IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AXLE BOXES AND AXLE BEARINGS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Gilbee, of the English and Foreign Patent
Office, 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier,
Paris, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AXLE
BOXES AND AXLE BEARINGS."-A. communication.
Sealed the 3rd October 1854, and dated the 8th April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Gilbee at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
April 1854.
I, HENRY GILBEE, of the English and Foreign Patent Office, 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF AXLE BOXES
AND AXLE BEARINGS" to be as follows:-
The improvements consist in the employment of metallic friction rollers in
axle boxes and bearings revolving freely round their own axes; the oil is con-
tained in spaces suitably contrived in the sides of the axle box, and rises so as
to cover the rollers.
Fig. 1, plan of an axle box with the cap taken off, and shewing the recep-
tacles for oil. A is the axle; S, the shaft; B, B, axle box; r, r, metallic
rollers.
Fig. 2, vertical section through the axle, the cap T being in its place.
C, C, apertures to pour the oil into the chambers H, H; i, perforation to admit
the oil into the space in which the rollers 1, 7, are set.

page_text: Figs. 3 and 4, plan and end view of the friction rollers. Intermediate
friction rings are loosely set on their axes to make them revolve freely on
themselves. This improved mode of constructing axle boxes is applicable to
every kind of revolving shaft.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Gilbee in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
GILBEE, of the English and Foreign Patent Office, 4, South Street, Finsbury,
London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Gilbee, Her special license that I, the said Henry Gilbee,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Gilbee, 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 AXLE BOXES AND AXLE BEARINGS," communicated to me
by a foreigner residing abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Henry Gilbec, 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 Henry Gilbee, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereto annexed, and to
the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :-
The Invention communicated to me consists, first, in employing anti-friction
rollers revolving freely on axes in the construction of the axle bearings and

page_text: boxes of revolving shafts; secondly, in the mechanical arrangements for
lubricating the said anti-friction rollers and the journals of revolving shafts.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing is a plan of an ordinary main shaft
bearing with the improvements applied, the cap being taken off to show the
internal arrangement of the parts; Figure 2 is a vertical section of the same.
In these Figures. A represents the journal of the shaft S; B, a cast-iron
bearing; and R, R, Figure 2, the cap of the bearing B; G, G, are the cups
for the introduction of the lubricating oil which passes into the chambers H, E,
from which it ascends into the journal through the aperture 1. The anti-
friction rollers 1, 2, 1, represented separately in Figures 7 and 8, are set between
the journal A and the bearing B, and entirely surround the journal A, as seen
in transverse section, Figures 2, 4, and 6.
Figure 7 represents a series of rollers extended, and Figure 8 an end view
of the same. To lessen the friction arising from the motion the rollers?*
receive from the journal A, they are constructed of three parts, as shewn also
in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; the parts 7, being of a larger diameter than the
others, alone come in contact with the journal A, and are in contact with the
next rollers by means of the brass cylinder v. The cylinders are set on
the axle a of the rollers 7, on which they turn freely. The parts are alter-
nately set at the extremities and in the middle of the rollers, and the brass
cylinders are placed alternately on the centre and at the extremities of the
axle a.
The Figures 3 and 4 are the plan and cross section of the axle box of
a railway carriage with the improvements applied. A is the journal; B, B,
the cast-iron box; S, the axle-tree; r, r, the anti-friction rollers; v, v, brass
cylinders set on the axles of the rollers 1, r; H, chamber for the oil; I, aper-
ture through which the oil enters the space where it is taken up by the rollers
,, for lubricating the journal. The superfluous oil taken up by the rollers
ascends to the upper part of the journal into a recess C through the small
apertures 0, 0, 0, Figure 3. The oil can also be received when in excess in a
lower or independent reservoir. P, P, Figures 2, 4, 5, and 6, are screw plugs
for the discharge of oil from the chambers H, H.
Figures 5 and 6 represent in plan and cross section an axle box and journal
of an ordinary carriage with the improvements applied. In these Figures, F is
a screw cap, serving to close the oil reservoir; E, a nut screwed on to the
extremity of the journal A; S, the axle-tree; B, the bearing; ", r, the anti-
friction rollers; and P, the discharge plug.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner

page_text: of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not con-
fine myself to the precise details herein laid down; but what I claim is, the
employment of anti-friction rollers for lessening the friction of the journals of
revolving shafts and the arrangements for lubricating the same, as herein-
before described and referred to in the Figures of the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Gilbee, have hereto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
HY GILBEE. (L.S.)