AN IMPROVED LUBRICATOR FOR THE MOVING PARTS OF MACHINERY
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Wall, of the East India Road, Poplar, in the
County of Middlesex, Chemist, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
LUBRICATOR FOR THE MOVING PARTS OF MACHINERY."
Sealed the 23rd July 1858, and dated the 25th January 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Arthur Wall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th January 1858.
I, ARTHUR WALL, of the East India Road, Poplar, in the County of Middle-
sex, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for." AN
IMPROVED LUBRICATOR FOR THE MOVING PARTS OF MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
I propose for the better lubrication of moving parts of machinery supported
on iron or steel bearings, or otherwise working or sliding iron or steel against
or within iron or steel, to use a combination of fatty or oleagenous matters
with quicksilver (either in minute subdivision of its metallic particles or its
oxides) with ammonia and flowers of zinc, sometimes adding to such
combination a gelatinous and purified silicate of potash.
In making my lubricator I combine the mercury by trituration with the fatty
matters, and operate until perfect saturation has taken place, or in other words
tuntil globules of the mercury are no longer visible to the naked eye. When
the amalgamation has arrived at this state and the exact quantity of mercury
contained in the grease is ascertained, the mass is subdivided by adding (if

page_text: required) moro fatty or oleagenous substance till the proportions of quicksilver
be as one of the mercury to four or more of grease; I now add (when I make
use of the article) the silicate of potash. In all cases, whether the silicate be
used or not, I now add ammonia and flowers of zinc, stirring the mass which
is brought up to a moderate heat by any means (steam or fire) until the
whole becomes homogeneous or without lumps, and equal in colour throughout;
it is then fit for use, when instead of quicksilver I use the oxides of mercury,
such as calomel, sulphuret of mercury (or Ethiops mineral), or the red oxide
or bichloride, or any of the oxymuriates or other combinations of mercury or
mercurial oxides. I usually edulcorate by dissolving them in boiling water
and afterwards neutralizing the acid base remaining by ammonia or potash of
five degrees or more of specific gravity, decant the solutions, and add the
residue to the oils or fatty matters aforesaid in proper or regulated proportions,
as inore or less mercurial foundation may be required. Where the bearings
of machinery are wholly or in part formed of brass, copper, De Strubing's, or
other metal with which mercury does or may amalgamate or in any way
damage, I leave out the mercury either in part or altogether, and confine
myself to the use of oleagenous or fatty matters, silicates, ammonia, and
flowers of zinc.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Arthur Wall in the Grent Seal Patent Office on the
24th July 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARTHUR
WALL, of the East India Road, Poplar, in the County of Middlesex, Chemist,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year. of.
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and. successors, give and grant, unto
me, the said Arthur Wall, Her special licence that I, the said Arthur
Wall, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as. I, the,
said Arthur Wall, 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, au Invention for "AN IMPROVED,

page_text: LUBRICATOR FOR THE MOVING PARTS OF MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Arthur Wall, iny executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Arthur Wall, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement (that is to say):-
I take any fatty or oleaginous matter and combine it with mercury by
triturating or rubbing them together, either by the aid of machinery or by any
other convenient mode until perfect saturation takes place, which may be
ascertained by the globules of the mercury refusing to disappear; and having
ascertained by weighing the compound the exact amount of mercury absorbed
by the grease, I place it aside and denominate this mixture A, or I take the
oxides of mercury, such as the chloride, subéhloride, oxychloride, bromid,
iodid, cyanid, sulphites, subsulphites, basic sulphite, nitrate, or any other of
the oxychloric or alkaline combinations of mercury, and after having weighed,
dissolved, and edulcorated them in boiling water, I discharge or neutralize
their acid base by the addition of potash or ammonia, until test paper shews
reaction or supersaturation'; in this state I mix with grease or other fatty
matter until perfect saturation, and set it aside for use under the deno-
mination B.
I now proceed to describe the mode of preparing the hydrosilicate' of potash.
I take any given quantity of quartz, silica of sand, or flints, place them in a
furnace, and bring them to a white heat; I then rake them out of the furnace
into cold water, which makes them fly into fragments. I place these under a
heavy revolving wheel, cylinder, or other crusher or grinder, and grind them
into an impalpable powder; when in this state, I take equal quantities of
carbonate of potash and carbonate of soda, or other preparation of soda, and a
similar weight of the powdered silica, and place them in a crucible or furnace
(I prefer a platina crucible). I then raise the fire and melt, when melted I
withdraw the mass from the furnace or crucible, and dissolve in hot water; as
soon as the silica is dissolved out, I throw the mass into a gelatinous hydrate
by the addition of a mineral acid. I then evaporate until it comes to a pasty
consistence; in this state I set it aside, and denominate it C. I then take dry
sulphate of zinc, which I expose to a current of dry a ammonia which'absorbs it,

page_text: producing a white powder, which perfectly dissolves in water; or, I take the
dry sulphate of zinc and expose it in a crucible to a heat that evolves flowers
of zinc.
The various preparations or substances having arrived at this stage, I take
of grease or other fatty matters which I may find suitable for my purpose, and
place it or them in the pans or vessels containing the hydrosilicate of potash,
and boil, adding the flowers of zinc in the proportion of about fifty-six ounces
of either preparation of flowers of zinc to every one hundred pounds of A or B,
in combination with the hydrate, by which means I unite the olein and
stearine with the zinc so as to prevent rancidity in the grease or fatty matter,
or further change such as usually occurs by frictional heat, change of climate,
or absorption of the oxygen of the air; after the mass is well mixed with the
hydrosilicate C, I ladle it out, and pass it through a series of strainers,, and
thence into a proper vessel or vessels prepared for its reception, which I term
the mixing cistern or cisterns, and add A or B in the following proportions:
I take of grease or fatty matter and add to the hydrosilicate as one of the
former to one, two, three, or more of the latter, or as two of grease to three or
four of the silicate, but these amounts are arbitrary, and depend a good deal
on the will or wish of the operator or manufacturer who may make them in
an inverse ratio to what I have above stated, or as one of hydrosilicate to one,
two, three, four, or more of grease or fatty matter, and the same rule applies
to the combinations marked A and B, whose point of saturation being known,
may be (for lubricating machinery supported on iron or steel bearings, or
against or within iron or steel) increased to any amount, so as to form a lubri-
cating body, with a lessening of friction in the proportion of one to five, or as
one hundredweight to one ton of the ordinary grease. But where bearings of
machinery made of alloys of metal are used (excepting very heavy brasses), a
single ounce I have found to produce a greater lubricating power than five
pounds of ordinary grease. I don't recommend it for brass bearings of light
construction, and if used at all, should be used sparingly. For lubricating
brass bearings, I use the hydrosilicate of potash, zinc, and grease, or other
oleaginous or fatty matter. In preparing the hydrosilicate of potash, I add
liquor of ammonia in the proportion of one of ammonia to three gallons of water
or weak hydrate liquor, (produced from the gelatinous hydrate,) whose specific
gravity should be about two degrees heavier than water; this I place at the
bottom of the mixing cistern, and as the fatty matter, after being boiled with
the syrupy hydrate, is ladled out, it is kept well stirred by any ordinary means,
and then allowed to rest for some hours before it is put into casks.
Having now described the nature of my Invention of "An Improved Lubri-

page_text: cator for the Moving Parts of Machinery," and the mode of treating and mixing
the various substances of which it is composed, I would remark, that I have
not given any description of machinery or apparatus used in effecting the
purposes of the said Invention, because they may be effected by machinery or
apparatus at present in use for similar or other purposes; and I do not con-
fine myself to the exact proportions of articles or substances named as in
relation the one to the other, or some to others, as they may be varied either
to produce a lubricator of greater or less lubricating power, and for other
reasons, without in any way departing from the principle of my Invention.
And I lay no claim to the exclusive use of any of the materials or substances
employed by me in making my improved lubricator when taken separately and
not used in combination for the purposes of my Invention. But as of my
Invention, I claim the exclusive use of the various combinations of substances
treated in the manner herein-before described, forming when so combined
an improved lubricator for the moving parts of machinery."
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Wall, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
ARTHUR WALL. (L.S.)
Witness,
JOHN GEDGE, Patent Agent,
4, Wellington Street South, Strand, London.