IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATING SHAFTS AND ATLER AND OTHER ARTICLES DEARING LUBRICATION! PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Hipkiss, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Metal Roller, and William Olsen, of Birmingham aforesaid,
Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATING SHAFTS
AND ATLER AND OTHER ARTICLES DEARING LUBRICATION!
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Hipkiss and
William Olsen at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 1st December 1857.
We, RICHARD HIPKISS of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Metal
Roller, and WILLIAM OLSEN, of Birmingham aforesaid, Machinist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATING
SHAFTS AND AXLES AND OTHER ARTICLES REQUIRING LUBRICATION," to be as
follows:-
In order the more readily to explain the nature of our Invention, we will
describe it as applied to an ordinary shaft, such as is commonly employed
in manufactories for transmitting motive power. In the lower journal or
bearing in which the shaft turus, or in both bearings, we drill or form a
number of holes, which said holes we plug up with wood or other non-
nietallic substance capable of absorbing oil, such as tow or sponge; we make
a hole on the top or side of the said journal, which said hole opens on the
[Price 8d.]

page_text: working surface of the journal. Oil is poured down the said hole, and is
delivered between the shaft and the journal. The pieces of wood inserted in
the journal distribute the oil and become so thoroughly impregnated with the
said oil that the shaft is effectually lubricated, even when oil is supplied very
irregularly; we sometimes make the journal hollow, the pieces of wood
projecting into the cavity. The said cavity is filled with oil, and by capillary
attraction the oil is raised through the pieces of wood or other porous material
and supplied to the shaft. The application of our Invention to the lubrication
of other articles differs in no essential respect from the application herein-
before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Hipkiss and William Olsen in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 25th May 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
HIPKISS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Metal Roller, and
WILLIAM OLSEN, of Birmingham aforesaid, Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victorin, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Richard Hipkiss and William Olsen, Her special license that we, the said
Richarà Hipkiss and William Olsen, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Richard Hipkiss and William Olsen,
our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATING
SHAFTS AND AXLES AND OTHER ARTIOLES REQUIRING LUBRICATION," upon the cou-
dition (amongst others) that we, the said Richard Hipkiss and William
Olsen, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our or their hauds and scals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 mouths next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Richard Hipkiss and Willian Olsen
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say: -
Our Invention consists in lubricating shafts, axles, and other articles
requiring lubrication by the method or methods herein after particularly
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing of constructing the
journals or bearings in which the said axles, shafts, or other articles work.
Figure 1 rapresents in plan, and Figure 2 in vertical section, a journal or
bearing for a shaft constructed according to our Invention, the said journal
or bearing, Figures 1 and 2, being the lower journal or bearing of the pair
in which the shaft turns. We form in the said journal a series of holes,
We make
which said holes we fill or plug up with pieces of wood a, a, a.
a hole b on the top or on the side of the journal, which said hole opens on
the working surface of the journal at c. Oi! is supplied at the opening b, and
passes out at c to the working surface of the journal. Particles of dirt con-
tained in the oil are retained on the inclined bottom of the opening b, which
said bottom may be cleaned from time to time at the hole d. The oil carried
from c by the revolving shaft is absorbed by the pieces of wood a, a, a, which
becoming thoroughly impregnated with oil effectually maintain the lubrication
of the shaft, although oil may be supplied at 6 irregularly. We sometimes
drill cylindrical holes in the bearing, and insert therein cylindrical pieces of
wood, as represented in Figure 3, in which said Figure the pieces of wood are
marked e.
When we carry our Invention into effect in the manner illustrated in
Figure 3 we arrange the pieces of wood e in such a manner that every part
of the neck of the shaft is brought into contact, during its rotation, with some
of the pieces of wood e.
We construct the upper journal in the manner represented in the sections
Figures 4 and 5; that is to say, we make a cavity in the said upper journal,
into which cavity the upper ends of the pieces of wood g open. The cavity f
is filled with oil, with which the pieces of wood g become thoroughly im-
pregnated and lubricate the shaft or axle. Or we make the upper journal
without the cavity f, and supply oil through a hole drilled from the outer to
the working surface of the bearing.
We sometimes make the lower journal, Figures 1, 2, and 3, hollow, the
pieces of wood inserted in the journal opening into the cavity. By filling
the cavity with oil the said oil is absorbed by the wood and effects the
lubrication of the shaft.

page_text: Figure 6 represents in plan a journal of a different form from those repre-
sented in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. In the journal, Figure 6, the pieces of
wood are marked h. We do not limit ourselves to the use of any particular
kind of wood, but we have found in practice that lignum vita, box, and other
hard woods answer very well.
Our improvements in lubrication are particularly applicable to the lubri
cation of rolls.
Figure 7 represents in end elevation a pair of rolls lubricated according to
our Invention. The journals or bearings i are furnished with holes plugged
with wood, as herein-before described, and oil is supplied to the said journals
or bearings from the box or reservoir . The pipe delivers oil to the
bearings of the lower roll, and the pipe m delivers oil into the funnel n, by
which it is conveyed to the journals of the upper roll. As the journals of the
upper roll require to rise and fall the oil cannot be supplied thereto by a
continuous pipe, as in the case of the journals of the lower roll. The flow of
the oil from the reservoir is regulated by the stop-cocks 0, p.
Figure S represents in section an oil can or reservoir, which we sometimes
employ for supplying oil to shafts lubricated according to our Invention. A
conical hole made near the bottom of the reservoir is closed by the conical
end of the screw q. By driving home the screw q to a greater or less degree
the hole may be closed more or less, and the oil allowed to drop therefrom at
the rate which may be found desirable. The dropping oil may be received in
a funnel and conveyed therefrom to the journal, or it may fall directly into
the hole in the journal or bearing. The height of the oil in the reservoir,
Figure 8, is indicated by the float r.
Although we liave only described our Invention as applied to a shaft and
rolls, yet oursaid Invention is applicable to the lubrication of all such articles
as require to be lubricated, and we believe the nature of our Invention will be
sufficiently understood by the description heroin-before given, referonce being
had to the accompanying Drawing.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not
limit ourselves to the precise details herein described and represented, as the
same may be varied without departing from the nature of our Invention; but
we claim as our Invention the improvements in lubricating shafts, axles, and
other articles requiring lubrication herein-before described, and illustrated in
the accompanying Drawing, that is to say, inserting in the journals or
bearings of the shaft, axle, or other body requiring to be lubricated, pieces
of wood which, by the absorbtion of the oil, become impregnated therewith and

page_text: maintain the lubrication for a considerable time when the supply of oil is
irregular or deficient.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Hipkiss and William Olsen,
have hereunto set our hands aud seals, this Twenty-second day of
May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
RICHARD HIPKISS. (L.S.)
WILLIAM OLSEN.
(L.8.)