REDUCING THE FRICTION OF THE JOURNALS OF RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE JOURNALS OF MACHINERY
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Clinton Roosevelt, of the City, County, and
State of New York, United States of America, for the Invention
for "REDUCING THE FRICTION OF THE JOURNALS OF RAILWAY AND
OTHER CARRIAGES, WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE JOURNALS OF
MACHINERY."
Sealed the 19th August 1853, and dated the 16th June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Clinton Roosevelt at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 16th June 1853.
I, CLINTON ROOSEVELT, of the City, County, and State of New York,
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "REDUCING THE FRICTION OF THE JOURNALS OF RAILWAY
AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE JOURNALS OF
MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in the arrangement and construction of anti-
friction rollers around a shaft or journal in a double row. The journal

page_text: or shaft is of any given diameter, according to the weight it is to bear,
or the service it is to perform; around this journal or shaft are placed
short cylinders rollers of the length required. Outside of these other
rollers are placed, of the same size and length.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Clinton Roosevelt in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 15th December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
CLINTON ROOSEVELT, of the City and County of New York, in the
State of New York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of June 1853, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Clinton Roosevelt, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and such others. from time to time and at
all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom
of Great Briton and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "REDUCING THE FRICTION OF THE JOURNALS OF RAILWAY
AND OTHER CARRIAGES, WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE JOURNALS OF
MACHINERY," upon the consideration (amongst others) that I, the said
Clinton Roosevelt, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Clinton Roosevelt, 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 (that is to say):

page_text: My Invention consists in the arrangement and construction of anti-
friction rollers around a shaft or journal in a double row, by means of
which I am enabled to reduce the friction more than in any other way
with which I am acquainted. The construction is as follows, reference
being had the accompanying Drawings, which make a part hereof :-
The journal (a,) is of any given diameter, according to the weight it is
to bear, or the service it is to perform; around this journal I place six,
more or less, short cylindrical rollers (6,) of the length the journal is
required to bear; outside of this row of rollers (d) I place an equal
number, of the same size and length, as clearly shown in the Drawing,
Fig. 1; each one of the outer rollers (b,) bearing upon two of the
inner ones; the outer row of rollers is surrounded by a box (c.) the
interior of which is cylindrical; the outer surface may assume any shape
for convenience or ornament, according to the purpose for which it is
intended; the ends are closed, and that one through which the shaft
passes should, as nearly as possible without friction, embrace it, to
exclude the dust, &c., from entering; the other end of the box should
have a pivot (,) in it, against which the end of the shaft or journal
bears when there is any lateral pressure, otherwise it may be dispensed
with; but I prefer, in all cases, to use it, and with a set screw to render
it adjustable. A box thus formed, it is obvious, may be stationary
while the journal revolves within it, or the journal or axle may be
stationary, and the box revolve, without at all changing the principle of
the device. The ends of the box (c) should, to prevent wear, be lined
with a piece of leather saturated with oil. To prevent the rollers from
getting out of place laterally I sometimes form flanches projecting from
the ends of one set of rollers that lap over the other set, and thus hold
both to their place. In case the rollers are to be used on axles, the axle
ends may
have flanges screwed thereon; and in case they are to be
used in shafting, collars may be run on the shafting and stopped near
the inner set of rollers to prevent a lateral displacement of the rollers.
Having thus fully described my improvements in reducing the friction
of the journals of railway and other carriages, which is also applicable
to the journals of machinery, I do not wish to be understood as claim-

page_text: ing surrounding journals with rollers to reduce friction, as I am aware
that has before been done; but I claim, as my new improvement, the
double row of rollers arranged and combined substantially in the
manner and for the purposes herein stated.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
Eighteenth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-three.
Witnesses,
THOMAS E. WARREN,
W GREENOUGH,
CLINTON ROOSEVELT. (L.S.)
No. 6, Wall Street, N. York.