Improvements in Furniture Castors.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 20th May, 1895
Complete Specification Left, 10th Feb., 1896-Accepted, 14th Mar.,
1896
Date of Application, aut may,
Complete Specification Left, 10th Feb., 1896-Accepted, 14th Mar., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Furniture Castors.
I, WILLIAM GITTINS of Aberderfyn, near Ruabon in the County of Denbigh,
Joiner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has for its object a castor which shall work with greater ease
than those at present in existence, and shall also have much less strain on the
furniture. In order that a castor may swing easily, there is generally a consider-
able leverage, otherwise it is liable to stick and cut the carpet. This leverage is
required to overcome the friction. Now by using ball bearings I am enabled to
greatly lessen this friction, and thus use a very much shorter lateral leverage. The
difficulty however hitherto with castors has been to cheaply and effectively utilise
the system of ball bearings.. I overcome this by forming or placing on the hori-
zontally rotating portion of the castor a steel or other hard horizontal plate having
an annular groove therein, and on or in the socket or other attachment to the piece
of furniture I place a second and corresponding hard grooved plate, and place in
the two grooves the small bearing balls. In order to get at the ball bearing
easily, instead of rivetting the movable portion on to the fixed portion, I use an
ordinary pin with a hole, and insert therein a split pin either with or without a washer.
The balls can be lubricated with graphite or oil or grease, or a mixture of the two,
or even be left dry.
The invention is applicable to any kind of castor except the ball castor, in which
the ball is placed with its ball on the centre line.
Dated the 17th day of Mar 1895.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of 6 Lord Street, Liverpool, Patent Agents for the Applicant.
I, WILLIAM GITTINS of Aberderfyn, near Ruabon in the County of Denbigh,
Joiner, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-..
This invention has for its object a castor which shall work with greater ease
than those at present in existence, and shall also have much less strain on the
furniture. In order that a castor may swing easily, there is generally a consider-
able leverage, otherwise it is liable to stick and cut the carpet. This leverage
is required to overcome the friction. Now, by using ball bearings, I am enabled
to greatly lessen this friction, and thus use a very much shorter lateral leverage.
The difficulty however hitherto with castors has been to cheaply and effectively
utilise the system of ball bearings. I overcome this by the invention set forth
in the following description reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in
which
Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved ball bearing castor;

page_text: Figure 2 a sectional side elevation ;
Figure 3 an end elevation thereof, and
Figure 4 a plan of the ball bearing.
I form or place, on the horizontally rotating portion A of the castor, a steel or
other hard horizontal plate B having an annular groove b therein, and on or in the
socket C or other attachment to the piece of furniture I place a second and
corresponding hard plate D with groove d and place in the two grooves the small
bearing balls E. In order to get at the ball bearings easily instead of rivetting the
movable portion A on to the fixed portion C, I use an ordinary pin F with a hole,
and insert therein a split pin G either with or without a washer. The balls can be
lubricated with graphite or oil or grease, or a mixture of the two, or even be
left dry.
.
By the use of this invention there will be much less friction between the rotating
portion A and the fixed socket C, the ball bearing reducing the friction to a
minimum, and this being the case the rotating portion A will swing much more
easily and thus the lateral leverage from the centre of the pivot of the castor
roller H to the centre of the pin F can be shorter than hitherto.
The invention is applicable to any kind of castor except the ball castor, in which
its ball is on the centre line.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
.
1. The improvement in ball bearing furniture castors, which consists in forming
or placing between the rotating portion of the castor and the fixed socket or other
attachment to the piece of furniture, horizontal annular concentric race grooves,
with the bearing balls arranged horizontally between, whereby the castor will swing
very easily and considerably less leverage is required to overcome the friction
substantially as described.
2. In ball bearing furniture castors, the arrangement for lessening friction,
which consists in forming or placing on the rotating portion of the castor, a steel
or other hard horizontal plate having an annular groove on its upper surface, and
on or in the socket or other attachment to the piece of furniture a second and corre-
sponding hard plate with a similar annular and concentric groove on its under face,
each groove.being concentric with the other, with bearing balls arranged horizontally
between, in combination with a central pin for coupling the rotary portion to the
fixed socket, substantially as described.
3. The general combined arrangement and construction of parts forming my
improved ball bearing furniture castor, substantially as described and shown on the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 8th day of February 1896.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, Patent Agents.