Improvements in the Bearing Parts of Cycles.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Sept., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 19th Oct., 1893-Accepted, 25th Nov., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Bearing Parts of Cycles.
I, JOSIAH REUBEN CHAMBERS, of the Firm of McDonald, Chambers and
Company, of Steelhouse Lane, in the City of Birmingham, Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the construction of the rotatory bearing parts of cycles,
such for example as wheel-hub bearings, bottom-bracket or chain-wheel bearings,
steering-post bearings and the like, and has for its object, providing the said bearing.
parts, which are of a ball character, with means whereby mud, dust, grit or the like
are excluded therefrom, and also the oil or lubricant in the interior prevented from
escaping, and by this means the wear and tear of the frictional parts of the said
bearings is reduced, and waste of oil obviated, whilst the working surfaces of the
bearings are kept perfectly clean.
Thus my invention consists in fitting or providing the interior of a bearing with
a collar or flange of yielding material, such as wool, cotton, worsted, felt, cloth and
the like, which fits into and closes up the entrance to the bearing chamber, thus
rendering the same perfectly dust or grit-proof and oil tight.
Thus in carrying out one form of my invention in connection with the bearing
of a cycle wheel bub, I take a hub of an ordinary construction, whose heads are
provided with open-sided or open-ended bearing chambers which have half ball-
races formed within the interiors of them, within and around which the friction
balls of the bearing work.
Passing through the interior of the said hub is a spindle screwed at its two
opposite ends, and having adjustable cones with half-ball-races formed upon the
inside faces of them, working thereon.
These said adjustable cones are concentrically grooved about their middles, into
which grooves, wool, cotton, worsted or the like is wound or wrapped until soft,
springy, flexible or yielding collars are formed, which said collars, when the
adjustable cones are screwed into position within the ball bearing chambers, close
up the entrances to the said chambers, and keep the same free from dust and retain
the oil within the interior of the bearing.
It will be understood that the flexible collars formed upon the adjustable cones
are of such a yielding nature as to be perfectly frictionless on the working of the
bearing.
Instead of employing wrapped wool, worsted or cotton, a yielding collar of felt,
clotb, leather or the like may be used, which would be sprung into the concentric
groove of the adjustable cone as aforesaid.
As a further form of my invention, instead of the cones being adjustable and
provided with yielding collars as aforesaid, the same may be fixed or made in one
piece with the spindle, and the hub heads may be provided with adjustable closure
caps having flexible or yielding collars fixed to the interiors of them, which said
collars rotate frictionless around the spindle and close up and render dust-proof and
oil-tight the entrance or spindle piercing in the said closure caps.
As a still further form of my invention, the frictionless yielding collars may be
formed upon or sprung into concentric grooves made in the spindle instead of in
the closure caps as before described.
The application of my invention to bottom-bracket or chain wheel bearing,

page_text: steering post bearings and the like differs in no essential respect from its application
to a wheel-hub bearing as described.
Dated this 15th day of September 1893
JOSIAH REUBEN CHAMBERS,
.By Henry Skerrett,
Agent for Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Bearing Parts of Cycles.
I JOSIAH REUBEN CHAMBERS, of the Firm of McDonald Chambers and
Company, of Steelhouse Lane, in the City of Birmingham Manufacturer do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in, or in additions to, the bearing parts
of cycles, such as wheel hubs, bottom brackets, ball heads and the like, and has
for one of its objects the exclusion of dust or dirt from the ball or bearing races or
parts, and for another object, the entrapping or preventing the leakage of oil
supplied for lubrication.
My invention consists primarily in employing in conjunction with the adjustable
cones, closure ends, or races or bearing surfaces of the said bearings, flexible
closure rings or collars made of some soft material, and adapted to slightly expand
circumferentially by the inherent resiliency of the said material, thus forming a dust
proof and oil-tight bearing.
Now by employing as it were packing rings which wipe with a minimum of
friction upon the surfaces in contact, the incursion of dust into the bearing from
the outside is prevented, whilst lubricant from the interior is prevented from
escaping.
In one form of my invention, a supple and self-expanding closure collar, ring or
annulus composed of any soft material not affected by oil is placed circumferentially
around and within an aunular channel formed or sunken within the periphery of the
adjustable cones or closures.
The said closures, rings or the like, which make dust and oil tight bearings, may
be composed of wound, plaited or fabricated hemp, horsehair, wool, flax, leather,
felt and like materials, and when the said packings are insufficiently resilient to
automatically swell them out to their bearing surfaces, I may employ in conjunction
with them, expanding devices such as metallic springs.
It is understood that the said closure collars exert only just sufficient outward
pressure to make a joint, without exercising any pressure that will retard the
movement of the working parts.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawing represents in longitudinal vertical section,
a wheel hub or wheel centre having bearings fitted with dust-proof and oil-tight
means as according to one form of my invention.
Figure 2 represents a vertical section of one of the adjustable cones having soft
closure rings or collars, separately.
Figure 3 represents an elevation of the same.
Figure 4 represents a transverse vertical section upon the dotted lines A B
Figure 1.
Figure 5 is a transverse vertical section upon the dotted lines CD of the said
Figure 1.
In Figures 1 to 5, a is a wheel hub or centre, with head ends a², having cupped
ball bearing races or semi-races or bearings a³, with open mouth entrances a, which
are closed against the incursion of dust from the outside, and the trickling out of
oil from the inside by soft material or non-metallic collars, rings or closures,

page_text: carried by or taking within circumferential sinkings, channels or the like c³, of
adjustable cones or bearing nuts e, inside wormed, and adjustably taking upon the
screwed ends 2, of the spindle d, and which cones, which have half ball races c',
upon which the ball bearings e, partly roll, are affixed in their adjusted positions
by the ordinary means.
Thus, the outer circumference of the soft and resilient closure ring or collar
slightly presses upon or wipes lightly over the inner periphery of the mouth
entrance a', and prevents the incursion from the outside of dust, and also prevents
the leakage of oil from the interior.
Figure 6 represents a modified form of my invention.
a is the hub, a² a head end, having a screwed-in end cap at, with a semi
ball-race a³, formed upon its inside walls. d is a spindle, having made fast to it, or
in one piece with it, a coned bearing and between the said bearings a³, d², balls
or spheres roll.
a is a mouth entrance to the cap a*, made dust proof and oil tight by a resilient
and soft collar, closure or ring &, lying within a circumferential groove made or
sunken within the said spindle forward of the cone.
Figure 7 represents a still further form of my invention.
In this arrangement, the dust-proof and oil-tight flexible and soft collars or
closures are made adjustable by the application of lateral pressure through a
traversing nut or collar.
a is the hub, a² the head end, as the ball race or bearing and at the mouth
entrance., are dust-proof and oil-tight collars or rings made from some soft
material as aforesaid, circumferentially surrounding and coming up to a collar ³,
of an adjustable cone c, screwing upon the screwed end , of a spindle d, and with
a threaded washer or ring 62, coming between the said soft material closures, and
which are adjustable brought up to the inner circumference of the mouth
entrance a', by a screwing up nut a³; e are the balls or spheres running between
the ball races a³, and the races on the cone.
Instead of employing two dust-proof and oil-tight soft rings b, b, I may employ
only one of them, or I may employ more than two and instead of swelling out or
expanding the same adjustably up to the inside diameter of the mouth entrance by
lateral pressure, I may expand them by outward pressure by employing a coned
foot to the travelling nut, which acts upon the interior of the closure rings and
expands them outwardly.
The application of my invention to other bearings as before mentioned differs
in no essential respect from its application to a cycle wheel hub as hereinbefore
set forth.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
First. In bearing parts of cycles, employing at the entrances to, or within parts
of the same, an expanding closure ring, collars or the like, preferably made of
some soft and resilient material such as hemp, cotton, wool, horsehair, felt, leather
or the like, whereby a dust-proof and oil-tight bearing is obtained, substantially
as described and set forth.
Secondly. In the bearing parts of cycles, employing at the entrances to, or
within parts of the same, and surrounding a part or parts of the coned bearings,
or let within a groove or grooves in the coned bearings, a soft-material and
expanding collar or collars, whereby the joint formed between the cone cap or
equivalent, and the adjacent walls of the bearing, is closed, and a dust-proof and
oil tight bearing formed, substantially as described and set forth.
Thirdly. In the bearing parts of cycles, the improvements in the same, or the
additions to the same, substantially as, and for the purpose described and set forth
in Figures 1 to 6.
Fourthly. In the bearing parts of cycles, the improvements in the construction.

page_text: arrangement and combination of the parts and the means for bringing-up or
making the closure rings adjustable, substantially as described and set forth in
Figure 7.
Dated this 18th day of October 1893.
JOSIAH REUBEN CHAMBERS,
By Henry Skerrett,
6, Livery Street, Birmingham, Agent for Applicant.