An Improved Lubricating Composition.
Year: 1886

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Mar., 1886.
Complete Left, 11th Dec., 1886.
Complete Accepted, 21st Jan., 1887.
An Improved Lubricating Composition.
We, BENJAMIN JAMES HICKS, Stocktaker, and JOHN KIRKWOOD, Sewing Machinist,
both of Middlesbrough in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of this
Invention to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to a combination of ingredients for making up a composition
which may be applied to metallic surfaces as a lubricant, and is especially adapted
where friction is excessive, whether generated from great pressure or great speed,
or where a continuous supply of a lubricating composition must be maintained, which
is at present done by means of a constant attendant as in the case of lubricating the
bearings of rolling mills employed in iron and steel works, or canvas bags are charged
with the lubricating composition and placed in contact with the surfaces they are
intended to lubricate with the result that such canvas bags are liable to become heated
and in some cases to set fire to their contents.
In making up a lubricating composition according to our Invention we employ as
ingredients heat absorbing or cooling vegetable matter which may be obtained by
chopping up cabbages and potatoes or other vegetable matter of a similar watery and
pulpy character. This vegetable matter we mix with any suitable animal fat such as the
Suet or tallow ordinarily used in the manufacture of lubricating compositions to which
a small quantity of black-lead may be added, and in order to make our lubricating
composition sufficiently adhesive to metallic surfaces even when hot, and at the same
time to flow freely over or between metallic surfaces so as to lubricate them effectively
we add to the above ingredients a small quantity of pitch or equivalent material, thus
for instance to a mixture of 4 pounds of cabbage, 2 pounds of potatoes, 4 pounds of
animal fat, and 14 ounces of black lead, 2 ounces of pitch may be added.
The tallow or animal fat is boiled down in the usual manner to a molten condition,
the black lead and pitch are then added, and are melted by the heat of the tallow with
which they are thoroughly intermixed. The mixture is then run off into cooling pans
and allowed to cool down to a pasty or plastic condition with the temperature not
above what can be borne by the naked hand; the vegetable matter, such as cabbages

page_text: and potatoes chopped up, is then added and thoroughly incorporated with the other
ingredients. The composition may then be allowed to cool, when it is ready for use, but
if it has been made up to become hard when cool, before being allowed to set, it should
be formed into lumps or separate pieces of the sizes and shapes in which it is intended
to be used. From the quantity and proportions of the above named ingredients about
9 pounds of our lubricating composition may be obtained. The proportions herein-
before named form a suitable mixture for an effective lubricant, but the proportion of
these ingredients may be varied according to the properties intended to be imparted to
the lubricant, thus for instance the lubricant may be preferred sufficiently hard and
firm to retain the form of bricks, slabs, sticks, or of other configurations convenient
for applying it to metallic surfaces, or in some cases a more pasty condition may be
preferred suitable for charging the composition into lubricating receptacles, or in cases
where the surfaces subjected to friction are liable to become very hot the composition
should have sufficient adhesiveness or plasticity imparted to it to resist being reduced
like ordinary lubricants to a mere scouring wash.
J. HENRY JOHNSON,
Agent for the said Benjamin James Hicks
and John Kirkwood.

page_text: AИ Improved position
We, BENJAMIN JAMES HICKS and JOHN KIRKWOOD, of Middlesbrough-on-Tees, in
the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
This invention relates to the production of a lubricating composition especially
applicable to metallic surfaces where excessive friction, whether due to great pressure
between the surfaces in contact or to a higher rate of motion of one surface over another,
or to both causes combined, generates heat rapidly, as in the case of the bearings and
revolving parts of rolling mills employed in rolling iron and steel, where the parts
excited by friction can only be kept down to a moderate temperature with great
difficulty by such lubricants as are usually applied to them, the continuous application
of which involves the constant presence of an attendant when the parts are in motion,
or as a substitute for this, canvass bags containing the liquid are applied to the parts
excited by friction so that the lubricant oozes through the bags onto the metallic
surfaces intended to receive it. The danger of such a method of applying the lubricant
is the risk of the canvass bags taking fire and igniting their contents if the metallic
surfaces with which they are in contact should rise to a high temperature. In
preparing a lubricating composition according to this invention, a pulped up and
preferably decayed mass of vegetable matter of a cooling or heat absorbing character,
such as cabbages or potatoes, which give good results, or turnips, nangel wurzel, or
vegetables of a like watery and pulpy nature, is mixed with animal fat, such as the suct
or tallow of the ordinary lubricating character, the result obtained from this mixture
of lubricating matter is a combination of the cooling or heat absorbing properties of
the vegetable ingredients with the plastic and binding properties of the animal fat.
Where dust, slag, or gritty matter gets access to the lubricated surfaces, lubricants
as ordinarily prepared absorb the dust or grit and become a mere grinding paste; the
addition to the vegetable and animal ingredients, above mentioned, of a relatively
small quantity of plumbago, black lead, or whitening, which also act as additional
lubricating matter, enables the lubricating composition to resist the absorption of the
dust or grit in sufficient quantities to affect the lubricant and to retain for a longer
period its lubricating properties; but, where the lubricated surfaces are well protected
from the presence of dust or gritty matter, the addition of plumbago, black lead, or
whitening may be omitted, the lubricant being in consequence less retentive of its
lubricating properties and would absorb dust and grit, but would be in other respects
a good lubricant.
A great difficulty in applying a suitable lubricant to metallic surfaces, such as the
shafts or roll necks of heavy machinery, where the friction generates heat rapidly, is
the tendency of the lubricant to be reduced by the heat to a thin scouring wash, and
this tendency increases as the temperature of the surfaces acting upon the lubricant
increases by mixing with the above described lubricating ingredients a relatively
amall quantity of pitch, the lubricant becomes adhesive and is enabled to effectually
envelope or cover the shaft, roll neck, or other surface to which it is applied. The
higher the temperature at which the blending of the pitch and the animal fat is effected,

page_text: the more tenacious will the mixture be of its lubricating properties when applied to
metallic surfaces in a state of great heat. The addition of a small quantity of
whitening, Spanish whitening being preferred, materially promotes the required
blending of these two materials at a high temperature and we recommend its use for
this purpose. Another effect of the addition of pitch to the lubricating ingredients is
that the lubricant sets firm and may be used in the form of bricks, slabs, sticks, or
other suitable forms.
The proportions in which the various ingredients should be mixed will vary according
to the properties intended to be imparted to the composition, as for instance, the
composition will be more or less adhesive according to the proportion of pitch contained
in it, also, if the composition is required to set firm so as to be applicable as bricks,
slabs, sticks, or the like, a larger quantity of pitch must be mixed into it than is
required to make it simply adhesive. The proportion of plumbago, black lead, or
whitening should be greater or less according to the quantity of dust or grit which
gets access to the lubricated surfaces.
For the ordinary purposes of lubricating the shafts or roll necks of rolling inills for
iron and steel or other like heavy machinery the following proportions of ingredients
will give good results, namely; of vegetable matter 11 lbs. of cabbage and 4 lbs. of
potatoes, preferably in a decayed' state of animal matter 1 lbs. of lubricating tallow
or suet with lb. of Spanish whitening added to promote the blending of the fat and
pitch at a high temperature, add to these 1 ounces of plumbago or black lead and
2 ounces of pitch; these quantities will yield when properly prepared about 11 lbs. of
the lubricating composition..
The composition may be produced by the following process amongst others; boil the
pitch down to a molten or liquid state, then add the tallow or fat and blend the two
materials well together in the boiling state, the whitening being added if necessary to
protect the tallow or fat from the effects of the heat, add to this composition the
plumbago or black lead, the composition being kept in a boiling state until these
ingredients are well mixed together; after which it is still kept on the move or gently
agitated as it cools down to a pasty or plastic state, when the temperature falls
sufficiently to admit of the hand being inserted into the mixture, say about blood heat,
the vegetable matter, in a pulped condition and preferably decayed, is added to and
thoroughly.incorporated with the other materials.
It is of course obvious that the above described process may be modified or departed
from so long as the different ingredients are properly mixed and are present in the
composition in their intended proportions.
.. If the lubricant is to be applied in the form of sticks, bricks, or slabs, it should be
moulded into these forms before being allowed to set hard as it will do when sufficient
pitch has being mixed into it, otherwise it will cool down to a paste or lubricating
matter for application in the ordinary manner..
Having described the nature of this invention and how the same may be carried
into effect, what we claim is
Firstly. In the manufacture of a lubricating composition the combination of cabbages
and potatoes, preferably decayed, or other equivalent vegetable matter, with lubricating
animal fat and pitch, with or without plumbago, black lead, or whitening, the
ingredients being present in the composition in the relative quantities and for the
purposes set forth substantially as hereinbefore described.
Secondly. In the manufacture of fatty, plastic, or the like lubricating composition,
the employment as a heat absorbing or cooling ingredient, vegetable matter such as
cabbages, potatoes, or their equivalents substantially in the manner and for the
purpose set forth as hereinbefore described.
T
TADISON
T
IT AD
SON,
Agent for the Applicants.