IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING CARRIAGES ON RAIL AND OTHER ROADS, AND BOATS OR VESSELS ON CANALS OR RIVERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO MACHINERY IN GENERAL
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
LAWES, of Old Kent Road, in the County of Surrey, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of June, in the ninth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Lawes, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said Thomas Lawes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others
as I, the said Thomas Lawes, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
usc, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PROPELLING CARRIAGES ON RAIL AND OTHER ROADS, AND BOATS
OR VESSELS ON CANALS OR RIVERS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE
TO MACHINERY IN GENERAL;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Lawes, 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 Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months 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
Thomas Lawes, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
(that is to say)—
My improvements consist in certain modifications of the known modes of
obtaining propelling power from pneumatic pressure, 'and, in the first place,
apply to the traction of carriages on what are commonly denominated
atmospheric railways; secondly, in adapting the same tractive power to the
towing of vessels on canals and rivers; and, thirdly, in employing similar
contrivances for various other mechanical uses. The improved mode by
which I apply pneumatic pressure to the traction of carriages on railways will
be understood by reference to the Drawings accompanying this Specification,
in which Fig. 1 is a section taken vertically of a portion of the tube of an
atmospheric railway, the rail and one of the railway carriages being shewn
above. Fig. 2 is a plan representing the manner in which a series of tubes
are intended to be laid, each tube shewn broken off in the middle, being
supposed to be of great length, say a mile or two or even more in extent.
Fig. 3 represents a front view of the carriage, with a transverse section of the
railway and of the pneumatic tubes below. In these three Figures the same
letters of reference point out the same parts. a, a, a, is the rail upon which the
wheels of the carriages run; b, b, is the tube below; c, a piston working in the
tube b, to which piston a chain or metallic rope d is attached. This chain or
rope from the piston is carried under and over a guide pulley e, stationed at
the open end of the tube, and which chain or rope thence proceeds over guide
pullies fff, situate at convenient distances apart between the lines of rails
d, d; and the extreme end of the rope or chain is made fast to the front of the
carriage, as at g. Now, presuming the tube b, b, shewn in section in Fig. 1,
to be considered as a portion of a very long tube, say of a mile or two
in extent, the end. at e being open and the opposite end closed, and the
carriage on the rail above, and track rope, as described, by the ordinary and
well-known means, a vacuum is to be produced between the closed end of
the tube; and the piston c, when the pressure of the atmospheric air passing
in at the open end of the tube will cause the piston to proceed with great
rapidity along the tube following the vacuum until it reaches the closed end of
the tube, and the piston, by so moving through the length of the tube, will
cause the carriage to be drawn by the rope or chain d along the rail above,
from one end of the tube to the other end in an opposite direction to the

page_text: progress of the piston. The carriage having arrived at the end of the first
tube it is to be released from the track chain or rope by any of the ordinary
means; and the rope or chain of the next tube (series of tubes being arranged
as seen in the Plan, Fig. 2,) being ready, the carriage is to be immediately
made fast to the rope or chain of the second tube, when, by similar means, it
will be drawn onward to the third tube, and so on until the carriage, by a
repetition of the operations described, will be brought to its destination at the
end of the line. I have shewn, in Fig. 2, the series of tubes placed alternately
out of the right line, but parallel to each other; this, however, is not absolutely
necessary, as the centres of the tubes might be coincident, the guide wheel e
being placed at the open end of each tube, which is the mode I contemplate
with reference to the above operation, in which the track chain is carried over
a guide wheel. But in some cases I should dispense with the guide wheel e,
and carry out my track chain in a straight line from the back of the piston,
and connect the outer extremity of the track chain or rope to the front of the
carriage, in which instance it is to be observed that the open parts of the tubes
must be at the reverse end to that described at e, in Fig. 1; that is, the ends
of the tubes in Fig. 2 must be open at h, h, h, and the carriage attached to
the rope or chain (shewn by dots) at i. For this mode of applying pneumatic
traction I have placed the series of tubes in the zig-zag though parallel
positions shewn in Fig. 2 but for the former, in which the track chain or rope
is carried back over a guide pulley, the tubes had better be coincident.
Supposing that I desire to track carriages upon a curved line of rail, as shewn
in the Plan A, A, A, Fig. 4, as it will be necessary that my pneumatic tubes
be made straight, and therefore could not lay parallel with the railway, I in
that case place the pneumatic tube at any convenient angle to the line of
railway, as at B, B. The tube in this instance must be closed at the end %, and
a guide wheel y placed at the open end of the tube, the track chain a, a, a,
extending from the piston within the tube in the way above described must
pass round the guide wheel y, and be connected at its reverse end to the
carriage w, when by the progress of the piston in the tube from y to z, effected
by a vacuum in the known way, the carriage w will, by the chain or rope a, be
drawn along the curved railway up to the point y. In towing vessels on
curved rivers or canals this plan of an oblique pneumatic tube may be resorted
to with great advantage, as the tube from which the tractive power is to be
obtained may be placed in a straight line out of the way of the towing path or
any other obstruction, and will, by the means described, communicate the
tractive power by which vessels may be towed on the river or canal without
the aid of horses or of paddles attached to the vessel. This mode of obtaining

page_text: mechanical power by the passage of a piston through a long tube exhausted of
air may be applied for raising heavy bodies or materials from mines, and a
great variety of other uses too numerous to state, but which I intended by the
words of my Patent referring to the applicability of my improvements to
machinery in general. I will, lastly, observe that in order to return the
piston in the tube ready for a second stroke, as one end of the tube is always
open, it will be necessary to conduct the piston toward the orifice of the tube by
any convenient means; but this I propose to do, by connecting the track rope
to a carriage moving on a parallel line of pneumatic tubes and rails, constructed
for the conveyance of carriages in the opposite direction, as the means I have
described at Fig. 1 and 2, are intended to produce continued traction in one
way only.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Lawes, have hereunto set my
A. H. LYNCE.
THOMAS (L.8.) LAWED.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Third day of December, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Thomas Lawes came before our
Lady the Queen in Her 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.