IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jonathan Aldous Mays at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th December 1876.
JONATHAN ALDOUS MAYS, of 223, Gresham House, Old Broad Street, in the
City of London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES."
This Invention relates to improvements in the method of lubricating the axes of
the wheels or rollers of roller skates. It consists in attaching, placing, or fixing into
or upon the axles thereof of strips, strands, or pieces of felt, wool, cotton, or other
such like absorbent material, so that such material shall conduct or distribute the
lubricant to the axes, and such Invention is to be carried out in the following
manner -A slit or groove is to be niade lengthwise in the axle, and a strip or strand
of absorbent material is to be placed therein, in such a way that a part thereof may
form part of or remain upon the surface of the axle. It will be preferable that the
slit or groove should be under cut, and in that case the strip or strand of absorbent
material may perhaps be retained in its place without any fastening.
In order to fasten the absorbent material in its place, however, a wire or a cord
may be cast or twisted up with the strand or strip of the material, and the end or
ends of the same, or the ends or other suitable parts of the strip or strand of the
material itself may be pegged or wedged or otherwise suitably fastened into or upon
the axles.
If the groove is made of a large area and continued from end to end of the axle
the lubricant may be supplied to the absorbent material at the end or at any
available or exposed parts of the axle. I prefer however to connect the axle with
a reservoir or chamber formed in or upon some convenient part of the skate, and
preferably to the part or parts of the skate to which the axle or axles is or are
fitted, and to so arrange such reservoir that the absorbent material in the axle is
brought into communication by means of absorbent material with the contents of
such reservoir or chamber. This reservoir or chamber may be so made that it may
contain the lubricant in a fluid condition, so that the latter will flow along the
absorbent material as along an ordinary wick. Or a chamber may be made to
contain a body of absorbent material which may be simply charged or saturated
with a lubricant, and which may not contain the lubricant in a fluid condition.
The groove in the axle may be straight or in the direction of the length thereof,
or it may be twisted or serpentined around or partly around the axle. It will be

page_text: best I believe to make it straight and to place the mouth of such groove or slit
at the top of the axle, so that while the skate is running there shall be no pressure
or bearing upon such groove.
The absorbent material should be twisted or cast upon itself like a rope before
or when being placed on the groove, and it should be put in in such a way that the
action of capillary attraction will readily take place within and along it, that is to
say, it must not be put in too tightly. A part of it should protrude through the
slit or groove and be upon a level with or slightly above the surface of the axle,
so that when the skate is lifted from the ground the axes of the wheels will rest
partly upon or touch the same at the termination of each stroke or run, and when
the skate is lifted from the ground the wheels will usually make a few revolutions
in the air. In this way the axes or brushes of the wheels will so to speak be
wiped or pressed upon the line of lubricated absorbent material forming part of the
surface of the axle. This wiping or pressing will cause some of the lubricant to be
withdrawn from the material at the surface of the axle, and the deficiency thus
created at the point of contact will be made good by the action of the capillary
attraction either from a reservoir of fluid lubricant or from a reservoir of saturated
absorbent material, or from the parts of the strand below the surface of the axle.
In other words the action of capillary attraction will effect and maintain what may
bo called an equilibrium of saturation throughout all the parts of the absorbent
material in contact with each other.
It is desirable that the lubricant on escaping from the ends of the axes should be
prevented from being distributed over the lateral surface of the wheel, and thrown
off by centrifugal motion. This I effect by making hollow or under cut annular
rings or grooves in the sides of the wheel, so that the deepest part of such grooves
are of greater diameter than the edges thereof. These hollow rings or grooves act
as pockets for catching and holding the escaping oil, which would otherwise flow
over the sides of the wheel. Or in place of or in addition to such grooves I fit the
sides of the wheels with rings of absorbent material, into or upon which the waste
oil from the axis may flow and be absorbed.