IMPROVEMENTS IN SKATES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William George Rawbone at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th August 1881. Partly a
communication from abroad by Joseph Loxton Rawbone, of Toronto, Canada.
WILLIAM GEORGE RAWBONE, of the City of Toronto, Canada, but at present
residing at Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gunsmith. "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SKATES." [Partly a communication from abroad by Joseph Loxton Rawbone,
of Toronto, Canada.]
The said Invention consists of the construction and combination of parts herein
after described for adjusting the skates on and fixing them to the feet of the wearer.
The blade of the skate is furnished with the usual toe and heel plates. Under
the toe plate of the skate is a foot clamp consisting of two cranked levers, the arms
of the said levers being situated nearly at right angles to one another.
The free ends of the cranked levers are bent nearly at right angles to the other
parts, and are situated on either side the toe plate. The bent or vertical en is of
the cranked levers project above the level of the toe plate and constitute the foot
clamping parts of the mechanism.
•
These clamping levers are made to open or close, so as to separate the clamping
parts from or make them approach one another by means of a sliding plate having
oblique slots in it; pins on the underside of the clamping levers taking into the
said slots. A sliding back ward and forward motion is given to the oblique slotted
plate for opening and closing the clamp by means of a sliding and rotating rod.
This rod is situated under the blade of the skate and is screwed at its front end,
the screwed end working in a screw box in the middle of the slotted plate which
operates the foot clamping levers. This rod passes to the heel end of the skate,
and has a fly nut on that end for turning it. The heel clamp consists of a sliding
sleeve or trough working in a socket or seat under the heel plate. The rear end
of the sliding sleeve is provided with a clamp, between which and a fixed clamp on
the fore end of the heel plate, the heel of the boot is gripped. The rear end of the
sliding rod lies in the sleeve of the heel clamp, the extreme end of the said rod
passing through the end of the sleeve and carrying the fly nut referred to. The
heel clamp and sliding rod are so connected that they slide together, but the rod is
capable of turning in the sleeve of the heel clamp. This is effected by means of a

page_text: fixed pin passed through the sleeve of the heel clamp taking into an annular groove
in the sliding and rotating rod.
In fixing the skate to the foot the sliding rod is moved backwards to its full
extent so as to draw back the sliding heel clamp and open, out the foot clamp
levers. The foot being placed upon the toe and heel plates of the skate, the sliding
rod is moved forward until the moveable heel clamp abuts against the back of the
heel of the boot. By now rotating the sliding rod by its fly nut, the screwed end
of the said rod is made to advance in the screw box of the slotted plate, thereby
causing the heel of the boot to be gripped or clamped with great firmness between
the fixed clamp on the heel plate and the moveable clamp on the sleeve, the sole
part of the boot at the same time being gripped or clamped between the foot clamp
levers. The skate is thereby adjusted on and securely fixed to the foot for use.