CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
HARCOURT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Tenth day of October, in the third year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said David
Harcourt, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said David Harcourt, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said David Harcourt, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE
AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso,
that I, the said David Harcourt, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be, inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto.had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 represents a side view of a socket castor, constructed according to
the first part of my Invention; Figure 2 is a front view thereof, and Figure 3
is a section of Figure 1. And in order to show that plate castors may be made
according to this part of my Invention, Figure 4 is a side view, and Figure 5
a section of a plate castor similar in construction to Figure 1, excepting in
respect to the means of applying castors to furniture, the one being a socket
castor, the other being a plate castor, and the parts are marked with the same
letters of reference. a is the wheel or roller moving on an axis, carried by
the frame, or what is commonly called "the horn" b, the nature of which is
clearly shown in the Drawing. A is the socket of the castor, Figure 1, and B is
the plate of the castor, Figure 4, by which the castors are respectively affixed.
The horn or frame is capable of movement on an axis q,
which axis passes
through the pin p, which is carried by the socket A or the plate B, as is shown
in the Drawing, but is capable of turning freely; r is an external ornamental
covering and support of the lower part of the pin p, and such covering con-
stitutes the standard between the horn or frame and the plate B or the
socket A, as are respectively shown in the various Figures of the Drawing
under description. The frame b carries a friction wheel m, which moves on
an axis n, as is shewn in the Drawing. This friction wheel moves against
the circular inclined track o; consequently it will be seen that the pressure on
the pin p will have a tendency to force the horn or frame downwards towards
the ground at the point where the horn 6 is connected to the pin p, but such
pressure will keep the wheel m in contact with the track o, and thus relieve
the pressure on the pin p.
I will now proceed to describe the second part of my Invention, in doing so
I would remark that the same has for its object various constructions of bear-
ings of the main pin or axis on which the castor turns, and by means of such
improvements I am enabled to construct castors with much greater length of
main pin or axis, by which the weights carried by such castors are more
advantageously borne or carried, and the castors are rendered less liable to the
prejudicial action of strains.

page_text: Figure 6 is a side view and Figure 7 is a section of a castor constructed
according to this part of my Invention. a is the ordinary wheel or roller
moving on an axis carried by the frame or horn b, and this horn has the main
pin or axis c affixed thereto. And it will be seen that this pin or axis c is much
longer than those heretofore used, by which the main point of bearing is
carried up a considerable height within the leg of the piece of furniture to
which such castor is applied, which will be found very advantageous in the
construction of castors; and it is this circumstance of great increase of length
of the main pin or axis on which the castor turns when combined with either
of the constructions of apparatus and bearings, and means of applying the
same that constitutes the second part of my Invention. i is a tube, within
which the axis or pin c moves freely, it being so made as only to touch at the
lower part of the tube, the conical point at the upper end entering a conical
hole in the piece of metal e, introduced or applied and affixed into the upper
end of the tube i, or the end of the tube may be welded together to form the
end bearing e. I would remark that I prefer that the piece of metal e should be
of iron, case-hardened, but other materials may be used. The tube i, according
to one mode of construction, is made of plate metal, having a flange or circular
platej aflixed by brazing or otherwise to the lower end, and this plate may be
used in like manner to plate castors, or in place thereof a socket may be
applied to brass or other suitable material, as is shown by dotted lines
in Figure 7; at tlie same time I would remark that in using such long axes
and tubes for bearing, the simple act of making the holes in the furniture of
such a size as to require the tubes to be slightly driven will be holding enough
without screws.
The piece of iron e is affixed by means of a groove formed therein, into
which the end of the tube is turned or hammered, or it may be fixed by
brazing, or by other convenient means. By this mode of constructing a tube i,
combined with the upper bearing e, it will be evident that the main pin c may
be of any desired length, by which the main point of pressure on to the castor
will be at a considerable height above the roller, and it will be evident that
where the castors are larger than that shown in the Drawing, the main pin or
axis c may with advantage be made longer; but for the size given in the
Drawing, I consider the length of tube which carries the bearing e to be a
convenient and proper length, but I do not confine myself thereto.
pin c is formed a groove, which receives a hoop spring b, the object of which
is to retain the axis in its place, and at the same time will allow of its easy
turning in the tube, as will readily be understood on examining the Drawing.
In the

page_text: The tube i may be made of any suitable sheet metal, strong enough for the
purpose, and which can readily be made into a tube. I prefer wrought iron
for the purpose.
Another mode of making the tube is of cast iron or malleable cast iron or cast
brass by casting it in a suitable mould, as is well understood in casting tubes in
such metal; but when the tube is cast, I apply the piece of metal e by brazing, or
by priming, as the cast iron will not allow of hammering the upper end thereof
into a groove as plate metals will. In using malleable cast iron, when the
same is annealed, as is well understood, it may cither be hammered into a
groove as above described, or it may be affixed to the bearing piece c by brazing
or other convenient means. It should, however, be understood that this part
of the Invention does not relate to any new mode of making tubes, but only
relates to the making of suitable tubes to carry the bearings e, which are to be
applied to such tubes at a considerable distance from the castors with which
they are combined.
Another part of my Invention relates to combining certain cast iron
or cast malleable iron frames for carrying a suitable bearing e; but in the
present instance the bearings e are not applied to the tubes after they
are formed, as is the case when using the cast tubes above mentioned,
but such bearings are cast of the same metal as the frames which carry
them, and this part of the Invention may be said to consist in the appli-
cation of bearings e cast frames, in order that such bearings e may be at
a considerable distance above the castors or rollers thereof, and such frames
could not be made in like manner to the short tubes now in use, which are
cast vertically on metal cores. The mode of constructing the frame i consists
in making a tube i in iron or brass or other suitable material to be used as
the model of the frame to be cast therefrom, and as it is difficult to have the
end e cast thereon which is to constitute the bearing e when the inner core is
supported only at one end, I remove a portion of one or two sides of the
model for two or three inches in the length, in such manner as to produce
long openings into the tube; by this means, when the interior of the tube is
filled with a cylindrical pin, the arcs of the circle of such cylindrical pin will
protrude; hence, when the model tube with its flange is pressed into the sand
to form a mould, the sand will fill up the portions of the model where it
is cut away, and the inner core or pin will make a slight recess in the sand,
the object of which is to receive and support the proper sand core, and by
such recess the sand core will be supported for a considerable part of its
length, and thus may any desired and suitable length of tube be cast with an

page_text: end e thereto, as is shown at Figure 8, and it will only be desirable further
to remark that in order to complete such tubes when cast (and if, they be of
malleable cast iron they are to be annealed as is well understood in working
with such metal); they are to be put into a lathe and the lower side of the
flanch faced, and by a suitable drill the bearing e is to be formed.
Another part of my Invention relates to the application of a complete cast
tube i of the required length, so as to dispense with holes for screws, and in
making such tube i the sand core is of such a length that it may be embedded
at its outer end in sand to such an extent as not to require support beyond
the flanched end of the tube i; by this means a complete tube may be cast, as
shown at Figure 9, with the end e thereon, and the flanch having no holes for
screws, the length of tube enabling it to be fixed without screws.
then to be finished, as last above explained.
The tube is
It should be stated that in making sand cores for the interior of the tubes, I
place a wire in each core to give strength thereto, as is well understood by
moulders. I would remark that there is an advantage in using malleable iron
for the frames and for the tubes i, as the ends e can be tempered or hardened,
and thus be more lasting.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would have it under-
stood that what I claim is, first, the mode of combining the parts b, q, m, o,
and parts connected therewith, as described in respect to Figures 1, 2, 3, 4,
and 5.
Secondly, I claim the mode of constructing castors with elongated pins or
axes e when combined with tubes i made of plate metal, having a bearing e
applied thereto, as above described.
Thirdly, I claim the mode of constructing castors with elongated pius or
axes c when combined with tubes i, of cast iron or cast malleable iron, or of
cast brass, with a bearing e applied thereto, as above described.
Fourthly, I claim the mode of constructing castors with elongated pins or
axes when combined with an open tube or frame tubes i, as described in respect
to Figure 8.
And, last, I claim the mode of constructing castors with elongated pins
or axes c, when combined with east tubes cast with a sand core, as described in
respect to Figure 9.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Harcourt, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.
DAVID
(L.S.) HARCOURT.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1840, the aforesaid David Harcourt came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Tenth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand
Inrolled the Tenth day of April in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and forty.