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Description: |
| This patent also listed as granted on 11 Jun., 1829.
Most of the patents prior to 1836 were lost in the Dec. 1836 fire. Only about 2,000 of the almost 10,000 documents were recovered. Little is known about this patent. There are no patent drawings available. This patent is in the database for reference only.
Some account of various improvements in Rail-roads and Rail-road Carriages, invented by Isaac Knight, of Baltimore, Maryland. Patented June 11, 1829.
The specification accompanying this patent is so extremely excursive in its views, so immethodical in its arrangement, and so indefinite in its claims, as to render an analysis of it extremely difficult. We have, therefore, taken it up, and given a short abstract of its contents, in the order in which they stand.
The proposed rails are to be of wood, about 2½ inches thick, and ten inches deep; these are to be covered with bars of wrought iron of the exact width of the thickness of the rails; the wheels of the carriages are to have double flanches.
In passing over vallies, long posts of wood may be used to receive the rails; pillars of stone, or chairs of 'cast-iron, may be employed when the depth is not too great. The joints where the rails are let into the posts, may be secured by coverings of tin, sheet lead, &c. The pillars must be framed together by cross-ties and braces, where the elevation is considerable. The horse path is to be formed of plank, where the depth is too great to fill with stone or gravel.
The two flanches upon the wheels, it is calculated, will tend to keep the rails from losing their parallelism. It will be evident, however, that if they effect this object, it must be at the expense of great friction, yet these flanches are depended upon to prevent the necessity of cross-ties.
It is said, that case-hardened friction wheels should be used, and that they should rest upon the main axle of the travelling wheels, which should likewise be case-hardened. A particular mode of fixing the framing for these is recommended.
It is proposed to fix seats for passengers along the sides of the carriage, which seats may project over the wheels. There is also to be a dining table, and other accommodations, such as stoves, a kitchen, glass windows, stairs, &c. which are all proposed as parts of the establishment
The mode proposed of adapting the carriages to curved roads, is very similar to that of Mr. Howard, and also to one included by Mr. Knight in a foriner patent.
Masts and sails may occasionally be used, to take advantage of the wind, when fair. By means of ropes, or endless chains, passing over pulleys, these carriages, it is said, may be made to draw others against the wind.
There is here a general claim to the foregoing principles and combinations, and a specific one to the manner of placing the wooden rails upon the tops of the posts. The particular form of these wooden rails. The application of the double flanched wheel running upon flat bars of iron. The mode of covering the posts to protect them from the weather. The mode of fixing the friction wheels, and using smaller ones to prevent lateral friction.
The patentee intends also to protect the posts where they enter
the ground, by filling round them with small stones; to pave round them with flat stones; and to cover the whole with tar and sand.
The mode of bridging described, is next claimed; also a cheap plan of branch rail-roads; also a mode of embarking wagons, and landing them from boats, by means of a windlass; also the invention of a shifting carriage, to run on lateral, or branch roads, upon which shifting carriage the loaded rail-road carriage is to be conveyed; to a double inclined plane, or rail-way, running on two sets of rails, one over the other, for the purpose of removing earth, &c. to small distances. Also a mode of connecting ropes and pulleys for one carriage to descend, and another to ascend, an inclined plane. To a double rail-way, one above the other; and to a mode of travelling both ways on a single track. To the covering the wood under the rail, and at the joints, with sheet metal, and bending it down to prevent injury from wet. There are likewise several intervening claims which we have omitted, in order to shorten this article; but the next is to a whole newly contrived carriage, which has been figured and described in many of our public papers; the following may give some idea of it.
A horse is to be placed upon a moveable endless floor revolving upon rollers, and these are to give motion to the main wheels of the carriage; they may be so geared together, that if the horse travels at the rate of two miles per hour, the carriage may go ten. This is particularly described.
After this comes another mode of protecting the posts, which is claimed. The post is to be bored longitudinally, and the hole filled with oil, or salt, or a mixture of both, and plugged up. The outside is then to be painted with white lead, to be covered with sheathing paper, or cloth, saturated with proper materials, or to be covered with sheet metal.
There are in the above so many items, that we cannot attempt to animadvert upon them; the patentee has made a complete rail-road and rail-road carriage analecta: it is, however, fairly to be apprehended, that a number of his claims will be disputed by other inventors; and indeed this has been already done. Some of the claims appear to be for intended improvements, which are now patented in anticipation, and several others, we suspect, will not fulfil the averment that they are new and useful. Admitting, however, that everything claimed is new, useful, and original, the question may fairly be asked, whether there is a sufficient connection in all the things claimed, to make them properly the subject of a single patent. Half a dozen new machines, or improvements upon half a dozen old ones, can scarcely be included under the terms a"new and useful art, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter."
Journal of the Franklin Institute Vol. 6, Sept. 1829 pgs. 199-200
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