A NEW OR IMPROVED LUBRICATOR
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Middleton, of Birmingham,
Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED LUBRICATOR."
- A communication.
Sealed the 7th June 1853, and dated the 15th December 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward
Middleton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 15th December 1852.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD MIDDLETON, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED LUBRICATOR" to be as
follows:-
My Invention consists of a lubricator, constructed as represented
in vertical section in the Drawing. a, is the oil reservoir, which is
closed at top by the valve b. The coiled spring c, presses the said
valve up against its seat. When the lubricator has to be filled with
oil, the spout of the oil can is pressed upon the valve b, whereby the
said valve is depressed, and the oil from the said can enters and fills

page_text: the reservoir a. On removing the oil can, the valve b, is raised to its
seat by the spring c, and the reservoir a, closed against the entrance
of dust.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said William Edward Middleton in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th June 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM EDWARD MIDDLETON, of Birmingham, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Fifteenth, day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Willian Edward Middleton, Her
special licence that I, the said William Edward Middleton, my execu
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Edward Middleton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, froin 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED LUBRICATOR"
communicated to me from abroad, upon the conditions (amongst
others) that I, the said William Edward Middleton, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, 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 William Edward Middleton,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described

page_text: and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof (that
is to say):
Figure 1, represents a vertical section of the Invention, and
Figure 2, represents the same in side elevation. a, is the oil reser-
voir, which
may be of any desired size or formn. The said reservoir
a, has a circular opening at top, at which the oil is introduced, and
which said opening is closed by the valve b, when the said valve
is not forcibly removed from the said opening, for the purpose of
introducing oil into the said reservoir. The said valve b, consists
of a sphere pressed to its seat by the helical or coiled spring c.
When it is wished to introduce oil into the reservoir a, the spout
of the oil can, from which the said oil is to be poured, is pressed
upon the valve b; by the said pressure, the said valve b, is depressed,
and the spout of the said oil can enters the reservoir a, and, by the
inclination of the said oil can, the said reservoir can be filled with..
oil. The dotted lines in Figure 1, represent the end of the spout
of the oil can, introduced into the reservoir a, and the position which
the valve b, assumes at the time. On removing the said spout, the
said valve b, is immediately pressed to its seat by the spring c, and
the entrance of dust into the reservoir a, prevented; a spherical
valve has the advantage, that, in whatever direction it is displaced,
it will accurately fit its seat, on being pressed up by the spring; dust
is less likely to rest upon it than upon a flat one, and if any dust
should fall thereon, after opening the valve, a different portion
of the sphere will present itself to the seat, and the said dust will
not interfere with the closing of the valve.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-
stood that I do not limit myself to the precise method of carrying
the said Invention into effect herein described, and represented in
the accompanying Drawing, as the same may be varied without
departing from the nature of the said Invention; for example, the
size and shape of the reservoir may be different from those of the
reservoir represented, and the construction of the spring may be
different; and, although I prefer the use of a complete sphere, yet

page_text: many of the advantages of the said Invention may be secured by
the use of a hemisphere, or other portion of a sphere or surface of a
spherical curvature. But I claim the construction of a lubricator
in which the opening for the introduction of oil is closed by a valve
of a spherical figure, or having a surface of a spherical curvature
pressed to its seat by a spring.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Middleton,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of
June, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.
WILLIAM EDWARD MIDDLETON. (L.S.)
Witness,
JAMES MURDOCK.