IMPROVEMENTS IN BEARINGS AND LUBRICATING APPARATUS FOR UPRIGHT SPINDLES OF SPINNING AND WINDING MACHINERY
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Nicoll, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North
Britain, Manager of Jute Spinning Mills for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BEARINGS AND LUBRICATING APPARATUS FOR UPRIGHT SPINDLES OF
SPINNING AND WINDING MACHINERY
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Nicoll at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th January 1883.
JAMES NICOLL, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Manager of
Jute Spinning Mills, "IMPROVEMENTS IN BEARINGS AND LUBRICATING APPARATUS
FOR UPRIGHT SPINDLES OF SPINNING AND WINDING MACHINERY
"
This Invention has for its object to still further improve bearings and lubricating
apparatus of a kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted to the
present applicant and dated 20 December 1877 N° 4840 and it relates more
especially to arrangements in which the footstep and neck bearings are combined
and in which the lubricant is contained in a hollow rail through the top of which
there are inserted a number of bearing tubes each tube having the bearings for a
spindle.
Instead of inaintaining a certain head of lubricant by means of a filling tube of
suitable height fixed into each hollow part of the rail or rails and instead of the
bearing tubes projecting down only just through the top of the hollow rail, each
bearing tube is made to project down nearly to the bottom of the internal part of
the rail, and this internal part is simply filled with lubricant without any head
being kept above the rail. Provision is made for lubricating the neck bearing by
fixing a tube inside of the bearing tube, of a size to leave a small space between
them; and the neck bearing is formed at the upper part of the inner tube, whilst
between the neck bearing and the footstep bearing the inside of the inner tube is
slightly larger than the spindle and the spindle has formed on it a helical groove

page_text: which when the spindle rotates carries the lubricant up to the neck bearing. The
footstep bearing is of the kind described in the specification herein before referred to
and is fixed in the bottom end of the inner tube this said bottom end dipping into the
lubricant in the hollow rail. The lubricant has access to the bottom of the spindle
through holes or passages in the inner tube and in the footstep bearing and being 5
carried up by the action of the helical groove overflows at the top of the neck
bearing and returns downwards between the inner tube and the outer or bearing
tube. A brass or gun-metal bush is fixed on the spindle above the neck bearing,
the bottom edge of this bush being about 1 inches above the top of the neck
bearing and between them there is a loose ring, which rests on the top of the 1
neck bearing.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Nicoll in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th July
1883.
JAMES NICOLL, of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Manager of
Jute Spinning Mills "IMPROVEMENTS IN BEARINGS AND LUBRICATING APPARATUS
FOR UPRIGHT SPINDLES OF SPINNING AND WINDING MACHINERY
נו
My said Invention has for its object to still further improve bearings and
lubricating apparatus of a kind described in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted to me and dated 20 December 1877. N° 4840; and it relates more
especially to arrangements in which the footstep and neck bearings are combined
and in which the lubricant is contained in a hollow rail through the top of which
there are inserted a number of bearing tubes, cach tube having bearings for a
spindle.
Instead of maintaining a certain head of lubricant by means of a filling tube of
suitable height fixed into each hollow part of the rail or rails, and instead of the
bearing tubes projecting down only just through the top of the hollow rail, each
bearing tube is, by my present Invention, made to project down nearly to the
bottom of the internal part of the rail, and this internal part is simply fitted with
lubricant without any head being kept above the rail. Provision is made for
lubricating the neck bearing by fixing a tube inside of the bearing tube, of a size
to leave a small space between them; and the neck bearing is formed at the upper
part of the inner tube, whilst between the neck bearing and the footstep bearing
the inside of the inner tube is slightly larger than the spindle, and the spindle has
formed on it a helical groove which, when the spindle rotates, carries the lubricant
up to the neck bearing. The footstep bearing is of the kind described in my
earlier Specification hereinbefore referred to, and is fixed in the bottom ends of the
tubes.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the same
may be properly understood I hereunto append a sheet of explanatory drawings to
be hereinafter referred to and representing my improved apparatus.
Figure, 1, on the accompanying sheet of drawings is a small-scale sectional
clevation of a spindle with iny improved bearing tube, and figure, 2, is an enlarged
vertical section; whilst figures, 3, to 6, represent separate parts. In these drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever they
are repeated.
The spindle, 7, is carried in a bearing tube, 8, which is fixed in a hollow frame
rail, 9, being entered down through the top of the rail so as to nearly reach the
bottom of its interior. The bearing tube, 8, is also secured to an upper frame
rail, 10, by means of a strap, 11, which is formed with shanks to pass through
holes in the rail and receivo screw nuts at the back. The pulley, 12, for the
driving belt or cord is fixed on the spindle, 7, above the neck bearing, being made
with the part which receives the belt or cord hollow and extending down over the
bearing tube, 8, and over a considerable part of the neck bearing. Inside of the
tube, 8, there is fixed an inner tube, 13, the upper part of which has formed on its
outside ribs, 14, (shown in section in figure, 5) the outsides of which ribs fit the
inside of the outer tube, 8, and keep the inner tube, 13, concentric therewith.
The lower end of the inner tube, 13, fits tightly on a reduced part of a block, 15,
which contains the footstep bearing and is fixed to the bottom end of the outer
tube, 8. The upper part of the inner tube, 13, fits closely upon the spindle, 7,
forming the neck bearing for the spindle, but below this bearing the interior of the

page_text: inner tube, 13, is slightly larger than the spindle. The oil or other lubricant has
access to the interior of the outer tube, 8, and to the interior of the inner tube, 13
up through vertical grooves, 16, formed in the sides of the footstep block, 15, a
horizontal section of which block is shown in figure, 6, and the lubricant can also
pass through holes in the lower parts of the outer and inner tubes, 8, 13. The
spindle, 7, has a helical groove, 17, formed on it which is right-handed if the
spindle rotates with the front part going from right to left as indicated by the
arrow, or vice verad, and this groove, 17, acts on the lubricant in a manner to cause
it to rise up between the spindle and the inner tube, 13, up to the top of that tube,
whereby the neck bearing is effectively lubricated. At the top of the inner
tube, 13, there is a loose ring, 18, which tends to hold some lubricant at the top of
the neck bearing whilst any surplus lubricant carried up can overflow and return
down again between the inner and outer tubes, 13, 8. Holes may be made through
the neck-bearing part of the inner tube, 13, to allow the lubricant returning down
the outside of that tube, to get direct access to the bearing surface. For this
purpose however I prefer to form a groove, 19, along the neck bearing in the
manner shown in figures, 4, and 5. A slot is cut through the tube so as to reach
just below the bearing surface and one of the external ribs is made a little broader
than the others and long enough to cover the slot, and convert it into an internal
groove, down which the lubricant carried up to the top by the helical groove, 17,
on the spindle, 7, or some of that lubricant can pass to the bearing surfaces.
Instead of making the inner tube, 13, as shown in figure, 2, with a slightly
contracted part for the neck bearing, the bearing surface may be formed by a thin
bush or tube, 20, fixed in the upper end of the tube, 13.
The footstep bearing block, 15, is formed with an upper cylindrical cavity to
receive the reduced lower end, 21, of the spindle, 7, and the extreme bottom end
which is made flat rests on the flat top of a conical steel or other metal pin, 22,
fitted into the block, 15. Holes from the grooves, 16, admit lubricant to the
extreme bottom end of the spindle and to the top of the pin, 22. .
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner of
performing the same I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise
details herein described or delineated but that what I believe to be novel and
original and claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is :-
1. The combination of parts forming the improved bearings and lubricating
apparatus for upright spindles, the said parts being arranged and operating
substantially as herein before described.
2. The combination of the hollow rail used to contain the lubricant, with outer
and inner bearing tubes having the neck and footstep bearings at their upper and
lower ends, and with the helical groove on the spindle, the said parts being
arranged and operating substantially as hereinbefore described.
In Witness whereof I, the said James Nicoll, have hereunto set my hand
and seal this tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty-three.