A NEW OR IMPROVED CASTOR OR ROLLER FOR TABLES, SOPAS, BEDSTEADS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1816

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LEBERECHT STEINHAUSER, of Old Bond Street, in the County of Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Twenty-third day of March now last, for Himself, His heirs and
successors, did give and grant unto me, the said John Leberecht Steinhauser,
my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said John Leberecht Steinhauser, my exors, admors,
and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my and their
deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said John
Leberecht Steinhauser, my exors, adiňors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter, during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend my Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED CASTOR OR ROLLER FOR TABLES,
SOPAS, BEDSTEADS, AND OTHER ARTICLES," within that part of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso obliging me, the said John Leberecht Steinhauser, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately after the.

page_text: date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Leberecht Steinhauser, do. hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are par-
ticularly described and ascertained in manner following, that is to say:
The nature of my said Invention and the object of the same is the pro-
duction and application of a certain improvement or improvements herein-
after described, to the apparatus or machine which is commonly known and
understood by the name or appellation of a castor or universal roller, and
usually applied and used on the feet or supports or the lower parts of massive
articles of domestic furniture, or any other articles which require to be moved
with safety from place to place on a floor or hard surface; and I do declare
that I do produce the said improvement or improvements by applying and
using small rollers between the socket or box of the common castor and the
spindle or centre pin or piece of the wheel of the castor, for the purpose of
reducing the friction between those working parts. And I do declare that I
rerform the same according to the following particular description, having
references to the several Figures or Drawings which shew my different
arrangements of my said improvement or improvements, and my different
methods of applying them (that is to say):-
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a. geometrical side view of a castor or roller, in
which A, A, is the socket or box; B, B, the frame or piece. which holds the
wheel C, C, and C, C, the wheel itself. Figure 2 is a section through the
length of the Figure 1, in which the inner part of the socket or box A, A, is
shewn. In the lower part a, a, of the said socket or box I, make a cavity or
cavities, in which I place three or more small rollers, two of which are seen
in this Figure at E, E, and an arrangement of three such small rollers are seen
in the Figure 3, which is a geometrical horizontal view of the said socket or
box of the castor. I place or set the said small rollers. E, E, E, in an inclined
or oblique position to the perpendicular direction P, P, (Figure 2) in which
the weight acts upon the castor, and a portion of the spindle or centre pin D
is made taper or conical to the same angle of inclination or obliquity, so that
the incumbent weight of the article to which the castor is applied is thus
brought to act upon the spindle or centre piece or pin D through the means
of the small rollers E; E, E, which produces my improvement by reducing the
friction between the working parts, and thereby facilitating the action of the
castor. I declare that I do not claim as my Invention or improvement any
of those parts of the castor which are already well known and used, but only

page_text: the application and use of three or more small rollers between the working
parts of the castor, that is to say, the socket or box and the spindle or center
pin or piece, as described with reference to the Figure. 2. Figure 4 is a
separate view of the spindle or center pin D, and in each of these-Figures,
viz', Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, the same letters of reference are set respectively
to the same parts.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, are- different views of an application of my
said improvement to a castor, in which the parts are differently formed and.
arranged so as to apply to articles which do not require a socket or box
as the Figure 1 has. Figure 5 is a geometrical side view of this castor.
A, A, the flat face or plate 'which is applied to the under surface of the
article requiring the castor. B, B, the part containing the rollers E, E, E.
C, C, the frame or piece which holds the wheel D, D. Figure 6 is a geo-
metrical front view of the same, in which the same things are marked
5 respectively with the same letters of reference. Figure 7 is a geometrical
section of the castor, in which the parts referred to in Figure 5 by letters are
here also marked respectively with the same letters. E, E, are two of three
rollers which are placed as in Figure 2, and which apply themselves with the
incumbent weight of the article to which the castor is applied or attached to
the surface of the conical spindle F, which is perforated, the perforation being
shewn at G, in Figure 9. A pin or center piece, shewn at H, in Figure 8,
connects the plate A, A, with the conical spindle F; and the rest of the castor.
Figure 9 shews the perforated spindle F, as separated from the castor, the
upper end of the perforation being visible at G. I here declare that I set or
5 place the small friction rollers E, E, E, in Figures 2 and 7, to any angle of
obliquity or quantity of inclination or bevel, according to the circumstances of
the incumbent weight of the article to which the castor is to be applied, or
the freedom with which the castor is required to act, for I declare that I find
in practice that angle or quantity of inclination to be most effectual which is
O nearest to the horizontal position, or farthest removed from the perpendicular
position. Therefore I further specify and describe the following arrangement
as the most effectual in practice in cases where the load and friction is the
greatest (that is to say) in Figures 10, 11, and 12. Figure 10 is a geome-
trical side view of the castor, and Figure 11 is a geometrical front view of the
same. Figure 12 is a vertical section of the Figure 10, in which the socket
or box, the spindle or center pin, and the wheel of the castor are respectively
marked with the same letters of reference as in Figures 1 and 2. In the
Figure 12 the spindle D has a flanch which is square or at right angles to
its axis or length, and on a part of the upper surface thereof the rollers E, E,

page_text: apply themselves with the incumbent weight of the machine or article to which
the castor is applied as before specified and described for the Figure 1.
Figure 13 is an horizontal section of the Figure 12, shewing the situation of
the rollers E, E, E. Figure 14, one of the rollers seen separately. Figure 15,
the spindle or center pin seen separately, having its flanch marked with the
letters of reference K, K, as in Figure 12. I also further declare that in
practice I find it best to make the frame or arm B, B, of such form and
figure as may bring the perpendicular pressure or weight or bearing of the
load on the castor, one quarter and one sixteenth of an inch distant from the
centre of the wheel C, C, a little more or less, that is to say, so that the per-
pendicular line P, P, in Figure 2, which passes through the axis of the spindle
D, shall pass one quarter and one sixteenth of an inch distant from the centre Z
of the wheel C, C. And I further declare that I make my said improvement
of any of the suitable metals or materials, and I make the application to
castors of any dimensions.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Leberecht Steinhauser, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixteen.
J. LEBERECHT (L.S.) STEINHAUSER.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, by
the within-named John Leberecht
Steinhauser in the presence of
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1816, the aforesaid John Leberecht Steinhauser came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.