IMPROVEMENTS IN ENDLESS TRAVELLING OR ROLLING RAILWAYS, AND IN TRACTION WHEELS FOR THE SAME.
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jonathan Aldous Mays, of 223, Gresham House, Old
Broad Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ENDLESS TRAVELLING OR ROLLING RAILWAYS, AND IN TRACTION WHEELS FOR
THE SAME.'
"
Sealed the 8th April 1879, and dated the 16th October 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jonathan Aldous Mays at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th October 1878.
65
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of 223, Gresham House, Old Broad Street, in the City
of London. IMPROVEMENTS IN ENDLESS TRAVELLING OR ROLLING RAILWAYS, AND
IN TRACTION WHEELS FOR THE SAME."
"
This Invention (the principal part of which I propose to call a "rolling railway"
or "wheelway" has for its object in part the furnishing of traction and portable
engines, road rollers, wheeled vehicles, and such like apparatus intended to run or
be moved without the use of fixed railways or tramways (as upon common roads,
for instance), with improved endless travelling or portable tramways or rolling
railways." My Invention has for another object in part also the effecting of
improvements in the treading or holding surfaces of driving or traction wheels.
My improved rolling railway or wheelway is composed of a number of rails made
of wood, or metal, or other suitable materials hinged separately upon or jointed to
feet or chairs, so that such rails form a continuous belt or chain within, and upon
which the traction or running wheel or wheels travel.
In travelling or portable railways of this descripton as hitherto constructed, the
separate rails have been hinged or jointed to each other at their ends, or to the chairs
or feet upon which they rest by means of single hinges or joints having common
centres. Now in my present Invention the rails are not jointed to each other at
all, and they are hinged and jointed to the feet or chairs upon which they rest each
by a separate hinge or joint at each end; and further, the ends or parts of the rails
so jointed or hinged to the chairs or feet are made to cross each other, so that they
fork or tongue or "break joint " with or into each other. The ends of the rails are
Price Rd 1

page_text: in fact hinged or jointed to the chair or foot at points beyond the centre of the
chair or foot, or at points beyond the width of the length of the tonguing of the
rails the one into the other.
The rails may be flanged, or grooved, or recessed lengthwise, so that the running
or traction wheel or wheels may run therein, or the peripheries of the running or
traction wheels may be made with a groove or channel within which the rails shall
be retained, that is to say, either the rails or the wheels may be grooved or flanged or
provided with lips or flanges for the purpose of preventing the wheels from running
off the rails.
By joining the rails to the chairs or feet in the manner already referred to by
making each rail of such a length as that the length of two of the rails when
jointed or hinged to the feet, measuring from the outer joints of the endmost feet,
shall be about equal to the diameter of the wheel to which the set of rails (by
preference eight in number) are to be applied or thereabout, and by making the
distance between the joints or hinges upon the chairs or feet; (or the leng thofthe
tonguing of the rails to be, say, one-sixth of the length of a single rail or thero-
abouts, I ensure that the rails shall "break joint" with each other, and that they
shall fold or hinge in such a way that there shall be a proper presentation of the
feet or chairs towards or on to the ground, that is to say, that the chairs or feet
shall not come towards the ground "end on but flatwise.
"
For the purpose of affording hold or bite between a traction wheel and the rails
whenever the latter may happen to be laid down at inclinations, which would be
likely to reduce the adhesion between the plain surfaces of the wheel, and the rails
by reason of the weight of the wheel and its load upon the rail, the periphery of
the wheel and the surfaces of the rails may be wholly or partly provided with
cogged or corrugated surfaces, so that the cogged or corrugated parts shall engage
with each other after the manner of a rack and pinion. Or slots and pins or a
V shaped groove or grooves in the direction of the motion of the wheel and in the
line of the rails or other like suitable mechanical devices may be used with the like
objects.
In order that the feet or chairs may be self-adjustable to suit inequalities in the
surface of the ground, they may be made with spring or elastic bases or they may
be made in two or more parts, so that the principal upper and lower parts
respectively may have a rocking or oscillating motion upon each other in all
directions, as by means of a ball-and-socket joint or attachment, or there may be a
such like universal or ankle joint or bearing surface between the upper and lower
part, so as to permit of the canting, or bending, or leaning over of the upper part
or parts of the chair or foot upon the lower part or parts of the chair or foot (which
may be called the shoe or sole) in all directions.
To facilitate the lateral movement of the rolling railway and to permit of the
steering or guiding of the vehicle in a curvilinear direction, the "aukles" or other
suitable parts of the feet may also be made to have a lateral wheeling, rolling, or
sliding motion upon their shoes or soles, and the shoes or soles may be held or
attached to the ankles or other parts of the feet by means of suitable springs, the
action of which will be to retain the two parts together, and to bring the shoe or
sole back to its normal position after the ankle has made a lateral movement
upon it.
To facilitate the lateral wheeling, rolling, or sliding motion of the ankle or other
suitable parts of the foot upon the shoe or sole, the under surface of the latter may
be made spheroidal, and the upper or rolling or sliding surface thereof may be
horizontal or less spheroidal than the under surface, so that the lateral motion of
the ankle or other suitable part of the foot upon the shoe or sole may thereby also be
in part a descending motion, and such lateral motion be consequently assisted by
the action of gravity.
The lateral motion of the chairs or feet may also be facilitated by providing
them with wheels or rollers resting directly upon the ground, and having a motion
at right angles to that of the running or traction wheel.

page_text: The shoes or soles of the chairs or feet may also be made readily removeable, so
that they may be replaced by other shoes or soles of larger or smaller area, or by
shoes or soles with surfaces specially devised in respect to the object in view or to
the nature or character of the ground to be travelled upon, as in the cases for
instance of ploughing engines, of road rollers, or of snow covered and soft and
yielding ground or of frozen surfaces. Or the soles or shoes may be supplemented
by additional pieces to be attached to them for the purposes of extending the area,
or suitably altering the treading surfaces presented to the ground as occasion may
require.
1
In order to prevent the shoes or soles from adhering or sticking to the ground as
upon clay or such like soils, the under surface of the same may be protected by
slippers" formed of any suitable flexible material, such as india-rubber, canvass,
leather, cloth, matting, or even of comparatively thin metal, such slippers should be
so attached to the shoes or soles as to fit the same loosely, and also be held on to
the shoes or soles by their outer edges only, so that when the shoe is lifted from
the ground the slippers being pulled up by its outer edge may so to speak be peeled
off the ground somewhat in the same fashion that a toy sucker may be more readily
removed, by being peeled off a surface to which it has been caused to adhere by
lifting it from its edges, so as to admit the air under the same than by tearing it
away by main force by means of the string in its centre.
In order to diminish wear and friction of the parts and to exclude dirt or grit
from the joints or hinges connecting the rails and the chairs or feet together, also
to prevent noise and further dispense with any necessity for lubricating such joints
or hinges, I either make such connections or hinges by means of springs which will
readily permit of the flexion or folding of the parts upon each other; or I line or
bush the hinges or connections with india-rubber in such a way that the rubber
may grasp the pins and crowd into the sockets of the hinges or joints with sufficient
tightness to prevent dirt or grit from being carried into or upon the working or
moving surfaces or parts of the hinges or joints. On the india-rubber lining or
bushing of such hinges may be attached to the surfaces of the pins and sockets
of the hinges, and be made of sufficient thickness as to afford the requisite torsion.
To diminish the noise which would arise from the parts of the mechanism
folding rapidly upon each other, the surfaces which come into contact with each
other or with the ground may be packed or padded with elastic materials, say
india-rubber, or be partly faced or protected by springs. In like manner the
surfaces of the rails or the pheripheries of the wheels themselves may be packed or
padded with rubber for the purpose of preventing noise, and also for the purpose of
forming a gripping or holding surface between the rails and the wheel, so that the
rails may not slip or slide upon that part of the periphery of the wheel which is
uppermost, while they are being drawn or picked up at the rear of the wheel, and
carried forward by it to be laid down in front thereof.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Jonathan Aldous Mays in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th
April 1879.
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of 223, Gresham House, Old Broad Street, in the City
of London, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ENDLESS TRAVELLING
OR ROLLING RAILWAYS, AND IN TRACTION WHEELS FOR THE SAME."
This Invention has for its object in part the furnishing of traction and portable
engines, road rollers, and other wheeled vehicles with improved endless travelling
or portable tramways, also the effecting of improvements in the treading or holding
surfaces of driving or traction wheels.
.
My improved railway is composed of a number of rails made of wood or metal
or other suitable material hinged seperately upon or jointed to feet or chairs in
such manner as that such rails shall form a continuous belt or chain within, and
upon which the traction or running wheel will travel.
Heretofore in travelling or portable railways of this description the separate rails
have been hinged or jointed to each other at their ends, and to the chairs or feet
when such have been used by means of single joints having common centres.
In my present Invention I do not propose to joint the rails to each other but to
hinge the rails to saddles forming parts of the feet or chairs upon which they rest,
each rail by a separate hinge or joint at each end, and further to make the ends or
parts of the rails so jointed or hinged to the saddles to fork or tongue with or into
each other. The ends of the rails are in fact hinged or jointed to the saddle
forming part of the chair or foot at points beyond the centre of the chair or foot.
In the accompanying Drawings I have shown at Fig. 1, Sheet 1, a wheel formed
with a groove and fitted with a portable V shaped railway constructed according
to my Invention; Fig. 2 is a side view of one of the rails detached; Fig. 3 is a
plan, and Fig. 4 an end view of the same; A is the rail, one end being forked and
the other formed with a tongue to correspond with and fit into the forked end of
the next rail. A lug or bracket a is formed or fixed on the under side of the tongue
through which is passed a bolt or pivot b. Similar lugs a' are formed or fixed in
the forked ends also carrying a bolt or pivot b'. These bolts or pivots are fitted
with india-rubber bushes as indicated by dots in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, and shewn
detached at Figs. 5 and 6. These bushed pivots form joints by which the rails are
connected to the saddles B, each saddle B being provided with a foot C. It will
be seen on reference to Fig. 1 of the Drawings that the rails are connected to the
saddles in such a manner that the tongue of one rail shall interlock with the fork of
the next rail. The effect of this will be that supposing the wheel to be rotating in
the direction of the arrow, each rail with the saddle and its foot attached thereto
will be picked up or lifted in the manner shewn in the Drawings, and carried round
by the wheel until it arrives at the point D, when the continued rotation of the
wheel will cause the rail below the point D to fall forward, partly impelled thereto
by its own gravity and will present the foot C in the position shewn at E, instead
of in the position in which the next succeeding foot is shewn immediately above
the point D. The foot at the point E will be by the continued rotation of the
wheel lowered on to the ground. The same movements will take place with each
rail, saddle, and foot in succession as the wheel is advanced either backwards or
forwards.
To allow the foot C to accomodate itself to inequalities of the ground it is not
connected rigidly to the saddle B, but by means of a ball-and-socket joint, as will
be seen best by reference to Sheet II. of the Drawings, in which Fig. 7 shews a
plan view of one of the saddles with its attached foot, and Fig. 8 a longitudinal
section through the centre of the same; Fig. 9 is a side elevation, and Fig. 10 a

page_text: transverse vertical section. The foot C is corrugated on its under side and carries
on its upper side a post c rounded on the top to fit into a corresponding cavity
formed on the under side of the saddle B to which it is secured by a bolt or rivet
F passing through the post c, and carried by two lugs pendant from the under side
of the saddle B. Recesses are formed in the upper side of the saddle B to receive
the india-rubber bushes on the pivots c and d of the rails A, and these bushes are
secured in place by means of the caps B*, B*, the said caps are secured in their
places by means of clips G, G, at their outer edges, and at their inner edges (which
interlock with each other) they are held in place by means of the transverse bolt
H. For the purpose of keeping the foot C steady and at the same time permitting
of a free movement thereof, springs I, I, are provided. These springs are bolted or
rivetted to lugs projecting from the sides of the saddle B, and their ends are bent
downwards and are rounded for the purpose of bearing upon ridges i, i, upon the
foot C.
The rails may if preferred be flanged, grooved, or recessed lengthwise so that an
ordinary wheel may run therein, or the periphery of the running or traction wheel
may be made with a groove or channel of any desired form within which the rails
shall be retained, that is to say, either the rails or the wheel may be grooved or
flanged or provided with lips or flanges for the purpose of preventing the wheel
from running off the rails.
By joining the rails to the chairs or feet in the manner already referred to, by
making each rail of such a length as that the length of two of the rails when
jointed or hinged to the saddles forming parts of the feet measuring from the outer
joints of the endmost feet shall be about equal to the diameter of the wheel to
which the sets of rails (by preference eight in number) are to be applied or
thereabouts, and by making the distance between the joints or hinges upon the
saddles forming parts of the chairs or feet (or the length of the tonguing of the
rails) to be say one-sixth of the length of a single rail (measuring from the centres
of the hinges or joints in each case) or thereabouts, I ensure that the rails shall
fold or hinge upon the saddles B in such a way that there will be a proper presen-
tation of the feet C towards the ground, that is to say, that the feet will not come
towards the ground "end on" but flatwise.
In order to prevent the feet C from adhering or sticking to the ground as upon
clay and such like soils the under surrace of the same may be faced with flexible
soles K formed either wholly or in part of any suitable material, such as india-
rubber, canvas, leather, cloth, matting, or thin metal, such soles being held on to
the feet by some of their outer edges only in such a way that when the foot is
lifted from the ground the sole being pulled up by some of its outed edges may be
peeled off the ground.
In order to diminish wear and friction of the parts and to exclude dirt or grit
from the joints or hinges connecting the rails and the chairs or feet together, also to
prevent noise, and further to dispense with any necessity for lubrication, such joints
or hinges may be inade of india-rubber as already described, or such connections or
hinges may be made by means of springs which will readily permit of the flexion
or folding of the parts upon each otlier.
For the purpose of affording a hold or bite between a traction wheel and the
rails, the periphery of the wheel and the surfaces of the rails may be wholly or
partly provided with cogged or corrugated surfaces, so that the cogged or corrugated
parts shall engage with each other after the manner of a rack and pinion.
Having now described the nature of my Invention of improvements in endless
travelling or rolling railways, and in traction wheels for the same, and having shewn
the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent, I claim,
1. Forming the rails of endless portable railways with interlocking ends and
connecting them to saddles provided with feet in the mauner and for the purpose
substantially as described.

page_text: 2. Connecting the feet to the saddles by means of a ball-and-socket joint,
substantially as described.
3. Providing a loose detachable and flexible sole to the feet, substantially as and
for the purpose described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Aldous Mays, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
J. A. MAYS. (L.S.)