A NEW SYSTEM OF APPARATUS FOR GREASING OB LUBRICATING AXLES AND OTHER ROTATING. PORTIONS OF CARRIAGES AND OF MACHINERY
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Pierre Etienne Proust, of Orléans, in the Department
of Loiret (Empire of France), and of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City),
London, for the Invention of "A NEW SYSTEM OF APPARATUS FOR GREASING
OB LUBRICATING AXLES AND OTHER ROTATING. PORTIONS OF CARRIAGES AND OF
MACHINERY."
Sealed the 8th December 1854, and dated the 11th October 1854.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Pierre Etienne Proust at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declara-"
tion, on the 11th October 1854, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
I, PIERRE ETIENNE PROUST, of Orléans, in the Department of Loiret (Empire
of France), and of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City), London, do hereby declare
the nature of my Invention for "A NEW SYSTEM OF APPARATUS FOR GREASING
OR LUBRICATING AXLES AND OTHER ROTATING PORTIONS OF CARRIAGES, AND OP.
MACHINERY to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a combination of apparatus for preventing the
journals of axles, shafts, and other rotating portions of machinery from getting
heated by the want of lubricating or cooling matter. This combination of "
apparatus is so contrived as to cause in a self-acting way, and when required,.
the introduction of water into the grease box or lubricating vessel, and this I

page_text: effect by means of a syphon, one branch of which dips into the grease box, and
the other into an air-tight vessel, fitted on to or surrounding the common
greasing apparatus, and filled with water, for which reason I desire this Inven-
tion to be styled the hydro-syphoid lubricating system. This system, it is
presumed, being especially useful in its adaptation to the grease boxes of
railway carriages, I shall mention that the object of this application will be to
reduce the consumption of lubricating matter, as well as to render more
regular the progress of trains, which is at present very often retarded, either
by the necessity of filling the grease boxes, which in their present mode of
working, consuming a great quantity of grease, get very soon empty, or on
account of the heating of the journals, which often endangers the safety of the
. train, and which it is now generally sought to stop, by throwing cold water
upon the heated parts, which requires a good deal of time, and is a nuisance
in working the railway. Although different means have been tried to remove
this difficulty in "keeping the journals cool, none of them has been found
applicable, because only grease or oil have been employed, which, being most
inflammable substances, cannot be used with safety for stopping the progress of
the heating. The novelty of this Invention consists in remedying these evils
bý a ready means of applying any liquid cooling matter, such as water, which
might mix with or be added to the grease or oil without altering thereby the
metals; and in order to shew the applicability of this system to the greasing
apparatus now in use, I have represented on the annexed Sheets of Drawings
various views of a railway grease box as used on some lines, fitted up according
to the hydro-syphoid system.
Fig. 1, Sheet 1, is a longitudinal vertical section of the grease box, through
the centre line of the grease box or axle X. Fig. 2, Sheet 1, is an end view
of the same, partly in section, through the line c, d, Fig. 1. Fig. 3, Sheet 2,
is an under plan of the grease box. Fig. 4, Sheet 2, is a top view, partly in
section, through the line e, f, Fig. 2. A. is a reservoir or cavity arranged
outside around the box, and containing a suitable quantity of water, about two
quarts in this case.
This reservoir is filled by the opening B, which is then closed air-tight by
any stopping contrivance, such as the flat lid C, lever D, and inclined pro-
jection E, shewn at Figs. 1, 2, 4. The grease box proper, F, does not differ
materially from those now in use; its lower part G under the axle commu-
nicates with the outer or water reservoir by means of the syphon H, Fig. 1.
The grease box F having been replenished with lubricating matter, as usual,
through the opening I, as soon as the undue rotary friction of the axle journal
or the temperature of the atmosphere should cause a sufficient heat for melting

page_text: the lubricating matter, the water surrounding the box is also heated sufficiently
to exert by its steam á pressure, which causes a certain quantity of water to
pass through the syphon H into the bottom part G of the grease box, where
also the melted greasing matter is collected, the quantity of water thus passing
into the grease box depending on the degree of heat evolved. The water and
grease thus heated to a certain degree mix very easily, and form a soapy or
fatty liquid, in which all hard or foreign matters which may have got into the
greasing apparatus do settle down. The axle journal, being immersed partly
in this fatty liquid, will thus be prevented from getting over hot, thus dis-
pensing with the necessity of renewing very often the greasing matter, and
affording a perfect safety from accidents, which may otherwise arise through
the neglect of the greasers.
This system, as shewn with respect to grease boxes of railway carriages,
may also be applied with very slight modifications to other rotating portions of
machinery, such as journals of main ranges of shafting, footsteps of upright
shafts, pedestals of propeller, screw, and paddle wheel shafts, &c.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it to be understood that what
I claim, as secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent
is, the application to greasing or lubricating apparatus of axles, shafts, and
other rotating portions of carriages, and of machinery of an air-tight reservoir
containing water, which, being heated by the friction of the rotating portion, is
caused to pass through a syphon into the box containing the lubricating matter,
and there to mix with it, for the purpose above described, and in the manner
herein-before exemplified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Pierre Etienne Proust, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of October, in the year of our
PIERRE ETIENNE PROUST. (L.S.).