IMPROVEMENTS IN GREASE CUPS OR APPARATUS FOR LUBRICATING MACHINERY
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Claude Nicolas Leroy, of 7, Rue Eugénie,
Levallois-Perret, near Paris, in the Empire of France, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GREASE CUPS OR APPARATUS FOR
LUBRICATING MACHINERY."
Sealed the 18th September 1868, and dated the 23rd March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Claude Nicolas Leroy
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 23rd March 1868.
I, CLAUDE NICOLAS LEROY, of 7, Rue Eugénie, Levallois-Perret, near
Paris, in the Empire of France, do hereby declare the naturo of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GREASE CUPS OR APPARATUS FOR LUBRICATING
MACHINERY," to be as follows :—
This Invention has for its object improvements in grease cups or
apparatus for lubricating machinery, and is applicable when lubricating
matters which are not liquid are employed. In connection with a
pipe or passage leading to the bearing or surface to be lubricated is a
cup containing the lubricating matter, and within the cup is a weighted
piston resting on the matter in the cup and forcing it down the pipe
or passage.

page_text: According to my Invention in place of making the piston as a simple
block of metal as heretofore in such apparatus, I provide it with a
cupped leather so that it may fit perfectly truly and allow no escape
of the lubricant to its upper surface. In order that this piston may
be readily taken out when the cup requires replenishing, I form a
passage through it fitted with a valve, which when the piston is lifted
opens inwards and admits air to the cup. I apply a coiled spring to
press on the upper surface of the piston in place of loading it as hereto-
fore. Also, I make the cup of glass, so that the working of the apparatus
may be observed without trouble.
These several improvements may if desired be employed independently
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Claude Nicolas Leroy in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 22nd September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CLAUDE
NICOLAS LEROY, of No. 7, Rue Eugénie, Levallois-Perret, near Paris, in
the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Claude Nicolas Leroy, Her special licence
that I, the said Claude Nicolas Leroy, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Claude Nicolas Leroy, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
GREASE CUPS OR APPARATUS FOR LUBRICATING MACHINERY," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Claude Nicolas Leroy, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be

page_text: performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Claude Nicolas Leroy, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement and accompanying Drawings, that is to
say:
This Invention relates to grease boxes or cups whose lubricating
medium is not liquid, such cups or boxes being constructed either of
metal, crystal, or glass, which latter admit of seeing the working of the
apparatus without the necessity of taking it to pieces, and consists, first,
in the application to the cups above mentioned of a piston with stamped
leather working in the body of the box, and furnished with a leather
valve admitting air into the body without causing a vacuum in the
interior; and, secondly, in the adaptation of a spring of some kind of a
counterpoise so regulated as to exercise a constant pressure on the piston
for compressing the grease employed for lubricating.
The accompanying Drawings aided by the following description of
the several parts illustrated therein will fully explain the nature of the
Invention, the same letters of reference indicating like parts shown in
the various Figures of which Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a metal
grease box or cup, of which a is the body furnished with a piston b with
stamped leather j for making the piston fit closely in the box, and
receiving pressure from the spiral spring c under the lid d of the grease
cup or box.
Fig. 2 represents a sectional elevation of the piston 6 shewing
the leather valve e opening inwards or from top to bottom; Fig. 3
is a plan of the piston 6 seen from below so as to shew the valve e.
Fig. 4 is a vertical section of a crystal grease box or cup a furnished
with a piston b and leather j as before, and lower valve for the
admission of air; in this Figure the pressure is produced on the piston
by means of small iron shot g placed above and acting by their weight.
In grease boxes and pistons constructed completely of metal, the chief
objection or inconvenience is the adjustment or fitting of the piston in
the body of the box as in exercising a pressure on the piston, the grease
runs along the sides and passing above the piston diminishes its power.

page_text: In order to remedy this inconvenience I adapt to my pistons as shewn
in the Figures 1, 2, and 4, a piece of stamped leather which fits closely
and evenly the sides of the body of the box, so that when pressure is
exercised on the piston the grease instead of passing between the piston
and the body tends on the contrary to make the leather fit even more
closely to the sides. The valve e, Figures 2 and 3, which I fix on the
lower surface of the piston, can from the nature of the latter be more
perfectly adjusted. If there was no valve opening inwards or from top
to bottom admitting air when raising the piston the vacuum would be
produced below and the grease would rise with the piston. When the
piston is under the influence of pressure by means of the spring or of the
counterbalance the valve is perfectly closed by its application to the
surface of the grease. The spring of the piston is destined to replace
the shot with which the piston is weighted so as to produce a constant
and regular pressure.
Having thus described my Invention, what I claim and desire to
secure by Letters Patent is,-
First. The employment of a piston furnished with leather as described,
and having a leather valve as illustrated by the accompanying
Drawings.
Secondly. The application of the spring or counterpoise for regulating
and exercising a constant and regular pressure on the piston so as to
compress the grease employed for lubricating.
And, thirdly. The employment of the cystal or glass body to the box
precisely in the manner and for the purposes herein-before set forth and
illustrated by the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Claude Nicolas Leroy, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this
day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.
Witness,
E. HÉBRÉ.
CLAUDE NICOLAS LEROY. (L.S.)