IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Frederick Wood at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th March 1876.
CHARLES FREDERICK WOOD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Machinist.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES."
My Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in roller skates,
whereby the canting motion of the rollers, that is, the inclination of their axes to
one another on one or other side of the skate is effected by the turning of the foot
to the right or left, and without any inclination in the plane of the sole of the
skate.
In constructing a skate according to my Invention I joint to the under side of
the sole of the skate a strong flat arm or plate of a length nearly equal to tho
length of the sole. This arm or plate is jointed at its middle to the middle of the
sole, and is capable of turning upon the joint.pin so as to move in a plane parallel
with the under side of the sole.
The bearings of the pairs of rollers are connected respectively with the ends of
the said arm or plate and are capable of turning upon the connecting pin as a
centre. The bearing of one pair of rollers has an arm parallel with the sole of
the skate, and lying close upon the flat arm or plate to which the bearing is
jointed.
A fixed pin on the under side of the sole passing through a slot in the flat arm or
plate is connected to the arm of the bearing, and that part of the said arm is
consequently always kept in the middle line of the sole.
When the foot of the wearer of the skate is turned aside the sole of the skate is
turned with it, but owing to the resistance between the rollers and the surface on
which they bear the flat arm or plate by which the bearings of the rollers are
carried retains its original position, and the sole and said flat arm or plate cross
each other at a small angle. This crossing of the sole and plate, carrying the
bearings of the rollers, causes the axis of the pair of rollers on which the fixed pin
acts to change its position, for that part of the arm of the roller bearing with which
the fixed pin engages is kept in the middle line of the sole while the centre con-
necting the said bearing to the flat arm or plate has been carried on one side the
middle line. The axis of the rollers is thus inclined.
The fixed pin described acts by preference on the carrier of the rollers at the heel
end of the skate, the inclination of the axis of the other pair of rollers being

page_text: produced by an arm of the bearing of each pair of rollers being extended to the
middle of the skate, and connected by a pin on the end of one taking into a slot in
the end of the other.
The fixed pin described may be replaced by an adjustablé pin, which by being
moved to a greater or less distance from the centre of the flat arm or plate gives a
greater or less deflection of the skate by the same twisting of the foot."
By the arrangement or combination of parts described the wearer of the skate
by a slight twisting of the foot in the direction in which he wishes his course to
be deflected produces the change in the relative positions of the axes of the rollers
necessary to produce the desired change of direction.
The flat arm or plate tends to preserve its normal position by the action of a
spring or springs, and springs may be introduced between the sole of the skate and
the said flat arm or plate in order to prevent vibration or shock on passing over an
obstacle or in skating on an uneven surface.