New Patent Spring for Carriages. S09 



overturned under any extent of load ; — simple, capable of being 

 repaired by the most indifferent nieclianic,— may, upon emer- 

 gency, be increased in strength for bad roads and heavy lug* 

 gage ; — preserves the graceful appearance of the C spring so 

 completely as to deceive the eye, and in all other cases is lighter 

 and more elegant than those now in use. 



That this spring is easier than those in general practice hft^ 

 been proved by comparing them with some of the best Londoti 

 manufacture for the space of a year, during which they were 

 tried upon the worst description of roads : again upon the Whit- 

 by railway, where they have been in use for some months, they 

 are found to have a much more pleasant motion than any hither- 

 to employed. This is attributable solely to the spring being 

 acted upon instantaneously, and completely without friction, 

 which prevails to an enormous degree in the old springs, and 

 renders them stiff or wooden to a great extent. 



The superior security of this spring may be proved in this 

 manner. The levers are constructed of two pieces of one-fourth 

 inch plate iron, distant from each other two or three inches, and 

 connected by one or more small blocks of wood, or, as in the 

 case of the C spring, by one solid piece, all firmly rivetted 

 together ; by this means the iron receives the strain edgevvays, 

 and, like the blade of a saw or knife, supported in such a posi- 

 tion, it may, with little weight, be made equal to any load. 



The spring itself never exceeds eight or ten inches in length, 

 and consists of several steel plates of a lozenge shape, inserted 

 in a kind of case called a stop (from its regulating the quantity 

 of motion and stopping it at a certain given limit). This stop, 

 by its tongue running through the centre, divides the plates in- 

 to upper and under series, and contains, at each end, a rack or 

 rest for every plate, which being supported at the extremities, 

 the whole spring is pressed in the centre directly like an elliptic 

 spring, and since every plate is supposed to be capable of bend- 

 ing more than it is permitted, it is not possible that the spring 

 can ever break, because it is checked before it reaches the break- 

 ing point. Let it not, however, be imagined, that, being thus 

 checked, the motion must be unpleasant, for if the spring be 

 proportioned to the weight, it will never collapse but with such 

 a shock as might endanger the carriage. It should also be men- 



