IMPROVEMENTS IN SUPPORTING VERTICAL AND OTHER SHAFTS, EXERTING A PRES- SURE BY GRAVITY OR OTHERWISE IN THE DIRECTION OF THEIR LENGTH, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Fairclough at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th January 1878.
JAMES FAIRCLOUGH, of 13, Carter Street, Salford, in the County of Lancaster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SUPPORTING VERTICAL AND OTHER SHAFTS, EXERTING A PRES-
SURE BY GRAVITY OR OTHERWISE IN THE DIRECTION OF THEIR LENGTH, AND IN
APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Accidents frequently happen in mills in which vertically revolving shafts are
employed owing to the heating of the footsteps through the great weight thrown
upon them, which combined with the great speed at which they are usually run
tends to cause heating. Now my Invention is designed to obviate these difficulties,
and to relieve the footstep in great part of the strain usually thrown upon it.
It consists,
I. In fitting a bush (preferably of some hard metal) on some part of the shaft,
usually near the lower end. This bush may be shrunk, keyed, bolted, or turned on,
or it may be made in two pieces bolted to clip the shaft, or fastened in any other
The lower end of the bush I furnish with a downwardly projecting flange,
manner.
a short distance from the shaft and encircling the same.
II. Below this first bush I place another bush, fitted in any convenient manner,
but arranged to be loose on the shaft and having an annular recess or groove at the
top, in which the flange of the first bush runs. This recess or groove forms in
reality both a bearing for the flange aforesaid and a receptacle for oil or other
lubricant, to enable the flange of the upper bush to run smoothly therein.
III. In the bottom of the lower bush I arrange two or more recesses, or a ring
clipped to the bush with the recesses made in it will answer the purpose.
These recesses receive projections on one end of a lever or of a collar fixed to said
lever, which is pivoted on a bracket fixed in any convenient manner near the shaft
so as to bring the fulcrum in its proper position, and which carries a weight or
series of weights at the other end, serving to counterballance the weight of the
shaft. The projections on the end of the lever fitting into the recesses on the bush
prevent it from revolving with the shaft, but allow it to rise and fall with the move-
ment of the lever.

page_text: Springs bearing upon the lower bush directly or indirectly will do instead of the
weighted lever, or hydraulic or other pressure might be used.
The mode of working is as follows:-Oil is poured into the groove of the lower
bush in which the flange of the upper one works. The lever is then weighted to
counterbalance the weight of the shaft, which is then started. The lever having a
tendency to fall at its weighted end, continually keeps the loose bush pressing
against the revolving one, and they in great measure supporting the shaft and
releiving the strain on the footstep.
It will be seen that the Invention can be modified in innumerable ways, for
instance, antifriction rollers might be interposed between the two bushes or between
the lower bush and the shaft; also the way of arranging the lever to support the
lower bush could be indefinitely varied.
This Invention will not merely apply to vertical shafts, but with a little
variation of detail to oblique and horizontal ones as well, where there is a strong
longitudinal thrust as in the case of the shafts of screw steamers, but having
described its application vertically, its chief application, it is needless to detail
further.