Year: 1839

page_text: LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE E. EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY :
PUBLISHED AT THE GREAT SEAL PATENT OFFICE,
25, SOUTHAMPTON BUILDINGS, HOLBORN.

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
ENGLAND, of Gloucester Terrace, Vauxhall Bridge Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, 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 Seventh day of May, in the second year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George England, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said George England, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
and such others as I, the said George England, 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, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED SCREW JACK FOR RAISING
OR MOVING HEAVY BODIES BOTH VERTICALLY AND LATERALLY;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said George England,
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 enrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery with 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
George England, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are 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 Improved Screw Jack for Raising or Moving Heavy Bodies both verti-
cally and laterally, is designed principally for convenient adaptation to railways, in
order that the screw jack may be readily applied to replace engines or
carriages upon the lines of rails in the event of their getting off the lines by
accident. The accompanying Drawing represents the improved screw jack in
several positions. Fig. 1 is a side clevation of the screw jack; Fig. 2 is an
end elevation of the same; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal view taken from above.
A substantial rectangular frame a, a, of cast iron or other suitable material,
forms the stationary base of the screw jack, upon the top edges of which
base a carriage or moveable frame b, b, is mounted and intended to slide.
To the upper side of this carriage or sliding frame four pillars c, c, c, c, are
affixed, for the purpose of supporting the socket or screw box d above,
through which the perpendicular screw shaft e works. The upper part of this
scrow shaft is formed into a boss f, having apertures through it for the reception
of the end of a handspike, bar, or lever, by which the screw is turned in its socket
for the purpose of raising or lowering it. At the top of the vertical screw shaft
a block g is attached, which is enabled to turn round loosely thereon. When
the screw jack is brought into such a situation as to enable the block g to bear
perpendicularly against the under part of the body to be raised, the perpendi-
cular shaft must be turned round, and the operation of lifting the weight will
be effected exactly as by the working of an ordinary screw jack. The carriage
or other weighty body having been thus raised from its position on the lines of
railway or other situation, may now, by my improved apparatus, be immediately
moved laterally by the following means:-A horizontal screw shaft h, h,
mounted in suitable bearings in the ends of the base frame a, a, in which it is
enabled to be turned freely by means of a winch or lever. This scrow shaft h
passes through two screw boxes i, i, formed in or affixed to the sliding frame
b, b, and consequently as the screw shaft is made to revolve, the frame, with
the screw jack, will be slidden laterally upon the base frame, and the railway
carriage or other body which it is supporting will be moved off the rails or
situation with great facility. As it may be inconvenient to turn the horizontal
shaft h by means of an ordinary winch, I have adopted a lever and driving
click or pawle, to be applied to a ratchet wheel fixed on the end of the hori-

page_text: zontal shaft, by means of which a very considerable manual power may be
applied to actuate the shaft when heavy bodies are required to be moved
laterally. Fig. 4 represents the lever k, with its driving click or pawle l,
taking into a ratchet wheel m, which is shewn in operation in Fig. 1. The
ratchet wheel m is mounted in the forked end of the lever k, turning upon
a hollow axle, which hollow axle has a square aperture through it fitted
to the square end of the shaft h. The click or pawle Z, being pressed by a
spring, takes into the teeth of the ratchet wheel m. The lever and ratchet
wheel being placed upon the square end of the shaft 7, as shewn in Fig. 1, by
working the lever to and fro the ratchet wheel will be driven round, and with
it the shaft h, and the screw jack, with its frame, made to slide along upon the
surface of the base frame as before described.
Lastly, I desire it to be understood that I do not claim as new the construc-
tion of the screw jack; but I do claim the improvement which I have intro-
duced and appended to a screw jack, that is, adapting the screw jack to be
moved laterally by the apparatus shown in the Drawing, or by any other
mechanism suited to effect the same object, for the purpose of enabling me,
after raising a railway carriage or other heavy body by means of the screw jack,
to shift the position of the said carriage or other heavy body with facility in a
lateral direction or sideways.
In witness whereof, I, the said George England, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
GEORGE (L.s.) ENGLAND.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of November, in
the third year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said George
England came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the
fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Sixth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-nine.