IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ELIAS
ROBISON HANDCOCK, of the City of Dublin, late of Her Majesty's 9th.
Regiment of Infantry, and of Rathmogl House in the Queen's County,.
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of October, in the second year of
Her reign, and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and:
thirty-eight, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Elias Robison Handcock, Her especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Elias Robison Handcock, my:
executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Elias
Robison Handcock, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CASTORS FOR FURNITURE
AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Elias Robison Handcock, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
and to cause the same to be inrolled in. Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Elias
Robison Handcock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
My Invention of improvements in castors for furniture and other purposes,
consists in forming such castors on the principle of a ball and socket, by placing
a spherical roller within a box frame socket or recess, in which it is enabled to
turn in any direction and become a universal roller, having its bearings above
against the peripheries of several antifriction rollers mounted on axles within
the box, recess, or socket. The objects of these improvements are, first, to
reduce the amount of friction in castors; and secondly, to obtain a per-
pendicular bearing upon the roller immediately over the centre of the socket,
instead of the ordinary mode of mounting the roller of the castor upon an
horizontal axle, in an arm extending from a vertical spindle, which improved
construction affords greater strength in the castor, and avoids the friction and
strain to which the ordinary construction of castors are subject. In the ac-
companying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents an external view of one form of the
improved castor in its complete state. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same,
a is the spherical roller or ball; b, b, the socket or box; c, a plate extending
across the upper part of the box, to which are affixed brackets d, d, that carry.
the axles of the antifriction rollers e, e, against the periphery of which the
upper part of the surface of the ball bears, and the ball is prevented from
falling out of the socket by a collar f.f, screwed into the socket below. The
plate c, with the brackets d, and rollers e, is shewn in a detached view at Fig. 3.
Fig. 4 represents another form of castor; the internal construction of which,
however, is the same, or nearly so, as that above described. Fig. 5 is a vertical
section of Fig. 4, all the operative parts in which are marked with similar
letters of reference to Fig. 2, and therefore their description does not need to
be repeated. In the latter instance, however, the castor is to be fixed to the
under part of the piece of furniture by a vertical screw pin, whereas in the
former it is affixed by the leg of the piece of furniture being inserted into the
upper part of the socket. In the constructions of castor first above described,
four antifriction rollers e, e, e, e, are employed, in the second second six; but I do
not intend to confine myself to any precise number of antifriction rollers, nor to
their form, as they may be either cylindrical or bowled. Fig. 6 is a horizontal
view of the plate c and antifriction rollers e, e, e, in which five rollers are adapted
and Fig. 7 is a similar view of the plate and rollers, in which six rollers are

page_text: adapted, and instead of mounting them upon separate axles in brackets, a
circular wire 9, 9, 9, passes through all the rollers, which is confined in its
place by a circular groove in a bead' or circular rib h, h, h. Fig. 8, which is a
representation of the plate c, and rollers e, e, e, of Fig. 5, shews a similar adap.
tation of six antifriction rollers, in this instance made bowl-shaped. Fig. 9
is another shaped castor, the internal construction of which is the same as
shewn at Fig, 2. Fig. 10 represents a castor, the socket of which is intended
to be inserted into the under part of the piece of furniture, it is particularly
applicable for trucks and gun carriages on shipboard, the flanged plate f, f,
forms the collar that confines the spherical roller in the socket, and by means
of which the castor may be screwed on to the furniture, as shewn by the
representation of the under part at Fig. 11.
In witness whereof, I, the said Elias Robison Handcock, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, in the year of our
Land One thousand sight hundred and thinte
ELIAS R. (L.S.) HANDCOCK.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifth day of April, in the
second year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Elias
Robison Handcock came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery,
and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.