DRAWINGS FURNISHED AND LICENSES GRANTED ON APPLICATION.
| A. F. SMITH, President. | M. F. MOORE, Sec’y and Agent |
| ALBERT BRIDGES. Treas. | No 46 Cortlandt st. N. Y. |
Figure 12.—Notice of the Locomotive Safety Truck Company listing the patents held by it. From Railroad Gazette, March 3, 1876.
John L. Whetstone on April 10, 1860, obtained U.S. patent 27850, which strikingly anticipated the plan Hudson was to develop four years later.[22] Whetstone did not use a Bissell truck and was in fact more concerned in relieving the excess weight, often a 50% overload, from the front axle of 0-6-0 locomotives and in distributing a portion of that weight to a pony truck. His arrangement may be readily understood from the patent drawing in [figure 9]. Probably the best features of the design was the transverse H-beam that connected the spring hangers to the truck frame, which in this case also served as the equalizing lever (note that the ball “C” acts as the fulcrum).
Hudson made use of this same device but in a more practical manner. He found that while the Bissell pony truck could satisfactorily adjust itself laterally and could lead the locomotive around curves, it could not handle the varying loads imposed upon it by the rough trackage typical of American railroads. At one moment an undue amount of weight would fall upon the truck because the drivers were over a depression in the roadbed. This condition overloaded the truck’s springs and also resulted in a momentary loss of adhesion, causing the drivers to slip. Conversely, when the truck hit a depression too much weight was thrust upon the driving wheels, and broken springs or other damage might result.
Hudson’s ingenious remedy to this problem was simple and straightforward (see [fig. 10]). A heavy equalizing lever that connected the truck to the springs of the front driving wheels was placed on the longitudinal centerline of the locomotive, with the fulcrum under the cylinder saddle. Thus the truck and front driver reacted together to all the inequalities and shocks offered by the roadbed.
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In October of 1863, under Hudson’s direction, two 2-6-0’s equipped with Bissell trucks were built at the Rogers Works for the New Jersey Railroad and Transportation Company. Probably some fault was found with the suspension of these machines, numbered 35 and 36, for the next 2-6-0, numbered 39, built for the New Jersey road was equipped with Hudson’s equalizer. This engine, completed in January 1865, is believed to be the first Mogul so equipped.[23]
The Locomotive Engine Safety Truck Company (see [fig. 11]) was formed in the 1870’s, with A. F. Smith as president, to exploit the patents of Bissell, Smith, and Hudson. For several years notices appeared in the columns of the Railroad Gazette reporting suits by the Company against various railroads and locomotive builders for unauthorized use of their patents. The Gazette of May 29, 1875, carries a protest of the Company against the Manchester Locomotive Works for unlicensed use of Smith’s patent of 1862. In the issue of August 28, 1875, is reported the Company’s success in establishing the validity of Smith’s patent:
Some important settlements for the use of the patent have lately been made with the company, one of them being with the Western Railroad Association, whose headquarters are at Chicago, which includes the principal western roads. Through this the company receives its royalty on several hundred locomotives.