IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LUBRICATING AND KEEPING CLEAN THE JOURNALS OF RAILWAY VEHICLES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Harris Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd August 1878. A communication
from abroad by Samuel Norris, of the City and State of New York, United
States of America, Gentleman.
HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Office of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LUBRICATING AND
KEEPING CLEAN THE JOURNALS OF RAILWAY VEHICLES." [A communication from
abroad by Samuel Norris, of the City and State of New York, United States of
America, Gentleman.]
This Invention relates to a device for bringing up the oil to the journals of the
axles of railway carriages, and for wiping the dirt and other impurities from the
said journals; and the said Invention comprises novel features, herein-after set
forth, whereby the conductors of oil from the lower part of the axle box are inade
by the gravity or weight of parts of the structure to bear against the journal and
adapt themselves to it as the brasses or other parts are worn away.
The said Invention also comprises the combination with the journal and axle box
of a railway carriage of strips of felt or equivalent textile fabric, extending from the
lower part of the axle box up against the sides of the journal, the said strips of felt
or other textile fabric being connected together and supported upon rollers, whereby
they are made to move together in adapting themselves to the motion of the journal
in the axle box.
In carrying the said Invention into practice I provide two frames, which are
jointed together upon an axis, and preferably provided with rollers a, a, at their
lower ends to rest upon the lower plate of the axle box to facilitate the self-
adjustinent of the oilers and wipers to the axle, the rollers giving greater ease of
motion to the said frames upon the bottom of the axle box. The upper part of each
of these frames is formed of a plate, which is reticulated to allow free exit to the
superfluous oil and other matters. Strips of felt are attached by stitches or other-
wise to the said plates, and extend upward from the bottom of the axle box to the
sides of the axle. These strips of felt by capillary attraction take the oil from the

page_text: lower part of the axle box and convey it to the axle, so the axle is always supplied
with oil so long as there is any in the axle box to supply it. They also have tho
further advantage of wiping the journal constantly, so that any dirt or other
impurities which would otherwise gather upon the journal and cause it to cut into
the box are taken off and transferred to the felt where they do no very material
harm.
I have described the strips of felt as being sewed or stitched to the platos, but
they may be attached to other and separate plates, which are adapted to fit upon
the first-named plates, or upon the end pieces thereof, in such a manner as to securo
such separate plates in position, and at the same time make them removable, with-
out the necessity of removing the aforesaid frames from the axle box at all, as, for
example, they might be attached to separate plates fitted to dovetail into the first-
named plates, or to separate plates, having pins or projections to fit into some of the
holes in the first-named plates to hold them in place, when it is obvious that tho
felt might be removed and replaced without removing the frames from the axle
box
I also provide a plate which is placed in the lower part of the axle box to keep
the said frames in place. It may be supported on legs; these legs may be made
flat and placed opposite the aforesaid rollers, and made to operate as stops to the said
rollers so as to prevent their going beyond a certain position if found desirable.
This plato also serves the further and important purpose of checking the surging of
the oil in the axle box, which would otherwise be caused by the motion of the
truck in passing over the inequalities of the road, and effectually keeps it from
being thrown out of the axle box by such motion and wasted upon the wheels of
the carriage, thereby effecting a very great saving in lubricating material.
In the foregoing description I have described the strips as being kept up against
the axle by the weight of the frames, and I regard the device for keeping the said
strips in contact with the journal as an important part of the said Invention, but
the said strips extending from the lower part of the axle box up against the sides
of the journal, and connected so as to move together in adapting themselves to the
vibrations of the journal, and thereby preserve the contact of both with the journal
present important advantages irrespective of the particular device by which they
are kept in contact with the said sides; and their combination with the journal
irrespective of the mode of applying yielding pressure to keep them in such contact
and adapt them to the position of the journal is also an important part of the said
Invention.
The form of the frames is such that their weight resting upon the said rollers
tends to bring the felt in contact with the axle, and therefore they will always
bear upon the journal from the force of gravity of the parts, and no springs are
necessary to keep them against the journal and in operative position.