babbitt
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbæbɪt/
note: weak vowel merger
ipa: /ˈbæbət/
rhymes: -æbɪt
Forms: form: babbitts
form: babbit
form: Babbitt
Etymology: The noun is derived from Babbitt, the surname of the American inventor Isaac Babbitt (1799–1862) who invented the alloy.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: Running while low on oil had galled the babbitt.
text: Figure 2 represents a top plan of the "Babbitting" jig, placed in or upon a cast-iron frame, preparatory to the pouring or casting of the "Babbitt" or other soft metal on to or around its journals, to form journal bearings in said cast-iron frame.
ref: 1867 October 29, John Underwood, Improved Babbitting and Drilling Jig, US Patent 0070294 (PDF version), page 1:
text: Remove all sharp edges from the babbitt with a chisel or file and try the shaft after removing the paper wrapping for a fit. If a light coat of oil mixed with lampblack be smeared on the shaft and the shaft revolved, the lampblack will catch on the high points of the babbitt, then by removing the shaft and scraping off these high spots a good bearing can be produced.
ref: 1919 March, “Babbitting Bearings”, in Care and Repair of Farm Implements. No. 5.—Grain Separators (U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin; 1036), Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, published 1920, →OCLC, page 14:
text: Coins made from nickel babbitt are fairly hard and give a clear bright ring. This makes it easier to pass them due to the widespread belief that a sure test of a counterfeit coin is to drop it on a hard surface to see if it will "ring". […] The simplest test is to cut the edge of a suspected coin with a pocket knife. If it is made of babbitt the metal will pare off quite easily.
ref: 1952, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, “Counterfeiting”, in Law and Order in Canadian Democracy: Crime and Police Work in Canada, revised edition, Ottawa: Edmond Cloutier, […], →OCLC, page 209:
text: The cross-head is cast of crucible steel and faced with Babbitt. […] The rod is secured to the crank pin by body bound bolts, this bearing being provided with Babbitt shells which are prevented from turning by paper liners extending to the pin.
ref: 1895 June, “The Fisher Self-oiling Engine”, in Power, volume XV, number 6, New York, N.Y.; Chicago, Ill.: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10, column 2:
text: Perhaps the most familiar soft bearing alloys are the babbitts. These have been in use since the early 19th century when printer's type metal was utilized for machinery by casting it into holes drilled in iron housings. […] Babbitt or whitemetal bearing materials represent a class of alloys developed specifically for bearing applications.
ref: 1992, William A. Glaeser, “Soft Metal Bearing Materials”, in Materials for Tribology (Tribology Series; 20), Amsterdam; London: Elsevier Science Publishers, →ISBN, page 72:
text: In most applications, the inner bearing surface is made of a thin layer of a soft white metal (babbitt), which has a low melting temperature.
ref: 2003, Avraham Harnoy, “Design Charts for Finite-length Journal Bearings”, in Bearing Design in Machinery: Engineering Tribology and Lubrication, New York, N.Y.; Basel: Marcel Dekker, →ISBN, page 164:
text: Babbitts may be lead-based (as 75%Pb, 15%Sb, 10%Sn) or tin-based (as 89%Pb, 3%Cu). They use lead or tin as a soft matrix metal and hard particles of Sb-Sn or Cu-Sn to resist wear. Because of their softness, babbitts are unrivalled in conformability and embeddability. […] Because of low strength and high cost, a thin babbitt overlay, usually about 0.025 mm, is often deposited as liners over steel bushings to combine the great load carrying capacity of steel with conformability and corrosion resistan[ce] of babbitts.
ref: 2019, Wei Jiang, “Sliding Bearings”, in Analysis and Design of Machine Elements, Singapore: John Wiley & Sons Singapore, →ISBN, page 350:
synonyms: Babbitt's metal
glosses: Ellipsis of babbitt metal or Babbitt metal (“a soft white alloy of variable composition used in bearings to diminish friction”).