IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES
Year: 1875

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Everitt Richardson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th December 1875.
·I, THOMAS EVERITT RICHARDSON, of Edinburgh, in the County of
Mid Lothian, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES," to be as follows, that is
to say -
This Invention relates to improved modes of combining the rollers of
roller skates with the foot carriages or soles when the skates are of the
kind in which the canting or transverse angular movement of the soles
causes a horizontal angular adjustment, or, as it is sometimes termed,
cramping" of the roller axles suitable for curvilinear motion.
"
In carrying out the Invention each sole is in general provided with
two pairs of carrying rollers. The axle of each pair of rollers is
jointed or fitted so as to be capable of horizontal angular movement on
a joint piece which is itself jointed to the under side of the sole so
that the latter is capable of angular movement in a transverse vertical.
plane, or, in other words, about a longitudinal axis. A ball-and-socket-

page_text: or equivalent joint may be substituted for the connection already
described. Each roller axle is connected to the sole in any of the ways
herein-after indicated so that the angular movement of the axle may be
dependent on that of the sole.
The angular movements being in planes at right angles to each other,
toothed bevil wheels or sectors are employed in some modifications for
connecting the parts or making them dependent on each other, a
norizontal bevil wheel or sector being fixed to the axle, and one or two
vertical bevil wheels being in each case either fixed to the sole or
mounted on the joint piece and connected by a link or links to the sole.
The ratio of one angular movement to the other may be modified in
different cases by altering the relative proportions of the bevil wheels
or sectors or by varying the connection of the links, and when the
bevil wheels or sectors are connected to the sole by links the ratio of
movement may be made alterable or adjustable in the same skates. In
other modifications links or toggle joints or bell-crank levers are used
for connecting the sole and the roller axles.
In one simple modification a rod projecting from the middle of the
axle towards the centre of the space beneath the sole passes through a
slot or fork formed in a downwardly projecting bracket fixed to the sole,
and as the sole is canted each bracket moves its rod to one-side, and
thereby imparts the desired horizontal angular adjustment to the roller
axles. The nearer the brackets are fixed or adjusted to their respective
axles the greater will be the angular movement of the axles for a given
degree of cant of the sole. The rod is equivalent to a single tooth of
one bevil wheel, and the slot or fork of the bracket to two teeth of the
other bevil wheel.
In another modification a transverse horizontal bar under the middle
of the sole has its ends connected by crossing links to points of the two
axles more or less distant from their middles, and the bar is acted on by
the sole through a spur toothed sector and rack teeth on the bar or
simply by a lever connected to the bar.
Another modification has a horizontal or inclined rod fixed at right
angles to the middle of each roller axle, and this rod has a toothed
bevil wheel or sector fixed on it at a suitable distance from the vertical
axis about which the axle can turn. The bevil wheel or sector gears
with a toothed bevil wheel or sector fixed on the under side of the sole,

page_text: and as the sole is canted it as it were rolls over the bevil wheel or
sector on the axle rod, and thereby causes the desired angular adjust-
ment of the axles.
Another improvement consists in fixing at either the toe or heel of
the sole, or at each of those parts, a stud having a spherical cup formed
at its outer end, and holding loosely a marble or ball of agate, or other
suitable hard material. These balls are set a little above the plane of
the rollers, and are brought into action at the option of the skater by
tilting the foot backwards or forwards.