To enable locomotive carriages to ascend steeper inclined planes than had heretofore been considered practicable, and likewise to enable the carriages and trains to wind round curves in the road, without the severe friction and strain ing to which they had been previously subjected, was the object of a patent granted on the 5th of March, 1825, to Mr. W. Henry James, of Birmingham, whose common road locomotive is described in the preceding pages. This in vention has not, we believe, been carried into effect on the great scale ; but we have been credibly informed, that the most satisfactory proofs have been afforded of the ability to effect this, by repeated trials on a railroad mote than a hundred feet in length, laid down for the purpose of experiment, on which it was found that a train of carriages would (with the patentee's machinery,) ascend inclined • planes three inches in the yard, which is equal to 440 feet in the mile. This important advantage is gained by applying the power to the axletrees of the wheels of the several carriages in the train, by means of the rotation of a long horizontal rod (or series of connected rods), actuatedby' bevel gear under each carriage.
An ingenious plan has also beenproposed by Mr. James for enabling the carriages on a railway to pass around turns or curves in the road, without addi tional friction. For. this purpose, the horizontal rotatory shafts, which cause each pair of wheels in the train to revolve, and propel the carriages forward, are j connected together by a novel kind of universal oust, which communicates the rotatory motion to each successive carriage, even if so placed on the curves of the roads, that the sides of one carriage shall present to the side of the next an angle of thirty degrees. To cause the carriage wheels to run round the curvet of the railway, without the usual destructive rubbing of their surfaces, the rails in those parts are made with several ribs or elevations, and the wheels of the carriages are consequently formed to correspond with those ribs, by their peri phones being grooved in like manner ; so that a wheel, in each possesses as many diameters as there are variations in the surface of its periphery, by which means it may be made to travel faster or slower, as may be desired.
The following engravings will render these plans intelligible to the reader. a is the boiler of a steam-engine; b the engine with two cylinders, the alter nating motion of the piston in which gives rotation to the crank c above; the rods e e, attached to the same, being also fixed to the crank of the horizontal shaft fff (which passes under the carriages), causes that to revolve with a similar speed to the crank of the engine. Two square boxes, gg, are fixed under each car
riage; through these the aidetrees of each pair of wheels pass ; the rotatory shaft f passes also through the boxes above the axletrees, and at right angles with them ; each of the boxes gg contain a double-beveled horizontal wheel, i which presents a circle of cogs its upper as well as its lower side, and turns upon cross bearings : now the shaft carrying upon it • vertical beveled pinion in each box, takes into the upper circle of teeth of the horizOntal wheel, while the under circle of the teeth of the same actuate a beveled pinion on the axletree underneath, consequently compelling the wheels to revolve ; and the power being thus applied to every pair of wheels simultaneously, sufficient resistance is obtained, on a smooth surface, to ascend inclined planes of con siderable elevation. none are the universal joints, which communicate rota when the carriages are not in a straight line; these, and other moving parts are distinctly shown in Fig. 2, which is upon a larger scale. ff is the rotatory shaft ; g g the two boxes, with the front plates moved, to show the gear inside ; h h the beveled pinions upon the shaft in each box ; i i the sante' double-beveled wheels. The front box g, under the carriage, is fixed immovably to a solid block of wood, k; the other box is fitted to a plate 4 turning on a central point, which passes through another plate ns, above, fhe latter being secured to the floor of the carriage by hinge-joints, n n. The construction of the universal joints u u is also more clearly shown in this figure.
We have now to describe the contrivances by which ihe patentee pto obviate the destructive effects of the rubbing or eliding of the inner= of carriages in making curves or turns in a round. If the wheels on one side of a carriage be larger, or ofgreater diameter than those on the opposite side, such carriage, when propelled, will necessarily make a curve. On this principle the patentee's contrivances are founded. In running along a straight line, the peripheries of the wheels are of equal elevation ; but when the carriage has to make a turn, the wheels on one site roll on a greater diameter, or more extended periphery, while the wheels on the opite side run on a less extended peri phery, and the elevations upon the rails on which they run are so adjusted to these variations, that the different peripheries of the wheels change and come in contact with the variable parts of the rail, and run round the curves without any increase of friction.