ft^.--. 



Figure 6. — The New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company jVo. 12, built in 1868, was equipped 

 with the radius bar truck, a modification by William S. Hudson of the original Bissell truck. The General 

 Darcy and several other engines built at the Jersey City shops of the road, under the direction of John 

 Headden, were fitted with the Hudson truck. Note that the radius bar is connected to the truck frame 

 just behind the rear leading wheels. (Smithsonian photo 46806-I) 



U.S. Patent Commi.ssioner Charles Mason was so 

 impressed by the evidence of the New Jersey trials, 

 reinforced by the arguments of Bissell's attorneys, 

 that he agreed to grant a United States patent.' It 

 was issued as no. 17913 on August 4, 1857, and 

 reissued October 18, 1864 as no. 1794. British patent 

 1273 had been issued earlier (May 5, 1857), and 

 patents were also secured in France, Belgium, Austria, 

 and Russia. 



The Rogers Locomotive Works in 1858 was one of 

 the earliest builders to apply the improved truck. By 

 1860 they had fitted many of their engines with it and 

 were endorsing the device to prospective customers. 



In the same year the American Railway Review noted 

 that the truck was in extensive use, stating: '° 



. . . the advantages of the arrangement are so obvious and 

 its results so well established by practice in this country 



and Europe that a treatise on its principles will hardly be 

 needed. 



It is no longer an experiment; and the earlier it is applied 

 to all engines, the better the running and repair accounts 

 will look. 



The success of Bissell's invention prompted others 

 to perfect safety trucks for locomotives. Alba F. 

 Smith came forward in 1862 with the simple substitu- 

 tion of swing links (fig. 4) for the incline planes.'' 

 A swing-bolster truck had been developed 20 years 

 earlier for use on railroad cars,'- and while Smith 

 recognized this in his patent, he based his claim on 

 the specific application of the idea to locomotive 

 trucks. That the swing Unks succeeded the incline 

 planes as a centering device was mainly because they 



9 Letter dated July 11, 1857, Charles Mason to Levi Bissell " U.S. patent 34377, February 11, 1862. 



(Patent Office papers). '2 Davenport & Bridges, car builders of Cambridge, Massa- 



^^ American Railway Review, Ic ehruary 9, 1860, vol. 2, p. 71. chusetts, in 1841, obtained a U.S. patent for a swing-beam trLick. 



124 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



