f 240 ] 
[Oct. 1, 
NEW PATENTS AND MECHANICAL [NVENTIONS. 
To BENJAMIN THOMPSON, of Ayton 
Cottage, Durham; for a Method of 
facilitating the Conveyance of Car- 
riages along Iron and Wood Rail- 
ways, Tramways, and other Roads.— 
Oct. 24, 1821. 
HIS invention consists in the ap- 
plication or use of two or more 
fixed or stationary steam or other 
engines, placed upon the railway, 
tramway, or road intended to be used, 
at such a distance from each other as 
the nature of the line chosen shall 
render most convenient, and in such 
a manner, as that the action of such 
steam, or other engines, shall be inter- 
changeable and reciprocal, in the 
mode herein-after mentioned. 
There are various modes in use by 
which animal and mechanical powers 
are made available for the purpose of 
conveying carriages upon rail and 
tramways, where the trade or car- 
riage is principally, or altogether, in 
one direction. Fixed engines are 
employed to draw loaded carriages 
up inclined planes, the empty car- 
riages being enabled by their gravity, 
and the declination of such planes, to 
run down the same, and take out the 
rope from the engine along with them. 
Self-acting inclined planes are made 
use of where it is expedient to pass 
Joaded carriages down declivities suf- 
ficiently great to allow their pulling 
upward an empty set of carriages at 
the same time. And, where neither 
the acclivity nor the declination of a 
road is such as to admit of one or the 
other of these methods being adopted, 
then horses are used for the purpose of 
drawing the carriages, and in some, 
although very few instances, loco-mo- 
tive engines. Endless chains have 
also been applied, but, owing to the 
great friction, and consequent waste 
of power, attendant on them, their use 
has been very circumscribed, and their 
application limited to comparatively 
very short distances. These modes, 
combined or separately, according to 
circumstances, have hitherto afforded 
the means by which rail and tram- 
ways have been travelled. 
Mr. Thompson’s method might in 
most cases, and with considerable ad- 
vantage, supersede them all. Whe- 
ther the line of road rises or falls, much 
or little, is level or undulating, mat- 
ters not; the carriages, loaden or 
empty, are made to pass in both direc- 
—— 
tions, with a uniformity of progress, 
and at the same time with a dispatch 
not heretofore known. A road on 
which this invention is to be applied, 
must be divided into stages, attention 
being given in determining their dis- 
tances, to the nature of the linc, in 
regard to curves or bends, and to the 
undulation of the surface. Thenearer 
itapproaches to a level, and the fewer, 
as also the easier, the bends are, the 
better will it allow of the stages being 
extended. On the other hand, should 
the line prove to be a very uneven 
one, with frequent and short bends, 
then the intervals or spaces, between 
Stage and stage, will necessarily be re- 
quired to be shortened accordingly. 
The engines are severally to be fur- 
nished with two rope-wheels, and a 
rope to each, of a length and strength 
suitable to the stage upon which they 
are to be used. ‘The rope-wheels must 
be so constructed as to allow of a 
ready connexion, or the contrary, 
with their respective engines, so as to 
be capable of being acted upon by 
them, or of turning round, indepen- 
dently, at the will of the engine man. 
This may be readily accomplished by 
any one of the modes in use with mill- 
wrights for throwing machinery into 
or out of gear, with a moving power. 
In cases of greater inequality of sur- 
face, the saving would be in a still, 
greater ratio. A further and very 
important reduction in the cost of a 
new road would result from its adop- 
tion. In the formation of a road it is 
generally necessary to make deep 
cuts and raise high batteries, in order 
to obtain a uniformly rising, falling, or 
level surface; and it frequently hap- 
pens, too, that the direct line of way 
must be materially diverged from to 
favour that purpose. 
Mr. Thompson’s plan dispenses with 
such nice attention to regularity, the 
engines being capable of surmounting 
acclivities, and the wheel which gives 
out the following, or passive rope, 
affording the means of restraining the 
too rapid progress of the waggons 
down a declivity. In short, there is 
no country, however uneven or varia- 
ble its surface, but that may, by his 
method, be traversed. For conveying 
of minerals underground, where the 
unevenness of the strata and their ge- 
neral disposition to undulation do not 
allow of a uniformly ascending, de- 
scending 
