Improvements in Furniture Castors.
Year: 1896

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Furniture Castors.
I, CHARLES WELLIN of 45 Acton Street, Gray's Inn Road, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be
as follows:-
This invention relates to the construction of Castors for Furniture, in such a manner
as to reduce the friction to a minimum and consequently enable the Castor to swivel
in all directions, and to prevent the breaking of the Castor through the side pressure
of the article of furniture. The construction is very simple, and is performed in the
following manner :-
The two arms of the fork which carries the roller, are jointed, a little above the
roller, by a cross-piece or block which is provided, in the centre of its top part, with a
hole of about one eighth of an inch deep, and shaped like the smaller end of an egg;
in the said hole rests the lower end of the central pin or pivot of the Castor; this
lower end of the pivot is shaped like the hole of the cross piece or block, but is of a
smaller size in order to be able to revolve freely in it.
Above the said cross-piece or block; at about half an inch distance, there is a second
cross-piece fixed to the upper part of the fork; this second or top cross-piece is
pierced throughout with a vertical circular hole in which a collar is inserted, and
through which the central pin or pivot of the Castor passes. This collar can turn
freely inside the hole of the cross-piece and round the pivot.
A small pin is forced into a horizontal hole provided in the pivot immediately under
the top cross-piece, so as to prevent the pivot from getting out. Instead of a pin, a
flange may be attached to the pivot.
In another arrangement instead of the top cross-piece being firmly fixed to the
fork, it has a slight rocking movement between the arms of the fork, so as to
allow the walls of the circular hole and of the collar to preserve their parallelism
with the direction of the pivot, and thus reduce the friction, during the swivelling of
the Castor, to a minimum.
The only part upon which the pivot rests, and which bears all the weight of the
article of furniture is the egg shaped bottom of the hole in the lower cross-piece or
block, with no additional bearings.
The leverage necessary to allow the easy swivelling of the Castor, does not need, in
this arrangement, to excede one eighth of an inch, and thus this Castor may
practically be called an upright one.
The pivot of the Castor is, as in the ordinary Casters, attached to the article of
furniture either by means of the usual cup or by screw or screws.
Dated this 8th day of September 1896.

page_text: I CHARLES WELLIN, Civil Engineer of 45 Acton Street, Gray's Inn Road,
London, W.C. 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 relates to the construction of castors for furniture in such wise as to
reduce friction to a minimum, and consequently to enable the castors to readily
Bwivel or turn in any direction and to prevent undue wear and breaking of the castor
through side presure of the article of furniture or any obstruction or uneveness of the
surface over which such articles may be moved.
The construction is very simple and is carried out in manner following, that is
to say:
Annexed hereto is a sheet of drawings wherein is represented a construction
according to this invention and in the following description the same will be referred
to by figures and letters, like letters denoting similar parts.
Fig. 1 is a side view of the castor.
Fig. 1, is a plan of the loose bush, between the central pivot of the castor and the
central hole of the runner frame or trail-piece of the castor.
Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view as seen from left hand side of Fig 1, taken at
line xx.
Fig. 3 is a somewhat similar view to that of Fig. 2 but only partly in
section.
A, indicates any supporting portion of an article to which the castor may be
applied; as, for instance, a table, bedstead pianoforte, side-board or the like.
a, is the central pivot or pin of the castor; a¹ is an attachment disc (it may form
the base of a cup) of a piece with the pin a, or securely fastened thereto.
The pin a, enters into the supporting portion A, of the article, when it is so
prolonged, but in any case the disc a¹, will bear solidly against the supporting
portion A, and will be attached as by screws a².
The lower prolongation of the pin a, is terminated with a rounded or coned end,
and is passed through a central hole of the upper cross bar b, of the trail piece B,
wherein is mounted the axle of the runner C. The trail piece B, is further furnished
with a cross-piece b' having a centrally situated depression or hollow to serve as a
footstep for the lower end of the pin a, which will be fitted so as to take a free bearing
in said footstep.
The central hole in the upper cross bar b, of the trail piece B, is shaped conically,
to receive the loose bush or collar piece 62, which is exteriorly coned to fit the hole of
the bar b, but interiorly bored to fit the centre pin a. When the parts have been
fitted a cotter pin d, is fitted to the pin a which will retain the trail-piece along with
the other portions of the castor. Instead of the pin d, a flange may in some cases be
substituted.
The loose bush b², serves as a roller bearing preventing undue wear of the hole of
the trail piece and together with the footstep bar b¹, minimizing the effect of lateral
pressure.
The only part upon which the pin a, rests and which bears the weight of the article
is the footstep in the bearing piece b¹; moreover the leverage requisite to allow of
the easy swivelling of the castor, is very slight, (the degree of eccentricity of the
plane of the roller axle relatively to the axis of the pin a, clearly to be seen from
the line x, x.) and thus the castor may practically be called an "upright castor."

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
In castors as herein described the combination of the pin a, with the bearing b¹, and
bar b, having the loose bush 6, therein and surrounding the pin a, constructed and
operating as and for the purpose herein set forth.
Witness:
WALTER A. BARLOW,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Expert,
C. WELLIN,
45 Acton Street, Gray's Inn Road, W.C.
306 High Holborn, London, W.C.