IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER AND OTHER SKATES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jonathan Aldous Mays at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th March 1876.
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of Gresham House, Old Broad Street, in the City' of
London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER AND OTHER SKATES."
This Invention consists in constructing skates suitable for use on ice and other
surfaces in the following manner:-I propose to make skates suitable for use on ice
with blades about half as long only as those hitherto used, and in some cases I employ
two such shortened blades placed parallel to each other. The shortened blade or
blades is or are to be fixed to or form part of one end of the skate, and the other
end of the skate is to be supported by or formed of or by a boss or stud, or bosses
or studs of any hard material with broad or rounded under sides, so that they may
bear upon and glide or slide upon the surface of the ice without cutting into it; or
instead of bosses or studs a wheel or wheels may be used having a broad and
rounded periphery or peripheries.
The object of using the shortened blade or blados at one end, and the boss or
wheel, or bosses or wheels at the other, is to diminish the resistanco to the lateral
turning or twisting of the blade upon the ice, and thereby to facilitate the lateral
turning or steering of the skate by enabling it to be more easily pivotted upon its
vertical centre than where the present long blades are used.
The object of employing pairs of shortened blades placed parallel to each other is
to give the skate a broader and consequently firmer seating or base upon the ice,
and to reduce the strain upon the anxles of the skater arising from the rocking or
canting over of a skate standing upon a narrow base.
I propose also to facilitate the steering of skates for use on ice by fixing blades
or runners to movable arms, and for use on other surfaces than ice by attaching
rollers or wheels to movable axles or axes, and to effect the necessary movement of
such said arms, axles, or axes, by a horizontal circular movement of the footboard
upon a frame or stock upon or in or at the ends of which said frame or stock, such
movable arms, axles, or axes are to be fixed. Thus in the case of roller skates the
axles or axes are to be fixed in carriages having a vertical circular movement
upon a stock or frame; and the upper parts of such carriages are to have arms
placed at right angles to the said axles or axes. A footboard or plate is made to
move sideways horizontally upon the stock by means of a suitable pivot and
bearing wheels at a point between the two aforesaid axles or axes; and studs, pins,
or other suitable connections are to pass from the under side and ends of the foot-

page_text: board or plate (through a hole or holes in the stock or frame where necessary) and
take into or connect with the arms projecting from the carriages of the aforesaid
axles or axes. A horizontal circular movement of the footboard or plate from right
to left, or vice versa, will then effect horizontal circular movement of the said axles
or axes; and further, the arms at the upper part of the carriages being set or placed
forward of the axle or axis in each case, the axles or axes will thereby be set to
move in any desired radius of a circle. The side movement of the footboard or
plate may be effected by a twisting motion of the foot of the skater. The extent
of the circle on which the skate may be steered may be regulated or adjusted by
shifting the studs or pins or other suitable connections between the footboard or
plate, and the rotating arms of the carriages, so that a given side movement of the
footboard or plato may either increase or diminish the movement of the axles or
axes as desired. These studs, pins,. or other suitable connections may accordingly
bo made to slide in or upon platos or grooves forming parts of the footboard or
plate, and be fixed in places corresponding to each other by reference to figures or
marks by means of screwed nuts, or by the revolution of screws passing through
them in the line of the footboard.
The horizontal side movement of the footboard or plate upon the stock or frame
may be checked by a suitable spring or springs attached to both the footboard and
the stock or parts thereof, such spring or springs will also serve to bring the stock
and the footboard into a line with each other, when the side movement of the foot-
board is discontinued, or when the skate is lifted from the ground.
The footboard and the stock may also be prevented from moving upon each
other except at the will of the skater, by making part of the footboard to flex or
hinge upon the other part, or by putting a wheel, a stud, or a spring into the foot-
board in such a way that the skater, by exerting pressure immediately above the
flexible part of the footboard, or above the wheel, or stud, or spring in the foot-
board, may press directly upon the stock or frame, or upon some or one of the
moving parts in such a way that tho said parts will thereby be prevented from
moving upon each other.
•
I propose further to make the axles of roller skates hollow, and to close the same
at their ends by discs or plates of metal of larger diameter than the axles, and to
enclose such said discs within the bodies of the rollers by making the rollers in
separate parts, and thon glueing or otherwiso fastening them together in such a
way as to enclose the discs at, the ends of the axles.
I also propose to perforate the ends of the discs with holes to permit of the flow
of oil or other lubricating material from the inside of the axle. In this way the
rollers may be securely fastened upon the axle without the ends of the axles passing
through them, and as the outer sides of the rollers will be "blind" the oil will be
unable to escape except at the inner sides of the same.
I propose also to arrange antifriction rollers upon arms extended from fixed axles
of roller skates, and to enclose such antifriction rollers and arms within the separate
parts of rollers or wheels made as herein-before mentioned.