AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF COUPLING FOR DRIVING GEAR
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Frederick Hayes, of Stepney Green, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF COUPLING FOR DRIVING GEAR."
Scaled the 23rd January 1874, and dated the 30th October 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Frederick Hayes
t
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 30th October 1873.
I, CHARLES FREDERICK HAYES, of Stepney Green, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF COUPLING FOR DRIVING GEAR," to be as
follows:-
. The chief object of this Invention is to provide a facile means of
transmitting motion through shafting in diverging directions.
Hitherto in accomplishing this bevil gearing has in general been used,
which besides breaking the continuity of the shafting necessitated the
employment of additional bearings.

page_text: To avoid the disadvantages consequent on this and equivalent
arrangements at present in use I propose to employ a novel construction
of coupling which may be described as follows:-The adjacent ends of
the shafts to be coupled up I fit one with a ball and the other with a
socket, keying or otherwise affixing the same firmly to their respective
shafts. To the socket, which is a semi-sphere, I fit a spherical cap,
which when secured thereto by bolts will retain the ball of the shaft to
be coupled up within the socket after the manner of an ordinary ball
and socket joint. The socket and cap, before applying the ball thereto,
I drill through in the plane of their junction to receive one or a pair
of steel centres or-trunnions. On the inner. ends of these centres I
form a segment shaped key, and in the ball I cut slots in the plane of
the axis of the shaft to which the ball is attached receive the keys.
When therefore the parts are put together and secured by bolts the ball
will be free to rock on the centres, and also to slide towards or from
either of the centres. Thus the axial motion transmitted thereto may
be carried forward in a diverging line, such divergence being determined
by length of the slots or the opening in the cap piece through which
the shaft passes.
It will be obvious that this construction of coupling is applicable
not only to the shafting of manufactories and horse gear, but also
to screw propeller shafts when it is desired to use the propeller for
steering.
..11
Jat.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Frederick Hayes in the Great Seal Patent 2
Office on the 30th April 1874.
4.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME; I, Charles
FREDERICK HAYES, of Stepney Green, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
.
"
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her a
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One. thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Frederick Hayes, Her
special licence that I, the said Charles Frederick Hayes, my executors,

page_text: administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Frederick Hayes, 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 "AN IMPROVED CONSTRUCTION OF COUPLING FOR DRIVING GEAR,"
upon the condition (amongst others), that I, the said Charles Frederick
Hayes, my executors or administrators, 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 Charles Frederick Hayes, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, reference being had to the. Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say) :-
The chief object of this Invention is to provide a facile means of
transmitting motion through shafting in diverging directions.
Hitherto in accomplishing this, bevil gearing has in general been
used, which beside breaking the continuity of the shafting necessitated
the employment of additional bearings.
To avoid the disadvantages consequent on this and equivalent
arrangements at present in use, I propose to employ the novel con-
struction of ball and socket coupling shewn in several views in the
accompanying Drawing, wherein Fig. 1 is a side view of my improved
coupling; Fig. 2 is an end view of the same; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal
section taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 2; and Fig. 4 is a transverse
section taken in the line 3, 4, of Fig. 3.
T
In these Figures, A, B, are the adjacent ends of the shafts to be
coupled up. These shafts I form or fit the one with a ball C and the
other with a socket D. To the socket D which is a semi-sphere I apply
a spherical cap E. which when secured thereto by bolts and nuts as
shewn will retain the ball of the shaft to be coupled up within the

page_text: socket after the manner of an ordinary ball and socket joint. The
socket and cap before applying the ball thereto I drill through in the
plane of their junction to receive one or a pair of steel centres or
trunnions F. On the inner ends of these centres I form a segment
shaped key (see the detached views Figures 5) and in the ball I cut
slots in the plane of the axis of the shaft to which the ball is attached,
and at right angles to the axis of the trunnions or centres to receive
the keys. When therefore the parts are put together and secured by
bolts and nuts, the shaft A will be free to rock on the centres and also
to slide towards or from either of the centres in order to adjust it to its
required position. Thus the axial motion transmitted thereto may be
carried forward in a diverging line, such divergence being determined by
the length of the slots or the central opening in the cap piece E
through which the shaft passes. This divergence whether in the plane
of the shafting or from a right line, is illustrated at Fig. 6, which
represents a length of overhead shafting constructed according to my
Invention, and adapted for transmitting motion either in two planes or
in a direction at a right or other angle to the shaft of the driving pulley.
In this Figure G is a shaft carrying at one end the band pulley H, and
coupled at its other end by my improved ball and socket joint to a
shaft I, which shaft is in like manner coupled to a shaft K. This
arrangement admits of the shafting taking the direction indicated by
the dotted lines I', K¹, for the purpose of raising the level of the
shafting, or of I³ for depressing the level, or of I¹, K³, for carrying
forward the motion at right angles to the shaft G or at any angle lying
within the right angle of K¹, K².
It will be obvious that this construction of coupling is applicable not
only to the shafting of manufactories and horse gear, but it may be
introduced into machines of various kinds in place of bevil gearing, and
may also be applied to screw propeller shafts when it is desired to use
the propeller for steering.
1
An illustration of this last-mentioned application is given at Figures 7
and 8; Fig. 7 being an elevation of a propeller having one of its
bearings in the swinging rudder post L; and Fig. 8 a sectional plan of
the same. M is a driving shaft turning in a bearing M³ in the stern
post and coupled by my improved ball and socket joint to the screw
propeller N, the boss of which forms the socket for the ball, which is
carried by the end of the shaft M. The socket in this instance

page_text: terminates in a trunnion which is supported in the bearing L¹ of the
swinging rudder post L. By this mode of coupling the screw to its
driving shaft it will be understood that however its position with that
shaft may be varied by the swinging of the rudder post so as to cause it
to assist the rudder in steering, it will always be free to answer to the
impelling power of the driving shaft within a range of some one
hundred and twenty degrees, as indicated by the red lines in Fig. 8.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Construction of Coupling for Driving Gear," and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, transmitting motion
through shafting by means of a coupling constructed and operating as
above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Frederick Hayes, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.