An Improvement in Ball Bearings.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Dec., 1899-Accepted, 8th Dec., 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improvement in Ball Bearings.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of Birkbeck Bank Chambers, Southampton Build-
ings, in the County of London, Consulting Engineer and Chartered Patent Agent,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention (as communicated to me from
abroad by Edward Theisen, of Yburgstrasse, 1 Baden-Baden, Germany,
Engineer), and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
In the Specification to E. Theisen's application for Letters Patent No. 15,981
of 1899 was described a construction of ball bearings consisting of a smooth
conical surface and a concentric surface having a number of circular grooves in
which were arranged rows of balls, these being in contact both with the smooth
conical surface, and with two points of the groove that were at equal distances
from the axial line of the bearing.
My correspondent has since discovered that a ball bearing with conical bearing
surfaces may be made to act very efficiently for vertical shafts without the use
of the said circular grooves, by employing in lieu thereof two concentric smooth
conical surfaces having different degrees of conicity, so that between the
two there is formed a conical space having a greater width at the one end
than at the other, and by introducing into such tapering conical space balls, of
different diameters so that each such ball will automatically occupy such a
place in the said space that it fits accurately against each conical surface, or, in
other words, it will descend in the said space until it is arrested by the converg-
ing conical walls thereof. It will be seen that by this arrangement, as every
ball is in accurate close contact with both the bearing surfaces the vertical load
or thrust exercised upon the one such surface will be practically distributed
uniformly over all the balls, so that no ball or balls can be subjected to excessive
strain.
It will also be seen that the necessity of very accurately determining the
diameters of the balls used, such as is the case with ordinary ball bearings is
entirely obviated; for assuming that a series of balls were introduced that were
supposed to be all of the same diameter, and it should happen that one or more
of these were slightly larger or smaller than the others, the only result would be
that they would not lie in exactly the same zone with the latter.
A further advantage resulting from the above fact consists in that it is not
necessary to set the bearing running for some time before actual use in order
to more or less reduce the irregularities in the sizes of the balls in the first in-
stance, as is the case with ordinary ball bearings.
A further advantage of the above described arrangement whereby the load is
uniformly distributed over all the balls, consists in that, as a consequence a
considerably less number of balls can be employed for supporting a certain load
than is possible with ordinary ball bearings in which the possibility of the
entire strain being taken by only a few of the total number of balls must be
taken into account.
As compared with the before-mentioned construction of conical ball bearing

page_text: with circular grooves described in Application No. 15,984 of 1899, the present
construction affords the advantage of enabling a greater number of balls to be
employed with the same extent of conical bearing surface, so that the load on
each individual ball is reduced.
In each ring or zone of balls, these are spaced at such distances apart that in
the event of the rupture of any ball in an upper zone the parts will freely fall
through the spaces between the balls in the lower zones.
Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawing shew by way of example a vertical
section and a part plan of a conical ball bearing constructed according to the
present invention. A and B are the two concentric conical surfaces of which A
is made somewhat steeper than B, so as to form the conical space C between
them, tapering in width from the top downwards.
Into this space are introduced the balls D, E, F, G, of different sizes of which
consequently each ball automatically assumes such a position in the space as to
fit accurately against each conical wall, and thus ensure that the load on the
shaft carried by the bearing shall be uniformly distributed over all the balls.
The shaft would be attached in any suitable manner to the inner cone A if the
load on the shaft acted vertically downwards, the outer cone B forming the
fixed part of the bearing, or, if the pressure on the shaft were in an upward
direction, the cone A would be fixed, and B connected to the shaft.
For preventing the ingress of foreign substances into the space C and also for
preventing the upper balls from jumping out of the space, this may be covered
in at top by means of a cap H, fixed to the outer cone B as shewn at Fig. 3,
and if necessary bearing upon the inner cone A by means of an additional ball
bearing I.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:-
A ball bearing for vertical shafts consisting of the combination of two con-
centric conical surfaces having different angles of conicity, in the tapering conical
space between which surfaces balls of different diameters are introduced at dis-
tances apart, which balls automatically assume such positions in the said space
that each one fits accurately against the two bearing surfaces whereby a uniform
distribution of the load over all the balls is effected, substantially as described.
Dated this 16th day of December 1899.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.