CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS, AND IN THE METHOD OF APPLYING STEAM OR OTHER POWER TO LOCOMOTIVE PURPOSES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WINCHESTER, of Noel Street, in the County of Middlesex, Hatter, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of December, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James
Winchester, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said James Winchester, my exors,
adñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said James Winchester,
my exors, adiñors, 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, within
that part of Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM BOILERS, AND IN THE
METHOD OF APPLYING STEAM OR OTHER POWER TO LOCOMOTIVE PURPOSES;" in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that I, the said James Winchester,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, under my hand and seal,
to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calen-
dar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited

page_text: Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Winchester, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully set forth and
ascertained in and by the following Specification thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Firstly, my improvements in steam boilers are represented by parts of
Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings hereunto annexed, the former being an
elevation, and the latter a plan of a locomotive engine, including these and
others of the improvements which constitute my said Invention. A is the fire
box, which may be of a square or any other convenient form; B, the ash pit;
C, C, the boiler; D, D, a series of tubes surrounding the fire box, which are open
at top and bottom, and convey the steam generated in the boiler into the dome-
shaped steam receiver E, whence it may be transmitted in any of the most
approved modes to the cylinders and pistons, and F is the chimney.
Secondly, my improvements in the methods of applying steam or other power
to locomotive purposes are represented in Figures 1 and 2 (before referred to),
and in Figures 3 and 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, of the Drawings hercunto annexed.
In Figures 1 and 2 G, G, are the principal driving wheels of the locomotive
engine there represented; H is the axle of these wheels, the ends of which are
left free to move up and down in the curved slots; K, K, (the curves of these
slots being determined by circles struck from the centres of the parts N, N,
afterwards mentioned; L, L, are oil boxes, in which the ends of the axle H
revolve; M, M, springs secured to the framework, which press the oil boxes
up against the axle H; N, N, are cog wheels affixed to the axle H, imme-
diately within, and in the same plane with the driving wheels G, G; P is a
second axle, which carries on its extremities two spur wheels N, N, which take
into the cog wheels O, O. R, R, are two drums, connected by bands to a
rotary engine, which it is proposed to place in the space marked S, and by
which drums the second axle P is to be caused to revolve, but in a direction
contrary to that of the driving wheels G, G. The effect of causing the moving
power to act through the gearing, before described, on the driving wheel, in a
direction contrary to its line of motion, is to raise the main axle H, and shift
the principal part of the weight of the carriage therefrom on to the peripheries
of the spur wheels O, O, while at the same time a more effectual progression
in the line of motion is thereby secured. For supposing a perpendicular line
as v, p, to be drawn through the interlocking teeth of the cog and spur wheels,
it will represent the actual line of direction in which the weight of the carriage

page_text: is suspended, and in proportion to the extent in which this line is in advance
of the point of contact of the driving wheels with the rails must be the advan-
tage gained. In the case of the lesser wheels of the carriage the slots do not
of course require to be curved, but they have springs similar to those before
described for keeping the oil boxes in constant contact with the axle of the
driving wheels. The main shaft or axle is lubricated by means of a roller a
working in the oil box, and upon the top of which roller the shaft or axle
turns. In Figures 3 and 4 I have shewn another method of effecting the
same important object of shifting the insistent weight from off the points of
contract between the driving wheels and rails, to other points in advance
thereof, which method has this advantage over that before described, that a
locomotive engine may be worked by it either backwards or forwards.
Figure 3 is an elevation, and Figure 4 a plan of the framework of a
railway locomotive carriage, constructed according to this modification. Here
there are two secondary or supplemental axles or shafts in the same plane with
the main axle, one of which is cranked, and the other plain, and each of which
carries a set of drums, over which a chain passes in the manner represented
in the Drawings, and to effect the same purpose as the cog-wheels, as before
explained. A third arrangement for the same purpose is represented in the
elevation and plan, Figures 5 and 6. It differs from the last before described
in this only, that the two secondary shafts are placed at angles of 45° in
respect of the main axle, the one behind and above it, and the other in advance
and below it. A fourth modification, more applicable than any of the pre-
ceding, to locomotive carriages intended to be worked on common roads, is
shewn in the elevation and plan, Figures 7 and 8. In this case the cog wheels
(N, N,) are fixed behind the axle of the driving wheels, but may be placed
either before or behind the axle, as required, and the spur wheels are placed
immediately below the axle of the driving wheels, and sustained in their places
by suitable bearings placed upon the springs. From the drum X an endless
band or chain passes over the drum Y, fixed on the main shaft, to which it
gives motion, all as clearly shewn in the said Figure 7 and 8 herein referred to.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I do not claim any of the
parts herein-before described as being in and by itself new, but that I claim
them only in so far as they are newly arranged and combined for the purposes
of my said Invention; and that what I particularly claim is, first, the improve-
ments in boilers before described, and second, the four several methods before
described of applying steam or other power to locomotive purposes, whereby
the point of suspension or centre of gravity of the locomotive machine is shifted

page_text: rom the point of contact of the driving wheels with the rails or ground to a
point with the line of motion more in advance thereof.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth
day of June, One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.