Improvements in Lubricating Devices for Axle Boxes.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd July, 1895-Accepted. 3rd Aug., 1895
[Communicated from abroad by JOHN BELL WRIGHT, Physician, of 22 Adams
Avenue West, and FREDERICK HORACE HITCHCOCK, Merchant, of
46 Lincoln Avenue, both in Detroit, Michigan, United States of America.]
Improvements in Lubricating Devices for Axle Boxes.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The invention consists in the peculiar construction of a lubricator for car
journals, and particularly in the construction of a pad for feeding the oil upon the
journal by capillary action, and spring support for such pad, the whole being so
combined as to be readily attached and detached and without danger of being
accidentally displaced while the device is in use.
In the drawings,
Fig. 1 is a vertical, central, longitudinal section through a car axle box and
bearing showing the journal and oil pad in elevation.
Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section thereof.
Fig. 3 is a detached perspective view of the oiling pad and its supporting
spring.
Fig. 4 is a section on one side of a box similar to Fig. 2, showing a slightly
modified form of supporting spring.
A is a car axle box, B a brass or bearing, and C the journal, these parts being
of known and usual construction except as hereinafter set forth.
The box I preferably make somewhat different from the usual box by cutting
away the front side or wall D, so that the upper edge thereof shall be in line
substantially with the lower edge of the journal, and below the journal I arrange
a transverse partition E, below which is formed an oil receptacle F. This partition
I preferably make as shown in Fig. 1, comprising the central curved portion a below
the journal, its upper face being concentric with the under face of the journal and
the oppositely inclined side sections b.
At the bottom of the section a and at the lowest points in the side sections b,
I arrange small drip apertures e, so that any oil which may be placed above
the partition will quickly fall through these apertures and into the receptacle
beneath.
Beneath the front and rear faces of the journal I provide in the partition E
longitudinal apertures G, through which the foot of the wick or pad H may enter
the receptacle.
.
This pad attach to, and support upon, a spring or spring standard of such
construction that the vertical vibrations of the journal will not tend to displace
the spring, the spring acting practically to press the pad against the side of the
journal.
In Figs. 1, 2 and 3 I have shown this spring formed by a flat spring standard I,
to the upper end of which the pad is secured, this standard having lugs or shoulders.J
adapted to engage beneath the partition E, its lower end being inserted through
the apertures G and abutting against the block or lug K.
This block or lug is provided with the inclined face e and the flat face or
shoulder so that when the spring is inserted with the pad through the aperture,

page_text: the end of the spring will strike the inclined face and be guided outwardly until
the lugs J engage beneath the edge of the aperture in the partition E, when the
standards will be locked in position, being bent sufficiently to give the desired
tension to hold the pad firmly against the sides of the journal.
By arranging these springs so as to press the pads against the sides of the
journal, as shown, 1 obtain a construction in which the vertical movement of the
axle does not effect the tension of the spring or tend to displace the pad, or in
any way disarrange the spring from its support, simply bending it flat more
or less.
This I consider especially advantageous as most of the constructions which
have heretofore been used comprise springs arranged below the journal, so that
the vertical oscillations thereof would tend to make them bounce and get out of
place.
In Fig. 4 I have shown the spring L supported on a standard M against the
side of the box, passing through an aperture arranged at the edge of the partition E,
the effect being the same as in the construction shown in Fig. 2, which last named
construction I consider to be the preferable one.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :
1. The combination of a car axle box having a receptacle in the bottom with an
apertured top, of a vertical spring supported in the box, and an oiling pad supported
on the spring and passing through the aperture in the top of the receptacle,
substantially as described.
2. The combination of a car axle box having a receptacle in the bottom, an
apertured top therefor, spring standards detachably secured in each side of the box,
and oiling pads secured on the spring standards and passing through the apertures
in the top of the receptacle.
2. The combination of a car axle box, a transverse partition below the journal
therein having longitudinal apertures beneath the front and rear faces of the
journal, blocks or lugs in the bottom, spring standards having shoulders on their
outer faces and pads secured to the standards, the parts being combined as and for
the purpose set forth.
4. In a lubricator for car journals, the combination of the box, a transverse
partition therein below the journal to form an oil receptacle, the fibrous lubricating
pad passing through such apertures into the receptacle, the standards I, to the
upper end of which the pads are secured, the lower ends thereof passing through
the apertures in the partition, the shoulders J on the standards, the lug K in the
bottom of the box having the inclined face e and the vertical face h, the parts
being arranged as and for the purpose described.
Dated this 2nd day of July 1895.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.