A METHOD OF GREATLY REDUCING THE FRICTION OF AN AXIS OR FULCRUM, USEFUL FOR ALL AXLES, WHEELS, BEAMS, LEVERS, PENDULUMS, BLOCKS, PULLEYS, AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS THAT HAVE A PARTIAL, TOTAL, OR REPEATED REVOLUTION OR OSCILLATION
Year: 1787

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
GARNETT, of Redland, in the County of Gloucester, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Sixth day of January last, upon the Petition of me, the
said John Garnett, did give and grant unto me, the said John Garnett, my,
exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge
and authority, that I, the said John Garnett, my exors, adññors, and assigns,
and every of them, by myself. and themselves, or by my and their deputy and
deputies, servants or. agents, or such others as I, the said John Garnett,
my exors, adññiors, and assigns, should agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years. therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of
His Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention of "A METHOD OF GREATLY
REDUCING THE FRICTION OF AN AXIS OR FULCRUM, USEFUL FOR ALL AXLES, WHEELS,
BEAMS, LEVERS, PENDULUMS, BLOCKS, PULLEYS, AND OTHER INSTRUMENTS THAT HAVE
A PARTIAL, TOTAL, OR REPEATED REVOLUTION OR OSCILLATION," in such manner as
to me, the said John Garnett, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or any of them,
should in my, his, or their discretions seem meet, and that I, the said John
Garnett, my exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and
enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time
coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for
and during the term of years therein mentioned; and it is by the said in

page_text: part recited Letters Patent (amongst other provisoes therein) declared and
provided that if I, the said John Garnett, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause
the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within
two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the said Letters Patent (relation being thereunto
had) may more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Garnett, do hereby declare that my said Invention of A Method of
Greatly Reducing the Friction of an Axis or Fulcrum, useful for all Axles
Wheels, Beams, Levers, Pendulums, Blocks, Pulleys, and other Instruments
that have a Partial; Total, or Repeated Revolution or Oscillation, is per-
formed in the manner following, and the principle thus described (that is
to say) -
Let A, A, be a right section of the common ordinary axle of a wheel or
pulley, which may be either solid or hollow. Around and upon this axle, and
in contact with it, let any convenient number of cylinders or cones, or conic
frusta, of dimensions exactly equal each to the other (which call rollers) be ranged
(the nearer the better, if they do not touch, as R, R, R). Then, either apart
or within the circumference of a wheel or pulley, let a circular cavity be made
or inserted, of any material, of such diameter as shall contain the aforesaid
rollers so engirting their axle, which circular ring as B, B, call a container.
If now either the axle A, A, or container B, B, or both, be made to revolve, it
will cause the rollers to move by pressure on some of them, both round the
convex axle and internal concave surface of the container. The rollers,
whether conic or cylindric, may be either continuous in length, or interrupted
by grooves, or divided into parts by a section or sections; or they may be
reduced to a spheric, or when divided into parts of any right-lined or curved
form, having an axis and container adapted to them, the essential circum-
stance being the keeping the rollers separate, that is, from touching each
other, without their being attached either to the axis or container, and without
the encumbent load being borne by the separating principle.
It remains now to specify some of the various modes, among others, that
will readily occur to every intelligent workman when he once knows that such
separation is essential to any regular effect. And, first, let one or more annuli
or polygons of wood, metal, or other substance, of any thickness, and of such

page_text: diameter C, D, and breadth C, c, as shall touch neither axle nor container,
with a number of holes h, h, or notches n, n, or pivots equal to the number of
rollers, be fitted to correspondent pivots or holes in the extremes or any part or
parts of the rollers, and the rollers, by means of their pivots or holes, will be
kept asunder, while they are free to revolve on in their orbit with the attendant
and separating annuli. The annuli, where strength is required, may be fixt
together by barrs or other connectives between the rollers, which would make
a complete hollow cylinder or cone or conic frustum (according to the
system), interrupted only by the cavities in which the rollers are placed, and
which method will, perhaps, best secure the rollers in their orbit, or from
twisting, and the lateral shaking of the annuli on the holes or pivots may be
regulated by screws in the annulus acting on the pivots, either in a direction
from the axle towards the container, or from the container to the axle.
Secondly, chains of metal, or bands of leather, catgut, silk, hemp, or any
other jointed or flexible substance, or circles or plates of metal, wood, or other
inflexible substance, may surround in a groove, or otherwise connect every two-
next rollers of the system, and perfectly accord with the motion of the rollers,
while they attend and separate them in their revolution analagously to the
annuli. The chains or bands are represented at the Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and
5, 6, 7, 4. The circles or plates are represented at 2.
Thirdly, if the axle rollers and container be properly cogged or teeth'd,
revolution may take place, and the like effect of separation be secured.
Or, fourthly, it may be done by various ways of interposing between the
rollers other rollers, as at I, of less diameter, which touch neither axle nor
container, but prevent the touching of every two larger rollers they are severally
interposed between. If the axle be made hollow, another axle, of any form,
as X, may be placed within its cavity, and reposed on and within any soft or
elastic substance. If the container with the system be fixt under a waggon or
other carriage, the axle may project, and be fixt into any wheel with which it
would then revolve, as will be the case in the application of this principle to
millwork and most other machinery where the container must generally be
fixt and the axle revolve. On the contrary, when the rollers are placed in a
sheeve, or in the nave or stock of a wheel, it is the container that revolves
while the axle is fixt. In some machines it may be necessary to fix the
annulus or annuli, and while either axle or container is made to revolve, the
rollers will only turn on their own centers without any orbicular revolution,
and the axle and container will have opposite motions. In a ballance beam
or pendulum, or other vibratory motion, two rollers may be sufficient, and in
some cases of total as well as of partial revolution only a portion cither of the

page_text: axis or container will be wanting. The rollers may be preserved in the path
of their orbit by grooves or projections in the container or axle, to which they
must be adapted, and by shoulders to the axle acting on the nearest part of
the rollers the side friction of either the sheeve of.a block or a wheel will be
considerably lessened. It may be necessary to add, that when the rollers or
cones or conic frusta, the axle and container must be also.cones or conic frusta,
of such divergence as would all meet (if continued) in the same apex.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Garnett, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of February, in the twenty-seventh
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, King of
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven.