AN IMPROVEMENT OF GREAT IMPORTANCE, TO BE ADDED TO, OR USED IN THE CONSTRUC- TION OF WHEEL CARRIAGES
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
TATE, of Tottenham Court Road, in the Parish of Saint Pancras, in the
County of Middlesex, Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, dated at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of June, in the forty-second year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs, and successors, give and grant unto me, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, special licence, full power, sole privilege,
and authority, that I, the said James Tate, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, my exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times bereafter, during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "AN
IMPROVEMENT OF GREAT IMPORTANCE, TO BE ADDED TO, OR USED IN THE CONSTRUC-
TION OF WHEEL CARRIAGES;" within that part of Elis United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, called England, His dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, my executors, administrators,
or assigns, or any of them, should in my or their discretions seem meet, and that
I, the said James Tate, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the whole
profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming, growing,
accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during the term
of years therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said licence,
powers, privileges, and advantages therein-before granted or mentioned to be

page_text: granted unto me, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, for and during.
and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said
Letters Patent next ensuing, and fully to be compleat and ended, according to
the Statute in such case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso, requiring me, the said James Tate, to cause, under my hand
and seal, a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within one calendar month next after the date of the said
Letters Patent, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation thereunto being
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Tate, do hereby, and by the Plans or Drawings in the margin of these
presents, describe and ascertain the nature and properties of my said Invention,
to be added to or used in the construction of wheel carriages, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, that is to say:-
The nature and properties of my said Invention, which I call the union
patent axles, as uniting those principles and qualities which are necessary to
form a complete wheel carriage, namely, that of reducing animal labour, or to
be used in aid of any other power which can be applied or used for drawing or
impelling wheel carriages of any description, and for holding and retaining
whatever quantity of oil may be necessary to be put in for the preservation of
the parts in motion, as by the particular construction and disposition of the
several parts, every essential movement of my said improvements have either.
their respective bearings in upright sockets or cups of oil, or are put in contact
with upright cisterns of oil, so that the moving parts are continually moistened
with it; these sockets or cisterns may be made to hold any determinate
quantity of oil, and thereby prevent the trouble and inconvenience of frequent
oiling, or of the parts damaging for want of oil; and this reduction of animal
labour, and assistance given to any other power that can be applied or used to
draw or impel wheel carriages, I perform principally by the application and
use of new or improved friction wheels constructed for this purpose, and partly
or partially by the application of other friction wheels with horizontal axles or.
naves placed in new and advantageous situations, by which I transfer the friction
from the nave, centre, or box of the wheel principally to the axle of the new or
improved friction wheels, which, by their peculiar construction for this purpose,
admit of their axles being placed in a vertical direction, thereby admitting the
whole weight of the carriage, and almost the whole of the friction, to descend
to or upon as many vertical points or centres as there are wheels to the
carriage, which vertical points or centres of the new or improved friction

page_text: wheels become the principal centre of motion as well as gravity, as more
particularly described hereby, and by reference to the Plan or Drawings in the
margin hereof, that is to say:-
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of one of the said new or improved friction
wheels, one end of the axis at A being a center, and the other end at Ba
cup or socket to receive another centre. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of one:
of the large axles of the carriage, and of the frame K, that sustains the carriage'
by springs or otherwise, and to which the perch or other matter is fixed to:
connect the hind and fore wheels together, and also a section of the two new
or improved friction wheels, bearing upon shoulders of the axle made to
receive them. C, C, are the arms of the axle to receive the nave of the large
wheels, which may be fitted together as a common wheel and axle, so that the
wheel turns round upon it; but it is not absolutely essential to my said
Invention that the wheels should turn round on the axle, because, when my
improvements are at liberty to perform their functions, the large wheels and the:
axles turn round together. D, D, are sections of the new or improved friction
wheels with their axles, shewing the cups or sockets in which the centers run;
these cups or sockets upwards are made larger than their centers to hold any
determinate quantity of oil. The center of the new or improved friction wheel
at B, Fig. 1, may also be made a centre, and the sockets to receive it turned
downwards, but then the opportunity of the center turning in oil would be lost.
E, E, are screws through the frame of the friction wheels, which form the
whole or a part of the upper centres, by which the new or improved friction
wheels are regulated and kept tight and steady in their frames. Fig. 3
is a transverse section of the large axle and of the frame K, which
sustains the carriage by springs or otherwise, and also a view of the
other friction wheels, with horizontal naves or axles; and of the new or
improved friction wheel with the frame as it connects the whole together
round the large axle F; the large axle G, G, the friction wheels with hori-
zontal naves or axles H, the new or improved friction wheels I, I, I, the
frame that connects the whole together round the large axle. The friction
wheels G, G, are also regulated and kept tight and steady to their bearing
upon the large axle, by screws through the frame to press their axles
forward. All the friction wheels, together as they appear in Fig 3, I cover with
a box or case to prevent the access of dust or dirt, and this case or box con-
tains a cistern, or part of the box or case itself forms a cistern, to hold oil for
the use of the friction wheel G, G, whose rims are made to turn round in it.
When a carriage is constructed agreeable to the principles here laid down, (or
when these improvements are added to an old carriage,) it is evident the whole

page_text: weight is sustained by the vertical axles of the new or improved friction wheels;
and likewise all the friction produced by the weight of the carriage and load
upon it, and that the hindmost of the lesser friction wheels G sustains only that
part of the friction produced by the draught which bears various proportions
to the weight, according to the plane the carriage moves on; and that the
foremost of the friction wheels G sustains hardly any friction, but serves to
keep the large-axle in its-proper position, so..that the whole weight and nine-
tenths of the friction (more or less) does absolutely fall and turn upon the said
vertical centers, and this causes the carriage to move with so little power that
in many situations, and especially in going down hills, it would be alviseable
to have a power of retarding its motion; and for this, and other purposes, it will
be convenient and proper that the large wheels should be fitted to turn upon
the arm of the axle as they usually have done, and then, by letting a stop fall
down upon the large axle to prevent its turning, all my improvements are
suspended, and the carriage moves on with its usual impediment of friction till
the stop is again taken off the axle; by this means also the advantage acquired
by the use of my Invention may be most accurately ascertained. When I made
the experiment with a cart and load, which weighed nine hundredweight
upon a plane, and with a weight over a pulley, when the large axle was at
liberty to turn round, three pounds weight drew the cart along, and when the
stop was let down on the axle it required twelve pounds weight to draw it.
As circumstances require, I might find it necessary to construct all the friction
wheels upon the plan and principle of my new or improved friction wheel, and
sometimes it might be necessary to dispense with the friction wheels G, G,
and use a staple in their place; and again, I might find it necessary to place a
friction wheel, like G, on the top of the axle in aid of the other to sustain a
great weight; and so vary and interchange them according to the purposes the
carriages might be made to answer, or the price given. All the different parts
of my said Invention, as herein described, I make or cause to be of such
materials as are in general used for such like implements and purposes, so that
there is no particular materials absolutely essential to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Tate, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
1
1
JAMES (L.S.) TATE.
Sealed and delivered by the within-named
James Tate, in the presence of
TALBOT SAVAGE, of Elm Court, Temple.
F. W. TARGETT, of same place, his Clerk.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fourth day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Tate came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year above written.