PATENTS SUMMARIZED.
Page 22
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Springing Without Springs.
Mr. F. W. Lancherster has invented a suspension. system for vehicles, and he dispenses altogether with the need for steel springs. The system is a hydraulic one, and it is ehaeacterized by thefact that the actual elasticity of the fluid medium is employed to absorb the 6hocks. The damping effect produced by the pas sage of the liquid through small orifices is also utilized, but tide is subsidiary only.
The invention is described in specification No. 121,765, but o.r.ily in detail, as to its application to a front axle, this being sufficient to illustrate the principle invalvede The-male, as ordinarily understood in connection with a vehicle in that it-is carried by the wheels and is coupled to the body by springs of some kind, does not exist. The wheel is carried on a horizontal bar of an L-shaped member, the vertical portion of which is in the form of a hollow cylinder with the mouth upwards, which cylinder embraces a down-. ward depending spindle from what might be termed the axle, but which is actually bolted direct to the Chassis framework. Relative vertical movement takes place as between the cylindrical portion of the L-shaped member, which is carried by the wheel, and the downward depending spindle of this fixed axle. The spindle is hollow, and serves as a barrel into which projects a small ram, the lower and ex
posed end of which comes into contact with the base of the hollow cylindrical portion of the stub axle. The upper end of the barrel is in connection with a reservoir of Oil maintained at high peesSure, the pressure being normally double that which would be necessary to uphold
the static loacl of the vehicle. The proportions of the fluid reservoir and the ram are based upon the fact that an elastic liquid compresses about 1 per centof its volume per ton per eq. in. The ram, therefore, is erne& very small in diameter, and the reservoir needs to be about 100 times the normal volumetric displacement of the ram under the oseil-' lating action of the -wheel and axle with respect to the car.
When. through leakage or some other cause, the supply of fluid, diminishes to a eerthin extent, and this allews a limit which is set to the vertical movement of wheel to car to be exceeded, the lam automatically opens a valve connecting with an additional . supply of fluid under high pressure, and this
replenishes the reservoir. The additional fluid is maintained at high pressure by means of an engine-driven pump or similar apparatus.
In specification No, 121,767, the same inventor describes in relation to the previous patent the method whereby themovement of wheel and stub axle is utilized for the purpose, of punVing additinnal oil into the reservoir as it may be lreeuired.
Clarkson Boiler Construction.
T. Clarkson, in No. 121,799, describes detaiLof his new coke-fired steam chas sisThis has to do with the water eupply to the boiler, the arrangement being such that the functioning of the pump is automatically controlled in accordance with the water level. A small float in a chamber which is in connection with the interior of the boiler is secured on one side to a horizontal shaft. The latter is coupled through levers to the suction valve of the pump, so that when
the water level within the boiler reaches a predetermined limit, the suction valve of the pump is held open, and the pump merely araws water from the supply tank and returns it theretO. The difficulty in connection with such mechanism has hitherto been that the spindle of the float is liable to stick in its glands. In order to Overcome this, the spindle in Mr. Clerkson's apparatus is mechanically and continuously oscillated in the direction of its axis by mechanism which is in direct communication with some moving part.
Leyland Speed Gear,
No. 121,870, Leyland Meters, Ltd., and J. G. Thomas, describes the use, in combination with the special epieyelie form of speed" gear which was patented by Leyland Motors, Ltd., a few months ago, and described in our issue of September 5th last, of two dynamo. machines, the effect being that when the engine is running, and the vehicle at rest' one of the dynamo machines is driven forward and the other backward. By the combination named, in. using the two electriCal machines alternately and inelepeaclentlY, either as dynamos and motors, a variable torque ratio is obtained as between engine and back axle without transmitting the whole of the power developed, electrically.
Dunlop Road Wheel.
The Dunlop Rubber Co., in No. 12r,757 describes a construction of road wheel, the rim of which may be contracted and expanded, so that solid or other tyres may be more readily applied, secured and removed. Tim wheel is split in two, arid the rim of each half is divided into eegments. The halves are dished so that the rims can be expanded by reducing the -amount to which the discs are dished, and this is effected by the use of joint bolts or some similar expedient. Various modifications are described.
Detail Improvements. •
Davis,3. in No. 121,789, describes an
arrangement of cooling apparatus for refrigerating apparatus on a motor lorry, B. B. North, in No. 121,787, deScribes an improved form of magneto contact breaker. The improvements relate particularly to the construction of the contact breaker lever and the fibre bush within which its spindle works.
The Motosaeoche Co., in No. 117.614, describes a construction of crankcase divided into compartments, one for each crank, the particular feature being that the oil pump draws independently from each compartment in turn.
The Austin Meter Co. describe in No. 121,888, a construction of shaft for a gearbox. Ordinary spur teeth are cut on the outside of the ehaft, so that it can be utilized as a pinion of a pair of gears, and these teeth are also used as splines on which to secure other gearwheels.