way produced by then curvature will not, as in other carriages with single
axles, compel the peripheries of the wheels to slid or rub upon the rails, but
allow cach wheel to turn freely and independently of the opposite wheel. As
it is impossible to keep the lines of rails perfectly level whenever any one of
the wheels happen to pass over a hollow place in the rail, the long slot in the
bearer allows the axle and its wheel to fall (as seen at a, Figure 3, in the
said Drawing), the ball and socket joint at the reverse end of the axle giving
it play. By these means the flange of the wheel is always kept against the
side of the rail, preserving the carriage in its track, and preventing the possi-
bility of the wheel running off the rail, as it otherwise might do if the wheel
was raised up.
Though I have described a ball and socket joint at the smaller end of the
revolving axle, yet I wish it to be observed that I do not confine myself to the
ball and socket joint strictly, as several other modes of constructing a loose
Joint in place of this might perhaps answer the purpose nearly as well.
Lastly, I wish it to be understood that my Invention consists in the adap-
tation of double axles tices, or distinct axles to each wheel of a railway
cariage, in the manner above shewn; and in the mode of giving a certai
degree of play to those axles by means of a box or bearing with a slot, as shewn
at one end of the axle, and a ball and socket or other loose joint at the
reverse end of the said axle
In witness whereof, I have her cunto set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundied
and twenty-six.
ROBERT STEPHENSON. (LS.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord 1826, the aforesaid Robert Stephenson came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord Ono
thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.