AN IMPROVED LUBRICATOR, CHIEFLY DESIGNED FOR LOOSE PULLEYS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Roswell Carter Munson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
Sth June 1871. A communication from abroad by Henry Augustus
Clark, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
I, ROSWELL CARTER MUNSON, of the Hop and Malt Exchange,
Southwark Street, in the County of Surrey, Merchant, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED LUBRICATOR, CHIEFLY
DESIGNED FOR LOOSE PULLEYS," a communication, to be as follows:-
:-
The present Invention relates to a lubricating apparatus for loose
pulleys, gear wheels, and other mechanical devices which have a rotary
movement upon a journal or shaft.
The said Invention consists chiefly in a bent tube or pipe constructed
and arranged upon the wheel or pulley and communicating with its
bearing in such manner that by the revolution of the wheel oil contained
in the said tube will move through the same in a direction opposite to
that of the revolution of the wheel, passing to the bearing with a
momentum or force proportionate to the speed of the same.

page_text: The said Invention also consists in combining with a tube constructed
as herein described a valve for regulating and limiting the flow of oil
from the tube to the bearing. Through the hub or boss of the wheel
or pulley in a radial line or nearly so I make a passage communicating
with the bearing of the wheel on the shaft. Connected with the said
passage is the bent tube or pipe which is fastened to the said hub or
boss. The said tube passes from the said passage towards the periphery
of the wheel in a line tangential or nearly so to the circumference of
the hub, and is extended around the hub between the same and the
periphery of the wheel in a spiral, curvilinear, or convolute form ter-
minating inside of the periphery of the wheel, and provided at its outer
end with a screw cap for closing the same. By removing this cap the
aforesaid tube can be charged with the lubricating material employed,
and when the cap is replaced the oil is confined so that its escape is
prevented at this outer end, but it is free to communicate with the
bearing of the pulley through the passage connecting the said tube
therewith, above described..
I may use the lubricator without any valve, but in practice it will
generally be found more advantageous to use one. I therefore place
a ball valve within the oil passage of the pulley hub. This valve is
slightly less in diameter than the diameter of the passage, and between
it and the sides of the same the oil passes to the bearing. The ball is
free to move within the passage and consequently as the momentum
of the oil within the said passage decreases or increases with the speed
of the pulley it acts as a cleaner thereto, preventing gumming and
clogging. A ball valve is therefore preferable, although other forms
of valves may be employed. The tube of the lubricator may be circular
or of other sectional form, but it must in all cases be constructed to
have such a direction about the centre of rotation of the wheel or pulley
as will permit the movement of the oil toward the bearing to be
accomplished by the revolution of the said wheel or pulley.