CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PIERRE
AUGUSTIN CHAUFFOURIER, of 105, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of July, One
thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the thirteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Pierre Augustin Chauffourier, my exors, adfñiors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Pierre
Augustin Chauffourier, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Pierre Augustin Chauffourier, my exors, adñiors, 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, in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and
also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the Invention
CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS," communicated to me from abroad;
in which said. Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Pierre
of

page_text: Augustin-Chaffourier, should cause a particular description of the nature or the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, 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
Pierre Augustin Chauffourier, do hereby declare that the nature of the said
Invention communicated to me, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, reference being had to the Drawing therein referred to and
hereunto annexed, and to the letters herein contained (that is to say):-
I am well aware that balls of metal inclosed in a block or frame have been
employed for replacing the friction wheel serving in castors for the removal of
weighty articles of furniture, but their mechanical arrangements are so
defective, so expensive, and so susceptible to derrangement, that they have
turned out a complete failure. The improvements communicated to me do
not consist only in the idea of using a ball of metal for replacing the friction
wheel, but the Invention consists in the mechanical arrangement by which the
ball forming three separate segments or hemispheres is made to revolve in the
direction of the axis of the frame, as well as on the said axis. By that means
the ball can turn very freely on every plane surface, whatever
may be the line
of direction it has to follow, and supersedes the use of the friction wheel,
without having the undeniable defects.
Figure 1 represents a sectional elevation of the castor provided with the
frame into and on which it revolves.
Figure 2 is another sectional elevation without the frame.
Figure 3 is a front view of one of the segmental parts of the ball seen in
Figure 1.
Figure 4 represents the frame with its two screws.
Figure 5 represents a front view of one of the screw, serving to set
together the frame and the ball.
In Figure 1, A, B, C, and G, H, I, represent two segments of the sphere
or ball, having a basis A, C, and G, I. The third segment D, E, F, has two
bases, and perfects the ball. L, M, N, in the same Figure, represents the block
or frame of the castor, and the projecting part M, O, serves to connect the
castor with the article of furniture. That projecting part M, O, as well as
L, M, N, can have the form of a socket, or be replaced by any other suitable
means answering the same purpose. The segment D, E, F, that is to say,

page_text: the plate set between the two other segments A, B, C, and G, H, I, is pro-
vided at its centre with a hole E, which is perpendicular to the basis of the
said plate D, E, F, and into which passes the axis B, H, represented in the
Figure by dotted lines. It is on the extremities of that axis that the two
hemispheres or segments A, B, C, and G, H, I. are firmly rivetted. The
centre of the axis B, H, acts freely in the hole E of the segment D, E, F,
and by that means the two segments or hemispheres A, B, C, and G, H, I,
which between them compose nearly the whole of the ball, have a rotative
motion on the axis B, H, of the segmental middle plate D, E, F. In the
thickness of the same plate D, E, F, at the opposite extremities D and F of
its diameter, two holes are made, and the deepness of those holes depends on
the dimensions of the castor. They serve to receive the ends of the pivots
S, S, which are formed by the extremities of the two screws Q, Q, set in the
frame L, M, N, and which they firmly press against the ball by means of the
ears, A, B, and C, D, forming part of the segmental plate D, E, F, and
represented by Figure 2..
Figure 4 represents the two screws Q, Q, set in their proper places on the
frame L, M. The external parts S, S, form the pivots, entering as stated
before in the extremities D and F, Figure 1, of the segmental plate
D, E, F..
Figure 5 shews the screw. In that Figure Q represents the head, R. the
thread, and S the pivot.
The Figure 2, which, as herein-before stated, represents a section of the
castor in the same position as that represented by Figure 1, that is to say,
the section cut through the two centres of the movement of rotation, which
are crossed one rotatively to the other. The centre of the segment. A, B, is
made thicker, in order to provide for a good setting, and to obtain a suitable
friction for the transversal axis C, D. E, F, represent the holes made in the
plate A, B, to receive the ends of the pivots S, S, of the screws Q, Q. The
two external extremities E, F, of the segmental plate A, B, are also made
thicker to receive the two pivots S, S, but in order that the hemispheres
should approach as close each other as possible, the other external extremities
of the plan of the segment A, B, are made thinner, and by that means it
renders insensible the effect of the zone of the plate A, B, during the effect
of the rotative motion of the two hemispheres B, C, A, and A, D, B. From
the rotative motion of the two segments crossing with the rotative action
round the pivots S, S, of the screws Q, Q. it naturally follows that whatever
may be the motion given, the castor will turn either totally or partially; that
is to say, it will receive a single movement round the pivots S, S, or will have

page_text: the rotative motion composed by the action of the two hemispheres or
segments. The only case when the castor will not act freely will be, if the
pole of the two segments is exactly under the vertical line, and if the castor
is moved according to the direction of the mathematical line of the axis or
pivots S, S, which holds the ball within the frame. But that case can scarcely
happen; and the smallest deviation or angle from the vertical line will cause
immediately the castor to abandon the mathematical line of the axis of the
pivots S, S, and the rotative motion once obtained will rapidly increase.
The Figure 3 represents a front view of the plate or segment D, E, F,
of Figure 1. The parts A, B, and C, D, of Figure 3 are the ears or ball
holders, and have the same thickness as the centre of the segmental plate
D, E, F, Figure I, in order that the holes D and F should be of a strength
sufficient to support the working of the pivots S, S, and facilitate the approach
of the hemispheres A, B, C, and G, H, I. As I have stated before, the form
and dimension of the frame L, M, N, and of the projecting screw M, O, are
a matter of choice, and independent of the construction of the other parts of
the castor.
And having now described the Invention communicated to me, and the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I would wish it to be understood that
I do not claim, as I have herein-before stated, the idea of using a metal ball
to replace the friction wheel in castors, nor do I confine myself to the precise
details or proportions herein-before described, so long as the general features
of the arrangements be retained for carrying out the said improvements. But
what I claim as the Invention communicated to me, and intended to be pro-
tected by the said in part recited Letters Patent is,―
Firstly, the constructing a metal ball in three separate segments or hemi-
spheres, and the setting of two hemispheres on the axis crossing the central
segment to obtain a rotative motion, as herein-before described, reference being
had to the Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings.
Secondly, the constructing and mechanical arrangements of the central
segment, to obtain, in combination with the two hemispheres, two rotative
motions crossing each other, as herein-before described, reference being had to
the Figures of the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Augustin Chauffourier, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
P. A. CHAUFFO (L.s.) URIER..

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Pierre Augustin Chauffourier came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, 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.
Enrolled the Fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.