IMPROVEMENTS IN ANTIFRICTION AXLE BEARINGS OR BOXES, APPLICABLE TO TRAMWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Austin Joseph Maher at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd May 1878.
I, AUSTIN JOSEPH MAHER, of the City and County of Dublin,
Ireland, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ANTIFRICTION AXLE BEARINGS OR BOXES, APPLICABLE TO
TRAMWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES," to be as follows :—
The object of this Invention is to prevent or diminish the shocks,
noise, and jarring of carriages now mainly produced by or conducted
thereto by metallic contact between wheels, axle boxes, or other parts
and body of carriage.
Attempts have heretofore been made to obviate these evils, either by
using india-rubber wheel tyres, or india-rubber between wheels and tyre,
or in other ways, but these attempts have not given altogether satis-
factory results.
Now I accomplish the desired objects by breaking the metallic contact
between the aforesaid parts of a carriage, all as follows:-
When carrying out this Invention in its simplest form I cause the
axles to run on or against friction rollers in the axle boxes, not metallic

page_text: rollers simply, as have heretofore been proposed or used, but rollers partly
of metal and partly of india-rubber or other elastic or partly elastic
material, or rollers made altogether of elastic or partly elastic material,
so that the latter runs or works against the axle revolving with it by
frictional contact.
Another mode of breaking the metallic contact by such elastic or
partly elastic cushions consists in placing one or more cylinders against
the upper part of the axle in its axle boxes or bearings, each cylinder or
cylinders being fitted with a hollow ball filled with some elastic fluid,
and contained in a cylinder, cage, or frame, or a piston, diaphragm, or
other suitable contrivance for resisting some elastic fluid contained in
the upper part of cylinder, said piston or other such appliance being
fitted with a rod having a disc or roller at its lower end, so placed
against and in regard to the axle as to be made to freely revolve with it,
or the axle may be made conical in the bearings to ensure the rolling :
action of the discs.
Another mode of accomplishing the object would be by placing a disc
or ring of india-rubber or other non-metallic, elastic, or partly elastic
material round the inside of an open or unjoined metal band or ring,
and fitted with a regulating screw passing through the middle for
adjusting the tightness with which it fits a cylinder arranged on each
side of the journal, and connected to frictional roller appliance of the
same, or the said open metal band may be dispensed with and the rubber
itself fit the cylinder.
Another mode is to let the axle bear by the intervention of friction:
rollers against pistons, preferably of wood, working in cylinders, and
pressing against hollow elastic balls filled with an elastic fluid.. These
cylinders may then be placed on each side of the axle journal, and the
connection between axle and pistons made by a ring round the axle with
friction rollers between both, and connected below to the pistons on
each side.
Another mode is to completely encase the top brass of an ordinary