CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF APPLYING OIL OR GREASE TO WHEELS AND AXLES AND TO MACHINERY, AND IN CONNECTING THE SPRINGS OF WHEEL CAR- RIAGES WITH THE AXLES OR AXLE BOXES
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MCDONALD, of the City of Chester, Coachmaker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Eleventh day of January, in the thirteenth year of Her reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said James M.Donald, my exors, admors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
James McDonald, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said James M.Donald, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no o‘hers, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and in all the Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF APPLYING OIL OR GREASE TO WHEELS
AND AXLES AND TO MACHINERY, AND IN CONNECTING THE SPRINGS OF WHEEL CAR-
RIAGES WITH THE AXLES OR AXLE BOXES;" in which said Letters Patent there is,
amongst other things, contained a proviso, that if I, the said James McDonald,

page_text: shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, that then the
said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as by the said
Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said recited proviso, I, the
said James McDonald, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following instrument in writing, reference being had
to the Drawings therein referred to, and hereunto annexed.
My said Invention relates, firstly, to the application of the requisite
lubrication to the journals or bearing surfaces of railway carriages and
waggons.
Secondly, to the connection of the springs with the axles or axle boxes of
railway carriages and waggons. The lubrication of machinery, such as the
journals or surfaces of the axles of railway carriages, has hitherto been generally
effected by the use of certain compositions in a thick or pasty state; and no
method of applying oil or grease in a liquid state to machinery subject to the
violent actions and concussions to which the bearing parts of the axles of
railway carriages and waggons are subject has hitherto been adopted. The oil
or liquid grease hitherto used has been applied by manual application, and at
intervals, or in a wasteful manner, whereas my Invention has for its object the
applying oil or liquid grease to the bearing or rubbing surfaces of the
machinery of the axles of railway carriages in a constant and uniform supply.
as the same is required, and the saving any surplus oil, so as to prevent all
waste. This I effect by the application and adaptation of an air-tight oil box,
with suitable arrangements for supplying the oil to the axle in the requisito
quantities, and excluding the dust from the axle box, as herein-after described.
My Invention relates, secondly, to a mode of connecting the springs with
the axles or axle boxes of railway carriages and waggons. In railway carriages
and waggons as ordinarily constructed, the springs bearing the body of the
carriages are connected with the axle boxes either rigidly or in such manner
as to exclude any freedom of motion or play between the spring and the axle-
box, the consequence of which is a degree of strain or twist upon the carriage:
spring, axle box, 'and axle.

page_text: The second part of my Invention is directed to obviating this objection, and
consists in adapting a ball or spherical bearing point and surface between the
under part of the spring and the upper part of the axle box, in such manner
that the spring with the carriage attached, and the axle box with the axle
attached thereto may have a certain amount of free motion, or of motion
independent of each other, and that thereby the strain to which tho parts as
ordinarily constructed are subject may be diminished.
The accompanying Drawings shew the improvement above referred to as
applied in practice. Fig. I. is an end view of the axle box, looking into the
box from the end next the wheel, representing also a section of the journal
and the brass step; Fig. II. is an end view of the axle box from the outside,
representing also the axle guard and the spring and the top of the oil cistern;
Fig. III. is a sectional Drawing, shewing the axle box, the oil cistern, the
brass steps, and the spring fastenings; Fig. IV. is a view of the axle box,
looking from above it, and shewing the position of the oil cistern as applied to
the axle box. In each Figure the same parts are indicated by the same
letters.
A is the journal of the axle, on which rests the brass step G; and the letters
9, 9, represent the brass rim which rests on the shoulder of the journal at g¹;
a, a, small tubes or nipples, for the supply of oil from the air-tight oil box
through the apertures a', a', in the brass step to the journal; B is the nave of
the wheel; C, C, C, is the axle box; c, c, rims to hold the axle packing; x, x,
axle packing; e, e', screw for withdrawing the surplus oil; D, D, the axlo
guards; E, E, the cross bar, which connects the axle guards under the axle
box, and thus fastens the carriage to the axle box; F, the oil cistern; f, the
air-tight lid; ff, the holding down spring; G, the brass step; H, a ball
for the spring fastening to work on; I, the plate on which the ball H rests;
K, the spring fastening which works on the ball H; L, L, the cheeks of the
spring fastening;, m, m, m, m, the spring plates. This air-tight oil or liquid
grease vessel may
be constructed of sheet iron or other suitable material, .and
applied, affixed, or attached to the axle box, and connected with the other
parts of the machinery in any convenient manner; or in case of carriages
not yet constructed, or of carriages being supplied with new axle boxes, it may
be cast in the axle box and form a part of the same.
In the application of my Invention to carriages already made, that is, to
existing carrying stock of railways, the oil vessel may be made of such a
form as may suit the description of axle box to which it is to be applied..
The form I have applied to railway passenger carriages is shown at F in the
accompanying Drawings. The valve cover or lid f, through which the oil is

page_text: supplied from time to time, may be retained in its place, and kept air-tight
either by a spring f. f, a screw, or other means. The spring shewn in the
Drawing admits of the air-tight lid being raised for the supply of oil. At
the bottom of the cistern are certain openings for feeding the oil or liquid
grease to the bearing of the journal through nipples or small tubes fastened
to the cistern, as shewn at a, a, with corresponding openings in the brass step
to allow the oil or grease to pass to the journal, as at a¹, a¹. In these open-
ings or nipples or small tubes of the oil cistern I place a wick of cotton or
other suitable fibrous or porous material, drawn or packed so tightly in the
nipples as to regulate the supply to a certain limited quantity per hour,
according to the circumstances of the case. The size of the opening in the
nipples when two openings are used, which I generally employ, is five-
sixteenths of an inch in diameter, having from two hundred and eighty to
three hundred threads of cotton of a common lamp wick inserted in each
hole. This I find to answer extremely well for a railway passenger carriage
having a journal of from six to eight inches long and three inches in diameter
and in good order. Should the oil or liquid grease be supplied to the journal
in excess of the requisite consumption, the surplus will be preserved and
collected at the bottom of the axle box, as at e, and may be from time to time
withdrawn by unscrewing the tap screw e'. For the purpose of excluding
the dust from the journal, the brass step may be made to bear not only on the
journal in the usual manner, but to overlap the inside shoulder of the axle,
and to extend to the nave of the wheel, and to bear on the shoulder of the
axle by a rim g, leaving a space between such rim and the part of the brass
resting on the journal, as shewn in the sectional Drawing, Fig. III. The
axle box may also be constructed so as to overlap and enclose the inside
shoulder of the axle, and to come very close to the face of the nave of the
wheel at h, h. With the same view of excluding as much as possible the
dust, the bottom part of the axle box may be formed with one or more rings
C, C, cast on the inside, so as to form a space for the introduction of a suitable
material for packing the spaces x, x, or one of them; this elastic packing,
whether of cotton, hemp, worsted, sponge, or other material, being extended
round the under side of the shoulder of the axle, and to meet the rim of the
brass step g, before described. The brass step may also be so formed as to
overlap the should of the axle, and project into a groove formed in the face
of the nave; or the axle box may be formed so as to project into one or more
grooves in the nave by one or more feather-edged rim or rims; or one or
more rings of metal may be fastened to the shoulder of the axle, and provided
with projecting rims, which may be enclosed in the axle box by corresponding

page_text: grooves encircling the same, so as thereby to exclude as completely as possible
the dust from contaminating the oil or liquid grease supplied from the air-
tight vessel to the journal, as already described. In the arrangement shewn
in the Drawing of my new mode of connecting the springs of railway car-
riages with the axles or axle boxes, a ball H, of steel or other suitable material.
fits into a plate I, fixed on the top of the axle box, and also into a plate K,
attached to the under side of the spring, which is called the spring fastening,
a certain space being left between each plate for the motion of the carriage
spring. In lieu of this ball, a spherical point, nipple, or bearing surface may
be employed, and may be formed as part of the spring fastening, so as to work
in a corresponding cup formed in the axle box, or in the plate fixed on the
axle box; or this spherical point, nipple, or bearing surface may be formed on
the top of the axle box or on the plate fixed on the axle box, and may work
in a corresponding cup formed in the under side of the spring fastening. By
thus allowing a certain amount of free motion to the springs, and through.
them to the body of the carriage, without twisting the axle box, the strain in
the axle bearings may be in a great measure prevented. Also, by means of
the arrangement just referred to, facilitics are afforded for what is commonly
called the "lifting" of railway carriages for the purpose of being examined,
cleaned, or repaired. On removing the cross bar E, E, the carriage with its
spring attached inay be quickly raised and disconnected from the axle box
without the delay of disconnecting the rigid spring fastenings in ordinary use.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I claim,
as the Invention intended to be secured by the said Letters Patent,-
First, an air-tight oil box applied and adapted for supplying oil to the
journals of railway carriages and waggons as the same is required by means
of a wick, whether in combination or not with the arrangements above
described, for keeping out the dust and collecting the surplus oil, as above
described.
Secondly, I claim the constructing and connecting the springs and axle
boxes of railway carriages and waggons in such manner as that the springs
and carriages may have a small amount of motion independent of the axle
boxes without straining the springs or axles.
In witness whereof, I, the said James McDonald, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Tenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.
JAMES (L.B.) MCDONALD.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Tenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid James M°Donald came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and everything therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.