CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS POR FURNITURE AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Banton, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Jeweller, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN CASTORS POR FURNITURE AND OTHER PURPOSES.”
Sealed the 19th May 1871, and dated the 23rd November 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Banton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd November 1870.
I, RICHARD BANTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Jeweller, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE AND OTHER PURPOSES," to
be as follows (that is to say) :-
My improvements in castors relate entirely to the description known
as ball castors, and consist in supporting the ball in the apex of the
socket on a hard polished substance, with or without the means of
lubrication, the ball being held below the centre by an annular ridge
applied to or fitted within the socket, leaving the ball sufficient freedom
to move when working as a castor, and yet prevent the ball falling out

page_text: of the socket when lifted from the ground. The substance before
referred to as fitted at the apex of the cup or socket may be of pebble,
agate, chilled iron, steel, or other hard substance, sufficient in size to
take the weight, but small enough to prevent any undue friction, and
the ball may be of metal, glass, earthenware, vegetable ivory, or other
suitable material. Castors so formed I purpose applying not only to
furniture and purposes requiring to support heavy weights, but also
from their unique appearance to checse wagons, cruet and liquor frames,
or other purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Banton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd May 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
BANTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Jeweller, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in
the thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Richard Banton, Her
special licence that I, the said Richard Banton, my executors, ad-
ministrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard
Banton, my executors, 'administrators, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for " CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE OR OTHER
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard
Banton, by an instrument 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 Richard Banton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say):
My improvements in castors relate entirely to the description known
as ball castors, and consist in supporting the ball in the apex of the
5 socket on a flat hard polished substance with or without the means of
lubrication, the ball being held below the centre by an annular ridge
applied to or fixed within the socket, leaving the ball sufficient freedom
to move when working as a castor, and yet prevent the ball falling out
of the socket when lifted from the ground. The substance before
> referred to as fixed at the apex of the cup or socket may be of pebble,
agate, or other like hard polished substance, sufficient in size to take the
weight, but small enough to prevent any undue friction, and the ball
may be of metal, glass, earthenware, vegetable ivory, or other suitable
material. Castors so formed I purpose applying not only to furniture
5 and purposes requiring to support heavy weights, but also from their
unique appearance to cheese wagons, cruet and liquor frames, or other
purposes.
In giving effect to my Invention the shape and construction will vary
as purpose, position, or condition requires, as castors for heavy dining
tables, pianofortes, or cumbersome furniture must evidently be adapted
in a suitable way for such purposes, provided at all times a recess
concentrically in the apex of the socket is arranged for the reception
of the stone or other like bard polished substance before-mentioned,
as will be seen by referring to the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 represents as much of the lower part of a piano or dining
table leg necessary for exhibiting the application of a castor constructed in
accordance with my improvements shown in section with the exception
of the ball A; B is the socket proper, which may be of the angular
shape here shown or otherwise, sufficiently strong in its upper part to
receive a stone or other like hard polished setting, here represented
marked C, a flange of the socket B projecting down permits the hard
stone or like setting O to be set and held in position. For the sake of
finish I have represented also in section an outer socket marked D, D,
which fits over the end of the leg, and is secured by screws as shown,
like the socket of an ordinary socket castor, while its bottom part is
cupped or gathered in below the centre of the ball A to hold the ball

page_text: in position or prevent it falling out in shifting or moving furniture
with such castors applied, but which feature is not at all new in ball
castors.
Fig. 2 represents a modification of the castor as at Figure 1, as
adapted for a table or chair leg, and Fig. 3 is a section of the castor,
the socket E for encompassing the end of the wood of the leg being a
part of the socket that receives the ball, which for distinction I have
marked F, and in this modification I have represented a strong vertical
screw G for applying such castors to furniture by screwing them up.
In a practical way these screws are made readily by appliances known
as Olivers, with the boss or enlarged part at a, while the part below
marked b may be roughed and irregularly formed for the better holding
in the metal of the socket marked c, c, by its being cast around the
part 6 in the process of manufacture, and well understood by men
accustomed to such kind of productions.
Fig. 4 represents a simple cylindrical socket marked H, H, made of
common tube, either round, square, or other shape, to which may be
soldered or otherwise fixed the more substantial part J for receiving the
polished stone or like hard material, for taking the bearing of the ball K;
L, L, is simply an annular ring shown in flat view at Fig. 5, which
being applied as seen at Figure 4 with ordinary screws will hold the ball
in position. Such kind of ball castors proportioned as to size may be
used with great advantage for supporting the back parts of pianofortes,
Arabian bedsteads, and a variety of other purposes.
It may be advantageous in applying castors constructed according to
my improvements to form a small cavity in the part receiving the
polished stone or like substance for holding a small piece of sponge
saturated with fine oil or other approved lubricator, a small hole being
drilled through the polished stone or like substance for the unctuous
lubricating matter to pass down, just to lubricate that part of the
polished stone in contact with the surface of the ball as it revolves in
action, and this I have represented at Figure 1, the saturated sponge or
other absorbing material being represented as secured beneath a small:
metal cap marked d, which engages with a projecting circular rim
standing up from the part marked e, e, but this may be otherwise
arranged as may be preferred.
4
may
be
The same arrangement of castor as exhibited at Figure
made particularly applicable for cheese wagons, table wine coolers, and

page_text: other bulky requirements for the table, and in like manner Figs. 6 and 7
represent in full my improved arrangement applied to metal ornamental
feet for liquor stands, cruet frames, table lamps, or such like purposes,
the ball in each instance taking a bearing against the surface of the
polished stone or like material, set in the apex of the socket, in which
the ball works, which balls may be of glass, earthenware, ivory, vegetable
ivory, stone, metal, or other suitable material.
Having thus given a general description of my Invention and the
manner in which the same may be carried into effect, I wish it under-
stood that what I claim and wish protected by these my in part recited
Letters Patent is, the construction of ball castors in the manner hercin
described and represented without having reference to size, proportion,
purpose, or design.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Banton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
Witness,
WILLIAM LOACH,
Clerk to James S. Cockings,
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
RICHP. BANTON. (L.S.)