US271020A - Truck for portable tracks - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) v R. BAUMG-ARTNER.

TRUCK FOR PORTABLE TRACKS. No. 271,020. Patented Jan. 23,1 83.

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RUDOLPH BAUMGARTNER, OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA.

TRUCK FoR PORTABLE TRACKS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 271,020, dated January 23, 1883.

' Application filed July 26, 1882. (No model.)

To all whom it 'may concern Be it known that I, RUDOLPH BAUMGART- NER, of New Orleans, in the parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Trucks for Portable Tracks, of which the following is a a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to make trucks specially adapted to portable plank roads or tracks used on sugar-plantations, especiallyin wet weather.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a longitudinal partlysectional elevation of my improved road with trucks mounted thereon and as connected for transportation over the same. Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line .90 m in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a plan "iew of the plank-road, and Fig. 4 a plan of a double whiffletree that may be used in connection with the trucks. j

Under the system heretofore pursued of hauling the cane from the field to the sugar-house by means of carts or ordinary wagons much labor and expense is incurred, and in wet weather, when the roads are muddy, it is not unfrequently the case that much of a crop is lost, owing to it being found impossible to haul it.

My invention obviates all these difficulties, and possesses many advantages, as will be hereinafter explained.

The plank road or track is made exceedingly light, so that it may be readily removed from placeto place, and is simple in construction, requiring very little more than a few boards and nails. It has a broad bearing-surface on the ground, thus adapting it to boggy lands.

The construction of it is mainly as follows: A A are boards ofabout eightinches wide and one and a quarter inch thick, (more or less,) arranged in parallel lines at aboutthree feet apart, to form the rails on which the trucks run, and having strips bb, of aboutone and a halfinch by twoinches in their transverse section, fastened upon their outside edges to keep the wheels of the trucks from running off. These rails are united by cross-ties c 0, arranged at about four or five feet apart, (more or less.) Each pair of to eighteen feet in length, (more or less,) to provide for the easy handling and removal or replacement of thewooden roadway. Said sections are held together by strips 1) D, secured on the outside to the ends of either one of said sections, so as to project beyond their ends, and forming sockets for the adjacent nds of the nextcontiguous section.

The trucks designed to be run upon this wooden roadway are constructed substantially as follows: Each truck E is formed of or with two side sills, d d, united by two end sills, e e, and one center sill, c. This frame-work is set on or supported by a central pair of wheels, f f, by means of bracesg g. At each of the four corners of this frame, on the top of it, are mounted four angle-iron pieces, h h, to form pockets for reception within them of the body 1; of the truck. I

The trucks are coupled together as follows: A flat bar of iron, 7r, is arranged lengthwise under the center of the frame of each truck, which bar has open horizontal mouths H at rails is formed in sections B O, ofabout fourteen each end to receive within them a long flat connecting-link, m, which is united with the adjacent mouth ends, 1 l, of each contiguous truck by locking-pins a at.

These trucks may be moved by hand by means of a removable handle having either single or double shafts. For holding the removable handle on the truck, the same may be inserted in staples 1*,secured on theinside and at each end of the side sills, d d,- or a half-staple, s, having ahole through it, may be attached to the handle for the insertion of acoupling-pin, s. For moving a line of trucks, a double whiffletree, F, as shown in Fig. 4, may be substituted for the handle, and mules or other cattle be hitched to the same, or a single whiffletree may be used.

The body 13 of each truck is a simple box of about three feet wide by seven feetlong and fifteen or eighteen inches deep, more orless,) with its sides flaring outward in an upward direction. One side of this boxis left loose and secured below by-three or more pins, to, that may be slightly curved to fit into corresponding eyes in the body, and be held to its place at top by means of a spring, 0, and pin to.

The trucks E, constructed as described, are

admirably adapted for haulingsugar'cane, and, each being balanced on a pair of wheels only, are well suited for a wooden roadway of the description specified. The cost of such a roadway and trucks for a plantation would be much less than the cost of the usual carts and wagons. There would be very little wear, and a single mule would be able to haul much more cane than four mules would with carts and wagons; also, a less number of hands would be required to load the trucks, and in wet weather or on boggy lands there would be no difficulty in moving the entire crop from the field to the sugar-house. Again, the cane needed for a days grinding could be dumped on the carrier as it comes from the fields, and for night grinding could be piled up within thirty feet of the carrier, instead of, as is now customary with carts and wagons, dumping the load at a distance of one hundred to one hundred and fifty yards from the carrier.

By means of the trucks one man could dump more cane on the carrier than eight or nine hands do when they have to pick it up from the ground in small quantities and bring it to the carrier, as heretofore; and the cane, being nearer to the carrier, will not require as many hands to put it on.

Small loads are taken by the trucks, or larger ones in divided quantities, and with a much less number of mules to draw the same,

each truck holding, say, about five hundred pounds of cane, and as the agregate load of a series of trucks would be divided over an extended surface there would not be that straining of the animals or liability of the load to stick in the mud that occurs with heavily-loaded carts or wagons the weight of which is borne on one or two points.

The readiness with which the roadway and trucks may be taken apart and be removed or put in position (two men being sufficient to handle each road-section) and the direction of the roadway be changed as required are important considerations.

Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The combination of the removable bodies t' of the trucks with the frames d d c e 0, wheels ff, braces g g, and angle-iron pieces h h, arranged to form pockets for the reception of the bodies i within them, substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination, with the side and crosssills, cl (1,0 0, and e of the frame of either truck, of the bar 75, having open mouth ends I I, essentially as specified.

RUDOLPH BAUMGARTNER.

Witnesses:

ROBERT J. KER, JOHN W. HENO.

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