IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SKATES, PARTS OF THE SAME BEING APPLICABLE TO SLEDGES
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Harrison, of Averdale, Square, Old Kent
Road, in the County of Surrey, Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SKATES, PARTS OF THE SAME BEING
APPLICABLE TO SLEDGES."
Sealed the 3rd March 1876, and dated the 23rd December 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Harrison at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd December 1875.
I, CHARLES HARRISON, of Averdale Square, Old Kent Road, in the
County of Surrey, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SKATES, PARTS OF THE
SAME BEING APPLICABLE TO SLEDGES," to be as follows:
This Invention relates to certain improvements in the construction
of skates to be used for skating on smooth surfaces, whether of ice
or of any other nature. To the lower surface of the foot plate are

page_text: attached two flanges or plates of steel or other suitable metal, the same
being placed at right angles to the foot plate, and extending longitu-
dinally from one end of the same to the other end thereof.
In the interior faces of the flanges near the respective ends thereof
and at any other desired parts are formed cup-like recesses, in which are
placed spherical balls formed of metal or of any suitable material, the
surfaces thereof coinciding with those of the cup-like recesses, which
latter serve the purpose of bearings, within which the balls are free to
revolve in any direction, the cup-like recesses being so placed that the
balls are entirely clear from the lower surface of the foot plate.
In some cases the centre ball is provided with a cup-like semi-spherical
recess on each side thereof, semi-spherical projections being formed in
the interior of the recesses in the flanges of plates, which coincide with
the cup-like semi-spherical recesses in the ball, and which serve as
bearings on which the ball rotates in one direction only.
The above-described arrangements may be advantageously applied in
the construction of sledges.
Instead of placing one ball only at the rear end of the skate a centre
flange may be placed between the side flanges or plates, and two balls
instead of one employed, the same being placed parallel to each other,
the respective flanges being recessed in the manner before-mentioned; so
that the balls are free to revolve therein in any direction.
A modification of this Invention consists in employing wheels having
curved peripheries instead of the balls, as before mentioned, the same
being placed between the flanges, and having a groove of a semicircular
section formed on the sides thereof concentrical to the axial line. Cup-
like semi-spherical recesses, by preference four in number, are formed
in the interior sides of the respective flanges, in which are placed balls,
one-half of the same being within the said recesses, and the other half
being free to work within the grooves in the wheels, which are thus
enabled to rotate freely.
Instead of constructing the 'skates with continuous flanges or plates
extending from one end to the other thereof brackets are in some cases
employed. The flanges or brackets are secured and kept in a rigid state

page_text: .
at the required distance from each other by means of transverse pins or
rivets, and the spaces between the several working parts of the
mechanism may be covered or filled in by means of plates or other
suitable contrivances for the purpose of preventing the same becoming
clogged with dirt.
Skates constructed in accordance with this Invention possess the
important advantages of great simplicity, combined with extraordinary
strength and non-liability to get out of order, whilst they afford the
persons using them the power of performing any desired evolutions with
less fatigue than with the skates usually employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Harrison in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd June 1876:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
HARRISON, of Averdale Square, Old Kent Road; in the County of Surrey,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five,
in the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Harrison,
Her special licence, that I, the said Charles Harrison, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Harrison, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
" IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SKATES, PARTS OF THE SAME BEING
APPLICABLE TO SLEDGES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Charles Harrison, my executors or administrators, by an instru
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Harrison, 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 statement, reference being made to the Drawings
hereunto annexed and to the figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention principally relates to certain improvements in the
construction of skates to be used for skating on smooth surfaces, whether
of ice or of any other nature. To the lower surface of the foot plate are
attached two flanges or plates of steel or other suitable metal, the same
being placed at right angles to the foot plate, and extending longitu-
dinally from one end of the same to the other end thereof.
In the interior faces of the flanges near the respective ends thereof
and at any other desired parts are formed cup-like recesses, in, which are
placed spherical balls formed of metal or of any suitable material, the
surfaces thereof coinciding with those of the cup-like recesses, which
latter serve the purpose of bearings, within which the balls are free to
revolve in any direction, the cup-like recesses being so placed that the
balls are entirely clear from the lower surface of the foot plate.
In some cases the centre ball is provided with a cup-like semi-
spherical recess on each side thereof, semi-spherical projections being
formed in the interior of the recesses in the flanges or plates, which
coincide with the cup-like semi-spherical recesses in the ball, and which
serve as bearings on which the ball rotates in one direction only.
The above-described arrangements may be advantageously applied in
the construction of sledges.
Instead of placing one ball only at the rear end of the skate a centre
flange may be placed between the side flanges or plates, and two balls
instead of one employed, the same being placed parallel to each other,
the respective flanges being recessed in the manner before mentioned, so
that the balls are free to revolve therein in any direction, ·
.

page_text: A modification of this Invention consists in employing wheels having
curved peripheries instead of the balls, as before mentioned, the same
being placed between the flanges, and having a groove of a semicircular
section formed on the sides thereof concentrical to the axial line. Cup-
like semi-spherical recesses, by preference four in number, are formed
in the interior sides of the respective flanges, in which are placed balls,
one-half of the same being within the said recesses, and the other half
being free to work within the grooves in the wheels, which are thus
.enabled to rotate freely.
Instead of constructing the skates with continuous flanges or plates
extending from one end to the other end thereof brackets are in some
cases employed. The flanges or brackets are secured and kept in a
rigid state at the required distance from each other by means of trans-
verse pins or rivets, and the spaces between the several working parts
of the mechanism may be covered or filled in by means of plates or
other suitable contrivances for the purpose of preventing the same
becoming clogged with dirt.
Skates constructed in accordance with this Invention possess the
important advantages of great simplicity, combined with extraordinary
strength and non-liability to get out of order, whilst they afford the
persons using them the power of performing any desired evolutions with
less fatigue than with the skates usually employed.
I will now proceed to refer to the annexed Drawings, from which the
nature of my said Invention will more fully appear.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a skate having three balls arranged
between the flanges; Figure 2 is a plan of the same; and Figures 3
and 4 are transverse sections of the balls, the recesses in the same, and
the projections on the flanges, as before mentioned, being shewn in
Figures 2 and 4.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 represent the arrangement herein-before
described, in which a centre flange is used.
Figures 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 respectively shew the modifi-
cation herein-before-described, in which wheels having curved peripheries

page_text: CHARLES HARRISON. (L.S.)