IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Frederick Wood at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th October 1876.
CHARLES FREDERICK WOOD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER SKATES, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS
ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES."
My Invention relates to improvements in roller skates, whereby increased
facilities are provided for guiding the wheels or rollers and steering the skate in any
desired course under the action of the foot of the operator without the necessity for
the canting, rocking, or tilting of the foot rest or stock, and it consists essentially in
constructing the foot rest or stock in two longitudinal halves or portions, which are
connected to the axles of the wheels or rollers in such a manner that by the act of
the operator vertically depressing one or the other of the two halves, thereby
elevating the other half, the wheels or rollers are locked and the skate is directed in
the required curvilinear course.
My Invention may be carried out in various ways whilst still retaining the same
principle.
According to one arrangement, to the under side of the longitudinally divided foot
rest or stock at or near the toe and heel thereof and centrally with its division I
attach a divided cylinder, hollow or otherwise, around the two halves or parts of
which I form screw threads, the threads of the two halves or parts of each divided
screw cylinder being arranged in opposite directions, whilst the two divided screw
cylinders have their threads arranged in reverse order in relation to each other.
The two halves or parts of each screw cylinder are fitted together with a vertical
dovetail or by other equivalent means, so as to retain them together whilst
admitting of their vertical motion in opposite directions. Around each divided
screw cylinder there is placed a divided nut or collar having corresponding screw
threads cut in its interior, which divided nuts or screw collars are fitted by means
of eyes on to the axles on which the wheels or rollers are mounted, and their halves
or parts are retained together by means of sleeves or hollow bosses, which are
provided with cranked projections having eyes through which also the axles pass.
The apparatus operates in the following manner: When the skater desires to
run in a curved course, he depresses with the foot one or the other, as the case may
be, of the two halves of the divided foot rest or stock; as such foot rest or stock is
firmly strapped to the foot of the operator the other half is simultaneously elevated.
D31

page_text: The corresponding halves of the divided screw cylinders are thereby caused to
partially rotate the respective halves of the divided nuts or screw collars, and as
these are connected in the manner before mentioned to the axles carrying the
wheels or rollers they act after the manner of levers, so as to cause the axles to
converge and the wheels or rollers are turned, whereby the skate is guided in the
required course.
Lateral rocking arms bearing centrally on the bosses and having their outer ends
in contact with the under outer sides of the divided foot rest or stock may-be
employed as an auxiliary to the half screws and nuts, if found necessary.
I prefer however to simplify the connection between the two halves of the divided
foot rest or stock and the axles in the manner next herein-after described, so as to
obtain a similar result without the employment of intermediate devices of a
complicated and expensive construction.
According to one modification each axle is provided with a projecting pin, around
which is fitted, so that the pin shall be capable of turning therein, a stem or socket
piece carrying a double crank arm, the two crank pins of which arranged on
opposite sides are fitted into transverse horizontal holes formed in the two halves of
the divided foot rest or stock. Fixed pendent pins are also provided, one for each
axle projecting from opposite halves of the foot rest. or stock, which pins enter
apertures formed in the axles and constitute the fulcra around which the axles turn
when either half of the foot rest or stock is depressed, both sets of wheels being thus
caused to work in unison in either direction at the will of the operator.
If desired the hollow stems or socket pieces may be carried on the axles and the
entering pins be carried on the crank arms, and the fulcra may be formed by pins
having eyes or forked extremities encircling or partially encircling the axles, the
result being similar to that obtained with the converse arrangement firstly herein-
before described.
Springs or yielding and resilient contrivances may be employed for restoring the
two halves of the foot rest or stock to their normal level position for running in a
rectilineal course, if required.
According to another modification the projecting pins from the axles are
dispensed with, and the cranked stems from the foot rest or stock are rivetted or
attached by similar means to the axles, so as to admit of the swivelling motion of
the latter, in which case I substitute for the fixed fulcra bell-crank levers, each of
which is centred or pivotted to one of the stems and is loosely connected by its two
arms to the axle and the foot rest or stock respectively.
According to a further modification the two stems carrying the pins around
which the axles swivel are slotted and jointed (or otherwise connected so as to
admit of their swivelling) to their respective double crank arms and are connected
together by a longitudinal rod or bar, in which case the fulcra may be obtained
either by means of arms arranged beneath or connected to the foot rest or stock and
engaging with projections carried on the axles, thus forming double bell-crank
levers, or by means of single bell-crank levers, as herein-before described under the
second modification.
The apparatus may be further modified in various ways, whilst retaining the
principle of the Invention, viz., that of the employment of a longitudinally divided
foot rest or stock connected to the axles of the wheels or rollers in such a manner
that by the vertical motion under the action of the foot of the operator of the two
halves or portions, the wheels or rollers are locked and the skate is directed on the
required course.
My Invention is also partly applicable to locks for shooting two bolts in opposite
directions, also to the steering gear of vessels, and to other purposes for which two
simultaneous motions in opposite directions are required.