AN IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR DIMINISHING THE FRICTION OF SPINDLES, AXLES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ROTATING BODIES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas James Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th May 1870.—A communication from abroad by Ernest Maxime
Theodore Cayeux, of Abbeville, France, Merchant.
I, THOMAS JAMES SMITH, of the Firm of Robertson, Brooman, and
Company of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agents, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENT OF APPARATUS FOR DIMINISHING THE FRICTION OF SPINDLES,
AXLES, AND OTHER SIMILAR ROTATING BODIES," to be as follows :-
Many mechanical contrivances have already been made with the
object of diminishing the friction of axles and large shafts, and of the
naves of wheels and other large pieces turning in bearings or sockets.
Those which appeared to possess the greatest advantages consisted in
arranging between the shaft and the bearing or socket small wheels or
rollers in contact at once with the shaft internally, and with the bearing
or socket externally. The difference of the angular velocities at the
circumference of the bearing from that of the shafts causes in these
arrangements an inevitable slipping of the rollers upon the shaft or the
bearing or socket. And these rollers wear unequally and soon lose their

page_text: cylindrical form, becoming covered with little hollows or other imper-
fections very adverse to their rolling, and then all the benefit expected
to be derived from the substitution of this slipping action for that of
friction is lost.
With the object of avoiding this defect I have invented the following
arrangement—It consists in placing between the shaft and the bearing
or socket wheels or rollers every two of which are connected by a neck
upon which rolls an enlargement or projection of the axle or shaft, and
the external surfaces of which rollers rest upon the internal surface of
the boring. It follows, therefore, that no slipping can take place and
that the most perfect rolling is established between the shaft, the roller,
and the bearing.
I proceed to describe the arrangement more in detail. Upon the
axle or shaft I fix an enlargement which may be forged in the same
piece with it if desired. Between the circular bearing or socket and the
shaft I arrange several special rollers with a neck between every two of
them upon which the enlargement of the shaft rolls. These rollers turn
freely upon their axes which are mounted upon two hoops or bands, one
at each side of the bearing which unite all the axes. The neck of the
rollers rolls upon the exterior surface of the enlargement of the shaft, and
the exterior surfaces of the rollers move upon the internal surface of the
bearing or socket. I establish an exactly proportional relation between
the respective diameters of the enlargement of the shaft of the neck,
and of the interior of the bearing or socket so that the velocity of the
rolling of the neck upon the enlargement may be precisely equal 'to
that of the exterior of the rollers against the external surface of the
bearing. By this means there is no longer any slipping or hindrance in
the rolling so that it is much more regular and is communicated
throughout all the pieces of my arrangement.