IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS: FOR FURNITURE, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Felix, of No. 54, Rue Croix Nivert, at Grenelle,
near Paris, Mechanician, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS:
FOR FURNITURE, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."
Scaled the 6th May 1859, and dated the 9th November 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Felix at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
November 1858.
I, JOSEPH FELIX, of No. 54, Rue Croix Nivert, at Grenelle, near Paris,.
Mechanician, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in castors for furniture, and
consists in arranging them in the following manner :-To the leg of the piece
of furniture an inverted cup is fixed, and this receives a ball or globe of wood
or other material, which projects below the edge of the cup, and rests directly
on the floor or surface on which the piece of furniture stands. The ball or
globe does not rest on the bottom of the cup, but upon a number of smaller
balls so arranged as to be free to move in any horizontal direction; for this
purpose at the bottom of the cup and within it there is fixed a short stem,

page_text: from which a disc is suspended at such a distance below the bottom of the cup
as just to allow space for the smaller balls to pass between the two. The
under side of the disc is hollowed to correspond with the surface of the ball or
globe, so that all the smaller balls between the disc and the globe may bear
both on the one and the other. All round the edge of the disc is a passage of
sufficient size to allow the balls between the disc and the globe to pass from
time to time to the space, above the disc, and to be replaced by others
descending from this space.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Felix in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th May 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
FELIX, of No. 54, Rue Croix Nivert, at Grenelle, near Paris, Mechanician,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Felix, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Felix, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Felix, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
CASTORS FOR FURNITURE, AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," upon the .condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Felix, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,
and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Felix, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in castors for furniture, and
consists in arranging them in the following manner:-To the leg of the piece
of furniture an inverted cup is fixed, and this receives a ball or globe of wood
or other material which projects below the edge of the cup, and rests directly
on the floor or surface on which the piece of furniture stands. The ball or
globe does not rest on the bottom of the cup, but upon a number of smaller
balls so arranged as to be free to move in any horizontal direction; for this
purpose at the bottom of the cup and within it there is fixed a short stem, from
which a disc is suspended at such a distance below the bottom of the cup as
just to allow space for the smaller balls to pass between the two. The under
side of the disc is hollowed to correspond with the surface of the ball or
globe, so that all the smaller balls between the disc and the globe may bear
both on the one and the other. All round the edge of the disc is a passage of
sufficient size to allow the balls between the disc and the globe to pass from
time to time to the space above the disc, and to be replaced by others
descending from this space.
And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto

page_text: from the space above to the space below the disc C; by this means when the
ball or globe A turns, it causes the small balls F, F, to turn also, and so
forces them from the space below the disc to the space above the disc, and the
balls F, F, that were in the space above the disc will be moved down into
the space below the disc.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Felix, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year of our
Lord, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
EMILE BARRAULT,
Ingenieur diplomé.
33, Bard. St. Martin.
J. FELIX.
(L.S.)