IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS OR ROLLERS FOR SKATES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Astley Paston Price at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st March 1876.
ASTLEY PASTON PRICE, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Consulting Chemist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN WHEELS OR ROLLERS FOR SKATES."
My Invention relates to the construction of wheels to be employed in conjunction
with or in the construction of roller skates, and has for its object the imparting a
certain amount of clasticity or yielding action under the tread of the operator.
According to one mode of carrying out my Invention I employ a foot rest with
hangers or pedestals and axles, and connect the same together in any ordinary or
convenient manner, and provide them with any usual or suitable appliances for
steering or guiding the skate, but in lieu of using wheels composed exclusively
of a rigid unyielding material I so construct wheels as that they shall possess an
outer ring composed of any suitable rigid material, such for example as metal, hard
wood, cbonite, or porcelain, which forms the rolling surface of the wheel, and an
internal ring or block composed of an elastic material, such, for example, as india-
rubber or vulcanized india-rubber, which constitutes the bearing for the axle, the
said clastic ring or block being enclosed in a suitable annular recess or cancavity
formed in the interior of the outer rigid ring to which it is connected in such a
manner as to ensure the two parts turning together in unison. The central portion
forming the bearing for the axle is provided on each side with a collar or flange,
of such a diameter as to embrace a portion of the side of the outer annular
ring; the annular ring being allowed a free lateral movement between these
flanges or collars. The cavity between the inside of the annular ring and the
outside of the axle bearings is filled as before mentioned with india-rubber or
vulcanized india-rubber. Or the annular ring may be made with moveable sides
forming a cavity for the rubber, these sides embracing the central blocks through
which the axle passes. In either case the lateral movement is secured and the
resilient properties of the rubber developed. Or the rubber may be secured in its
place by grooves or projections in or on the outer ring, or secured in any other
suitable manuer, my object being to combine an elastic core with a rigid tyre or
periphery.
According to another mode of carrying out my Invention I dispense with the
usual or other appliances employed in connection with the foot rest hangers and
axles for turning or guiding the skate, and attach the axles rigidly to the hangers
or projections depending from the foot rest, or to the foot rest direct, and I employ
wheels constructed with an outer periphery of a rigid material forming the rolling
[Pavice 1

page_text: surface, and an internal ring or block of an elastic material constituting the bear-
ing for the axle in the manner herein-before described, and in order to facilitate
the steering or guiding of the skate I construct the periphery of the wheels of the
minimum width practicable, and the central or elastic bearing portion of the wheel
where the axle is situate of the maximum width practicable, in such a manner that
by the act of the operator depressing his foot to one side or the other of the longi-
tudinal axial line of the skate the clastic ring or block shall be proportionately
compressed, and the skate shall be caused to describe a curve or circle, the radius
of which will vary according to the degree of depression of the foot rest under the
operation of the skater.