IMPROVEMENTS IN SPRINGS FOR WHEELED CARRIAGES
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Fleet, of Balsall Heath, in the County of
Worcester, Coach Spring Maker, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SPRINGS FOR WHEELED CARRIAGES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Fleet at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th March 1880.
WILLIAM FLEET, of Balsall Heath, in the County of Worcester, Coach Spring
Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPRINGS FOR WHEELED CARRIAGES.”
My Invention consists of the improvements herein after described in constructing
springs for wheeled carriages.
By my Invention the manufacture of the said springs is much simplified and
economized, and the springs have great strength combined with lightness.
My Invention is particularly applicable to elliptic and side springs for road
carriages, but it may also be applied to railway carriages and other railway
vehicles.
I will describe my Invention as applied to an elliptic carriage spring. Each side
of the ordinary elliptic carriage spring is composed of a series of from two to six
thin steel plates, arranged and connected together face to face. According to my
Invention I make each side of the elliptic spring of a single thick steel plate, having
along the middle of its outer or convex face a solid bead or rib, the said bead or rib
extending through the whole length of the plate. The said bead or rib is of greatest
depth at the middle of the plate, and gradually diminishes in depth or strength
from the middle towards each of the ends of the plate, where it disappears. I
prefer to give the said solid bead or rib a nearly semi-circular figure in cross section,
the said bead or rib occupying about one third of the superficial area of the outer
or convex side of the plate, but I do not limit myself to this sectional figure of the
bead or rib nor to its breadth.
I make the beaded or ribbed steel plate described by rolling in the ordinary way,
and by the use of rolls having the sectional figure proper to produce the plate. The
rolled steel plate being cut into pieces of the required length, each piece is bent into
a semi-elliptical figure, the solid bead or rib being situated on the outer or convex
side of the bent piece. Two of the bent pieces being taken, and their concave faces
presented to each other, the meeting ends are connected together by ordinary box
heads or other convenient means of connection.
In making side springs I use one only of the said beaded or ribbed plates, the
ends of the side spring being connected to the carriage or vehicle in the ordinary or
other convenient way.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the vers
the said William Fleet in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th August
1880.
WILLIAM FLEET, of Balsall Heath, in the County of Worcester, Coach Spring
Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPRINGS FOR WHEELED CARRIAGES."
My Invention consists of the improvements herein after described in constructing
springs for wheeled carriages.
By my Invention the manufacture of the said springs is much simplified and
economized, and the springs have great strength combined with lightness.
My Invention is particularly applicable to elliptic and side or grasshopper springs
for road carriages, but it may also be applied to back springs for road carriages and
to springs for railway carriages and other railway vehicles.
I will describe my Invention as applied to an elliptic carriage spring.
Each side of the ordinary elliptic carriage spring is composed of a series of two
or more thin steel plates arranged and connected together face to face.
According to my Invention I make each side of the elliptic spring of a single
steel plate, having along the middle of its outer or convex face a solid bead or rib,
the said bead or rib extending through the whole or the greater part of the length
of the plate. The said bead or rib is of greatest depth at the middle of the plate,
and gradually diminishes in depth or strength from the middle towards each of the
plate, where it disappears.
I prefer to give the said solid bead or rib a nearly semi-circular figure in cross
section, the said bead or rib occupying about one third or one fourth of the superficial
area of the outer or convex side of the plate, but I do not limit myself to this
sectional figure of the bead or rib nor to its breadth.
I make the beaded or ribbed steel plate described by rolling in the ordinary way,
and by the use of rolls having the sectional figure proper to produce the plate.
The rolled steel plate being cut into pieces of the required length, each piece is bent
into a semi-elliptical figure, the solid bead or rib being situated on the outer or
convex side of the bent piece. Two of the bent pieces being taken, and their
concave faces presented to each other, the meeting ends are connected together by
ordinary box heads or other convenient means of connection.
In making side or grasshopper and back springs I use one only of the said beaded
or ribbed plates, the ends of the side or grasshopper or back spring being connected
to the carriage or vehicle in the ordinary or other convenient way..
I will now proceed to describe, with reference to the accompanying Drawing, the
manner in which my Invention may be performed.
Figure 1 represents in side elevation an elliptic carriage spring made according
to my Invention; Figure 2 is a plan of the same; Figure 3 is an end elevation of
the same; and Figure 4 is a cross section of the same taken on the dotted line,
Figure 1.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several Figures of the
Drawing.
a, a, are the sides of the elliptic spring, each side being made of a single steel
plate a, having along the middle of its outer or convex face a solid bead or rib t; the
said solid bead or rib b has the figure represented, and extends through the whole or
the greater part of the length of the plate. By an examination of Figures 1, 2, and 3
it will be seen that the solid bead or rib b is of greatest depth at the middle of the
the steel plate a, and gradually diminishes in depth or strength from the middle
towards each of the ends of the plate, where it disappears. The breadth of the
steel plate a is greatest at its middle, the said plate slightly tapering towards its
ends.

page_text: By means of the solid bead or rib b running along the outer or convex face of
the steel plate a great strength combined with lightness is obtained in the plate of
which each side of the elliptic spring is composed.
The beaded or ribbed steel plates a, b, a, b, of which the sides of the elliptic
spring are composed are connected together by the usual box heads c, c, and screw
bolts and nuts at d, d, that is, an eye is made on each end of one plate and a nearly
tubular box on each end of the other plate for receiving the said eyes, the eyes and
boxes being connected together by the screw bolts and nuts at d, d.
Instead of the box heads represented the beaded or ribbed steel plates a, b, a, b,
may be connected together in any other convenient way.
In manufacturing the beaded or ribbed steel plates a, b, a, b, I take a plate of
steel of the required strength, and pass it through rolls having a sectional figure
proper to produce upon one side of the plate a solid bead or rib having the same
depth throughout the plate. I cut this beaded or ribbed plate into pieces of the
length of the plates to form the sides of the elliptic spring, and by means of other
rolls or by forging I reduce the depth of the bead or rib b from the middle to the
ends of the plate, as represented in the Drawing. The box heads c, c, are then
formed on the ends of the plates in the usual way, and the ribbed plates are bent
into a semi-elliptical figure, the solid bead or rib b being situated on the outer or
convex face of the bent pieces. Two of the bent pieces being taken, and their
concave faces presented to each other, the meeting ends are connected together by
the box heads c, c, and screw bolts and nuts d, d, as represented in the Drawing.
For the purpose of increasing the elasticity of the elliptic spring composed of the
single beaded or ribbed plates described, and for supporting the carriage should
one of the said plates be fractured or injured, a strong coiled spring may be placed
between the two ribbed plates in the manner represented in Figure 5, where the
strong coiled spring is marked e.
The said coiled spring e is connected to the ribbed plates a, b, a, b, by the socket
plates ff, in which the ends of the coiled spring take a bearing, the said socket
plates ff, being connected to the ribbed plates a, b, a, b, by studs on the inner
faces of the socket plates taking into depressions in the said ribbed plates. The
said socket plates f, f, are also connected to the ribbed plates by the clips which
are employed to connect the elliptic spring to the blocks in the carriage.
Figure 6 represents in elevation a side or grasshopper spring made according to
my Invention; and Figure 7 is a cross section taken through the middle of the
spring. The said side or grasshopper spring, Figures 6 and 7, is constructed in the
same manner as the side plates of the elliptic spring represented, that is, it is made
of a single steel plate a, having along the middle of its convex face a solid bead or
rib b extending through the whole or the greater part of the length of the plate, as
represented. The said side spring is connected to the carriage by the tubular eyes
or ends g, g, in the ordinary way.
A back spring made according to my Invention resembles the spring represented
in Figure 6, but is somewhat shorter, and in use its position is inverted, that is, its
convex side is upwards.
I make the solid bead or rib b of the springs at its deepest part of the same or
nearly the same depth as the steel plate on which it is made, but the depth of the
said bead or rib b may vary, but it should-not however exceed, or exceed but to a
small extent, the depth of the steel plate a. When a moderate degree of strength
is required in the spring the solid bead or rib may be of less depth than that
represented and described.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which the
same may be performed, I wish it to be understood that I claim as my Invention,
the improvements in springs for wheeled carriages, herein before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, that is to say, making each side of elliptic
springs and side or grasshopper springs and back springs for road carriages and
springs for railway carriages and vehicles of a single steel plate having along the

page_text: middle of its outer or convex face a solid bead or rib of the kind and for the purpose
described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Fleet, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty third day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
Witness,
A. C. AUSTER,
Crown Works,
Barford St., South,
Birmingham.
WILLIAM FLEET. (L.S.)