FACILI- TATING THE WORK OF LUBRICATING THE AXLES OR BEARINGS OF CARRIAGE WHEELS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Charles Garratt, of the State of Massachusetts,
of the United States of America, for the Invention of "FACILITATING THE
Sealed the 10th July 1855, and dated the 14th May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Charles Garratt
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th May 1855.
I, Alfred CHARLES GARBATT, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United
States of America, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "FACILI-
TATING THE WORK OF LUBRICATING THE AXLES OR BEARINGS OF CARRIAGE WHEELS
to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of inserting into the hub or nave of a carriage wheel
a tube, which I cause to extend nearly or quite down to the journal. This
tube is provided with an enlarged mouth having a female screw. Into this
tube I insert a round plug of metal, which I cause to extend down or nearly
down to the journal. Within this plug I bore or make in the direction of its
axis a chamber, and I also cut away the plug on one side so as to form an
opening out of the said chamber. The plug so made is to be provided with
a male screw adapted to screw into the female screw in the mouth of the
tube, herein-before mentioned.

page_text: By extending the plug entirely down through the hub and to the journal of
an axle, and providing it with a chamber, as above described, I am enabled to
accomplish a very important advantage in the removal of wheel grease, and
to keep the socket tube into which the plug is inserted always open and clear
for the passage of oil into the hub of a wheel. When a plug is made with a
chamber within it, and a cavity or passage opening through one side of it,
wheel grease collects within the said chamber, and may be drawn out of
it with the screw plug, from which it may be readily removed through the
opening.
When oil has been inserted in the hub through its side, the oil passage
has generally been provided with a simple screw nut or plug made to close
its outer end. In this case the wheel grease would soon accumulate within
the oil passage and fill it up, so as to render it difficult, if not impossible, to
cause oil to pass through it. Also the wheel greaso thickens and accumulates
in the box as well as on the axle within the hub, and clogs the movements of
the wheel. Both of these difficulties my improvement obviates.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Charles Garratt in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 23rd October 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
CHARLES GARRATT, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United States of
America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of May, A.D. 1855, in the
eighteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Charles Garratt, Her special
license that I, the said Alfred Charles Garratt, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Charles Garratt,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, shatt 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 "FACILITATING THE
WORK OF LUBRICATING THE AXLES OR BEARINGS OF CARRIAGE WHEELS," upon
the condition [amongst others] that I, the said Alfred Charles Garratt,

page_text: by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
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 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 Alfred Charles Garratt, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
Of the said Drawings, Figure 1 represents a vertical and transverse section
of the hub of a wheel and a journal of its axle, the same exhibiting my
improvement as applied thereto; Figures 2 and 3 are separate side views of
the screw plug, to be herein-after described.
A a tube B, which I
This tube is provided
Into this tube I insert
In carrying out my Invention, I insert in the hub
cause to extend nearly or quite down to the journal C.
with a conical mouth and a female screw, as seen at a.
a round plug of metal D, which I cause to extend down or nearly down to the
journal C. Within this plug I bore or make in the direction of its axis a
chamber 6, and I also cut away the plug, so as to form an opening out of the
side of said chamber, as seen at d. The plug so made is to be provided with
a male screw, as seen at f, adapted to screw into the female screw, herein-before
mentioned.
By extending the plug entirely down through the hub and to the journal of
an axle, and providing it with a chamber, as above described, I am enabled
to accomplish a very important advantage in the removal of wheel grease, and
to keep the socket tube into which the plug is inserted always open and clear
for the passage of oil into the hub of the wheel. When the plug is made
with a chamber within it, and a cavity or passage d opening through one
side of it, wheel grease collects within the said chamber, and may be drawn
out of it with the screw plug, from which it may readily be removed through
the opening d.
When oil has been inserted in the hub through its side, the oil passage has
generally been provided with a simple screw nut or plug made to close its
outer end. In this case the wheel grease would soon accumulate within the oil
passage and fill it up, so as to render it difficult, if not impossible, to cause
oil to pass through it. Also the wheel grease thickens and accumulates in the
box as well as on the axle within the hub, and clogs the movement of the
wheel. Both of these difficulties my Invention obviates.
What therefore I claim as my Invention is, the extension of the screw nut

page_text: or plug of the oil passage down to or nearly to the bearing of the journal of
the axle, in the manner and for the purpose as above set forth.
I also claim providing said screw plug with the said chamber for the
reception of the oil when fresh applied, and then for the thickened wheel
grease which may accumulate, and for the purpose of enabling a person to
remove the same, as specified.
And I also claim the chambered screw plug formed with an opening or
passage along its side and into the grease chamber thereof, the same being in
manner and for the purpose as specified.
In testimony whereof, I, the said Alfred Charles Garratt, have hereunto
set my signature and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
ALFRED CHARLES GARRATT. (L.S.)