IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CASTERS OR ROLLERS FOR FURNITURE AND APPLICABLE WHERE CASTERS OR ROLLERS ARE OR MAY BE EMPLOYED
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Casimir Durozet Escoffier at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th September 1869.-A communication from abroad by Louis
Henry Pinel, of Passy, Paris, in the Empire of France.
I, CASIMIR DUROZET ESCOFFIER, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
but temporarily of No. 38, Finsbury Circus, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CASTERS OR ROLLERS FOR FURNITURE
AND APPLICABLE WHERE CASTERS OR ROLLERS ARE OR MAY BE EMPLOYED," to be
as follows, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is improvements in the arrangement or
construction of casters or rollers whereby they can be manufactured of
the necessary strength in proportion to the weight to be supported
without detracting from the appearance or solidity of the article they
support, and the Invention is based on the principle of a movement
converging to the centre of three rollers forming three sides of a triangle
of any required size, having their centres enlarged or in the form of a
ball and pivotting on their axes, under which triangle is placed a.ball
of solid material. These casters are applicable to all kinds of furniture
and articles requiring to be moved. They possess besides the advantage

page_text: of rolling in all directions without difficulty or trouble and without
pivotting. It should be observed that ordinarily two rollers turn in the
same direction and that the third turns in an opposite direction. The
improved caster consists of three rollers forming a triangle and fixed
in a circular casing of metal, wood, or other suitable hard material
which is attached to the article to which the caster is to be applied by
means of a screw which enters the article, or by means of a shoe or
socket into which the projecting part or foot of the article of furniture
is fixed, or by a shoe furnished with a screw working in a nut in the
lower part of the caster allowing the ball and triangle to roll on them-
selves. The rollers are supported by an interior hoop made in the
metal, serving as a lower casing. The ball is placed under the three
rounded sides of the triangle, and it follows the motion given to the
article of furniture with facility and in all directions. The ball is held
against the sides of the triangle by a ring or cap which surrounds it
below the centre of its circumference.
In another arrangement the shoe of the caster has a hemispherical
chamber at the bottom for receiving a ball held by a box frame screwed
to the shoe, a small iron rod is rivetted at one end to the ball, the other
end carrying a knee piece on which rolls a partly spherical hollow
roller which is the roller of the caster, a small roller is placed on the
iron rod between the knee piece and the box frame. The ball in the
chamber at the bottom of the shoe may be dispensed with, when the
knee piece will pivot direct on the shoe. Instead of the knee piece and
hollow roller I sometimes employ an oblate spheroidal roller revolving
on a horizontal axis having at each end a washer or roller.
Another arrangement consists in placing between the bottom of the
shoe and the frame carrying the roller a triangular piece having at each
end a small roller.
An improvement in the ordinary caster consists in fixing to the
revolving piece carrying the caster wheel a small horizontal axis
carrying a bevil friction roller which rolls against a projecting bevil
surface on the shoe. Where the foot of the article of furniture is
required to be near the ground, the shoc of the caster carries a circular
borizontal axis provided with cight rollers so arranged as to allow the
article to be moved in any direction.
In another arrangement the shoe is provided with arms receiving at
the lower part a hemispherical roller hollowed out for receiving a

page_text: rounded piece with a hollow at the top for receiving the point of a
vertical spindle; the top of the spindle has a suitably shaped hole for
receiving a pivot fixed in the bottom of the shoe. The bottom of the shoe.
is in some cases provided with three or four inclined or perpendicular
axes, one end pivotting in the shoe and the other in the frame carrying
the ball, these axes have each a small ball in the centre which press.
against the ball of the caster and enable it to turn in any direction.
Another arrangement consists in placing under the shoe an oblate
spheroidal ball working on a horizontal axis and revolving against a
ball placed below and carried by arms from the shoe. The frame or
stirrup carrying the caster roller sometimes turns on a pivot working.
in the bottom of the shoe, the stirrup being connected to the shoe by
hooks or clips. The caster rollers herein-before described are generally
so hollowed out as to be able to incline on their axes; the axes where
required are furnished with a small ball serving as a journal for the
roller and enabling it to turn in all directions.
In another arrangement suitable for large pieces of furniture, I fix
in the central part of the shoe a screw rod working in a screw nut
having three branches extending downwards, each branch carries oue
of the herein-before described rollers, or instead of the three rollers three
solid balls are employed each revolving against three journals or small
balls placed above.
I would observe that the herein before described arrangements aro