A CONSIDERABLE IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELS AND AXLETREES, WHICH IS CALCU- LATED TO DECREASE THE FRICTION, AND CONSEQUENTLY TO DIMINISH THE LABOUR, IN ALL SORTS OF CARRIAGES, AND MAY BE APPLIED TO MACHINERY OF OTHER KINDS WHERE WHEELS AND AXLES ARE MADE USE OF
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VALLEN-
TINE GOTTLIEB, of the Parish of Saint Botolph, Aldgate, Perfumer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
the First day of March, in the twenty-seventh year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said Vallentine Gottlieb, His especial licence, that I,
the said Vallentine Gottlieb, during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A CONSIDERABLE
IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WHEELS AND AXLETREES, WHICH IS CALCU-
LATED TO DECREASE THE FRICTION, AND CONSEQUENTLY TO DIMINISH THE LABOUR,
IN ALL SORTS OF CARRIAGES, AND MAY BE APPLIED TO MACHINERY OF OTHER KINDS
WHERE WHEELS AND AXLES ARE MADE USE OF;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Vallentine Gottlieb, under
my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and how the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date
of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation being
thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Vallentine Gottlieb, do hereby declare, that my said Invention is described
in the annexed Plans, and in manner herein-after set forth (that is to
say) :-
Plate A. C, axletrees; C, c, the axis on which the wheel turns; G, a groove
in the bottom of the axis, made for the purpose of containing the roller H,

page_text: which roller, as the carriage is drawn on, runs round in this groove, and
reduces the friction, as is more clearly demonstrated in the several Figures
in Plate B. The axis must be left so far solid at the linch end, as to prevent
the roller slipping out, and sufficient to admit the screw and linch-pin on
such solid part. H, a loose circular solid roller, made of the hardest steel,
or other metal or hard substance, which runs in the grove G, and which
projects about one third below the circle of the axis, and bears the weight of
the carriage; and which roller should be about half an inch shorter than the
grove G, in order to give it proper room to play freely therein. J, the
wash of the axletree to keep the wheel in its proper direction, and also to
prevent the dirt from getting into the box of the wheel; K, a small groove
or channel from the oil vessel M, through the wash along the axis, to convey
the oil from the vessel M. to the roller H. L, a pipe from the oil vessel M,
through the wash, to convey the oil to the channel K on the axis. M, a vessel
to contain oil to supply the axis and the roller, &c., which may be made
of any form required, fixed either on the axletree or otherwise as near the
wheel as convenience will admit..
:
Fig. 1 shews the axis, with the roller in its proper situation to work in the
wheel; Fig. 2 the axis, with the groove viewed in front without the roller;
Fig. 3, the same with the roller.
Plate B contains several Figures of the fronts of the linch end of the
axis (supposing the solid part to be cut off), in order to shew in what
manner the roller acts. Suppose A to be the nave of the wheel, B the
box, C the axletree, D the line of bearing, E the line of draft, F the
line of leaving, H the loose roller, G the groove in the bottom of the
axis in which the roller runs, it here evidently appears, that by the in-
troduction of the roller into the groove, which inoves with the motion of
the wheel, the axis admits of being so much contracted in its dimensions
as to be in contact only with the box of the wheel near the top, and the
roller at the bottom, by which means the friction is so much diminshed and
prevented. In this Plate are also inserted several different forms of grooves,
and in some an additional number of smaller rollers, principally to shew
that the form may be varied at the option or fancy of any person requiring
it, and which may admit of a still greater variety of construction, without
departing from the original principle of the Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Vallentine Gottlieb, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of March, One thousand seven
hundred and eighty-seven.
VALLENTINE GOTTLIEB. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourteenth day of March, in
the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Ilis Majesty King George the Third,
the said Vallentine Gottlieb came before our said Lord the King in His
Chancery, and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every
thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And also the
Instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the several
Statutes made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen
William and Mary of England, and in the seventeenth and twenty-third
years of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.