IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER OR WHEEL SKATES
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Clark at the Office of the
Cominissioners of Patents on the 21st April 1877.
GEORGE CLARK, of 13, Howard Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex.
'IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLER OR WHEEL SKATES."
This Invention consists in a combination of the application of the wheel or roller
known as the castor wheel or roller, so placed and fixed on the foot stand of a
roller skate that the pivots of tho castor wheels shall be at opposite ends or
extremities of the foot board, as described in the Provisional Specification for which
protection was granted to me, No. 3419, dated August 30th, A.D. 1876, in combina-
tion with a mechanical arrangement or contrivance whereby the skater is enabled
to cause the skate to travel or be directed and maintained in a straight line, or in
curves to the right or to the left, at the will and intention of the skater.
In carrying out my Invention I adopt mainly the following arrangements:-
==
1st. I apply to the wheels of roller skates axles, attached to the frames of castor
wheels, turning or revolving laterally on (or by means of) ball-and-socket pivots, or
any other system of pivotting action, and in fastening the plugs of the pivots by
means of plates or otherwise to the stock or foot board of the skate at the opposite
extremities so that the castor frame with the axles and wheels attached to it shall
turn freely from right to left, and so that each pivot and castor frame being so
attached to the said stock or foot board with the pivot at each extremity thereof.
The pivot or pivots of the castor frame shall be at their ends respectively outside,
and the frames thereof, with the axles and wheels attached to the said frames, inside
and under the said stock or foot board. The result of this disposition of the castor
pivots and wheels being to cause the wheels to converge and diverge simultaneously
by means (or in consequence of) the resistance of the skating floor to the pressure of
the wheels of the skate thereon, wherever a curvilinear direction is imparted to
the skates by the voluntary turning of the skater's body to the right or to the left.
When by the action of his feet he has put the skates in motion, forwards or back-
wards, the said curvilinear direction of the skate is facilitated by the skater
throwing the weight of his body towards the inside of the curve in which he
wishes the skate to turn. The wheels may be attached to the castor frames at the
extremities of the foot board, either in pairs attached to one castor frame, or each
wheel to one castor frame, or one wheel only may be attached to each extremity of
Price dl

page_text: the foot board, in the manner above described, but in this last case a pair of wheels
at the two extremities of an axle fixed across the centre of the foot board, with the
wheels under or outside the foot board, will have to be attached to such foot board
in order to maintain the stability and equilibrium of the skater.
The second part of my Invention consists in connecting the axles of the wheels
at each extremity of the foot board with each other, or with the foot board itself by
means of a spring or springs, or by connecting the axles by means of T pieces or
projecting plates working at the centre on a pivot on one plate and a slot on the
other plate, with or without rocking pins, having forks with their prongs on each
side of the said pieces or projecting plates, so that by one or the other of these
contrivances the axles when in their normal position at each extremity of the foot
board will be brought to and maintained in a straight line when not set in motion
by the skater, or when lifted off the floor.
The third part of my Invention consists in a mechanical contrivance or arrange-
ment, connected with a rocking or a rolling plate or foot stand, fastened or attached
to the stock or foot board, in combination with suitable springs for regulating and
controlling the to-and-fro motion of the said plate or foot stand by means of the
weight of the skater's body with his feet on the said plate or foot stand, so that by
causing the said plate or foot stand to press on a longitudinal plate or plates,
attached to or pressing on the axles of the wheels at both extremities of the foot
board, the bottom of the plate or foot stand along its central line, longitudinally,
shall press on the said plates by means of the weight of the skater, he maintaining
the aforesaid plate or foot stand in a horizontal position, and thereby locking the
wheels, and compelling them to travel in a straight line when propelled by the
skater. To release the wheels from pressure by turning, rocking, or rolling the
foot stand or plate from right to left at the will of the skater the wheels will
converge, and diverge, and take curvilinear direction by their action on the floor,
in the manner above described.
For locking or releasing the wheels of the said roller skates above referred to
various arrangements or contrivances may be used, as will be readily understood.