IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH BEARINGS OR PARTS OF MACHINERY REQUIRING LUBRICATION
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Stephen Alley, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVED
APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH BEARINGS OR PARTS OF MACHINERY
REQUIRING LUBRICATION."
Sealed the 24th March 1874, and dated the 26th September 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Stephen Alley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th September 1873.
I, STEPHEN ALLEY, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH BEARINGS OR PARTS
OF MACHINERY REQUIRING LUBRICATION," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object to provide against the injuries liable
to arise from the overheating of bearings or parts of machinery requiring
lubrication, and it consists in arranging in connection with the parts in
which overheating may occur, apparatus which will indicate the
attainment of a predetermined degree of abnormal heating at any part,
so as to attract the attention of the engineer or person in charge.
[Price 8d.]

page_text: Such indicating apparatus, may also be arranged to automatically
supply to the heated part an additional quantity of lubricant either in a
temporary manner or until the heat is lowered.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification a plug or
piece of tallow, wax, resin, paraffin, or other substance or compound
which will melt at the desired temperature, and which will be all the
better if of a nature to act as a lubricant when melted is inserted in a
cavity formed in the bearing, and has bearing on it by weight or a
spring a rod connected to the detent of a small alarm apparatus actuated
by a wound-up spring or weight. When the bearing overheats the
tallow or other substance melts and the rod falling in consequence sets
free the alarm bell movement.
The plug may consist of a hollow. shell made of or plugged with wax
aud filled with oil, which latter will have access to the rubbing surfaces
to be lubricated on the wax being melted; or the movement of the rod
may open a valve leading from an oil vessel. The rod may be arranged
to turn on a steam whistle instead of setting off a bell alarum, or to
iguite a detonating compound or light giving substance; or it may be
arranged to attract attention in any other convenient way.
By a second modification a galvanic or electric circuit is arranged so
that the heating of a bearing or other part will complete the circuit and
cause it to give an alarm or indication by an electric bell, or otherwise
arranged in the engine room or otherwise. Thus a glass tube like a
thermometer tube with mercury is fitted in a cavity in the bearing, and
one end of the electric wire is fixed in the glass so as to communicate
with the bottom of the mercury, whilst the other wire end is fixed or
adjusted in the upper part of the tube in a position corresponding to
the temperature at which it is desired the alarm shall be given, so that
the mercury will reach it when expanded by the heat. The electric
circuit may also be arranged my means of an electro-magnet to act on a
valve so as to lead an increased supply of lubricant to the bearing.
One electric circuit can also in well-known ways be arranged to act
on more than one indicator or alarm, for example, on one situated in the
chief engineer's cabin or in the captain's cabin on board a steam ship,
in addition to the one situated in view of the person who has to attend
to the bearings.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent'
filed by the said Stephen Alley in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 25th March 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, STEPHEN
ALLEY, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Stephen Alley, Her special
licence that I, the said Stephen Alley, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Stephen Alley, my 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 "IMPROVED APPARATUS
TO BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH BEARINGS OR PARTS OF MACHINERY REQUIRING
LUBRICATION," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Stephen Alley, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly, describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what mauner 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 Stephen Alley, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say:
My said Invention has for its object to provide against the injuries
liable to arise from the overheating of bearings or parts of machinery
requiring lubrication, and it consists in arranging in connection with
the parts in which overheating may occur apparatus which will indicate

page_text: the attainment of a predetermined degree of abnormal heating at any
part, so as to attract the attention of the engineer or person in charge.
My Invention also includes the arranging of apparatus to automatically
supply to the heated part an additional quantity of lubricant either in a
temporary manner or until the heat is lowered, and the arrangement
for supplying lubricant may be combined with the indicating appliances.
in some cases and not in others.
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 herein-after referred to, and representing
various modifications of my improved apparatus. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
In carrying out my Invention according to one modification which is
shown in vertical section in Figure 1 of the accompany Drawings,
a plug or piece 1 of tallow, wax, paraffin, resin, or other substance or
compound which will melt at the desired temperature, and which will
be all the better if of a nature to act as a lubricant when melted, is
inserted through a lateral opening 2 at the lower end of a tube 3, which
carries the indicating details, and which is designed for being introduced
down into a hole or cavity in a bearing 4, as indicated in Figure 5. On
the top of the fusible plug 1 there is pressed down by means of a helical
spring 5 a rod 6, the upper part of which is formed with rack teeth
gearing with a pinion 7 fast to a pinned disc 8; and when the fusible
plug 1 melts the spring 5 forces down the rod 6 and makes the
disc 8 rotate. The pinned disc 8 acts on one arm of a pair of balanced
clappers 9, and makes these clappers strike a bell 10. The rod 6
projects through the bracket 11 on which the bell is fixed, and has a
button on its upper end by which it can be raised when inserting a fresh
fusible plug 1. The bell or other alarum movement might be actuated
by a separate spring, the rod 6 being in that case arranged to set free
the detent holding the other spring.
The fusible plug | may consist of a hollow shell made of or plugged
with wax or the like, and filled with oil, which latter will have access to
the rubbing surfaces to be lubricated on the wax being melted; or the
movement of the rod 6 may open a valve leading from an oil vessel.
The rod 6 or its equivalent may be arranged to turn on a steam whistle

page_text: instead of setting of a bell alarum or to ignite a detonating compound;
may be arranged to attract attention in any other convenient way.
or it
Figure 2 is a vertical section of a modification in which the rod 6 thát
descends when the fusible plug 1 melts is connected by a lever 12 tổ⠀
the rod 13 of a valve arranged for admitting steam by a pipe 14 to a
whistle 15.
da
Figure 3 is a vertical section of a modification in which oil, mercury,
or other suitable expansible substance is confined in a metal vessel 16,
Laving a corrugated tubular part 17 which becomes elongated from the
expansion of the substance in the vessel whenever the bearing becomes
too highly heated. The tubular part 17 is attached to a rod 6, but
moves it upwards instead of downwards when heating takes place, and
this rod then acts on a valve 18 which admits steam to a whistle 15
This arrangement of a vessel 16 with a confined expansible substance
may of course be arranged to act on a bell or other alarum apparatus.
70
Figure 4 is a vertical section of a modification in which the rod 6 is
connected to the trigger 19 of a spring pressed hammer 20 arranged for
striking a percussion cap 21, when overheating takes place at the
bearing or other part to which the instrument is applied.
In some cases I carry out my Invention by arranging a galvanic or
electric circuit so that the heating of a bearing or other part will
complete the circuit and cause it to give an alarm or indication by an
electric bell, or otherwise, arranged in the engine room, or otherwise.
Thus as shown in Figure 6 a glass tube 22 like a thermometer tube with
mercury is arranged in a metal tube or case 3 to be inserted in a hole or
cavity in the bearing 4, and one end of the electric wire is fused or
otherwise fixed in the glass so as to communicate with the bottom of
the mercury, whilst the other electric wire is fixed or adjusted in the
upper part of the tube 22, in a position corresponding to the temperature
at which it is desired the alarm shall be given, so that the mercury will
reach it when expanded by the heat. Mercury is by preference filled
into the tube 3 round the lower part of the glass tube 22 to conduct heat
the more readily to the latter, and the upper part of the glass tube is
insulated from the metal tube 3 by a rubber tube and a wooden cap.
The electric circuit may also be arranged as shown in the vertical section,
Figure 5, by means of an electro-magnet 23, to act on a valve 24 so as to
j

page_text: lead an increased supply of lubricant from a reservoir 25, by a tube 26
. and passage 27 to the bearing 4.
One electric circuit can also in well-known ways be arranged to act
on more than one indicator or alarum, for example, on one situated in
the chief engineer's cabin or in the captain's cabin ou board a steam
ship, in addition to the one situated in view of the person who has to
attend to the bearings.
:
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
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the using of improved
apparatus substantially such as is herein described in connection with
bearings or parts of machinery requiring lubrication, which apparatus
is arranged to indicate overheating or to supply extra lubricant when
overheating takes place, or to both indicate overheating and supply extra
lubricant therefor.
B.
9
I In witness whereof, I, the said Stephen Alley, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
STEPHEN ALLEY. (L.s.)