IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATORS FOR CARRIAGE AXLES AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATORS FOR CARRIAGE AXLES AND OTHER PURPOSES."
-A communication from abroad by Jesse Scott Eggleston, of
Auburn, in the County of Cayuga and State of New York, United
States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th June 1872.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LUBRICATORS FOR CARRIAGE AXLES
AND OTHER PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to furnish convenient and effective
means for lubricating metallic frictional surfaces, designed more especially

page_text: for carriage axles and boxes of revolving journals, but applicable to other
purposes. It consists in an oil reservoir or chamber and plate cover for
the chamber, with one or more wick tubes or wick orifices in the cover
or attached thereto; with a wick or wicks therein, and with one or more
openings in or around the plate for the return of the oil to the chamber,
the construction and arrangement being as herein-after more fully set
forth and described.
In the Drawing accompanying this Specification the mode of applying
the Invention to a railway carriage axle is illustrated, in which A is
the carriage axle journal; B is the bearing box; C, the lower portion
of the box which contains an oil reservoir or chamber D. This box C
is arranged so that it will slide in and out beneath the journal when
the shutter E is raised, and to allow it to pass the collar T on the end
of the axle journal; when it is removed a spring G (one or more) is
arranged beneath the box C which bears the box and lubricator up
to the axle journal with a constant pressure and allows it to be pressed
down for removal as before stated. To keep the box steady and in
_place there are grooves in the bottom side of the box C, and ways or
ribs I, I, on the bottom of the shell J. The oil-reservoir-D-may-connect_
with the journal in any manner, either by a slot to the chamber, or the
full width of the chamber may extend to the journal as may be desired.
R is the covering plate to which is attached one or more wick tubes L
(or some other imode of supporting the wick is provided), in which tube
or tubes or orifices is placed a wick M which extends down into the oil and
up through the plate K in contact with the journal or frictional surface,
which raises the oil by capillary attraction. On the edge of the plate are
one or more recesses which allow the oil to return to the reservoir. There
may be one or more orifices through the plate for this purpose, or the
plate may be made to fit so loosely over the chamber or reservoir that
the oil will return. This returning of the oil to the reservoir after it has
been raised by capillary attraction and been spread over the frictional
surface by rapid motion is an essential feature of the Invention.
In applying the Invention to the axles of carriages and other vehicles
I form the oil reservoir or chamber D in the axle and apply the plate K
and wick M thereto. The shoulders or collars at the ends of the axle
prevent the escape of oil; the ends of the capillaries being in constant
⚫contact with the moving frictional surface, whether such surface be on
a railway carriage axle or the box of a vehicle wheel, carry up the

page_text: lubricating oil which is constantly being wiped from it by the rapid
motion, and spread in cach direction until the frictional surface is
completely covered, when any surplus oil will find its way back to the
reservoir through the openings before described.
The plate K is a flat or plain surface, and there will necessarily be a
small recess between it and the moving surface which facilitates the
return of the oil.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Melville Clark, Her special
licence that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my executors, adminis-
|trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Melville
Clark, 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 LUBRICATORS FOR CARRIAGE AXLES AND OTHER PURPOSES," a
communication to me from abroad by Jesse Scott Eggleston, of Auburn,
in the County of Cayuga and State of New York, United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander
Melville Clark, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be

page_text: on the bottom of the shell J. The oil reservoir D may connect with the
journal in any manner, either by a slot to the chamber, or the full width
of the chamber may extend to the journal, as may be desired. K is the
covering plate, to which is attached one or more wick tubes L (or some
other mode of supporting the wick is provided), in which tube or tubes
or orifice is placed a wick M, which extends down into the oil and up
through the plate K in contact with the journal or frictional surface,
which raises the oil by capillary attraction. On the edge of the plate
are one or more recesses n, which allow the oil to return to the reservoir.
There may be one or more orifices through the plate for this purpose, or
the plate may be made to fit so loosely over the chamber or reservoir
that the oil will return. This returning of the oil to the reservoir after
it has been raised by capillary attraction and been spread over the
frictional surface by rapid motion is an essential feature of this
Invention.
In applying the Invention to the axles of carriages and other vehicles
I form the oil reservoir or chamber D in the axle and apply the plate K
thereto, as seen in the Drawing. The shoulders or collars at the ends of
the axle prevent the escape of oil. The ends of the capillaries being in
constant contact with the moving frictional surface, whether such
surface be on a railway carriage axle or the box of an ordinary vehicle
wheel, carries up the lubricating oil which is constantly being wiped
from it by the rapid motion and spread in each direction until the
frictional surface is completely covered, when any surplus oil will find
its way back to the reservoir through the openings before described.
The plate K is a flat or plain surface, and there will necessarily be a
small recess between it and the moving surface, which facilitates the
return of the oil.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim as the Invention
to be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
1st. A lubricator, consisting of a plate K, having one or more tubes L
and wick M with return openings n in combination with an oil reservoir,
substantially as shown and described.
2ndly. Openings n or their equivalent between the moving frictional
surface and the reservoir, substantially as and for the purpose described.

page_text: 3rdly. The combination of such opening with a capillary tube, as and
for the purpose described.
4thly. The oil reservoir D in combination with a capillary tube and
opening n, as and for the
purpose described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark have 5
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-
two.
Witness,
JAS. O. DEWEY,
53, Chancery Lane,
London.
A. M. CLARK. (L.S.)